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The Democrats’ Kansas Distraction
The Wall Street Journal ^ | Nov. 14, 2017 | Ron Eastes

Posted on 11/18/2017 2:23:09 AM PST by jonefab

When House Republicans unveiled their plan for tax reform this month, Democrats offered a curious response. Rather than give their own proposal, they held a mock hearing—a show trial, really—on Kansas’ 2012 tax cuts. Democrats see my state as proof that supply-side economics doesn’t work and that the GOP’s national tax reform will lead to budget cuts and enormous deficits.

But the comparison is less a cautionary tale than a tall tale. I was Kansas’ state treasurer from 2011-17, and no one watched the dollars flowing in and out more closely than I did. Consider a few facts:

First, the 2012 tax cuts came during the same year that federal stimulus funds ended. That alone resulted in a 12.5% drop in revenue. In the spring of 2010, then-Gov. Mark Parkinson, a Democrat, had worked with the Legislature to pass a 2011 budget that included $527.6 million in stimulus funds. Democrats knew this money was temporary but behaved as if it were permanent. The effect was to exaggerate the “lost revenue” from the tax cut.

Second, the shortfall was made worse because state lawmakers rejected the “pay-fors” proposed by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback. The governor’s original tax plan would have closed many loopholes. But the Legislature wanted to keep the tax credits and deductions and left them in the final bill. Such carve-outs should be viewed as spending through the tax code, as Martin Feldstein, a top adviser to President Reagan, has argued on these pages.

Third, the Legislature then continued to increase spending by 3% a year.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Government; US: Kansas
KEYWORDS: federalbudget; kansastaxcut; reaganomics
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1 posted on 11/18/2017 2:23:10 AM PST by jonefab
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To: jonefab

And now you know the rest of the story


2 posted on 11/18/2017 2:44:16 AM PST by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Nifster

Actually there’s a paywall so I don’t.


3 posted on 11/18/2017 2:52:14 AM PST by databoss
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To: databoss

Just read the part that was posted......that’s enough


4 posted on 11/18/2017 2:56:57 AM PST by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: jonefab

Bump


5 posted on 11/18/2017 3:40:29 AM PST by Incorrigible (If I lead, follow me; If I pause, push me; If I retreat, kill me.)
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To: databoss

try the link on his twitter:

https://twitter.com/repronestes?lang=en


6 posted on 11/18/2017 3:45:33 AM PST by iowamark
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To: jonefab
So why do Democrats keep bringing up Kansas? Because the truth gets in the way of their efforts to kill tax reform. The last time Washington enacted a serious plan like the House proposal was under President Reagan, and it ushered in one of the largest booms in the nation’s history. Economic growth averaged 3.5% from 1981-88.
7 posted on 11/18/2017 3:48:58 AM PST by iowamark
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To: jonefab
Democrats see my state as proof that supply-side economics doesn’t work...

Half are mental. The other half knows that tax cuts gets better revenue.

8 posted on 11/18/2017 4:14:38 AM PST by VRW Conspirator (Enforce the Law. Build the Wall.)
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To: iowamark
Economic growth averaged 3.5% from 1981-88.

...and Reagan's tax cut did not get implemented until year 3

9 posted on 11/18/2017 4:17:10 AM PST by newfreep ("INSIDE EVERY PROGRESSIVE IS A TOTALITARIAN SCREAMING TO GET OUT" @HOROWITZ39, DAVID HOROWITZ)
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To: jonefab
The problem with treating Kansas as a supply side experiment is two fold. First, Kansas invalidated the Laffer curve by failing to control spending. Second, the Kansas economy by itself is not big enough to apply macro benchmarks.

Spending control or the lack of it by government does indeed change supply side into voodoo economics. Yet tax money belongs to us first as earnings. We might was well keep it our selves.

10 posted on 11/18/2017 4:28:59 AM PST by buckalfa (Slip sliding away towards senility.)
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To: jonefab
on Kansas’ 2012 tax cuts. Democrats see my state as proof that supply-side economics doesn’t work

Ha...I have a relative who is an economic genius, well at least according to him...

His credentials: he's a liberal. What more do you need ? He never even ran a lemonade stand.

He uses Kansas as his only talking point when ranting against supply side economics model...

Like most liberals he is thin skinned and deranged and after multiple times me embarrassing him with facts like these, he finally unfriended me from Faceboob...

11 posted on 11/18/2017 4:33:52 AM PST by Popman (My sin was greatconstitutional crisis, Your love was greater  What could separate us now…)
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To: jonefab

Democrats are always willing to torture the data to get the outcome they want.

Their establishment media is only too willing to push the fantasies as fact.


12 posted on 11/18/2017 4:38:54 AM PST by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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To: buckalfa
First, Kansas invalidated the Laffer curve by failing to control spending.

Not entirely correct. Constitutionally Kansas could not run a deficit. So the reduced revenues forced them to control spending by cutting their spending to match income.

13 posted on 11/18/2017 4:56:35 AM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: buckalfa
...the Kansas economy by itself is not big enough to apply macro benchmarks.

Ding, ding ding, Don Pardo, we have a winner. What prize do we have for our guest?

14 posted on 11/18/2017 5:43:43 AM PST by KC Burke (If all the world is a stage, I would like to request my lighting be adjusted.)
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To: buckalfa; Nifster; iowamark; jonefab; marktwain

Yes, the Reagan tax cuts were great, but in the end taxpayers were bamboozled. Rates were lowered in exchange for getting rid of deductions and “loopholes”, money flowed into the treasury as the economy boomed, and then politicians kept on spending what they got and more. Of course, the deficits increased, so guess what? The sleazes in DC raised the rates back up again, but the deductions were gone forever. Folks, be prepared to get hosed again.

Unless spending is really cut, not just cuts in the proposed spending increases, nothing will change. American voters really don’t want smaller government or we would have it. Nobody wants his own government benefit cut. They want the other guy’s government benefit cut. Just ask farmers or electric car makers how they fell about ethanol mandates or tax credits for electric vehicles.


15 posted on 11/18/2017 6:49:19 AM PST by Pining_4_TX (For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. ~ Hosea 8:7)
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To: Pining_4_TX

Until WE vote in people who will vote that way we should take what we can get. One percent growth will turn us into a turf world country. Bringing back corporate money and increasing growth is our best bet at the moment


16 posted on 11/18/2017 7:09:34 AM PST by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Pining_4_TX

He managed to cut taxes and double revenues over 8 years. He proposed eight budgets one of which was enacted.

George Mitchell and Tip O Neill gleefully tore them up and substituted their own budgets, which always found ways to spend the additional revenue and then to create deficits on top of that spending. There was no “Regan Deficit” as liberals claim; there was only “Tip O Neil/George Mitchell” deficits that required the eventual raising of taxes.

I would note that Regan’s budgets did have deficits, mostly to fund defense, but the additional revenue would have made up for them.


17 posted on 11/18/2017 9:49:47 AM PST by Pete from Shawnee Mission
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To: Pining_4_TX

There are no “loopholes,” there is only tax law. The late Dan Rostenkowski, head of Ways and Means, was fond of saying that the tax code was used to reward your friends and punish your enemies.

The bamboozling was not done by Reagan, but by the Democrats who controlled congress and did everything they could to sabotage Reagan’s efforts.


18 posted on 11/18/2017 10:25:53 AM PST by Pete from Shawnee Mission
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To: jonefab
First, the 2012 tax cuts came during the same year that federal stimulus funds ended. That alone resulted in a 12.5% drop in revenue

Good, government has too much revenue.

19 posted on 11/18/2017 4:43:46 PM PST by Impy (The democrat party is the enemy of your family and civilization itself, forget that at your peril.)
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To: Pete from Shawnee Mission

I agree completely that the Democrats were responsible for the increase in rates, but they knew they were going to do it all along. Republicans then, as now, were too spineless to argue about it, or perhaps they really are just the other half of the Demopublican party. I loved Reagan, but just about every other politician in DC is a snake.


20 posted on 11/18/2017 6:10:54 PM PST by Pining_4_TX (For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. ~ Hosea 8:7)
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