Republican policy failure #1: supply side economics fails

[angrydude]

Some of you guys really need to update your rhetoric from the 80s

[CosmicCowboy]

so let me get this straight, the same guys you were lauding for cutting income taxes are now to be vilified because they're unwilling to make more spending cuts to make ends meet?

pick a lane, tbh...

You have politicians elected by the people with the mandate to reduce government expenses and you have entrenched unelected bureaucrats determined to expand their empire to justify increased budgets and pay. I do business with local, school, county, state and federal employees and they all have their budget cycles where they suddenly have to spend money (whether they need to or not) so their next year budget doesn't get cut or to justify budget increases. I have seen them blow hundreds of thousands of dollars in a whack replacing perfectly good equipment with new equipment just because they "needed" to spend money. If you guys think that's just an 80's phenomenon you are very gullible. Over the years I have literally made millions off of this very issue. I re-selll perfectly good equipment for tens of thousands of dollars to private companies that I was paid to take out and "dispose of" by government en ies.

[boutons_deux]

"You have politicians elected by the people with the mandate to reduce government expenses and you have entrenched unelected bureaucrats determined to expand their empire to justify increased budgets and pay"

people elect politicians to destroy public schools, let infrastructure decay?

What %age of KS state, local govt spending is in employee compensation that you think employees are so vehemently trying to protect?

Repug, VRWC foment anger and resentment among private sector employees, who have been divided into conquerable individuals with no collective power, against public employees who have secure jobs and good retirement plans.


Private sector employees, ed over for decades by private employers into poverty and near-poverty, aka The War on Employees, and at best stagnant real income, RESENT public employees (and in general, the govt "beast to be starved" so the private BigCorp have no countervailing limitations on it power) and want to tear them down to the insecure, no-future status of the private sector employees. Rather than private sector employees fighting to raise their own status up to that of public sector employees.

Reminds of what the English told me a long time ago about the difference between an Englishman and an American:

"An Englishman sees a rich person driving a Rolls Royce and says "I want to tear tha person down", while an American say sees a rich person driving a Rolls Royce and says "I will work hard so I can drive a Rolls Royce"

CC is nothing but a shill for the VRWC, spouting its America-destroying propaganda.


Guess what? The American has been turned into the Englishman. and of course you can believe The American Dream only if you're asleep.

[101A]

You have politicians elected by the people with the mandate to reduce government expenses and you have entrenched unelected bureaucrats determined to expand their empire to justify increased budgets and pay. I do business with local, school, county, state and federal employees and they all have their budget cycles where they suddenly have to spend money (whether they need to or not) so their next year budget doesn't get cut or to justify budget increases. I have seen them blow hundreds of thousands of dollars in a whack replacing perfectly good equipment with new equipment just because they "needed" to spend money. If you guys think that's just an 80's phenomenon you are very gullible. Over the years I have literally made millions off of this very issue. I re-selll perfectly good equipment for tens of thousands of dollars to private companies that I was paid to take out and "dispose of" by government en ies.

Back in the stone ages (1991) I sold typewriters for IBM. I delivered 100 $900.00 typewriters to a closet in a Huntsville prison at the end of a budget cycle. I know two years later only a dozen were in service - the rest still in boxes in that closet. Typewriters were boat anchors within a few years - I always wondered what happened to those...every couple of years I could use a good typewriter.

I realize it is just a single anecdote, but there is truth to what CC is saying. A couple years after IBM I was IT at the College of Vet Medicine at A&M; what was obvious being there was that the school was run not for the students, or even the faculty; the permanent fixtures were in the Dean's office.

Another anecdote: A powerful state senator lost his re-election bid in '92. Brought in as Sr. Faculty (dude was in the early 40's; given a HUGE office at the top of the large animal bldg. We were told to set him up with any system he wanted (he bought a Dell box that cost over 7 grand at the time - multiple monitors - to run Word Perfect Office on Windows 3.1). He didn't teach classes, was rarely at the school; but he was royalty and a f*&^ing prima donna. Was naive at the time, but finally figured out the Dean's office bought themselves their very own lobbyist - paid for by the government he was lobbying.

I understand that much of conservative economic ideology is rooted in belief and myth, and that it doesn't pan out as advertised, but I KNOW that big-government is good ONLY for a few, a drain on creativity and mobility for most - and has unstoppable momentum. Massive, controlling, greedy, powerful, self-perpetuating bureaucracy sucks the life out of society. It comes in the form of government, but also business - and those are as big and pervasive as ever. And NOW there is a symbiosis between the government and business monsters that is unprecedented. THAT is the vampire squid we must all fight, but instead we argue about individual tax rates, sales taxes & estate taxes; none of which, ultimately, matters. Breaking up the TBTF and reigning in government power...

[boutons_deux]

"I KNOW that big-government is good ONLY for a few, a drain on creativity and mobility for most"

That's because govt has been captured, COMPROMISED BigCorp, VRWC, 1%. Politicians run for office to get (more) wealthy (esp lobbying and jobs later with BigCorp), not to serve the common good.

The VRWC propaganda works great: VRWC s up govt for the 99% to enrich the VRWC, propagandizes/trashes govt so the 99% hate govt the VRWC ed up.

You people don't have any anecdotes about MIC, PIC, health care waste and corruption? LOL

All y'all rightwinguts whine and about about govt while BigCorp robs you into poverty.

[101A]

"You have politicians elected by the people with the mandate to reduce government expenses and you have entrenched unelected bureaucrats determined to expand their empire to justify increased budgets and pay"

people elect politicians to destroy public schools, let infrastructure decay?

What %age of KS state, local govt spending is in employee compensation that you think employees are so vehemently trying to protect?

Repug, VRWC foment anger and resentment among private sector employees, who have been divided into conquerable individuals with no collective power, against public employees who have secure jobs and good retirement plans.


Private sector employees, ed over for decades by private employers into poverty and near-poverty, aka The War on Employees, and at best stagnant real income, RESENT public employees (and in general, the govt "beast to be starved" so the private BigCorp have no countervailing limitations on it power) and want to tear them down to the insecure, no-future status of the private sector employees. Rather than private sector employees fighting to raise their own status up to that of public sector employees.

Reminds of what the English told me a long time ago about the difference between an Englishman and an American:

"An Englishman sees a rich person driving a Rolls Royce and says "I want to tear tha person down", while an American say sees a rich person driving a Rolls Royce and says "I will work hard so I can drive a Rolls Royce"

CC is nothing but a shill for the VRWC, spouting its America-destroying propaganda.


Guess what? The American has been turned into the Englishman. and of course you can believe The American Dream only if you're asleep.

In the 50's when this country built infrastructure at a pace that we cuoldn't imagine today, the government took far less money than it does now. Sure, the marginal rates were extreme, but so were the loopholes; government was SMALLER, however. Yet, there was plenty for infrastructure; building schools for the boomers; no problem. Interstate; no problem - fought the Korean war, began the Space Race, plenty of R&D for the arms race. Now there is FAR MORE money going to government, but we aren't in an arms race, aren't in a shooting war (allegedly) - Don't have to build a new interstate, population is not growing at the same pace - AND we have spent Trillions of dollars we don't have on credit - and yet we cannot keep up.

It's not about government vs. non-government; it's about the power being centralized, where it's easy for the powerful to control, through whatever means is the most expedient. They've made it VERY efficient in this country; two sides: Republican or Democrat, Conservative or Liberal, Red or Blue - the message only needs to be tailored one way or the other to manipulate the sides. Tribalism, us against them.

[101A]

"I KNOW that big-government is good ONLY for a few, a drain on creativity and mobility for most"

That's because govt has been captured, COMPROMISED BigCorp, VRWC, 1%. Politicians run for office to get (more) wealthy (esp lobbying and jobs later with BigCorp), not to serve the common good.

The VRWC propaganda works great: VRWC s up govt for the 99% to enrich the VRWC, propagandizes/trashes govt so the 99% hate govt the VRWC ed up.

You people don't have any anecdotes about MIC, PIC, health care waste and corruption? LOL

All y'all rightwinguts whine and about about govt while BigCorp robs you into poverty.

Did you read the rest of the post, B?

[boutons_deux]

here's some corruption the PIC, having convinced govt that out-sourcing prison is "cheaper"

Study finds private prisons keep inmates longer, without reducing future crimehttp://scienceblog.com/78787/study-finds-private-prisons-inmates-longer-reducing-future-crime/#PqEp18tl0xGhuIJc.99

btw, the unCons utional torture known as prison "isolation cell" costs $50K/month vs $30K/month for non-isolation. Yet another way PIC screws both the prisoners and taxpayers.

[boutons_deux]

Did you read the rest of the post, B?

yes, it wasn't corrected for inflation about "govt revenue".

and in the 1950s, the top marginal rate was 90%, until JFK cut the rate (on himself, of course), and rates were higher. In return, govt spending, not yet captured by BigCorp, increased the general welfare with huge infrastructure investments that are STILL returning benefits.

Inequality was much less, EVERYBODY had revenue, paid tax on it, had enough to save (govt bonds), spent the rest, pumping up the economy.

[101A]

yes, it wasn't corrected for inflation about "govt revenue".

and in the 1950s, the top marginal rate was 90%, until JFK cut the rate (on himself, of course), and rates were higher. In return, govt spending, not yet captured by BigCorp, increased the general welfare with huge infrastructure investments that are STILL returning benefits.

Inequality was much less, EVERYBODY had revenue, paid tax on it, had enough to save (govt bonds), spent the rest, pumping up the economy.

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfa....cfm?Docid=200

Look at the constant dollars column. We are spending SIX OR SEVEN TIMES what we did in the fifties - when we built all the infrastructure that continues to pay dividends, but that we now can't afford to maintain.

[boutons_deux]

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfa....cfm?Docid=200

Look at the constant dollars column. We are spending SIX OR SEVEN TIMES what we did in the fifties - when we built all the infrastructure that continues to pay dividends, but that we now can't afford to maintain.

USA population

1950 150M

2015 320M

so real spending PER CAPITA, not absolute spending.

the BigHealth wealth-sucking racket has increased Medicare/Medicaid (which didn't exist in the 1950s), plus the explosion of MIC spending:



Tell us where to cut govt spending? taking another $B off IRS, kill EPA, DoE, FDA, USDA? kill medicare/medicaid?

[ElNono]

You have politicians elected by the people with the mandate to reduce government expenses and you have entrenched unelected bureaucrats determined to expand their empire to justify increased budgets and pay. I do business with local, school, county, state and federal employees and they all have their budget cycles where they suddenly have to spend money (whether they need to or not) so their next year budget doesn't get cut or to justify budget increases. I have seen them blow hundreds of thousands of dollars in a whack replacing perfectly good equipment with new equipment just because they "needed" to spend money. If you guys think that's just an 80's phenomenon you are very gullible. Over the years I have literally made millions off of this very issue. I re-selll perfectly good equipment for tens of thousands of dollars to private companies that I was paid to take out and "dispose of" by government en ies.

Cool story, but what does any of that has to do with the current situation? It's not the "entrenched unelected bureaucrats" complaining about the cuts, this is strictly a problem between the elected governor and the elected legislature. Both of which were quite happy to cut income taxes but never planned for the revenue shortfall that would follow because their dogma taught them that the economy would magically grow (it didn't).

Now they have to abide by the Kansas cons ution that mandates a balanced budget, and on one side you have the governor threatening the legislators, and the legislators feuding with the governor. I don't disagree that making cuts is one solution. The other, which some legislators have taken up, is jacking up taxes again, including some of the income taxes they slashed in the first place.

Everybody wants smaller government until they start hearing what the cuts are going to be, then smaller government stops being so appealing. This is as old as the mandate for smaller government itself.

[ElNono]

Back in the stone ages (1991) I sold typewriters for IBM. I delivered 100 $900.00 typewriters to a closet in a Huntsville prison at the end of a budget cycle. I know two years later only a dozen were in service - the rest still in boxes in that closet. Typewriters were boat anchors within a few years - I always wondered what happened to those...every couple of years I could use a good typewriter.

I realize it is just a single anecdote, but there is truth to what CC is saying. A couple years after IBM I was IT at the College of Vet Medicine at A&M; what was obvious being there was that the school was run not for the students, or even the faculty; the permanent fixtures were in the Dean's office.

Another anecdote: A powerful state senator lost his re-election bid in '92. Brought in as Sr. Faculty (dude was in the early 40's; given a HUGE office at the top of the large animal bldg. We were told to set him up with any system he wanted (he bought a Dell box that cost over 7 grand at the time - multiple monitors - to run Word Perfect Office on Windows 3.1). He didn't teach classes, was rarely at the school; but he was royalty and a f*&^ing prima donna. Was naive at the time, but finally figured out the Dean's office bought themselves their very own lobbyist - paid for by the government he was lobbying.

I understand that much of conservative economic ideology is rooted in belief and myth, and that it doesn't pan out as advertised, but I KNOW that big-government is good ONLY for a few, a drain on creativity and mobility for most - and has unstoppable momentum. Massive, controlling, greedy, powerful, self-perpetuating bureaucracy sucks the life out of society. It comes in the form of government, but also business - and those are as big and pervasive as ever. And NOW there is a symbiosis between the government and business monsters that is unprecedented. THAT is the vampire squid we must all fight, but instead we argue about individual tax rates, sales taxes & estate taxes; none of which, ultimately, matters. Breaking up the TBTF and reigning in government power...

I don't disagree, but I think the only way to attack that problem is to be upfront about it, get the votes to back it up and have support from all parts of the legislature to get it done. Otherwise, you get in situations like this one where the campaign was for slashing taxes, and now you have the legislators balking at what to cut. You also have to have an electorate that wants to get it done: elections have been lost over "don't touch my medicare" or "don't touch my social security"...

[RandomGuy]

the classic budget cliche.

Kind of like Obama "shutting down" the Washington monuments and then hiring extra guards to make a scene of keeping people out.

It might be a cliche, but that is the kind of result that comes from cutting budgets. Cause/effect.

Unless you can magic up volunteer teachers or guards?

I would also point out that this is a problem that a Republican governor is having with the Republican house, and Republican Senate of his state.

Kind of hard to blame the Democrats for this up, even a little.

That is what makes it a VERY pure Republican policy failure.

The morons in the tea-party that have been pushing the myth of supply-side got what EXACTLY they wanted, and now hate to have their noses rubbed in the pile of that they left on the floor.

[Winehole23]

spending for health and education is investment in the future. skimping on the spending is skimping on the future, despite all waste and fraud. Texans are getting ed by irresponsible pols right now.

[boutons_deux]

"spending for health and education is investment in the future"

paying some of the cost of rip-off health care for the needy is humanitarian AND cost-saving. Not done, the cost of paying for the needy's health care is always a lot higher. Same with housing the 600K homeless. MUCH cheaper to provide them housing than to force them onto the streets. But this is America, life is punishingly inhuman, brutal. dog-eat-dog.

[RandomGuy]

http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/op...e24965164.html

That giant sucking sound Kansans hear in May was the loss of a whopping 3,800 jobs from the Sunflower State economy.

The monthly employment report released Friday brought especially grim news to Gov. Sam Brownback and all the sycophants who believe in the trickle-down theory.

The news could hardly have been worse for the governor or for Kansans. It came right on the heels of the just-concluded, 113-day legislative session in which the governor claimed his 2012 tax cuts for business owners were bringing more employment to Kansas.

Brownback bullied the Legislature into keeping the income tax reductions, even though some of his Republican colleagues were questioning how well they were working and whether it was fair that some business owners paid no taxes to the state.

And this all occurred in a session where the Legislature — with Brownback’s ardent support — hiked the regressive state sales tax from 6.15 percent to 6.5 percent.

Who is going to want to invest in a business in state that can't find its ass with both hands?

[boutons_deux]

The Kansas Economic Databook

BAD!

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2015/06...Big+Picture%29

Repug MISgovernance.

[boutons_deux]

Kansas Issues $840 Million Debt Certificate To Cover Brownback’s Trickle Down Catastrophe

after a record-setting tax hike on the poor and middle class and truly Draconian social service cuts, the state is so broke that Brownback and Republicans had to resort to issuing a certificate of indebtedness to prevent the state from complete financial demise.

It is the second year in a row that Brownback’s disastrous trickle down experiment resulted in going in debt to keep the state solvent while the rest of the nation not under Republican control is experiencing economic growth.

A certificate of indebtedness is a form of monetary obligation that is sometimes issued by a public en y or private corporations that are, for all intents and purposes, like a bond; except they are not secured.

A certificate of indebtedness is, then, effectively what a normal American would consider an I.O.U., and depending on the person or en y issuing it, likely worthless as far as having any legitimacy for making purchases or paying debts.

One thing is certain; in the real world Republicans perpetually cite, no American family would even consider walking into a grocery store, or schedule their car to be serviced, and expect them to provide a product or service in return for an IOU.

In fact, it is highly likely that no American would consider trying to make a purchase or schedule a service without having access to the available funds.

Instead, they would seek a means, likely by taking a second job, to bring in enough revenue to pay their bills and buy their groceries.

This week, after yet another year of crushing debt due to severe revenue shortfalls borne of “fiscally-responsible” trickle down tax cuts for the rich and corporations, Kansas Republicans and Governor Sam “fetus” Brownback signed off on the state’s largest tax increase on the poor and middle class and issued a record $840 million certificate of indebtedness for the upcoming fiscal year.

http://www.politicususa.com/2015/06/...iticus+USA+%29

Repug governance!

Will Brownback be re-elected? probably.