(AP Photo/ Richard Shiro)
June 18, 2015
If
you want to know what kinds of policies the Republican candidates would
bring to the White House, you don't have to look much farther than
Republican governors. Even the non-governors running for president agree
on the basic theory that they've been implementing: cut taxes, cut
regulation, cut spending, and watch as your state is transformed into a
Shangri-La of prosperity and human flourishing. Freed of government's
yoke, businesses will create untold numbers of jobs, revenues will
swell, and government will be able to do the important things better
than ever.
Fortunately, we have an ongoing test in how this template works. Let's visit a few of these showcases to see how it's going:
Wisconsin:
Scott Walker's early moves to cut taxes and crush labor unions have
somehow not produced the spectacular results he predicted. During his
tenure the state's job growth has often been the worst in the Midwest. While Walker is off campaigning for president, Republican state legislators are struggling to
figure out how to pay for some of what Walker wants, including a $500
million arena to keep the Milwaukee Bucks from moving. Prospects are
good, however, for Walker's plan to force poor people getting assistance
to submit to drug tests (at press time, there was no word on whether
the owners of the Bucks would have to pee into a cup before getting
their $500 million handout).
Louisiana: Faced
with a budget deficit, Gov. Bobby Jindal resorted to a comical set of
contortions to bring in revenue while convincing Americans for Tax
Reform's Grover Norquist not to proclaim that Republicans in the state
had violated their pledge not to ever, ever, ever raise taxes. The word
"gimmick" is insufficient to describe this bizarre scheme,
in which students at state universities are assessed a $1,500 fee and
then immediately given a $1,500 credit, while money is credited to and
simultaneously drawn from a special fund...you get the idea. The sole
point of the exercise is to raise taxes while pretending that they
haven't actually raised taxes so as not to anger the mighty Norquist.
Kansas:
Gov. Sam Brownback instituted perhaps the most extreme version of the
Republican template, completely eliminating many taxes on businesses.
Instead of the economic nirvana he predicted, revenues plunged and the
state was forced into brutal cutbacks in services. Faced with their
continuing budget problems, Republicans are now planning toraise taxes on poor people as a way to deal with the mess that cutting taxes for rich people created. Seriously.
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