TAX CUTS UNDER ATTACK!
|| By FITSNEWS || We know next to nothing about the budget situation in Kansas but according to fiscal liberals, tax cuts enacted there in 2012 have created a revenue shortfall – which is obviously contrary to the free market belief that tax hikes expand the economy (thus generating more revenue).
“It’s hard to see any economic revolution in the data – at least not yet,” James Pethokoukis writes for The Week, but that’s not stopping revolutionaries on both sides from weighing in.
Here’s the “end is nigh” viewpoint from The Washington Post‘s left leaning editorial board … while here’s a fact-heavy counter-narrative from Forbes’ Rex Sinquefield.
Which end is up? It doesn’t matter now, as Kansas governor Sam Brownback has proposed a host of tax hikes in an effort to plug a $400 million hole in the state’s budget.
“My budget proposal recognizes that the current budget trajectory is unsustainable and that difficult solutions are required by state law as well as by fiscal prudence,” Brownback said in rolling out his latest two-year spending blueprint for Kansas.
Specifically, Brownback wants to raise cigarette taxes from 79 cents per pack to $2.29 per pack – and raise the state’s liquor tax from 8 to 12 percent.
Hmmmm …
This website has always believed that the purpose of tax cuts is to stimulate economic growth. If that creates additional revenue to government, fine. If it doesn’t? That’s also fine.
At all levels – state, federal and local – government is too big. It needs to be pared. And if that can be done in such a way as to put more money in the pockets of individuals and small businesses, then we support those efforts.
No matter what the ideologues say, tax collection and revenue distribution should be 1) equitable, 2) transparent and 3) focused on providing only those core functions government ought to provide.
Also … the question that’s not being asked in Kansas is this: If things were bad with tax cuts (and the Forbes’ piece argues they haven’t been all that bad), how much worse would things be without them?
73 comments
Well, looks like a good way to stop poor people from smoking and drinking…but, there’s always a chump you could rob.
I would like to know ONE, just ONE, example of when drastically cutting taxes on the rich has EVER resulted in economic growth. And don’t give me any Reagan BS. We are still paying for his tax cuts. Supply Side economics is an unfunny joke with tragic consequences for average citizens (For the 1%, its F-ing hilarious!!)
It has never happened. Almost four decades has passed since Reagan, and the average American has been losing ground almost every year. Trickle down/Voodoo Economics has failed miserably. Maybe when the Grand OLD Party finally dies off we can admit the mistake.
When the top tax bracket was at 90% and it was cut, that was called for I think. What it has been lowered to today is a joke. There is sense in keeping taxes nominal but Republicans don’t want nominal, they want high taxes on us and low taxes on them and their handlers.
“I would like to know ONE, just ONE, example of when drastically cutting taxes on the rich has EVER resulted in economic growth.”
Kansas has the nation leading small business creation thing going on now?
I mean really, are you going to really argue that? I just don’t have the energy to post on it today…maybe tomorrow evening if you want to put up a fight.
In the mean time, let’s turn your argument around and ask why we don’t go ahead and raise taxes if it supports economic growth.
Kansas has the nation leading small business creation thing going on now?
BS. “the nation leading small business thing” What thing is that? More fake news. Its all made up. What is your source of information? Fox? Newsmax? Rush? Beck? Drudge? There are more small businesses started in California ever day than Kansas has in a year. The number of small businesses started in New York dewarfs the number started in Kansas. Even Forbes ranks Kansas behind Washington, Minnesota, New York, Delaware, Massachusetts, Washington, Oregon and 18 other states, many of which you would consider high tax Blue state in the Best States for Business.
Which is why Kansas will raise taxes. But on the middle class. Not the rich.
Per capita Jack…so I take it you want to start in then eh?
I’ll post more Saturday evening.
Interesting, but I read Brownback’s proposal (backed by the GOP in the legislature) asked for an across-the-board increase in the state sales tax to 6.65% (not mentioned by Sic or Forbes, of course). That would be a typical Republican solution to revenue shortfalls: cut the progressive income tax and replace the lost revenue with a regressive sales tax. In other words, tax breaks for the rich with the losses made good by the poor and working people.
True dat !
Memo To Certain Governors And State Legislators: Income Tax Rate Cuts Work. Always.
ONE OF THE GENIUS features of our federal system of government is that it allows states to be laboratories for policies, to see what works and what doesn’t. The great welfare reform bill of 1996 came out of the pioneering policies of Wisconsin, which demonstrated that there could be a work requirement for benefits, thereby providing a safety net while not destroying the habits necessary for leading a productive life. Welfare rolls were slashed everywhere.
A variety of tax “experiments” are currently under way that bode well for radical federal tax reform after the 2016 elections.
Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas was pilloried for enacting major tax reductions that supposedly blew gaping holes in the state’s budget because rapid economic growth didn’t instantly materialize. Put aside the fact that some of his other tax proposals weren’t enacted and that he didn’t get all the tightening on overall spending he wanted. Democrats thought they’d knock him out in 2014. Instead, Brownback won, and his tax cuts, which took effect little more than two years ago (he not only whacked income tax rates but also eliminated those levies altogether for small businesses), are starting to yield a bumper crop in prosperity. Private-sector job growth in Kansas is now outpacing that in most other states. The state’s unemployment rate is among the nation’s lowest. Just as impressive is Kansas’ employment-to-population ratio, which is well above the national average.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveforbes/2015/05/27/memo-to-certain-governors-and-state-legislators-income-tax-rate-cuts-work-always/
vic’upchuck’…the political loser…I
Republicans lie,and Brownbeck is just another clown on the Koch Brothers payroll. His slogan should be “i’ll screw Kansas for a buck. Show me the money.”
http://www.cbpp.org/research/lessons-for-other-states-from-kansas-massive-tax-cuts
The Kochs fund cures and treatments.
David Koch survived a 1991 plane crash that killed 34 people, including everyone else in first class. He soon was diagnosed with, and then endured, prostate cancer. These challenges reinforced his passion for medical philanthropy. Among $506 million in such gifts, his major grants include:
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1. $25 million to Houston’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center to eliminate genitourinary malignancies.
2. $100 million for cancer research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
3. $100 million for a new ambulatory care center at New York Presbyterian Hospital. This donation actually triggered an outbreak of mental illness among leftists who decried Koch’s nine-digit check.
Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Murdock/Koch-Brothers-Philanthropy-Reid/2014/03/21/id/560986/#ixzz3c8hyQYI0
democrats,billary and obummer fund radical islam regimes. i will take koch bro’s!
Good for him. He needs a much redemption as he can get, because what they really like spending money on is buying politicians.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/koch-backed-network-aims-to-spend-nearly-1-billion-on-2016-elections/2015/01/26/77a44654-a513-11e4-a06b-9df2002b86a0_story.html
. . . riiiight. Because no one else buys politicians.
Get a clue. Every ass clown in the “mighty and powerful” crowd buy their politicians. Every one of them.
The Kochs have a simple mission. They have become exasperated by the failure of the GOP to capture and control gov’t at the Fed level in significant numbers to control policy. As such, they’ve concentrated primarily at state and local level politics. Even cases of micro races for mayors and school boards to try and influence American trajectory from the ground up. Their aims include everything from trying to reverse a paranoid delusion that school kids are taught to be liberal from a young age by getting textbooks rewritten and curriculum slanted more to the right as well as funding candidates and causes that remove lawful protections against low wages, environmental degradation and oversight to prevent vulture capitalism.
The Kochs can toss a few million here and there to “good” causes…but don’t be fooled. They are very much using their wealth to try and change America back to the days of turn of the century robber-barronism.
The Koch Bros. are great Americans. Isn’t it funny how George Soros is never mentioned by the libturds. He gives billions to all the anti American causes and the left never utters a word.
Yeah, great Americans that want to own our government the way they own a corporation. Just like the Founding Fathers intended.
Get a damn clue, dumb ass. Idiots like you begrudge a fireman or a teacher a decent wage, while thinking if we just reduce taxes on the Koch brothers enough, we will have prosperity. What we will have is a second Gilded Age.
He also gives millions to charity and never gets cred from the right.
Media Matters isn’t a charity it’s the propaganda arm of the Democrat National Socialist Party USA.
Suck that Kock cock!
Typical Republican. Just name calling. No facts. I will be happy to discuss Soros. I believe all big money should be forced out of politics. Most Democrats agree, most Republicans don’t. Republicans like their billionaire bribe money. That is why the push for laws allowing unlimited contributions. They are corrupt.
So exactly what policies has Soros paid politicians to push that you disagree with. I’ll bet you can’t name one without going to some wing nut web site, and that wont be supported by facts.
Its is hard to be corrupt when you are not pushing an agenda that helps rich people.
LOL. Maybe if the Kochs had experienced a day of poverty in their entire lives, they would want to help working people too. The Kochs contribute the vast majority of their philanthropy to “rich guy” hobbies like the ballet and opera. Almost all their political “philanthropy” goes to candidates who would boost the Kochs’ personal wealth.
Guess which two brothers made out like bandits when Gov. Brownback slashed income and business taxes in Kansas?
Goo
Seriously…you quote Newsmax as a legitimate news source??
Thats what makes guys like you so funny. You are not even aware that most of the “facts” you quote are fabricated by illegitimate news sources…
Yeah, Forbes magazine, owned by Mr. Flat Tax himself, Steve Forbes, would not possibly cherry pick numbers to prop up tax cuts. See the next post for a different perspective.
There you go again. You can’t let facts get in the way of the liberal lie. The $18 trillion in debt were the result of the Great Society. Not tax cuts.
Sorry, W never paid for his tax cuts and he took a sizable surplus to a just a big deficit. Neither did Reagan, btw, which is why he and Bush 41 both raised taxes afterwards.
That is exactly what Pat McCrory and crew did in NC, and of course was hailed by this site as a tax cutter. He cut income taxes, and replaced the revenue with higher sales taxes. Typical shift the burden tax policy for the money donors.
Little bit of an overstatement. McCrory only raised sales taxes on entertainment tickets. There was no across the board increase in sales taxes under McCrory; that would have been under your favorite liberal Democrat, Bev Perdue. Meanwhile, McCrory has led the the state from a massive budget deficit to a budget surplus while paying off all unemplyment debt to the feds. Typical effect of smart tax and budgeting policies.
Actually McCrory raised sales taxes and slashed the earned income tax credit, increasing taxes on NC’s poorest citizens in order to give its riches citizens a giant tax cut. Typical GOP policy.
As for Smart budgeting, That may be true if you consider slashing education and programs that benefit the average NC citizen so mega wealth donors and large corporations can get tax cuts smart. Not to mention spending state money to clean up Duke Powers mess.
Since McCrory was elected, NC went from being one of the most highly regarded states in the south, to just another tea party hell hole with a crappy education system. Just shows how years of reputation building can be killed overnight.
Kind of like when George Bush took the USA into Iraq.
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True dat!
The argument that tax cuts will pay for themselves through economic growth, has been disproven over and over. The Laffer Curve is real, but most economists agree that at current tax rates we are no where near the bend in the curve. Therefore tax cuts will not pay for themselves. Tax cuts require spending cuts.
The problem we have is the far right has been feeding us this Laffer Curve line for so long, Republicans actually began to believe their own BS. As a result, they think they can just propose tax cuts without proposing unpopular spending cuts. That is why Congressional Republican want to change the way we score a budget in Washington to assume tax cuts will be replaced by increased revenue, so no spending cuts are necessary.
Likewise, SC Republicans, like Shealy and Davis, produce half fiscal plans. They propose to cut income tax, but will not say what spending they will cut to offset the revenue loss. This will result in deficits of course, unless you are so stupid as to believe the BS that tax cuts pay for themselves.
Maybe when the average American finally figures out that when Republicans tell them they can cut taxes on the rich without increasing taxes on the middle class, or cutting programs designed to support the middle class, they are lying.
Excuse me, I did not finish the last sentence.
Maybe when the average American finally figures out that when Republicans tell them they can cut taxes on the rich without increasing taxes on the middle class, or cutting programs designed to support the middle class, they are lying; they will stop being duped into voting against their own interests.
Guns and God….gets em every time.
Don’t forget to throw in some government is bad rhetoric…
Tax cuts should be a by-product of thoughtful planning and good government. They are not, and never have been, an effective policy in themselves. That’s the problem. Republican thinking seldom goes beyond Tax Cuts, Tax Cuts, Tax Cuts. I would disagree over one word used above: Tax cuts as an economic growth mechanism haven’t been “disproven,” they’ve been “discredited.”
“Tax cuts should be a by-product of thoughtful planning and good government.”
Yes! Pay for the tax cuts! Show us what you can trim, actually trim it, THEN scale back taxes! Our national debt can’t keep eating tax cuts paired with spending hikes.
There are a number of Republican sites and an even greater number of people who comment on those sites that fall for this crap. The dumber portion of our population just has to be told they’ll get everything good with nothing bad and they just buy it. It’s why Republicans have run us into deficit spending since Raygun.
Kansans should be celebrating their state’s strides. The growth of small businesses in Kansas is at an annual rate of 6 percent – higher than the national average and higher than the growth in any neighboring states, including Missouri. In the 2013 tax year, more than 8,600 first-time small-business filers invigorated the state’s economy with more than $486 million in new income.
As Governor Brownback himself stated this week: “Our goal, as a state, should be growing an economy that provides opportunity and jobs for all Kansans. A tax policy that puts more money in the hands of working Kansans and that rewards productivity is resulting in growth in Kansas, without question.”
Leaders in other states should be inspired by the small business and employment gains in Kansas as they examine their own state tax policies and determine which reform options will work best in their own home states.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rexsinquefield/2015/05/04/kansas-economic-growth-is-on-the-rebound-look-at-the-real-numbers/
Democrats are socialists.Read it and weep!
How typical of Repugnuts to float a fluff piece written by a political operative as proof of anything. This is not a Forbes article. It is an editorial written by a political operative trying to defend the disaster Brownbeck has been for Kansas; and cover up his plan to screw middle class Kansans. Brownbeck is a typical bought and paid for Republican. He has hurt his state and his people. Education has suffered; poverty has increased, and now he proposes to fix the financial problems his policies caused by increasing taxes on middle class and poor Kansans. All so he can pay for his tax cuts for his wealthy donors. If you want to see a real Forbes article, look at this
http://www.forbes.com/best-states-for-business/#page:2_sort:0_direction:asc_search:
Kansas ranks 25 in the nation in the best states for business. Well below the states like Minnesota, New York, Delaware, Massachusetts, Washington, Oregon, Indiana etc. States that did not feel the need to experiment with slashing taxes on the wealthy and forcing the average citizen to pay the price. Buying into far right economics that has failed to produce prosperity for anyone except the rich and connected.
This is the lesson to be learned.
http://www.cbpp.org/research/lessons-for-other-states-from-kansas-massive-tax-cuts
Republicans are corrupt liars. Read it and weep.
It’s hard to take Republicans seriously when they can’t even find information from reliable sources to back up their crazy arguments. It’s like the climate change denial article Fits ran awhile back that said 60% of scientists have doubts about climate change. Turns out those “scientists” were geologists who worked for the petroleum industry in Alberta, Canada. The headline should’ve been that even 40% of the people working for petroleum companies accept the science behind climate change.
How does Forbes measure ‘growth’?
Small business owners in Kansas no longer pay any individual state income taxes…their employees do it all…is that the ‘growth’ Forbes is referring to?
If you work for a small business, do you want to pay your boss’s share of supporting every state government service for him?
Awesome post. Factual and Actual and shit.
“… Tax cuts require spending cuts …”
And, So ? … Your point is ?
If you part your hair right, it will never show.
Kansas has had it’s credit downgraded and the schools have had major cuts. Poverty has also increased.
Not lately. Not since the tax cuts.
No, all of those things have happened since Brownback’s disaster
Lies repeated often enough do not always make them true.
In fact Kansas now has a higher credit rating than does South Carolina. (Morningstar muni-bond ratings this week.)
Didn’t know that —cool.
You sir are full of it…Kansas was indeed downgraded after Brownback and his cuts
http://www.kansas.com/news/article1158214.html
And You will find a whole lot more in the Wichita Eagle/Beacon more recently that indicates the good stuff that is happening like lower unemployment, higher tax revenues, better MorningStar bond score ratings … More housing starts, more home sales, more farm and factory productivity …
What disaster? Unemployment down, business up, farmers have rain this year … Kansas is dealing with it’s Gruberment debt … Looking quite good to me.
Proof positive that what Shealy was proposing would have been devastating to this state.
“Proof Positive”
Yeah dumbshit…because South Carolina and Kansas are exactly the same. Go dig a hole and bury yourself along with your bastardized logic.
Kansas is a poster child of illustrating the cluster fuck of how constant robotic tax cuts can kill the economy.
Let this be a warning to all you budding economists our there. The laboratory experiment has failed…again.
Kansas budget has a deficit, but the economy is going good.
1. Tenth highest Labor Participation Rate.l; 5.2% above national rate. 68.0% vs.62.8%.
2. Tenth highest Employment-Population Ratio; 5.8% above national ratio.65.1% vs. 59.3%.
3. Unemployment 1.1% below the National rate. 4.3% vs. 5.4%
What is the source of your information?
http://www.bls.gov/lau/ststdsadata.txt
For state data go to the final month of this very long document. I copied the last month into notepad and cleaned it up so I could import it into an Excel sortable table.
For national data Google search “BLS Timeseries” combined with “Unemployment Rate” or “Labor Participation Rate” or “Employment-Population Ratio”.
Use April 2015 data from tables not May because that is the latest date for State data.
Note: Some of the rankings I posted may be ties and I didn’t include D.C., LA, or NYC.
But…but…with all this “employment” where is the promised manna from heaven? Why is there a 400+ million $ hole in the state budget? Why are school having to close early?
“Income Tax Rate Cuts Work, Always” – Steve Forbes editorial online and in print this week.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveforbes/2015/05/27/memo-to-certain-governors-and-state-legislators-income-tax-rate-cuts-work-always/
“3) focused on providing only those core functions government ought to provide,”
According to who?
You’ll never get consensus. Literally, no one will be happy. Better to look for a principle that people can agree on regardless of background.
Look at all these people commenting on how cutting taxes has destroyed Kansas.
It hasn’t destroyed Kansas, only Kansas’s government. In time, their state leading small business formation would continue to snowball and improve quality of life. Except now that’s obviously in jeopardy.
While it creates chaos to cut taxes without cutting government, there’s no way politically to accomplish both anymore in most states- so let the blood letting continue.
No, no, I get it. You guys want to saddle your children with the ruinous debt incurred by keeping taxes high and the proletariat down.
If you don’t like cutting taxes on the “rich”, how about cutting taxes on the poor? I’m always in favor of that. You?
are you in favor of paying Robert Crumb for use of his work?
Yes. Did. And bought one of His original art works, too, plus a bushel basket of comics.
TAX THE RICH. TAX THE RICH. TAX THE RICH. Tax them till they bleed. There is a business down the street, tax and regulate them out of business so their poor downtrodden employees can partake of the social justice of the left. Everything is beautiful in liberal la la land. Who cares that the country is $18 trillion in debt, our children and grandchildren can pick up the tab. If we just tax the rich everything will be fine. CLUE; there ain’t enough rich folks to pay the bill. oh shit moment !!!
Until there are cuts in every part of govt. there won’t be any change. Twenty or thirty years ago small cuts could have been made and most of our current problems could have been worked out. But it has gone on for so long it will take significant cuts to do the job. We don’t have a tax problem, we have a spending problem. Gov. Brownback has addressed the problem and it is working itself out. As Margret Thatcher once said : Don’t go wobbly now.
Gotta love how the weak-minded like yourself can only deal in absolutes. Us ‘liberals’ aren’t talking about taxing the ‘Rich’ and regulating businesses to closure.
If you are able to pick up a book or even use Google, you will see your precious ‘Rich’ and corporations used to pay much higher tax rates and not get subsidies like they do now. We used that money for such luxuries like roads, bridges, and education (I know!! The horror!!!)
All us evil liberals are asking is for EVERYONE to pay their fair share, but I guess you wouldn’t understand that since you are likely so far up Faux News and the Koch brothers but holes.
I hear your “candidate” wants a 90% top rate. WOW . Talk about a “fair share.”
I can’t believe I’m saying this…. but thank God for our South Carolina legislature. They are so against working with the governor (and always have been) that we don’t have this lock-step conservative death march like they have in these other states.
Hey: They’ve got a $400M shortfall and we have a $400M surplus. Sounds like we ought to make a deal!
The picture of Dorothy reminds me of something. Did Clarissa Adams ever make her way back to munchkinland?
If Clarissa is a munchkin, I guess that makes Cynthia the Wicked Witch of the West.