THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
(apologies to Keith Olbermann)
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R-Jesusland)
SHOCKING NEWS FROM KANSAS: Tax breaks for the rich did not pay for themselves. http://t.co/pZ09AftjYZ
— The National Memo (@NationalMemo) June 13, 2015
WMDs in Iraq, death panels in Obamacare, widespread voter fraud in America, tax cuts that generate increased government revenue—these are all things that today’s soundbite conservative GOP base has fervently believed in which simply do not exist. Belief in the first two have faded some with time, but in Kansas under Gov. Sam Brownback, the second two are still going strong—even though Kansas is suffering a crippling budget deficit due to the simple fact that, whatever supply-side economics guru Art Laffer may claim, subtraction is not addition…. “Our new pro-growth tax policy will be like a shot of adrenaline into the heart of the Kansas economy,” Brownback promised in 2012, when the tax cuts were first passed.
It would be easy to be gratuitously insulting and dismissive of Sam Brownback, who’s proven himself incompetent beyond even what any rational person may have thought possible. I have friends in Kansas (who I’m fairly certain didn’t vote for Brownback), so I’ll limit myself to the facts of the matter, which are damaging enough. Why should I belabor differences in philosophy when the facts on the ground are even more horrific?
Brownback ran for Governor promising that tax cuts would pay for themselves (WHERE have we heard that before?). Using the fuzzy math typical of Tea Party economic policy, Kansans were promised an Earthly paradise free of the onerous burden of taxation. Kansans would thrive in a Randian order in which to each accrued according to his or her ability to contribute. That the math didn’t add up from Day One seemed not to matter to Brownback or the majority of Kansas voters who fell for his schtick and voted for him.
[Insert line about “getting exactly the quality of leadership you deserve” here….]
The theory was that a reduced tax burden on Kansans would result in supercharged growth and set off a self-fulfilling spiral of prosperity, a veritable rising tide that would lift all boats. That all available evidence pointed to exactly the opposite, that there was no way declining taxes could generate increased revenue for Kansas (that less in fact does NOT equal more), was glibly and roundly ignored. All Brownback and his fellow Kansans needed to do…but didn’t…was to look back at the lies and broken promises of St. Ronald of Reagan. The Gipper’s devotion to Arthur Laffer’s “supply side economics” proved disastrous. Turns out that less really doesn’t equal more, no matter how much your ironclad ideology tells you otherwise.
Brownback adopted Laffer’s philosophy, convinced that he could reap success where only abject failure had previously been sown. Now Kansas finds itself in the second term of Brownback’s Reign of Error ©, and the darling of the Tea Party has been exposed for what promises foreshadowed all along: he’s America’s worst, most incompetent Governor. And Kansans have EXACTLY the quality of leadership they deserve- hey, they not only elected the hyper-religious snake oil salesman in the first place, they RE-ELECTED him. Now the Sunflower State is going to seed, and all because Kansans couldn’t be bothered to pay attention. They bought their ticket (twice)…so they can’t very well complain about the bumpy ride.
When voters in Kansas tossed them the keys to the government in Topeka, the Republican-dominated Kansas legislature and Gov. Sam Brownback went all-in, enacting nearly every policy in the GOP playbook - from sweeping cuts in taxes and spending to aggressive new laws on the party’s favorite social issues, like abortion and gun rights.
Four years later, however, the state government is in meltdown, creating a toxic fiscal and political mess that will take years to mop up.
Splintered into conservative and far-right factions, the Kansas GOP is openly at war with itself over an $800 million, two-year budget deficit gnawed open by the tax cuts nobody wants to roll back. If they can’t fill the hole by week’s end - against long odds - furloughs of government employees will follow.
The clashes between Kansas’ conventional Conservatives and those who could only fairly be described as “slash and burn” is turning the state into a place where dysfunction rules and government is effectively paralyzed. The state’s GOP is at war with itself, and peace talks are going nowhere (Don’tcha just LOVE watching Conservatives eat their young??). After enacting virtually everything in the Teapublican playbook, few are able to recognize- much less admit to- the damage they’ve done. In fact, there are some who are demanding Brownback go even further, evidently to a time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and the weak and infirm were left to fend for themselves…oh, and when women were the unquestioned property of men.
When you believe the “lesser” among us- the poor, the ill, senior citizens, the disabled- to be a drain on society- kicking the social safety net out from under them probably makes sense. Hey, if you’re not poor, sick, old, or disabled, why should you have to help pay the freight for those who are…amiright??
Meanwhile, Brownback, who won re-election in a come-from-behind race last year, is an instant lame duck hobbled by job-approval numbers only Richard Nixon would envy. Since his second term swearing in, the governor has enacted a series of what critics call mean-spirited restrictions on welfare recipients, and national Democrats call him the poster boy of the GOP’s war on the poor.
To call Brownback’s social welfare policies mean-spirited and inhuman is nothing if not an understatement. Representing a hyper-religious yet completely devoid of compassion wing of the Tea Party (Jesus could feed the masses, but that would be “socialism”), Brownback views the world through a prism that would make Ayn Rand beam with pride. well, except for the part about him calling himself a Christian. Brownback claims to want government based on Christian valueswhile adamantly opposing public assistance for the segment of the population that desperately needs it. I don’t know what descriptor one might use to accurate describe his “values,” but they’re certainly not Christian.
“Our new pro-growth tax policy will be like a shot of adrenaline into the heart of the Kansas economy,” Brownback wrote in a Wichita Eagle editorial in July 2012.
What followed, however, was an economic face-plant: growth flatlined, state revenue dried up and the conservative brain trust found itself on the business end of consecutive nine-figure deficits.
“The tax cuts fundamentally had little or no impact” on job creation or attracting entrepreneurs to the Prairie State, Peterson says. At the same time, he adds, ‘taxes were going up on regular wage earners” as struggling localities hiked property taxes and raised user fees to make up for lost revenue.
And yet there are those in Kansas who believe that the problem isn’t with Brownback’s devotion to supply-side economics, but with “weak-kneed” politicians unwilling to make the tough decisions in order to allow the Sunflower State’s government to become more efficient (if by “more efficient” you mean “murderously inhuman”).
What’s happening in Kansas could well represent a glimpse into what could very well happen on a national level. Moderate, reasonable Republicans (and yes, they do exist, in surprisingly large numbers) are being purged in favor of those Conservatives in the mold of Grover Norquist, he of the mandatory Republican “no new taxes” pledged signed by virtually every national Republican officeholder. Norquist’s desire to shrink government to the a size small enough that it can be drowned in a bathtub has become the de facto goal of today’s GOP. Reduce government to what he views as its essential roles- defense, economic policy, and foreign policy- and leave the rest to the states. Several red states are led by Governors would would happily leave the “lesser” among us to fend for themselves. They’d abandon those in need even as they work to provide massive tax cuts for the wealthy. This disdain for those unable to do for themselves only serves to highlight the “survival of the fittest” mindset of today’s movement Conservatives. Governors like Florida’s Rick Scott, Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal, Texas’ Greg Abbott- Tea Party darlings all- feel no allegiance to those unable to do for themselves.
(Here’s my request that the motto of whichever candidate wins the 2016 GOP Presidential nomination reflect the truth for once: “I GOT MINE. YOU CAN DAMNED WELL GET YOUR OWN.”)
Compassion isn’t a sign of weakness…unless we’re talking about Sam Brownback’s Tea Party Paradise. The Teapublican drive to “make government more efficient” has left those who desperately need the social safety net to make ends meet wondering if they’re about to metaphorically set adrift on an ice floe. (If you’re old, sick, poor, and/or disabled, the unspoken philosophy goes, why are you living in Kansas?)
Then there’s the (not really) rampant threat to democracy posed by voter fraud, which exists largely in the mind of Secretary of State Kris Kobach and other Teapublicans. In this case, “voter fraud” is code for “denying minorities and Democratic-leaning voters the right to vote.” As in other red states, Teapublicans understand that over time the numbers don’t break in their favor…so, if you can’t beat, your only real option is to cheat ‘em. If you place ever-greater burdens upon voters that fall disproportionately on the poor and minorities, groups that trend overwhelmingly to the left, you increase the odds that only the “right” people vote. Call it an attempt to “prevent voter fraud,” and what you have is legalized voter suppression.
Like all soundbite conservatives, what Kobach’s “principled” stand against voter fraud deliberately ignores is the trade-off of costs: a small handful of actual voter fraud cases may exist and be prosecuted, but thousands of perfectly legal voters will be prevented from voting by over-eager “voter integrity” measures. Publicly, Kobach may studiously ignore this cost, but ultimately, it’s the whole point, as the Pennsylvania Republican House Leader Mike Turzai bragged about in 2012, listing a string of legislative accomplishments, including “Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”
It’s dishonest, disingenuous, immoral, anti-democratic, and unAmerican. Welcome to the Shining City on the Hill that is the Teapublican People’s Republic of Kansas. You bought and paid for it, Kansas; here’s to hoping you enjoy the ride…especially when Republicans have rigged the state’s electoral system and titled the playing field overwhelmingly in their direction.
And let’s not even get started on edumication, because as any right-thinking, God-fearing, red-blooded, White Christian ‘Merican patriot will tell you, edumication is only really useful to effete, heathen Liberal elites not enlightened enough to watch Fox News Channel. Why should Kansans pay to edumicate Liberals and atheists when all any child really needs to know is contained within the Bible?
Gov. Brownback’s war on education has become the subject of seemingly endless wrangling and legal contentiousness. Faced with a seemingly unsolvable problem he can’t address due to the political and economic realities his policies have created, Brownback’s defaulted to the old panem et circenses strategy. He’s decided that truly inspired leadership means tackling the REAL issues at forefront of every Kansan’s mind: the culture war.
In the interim, Brownback and the GOP have launched full-scale state offensives into national “culture war” issues, pushing deep into territory the national party can only imagine. The power structure has approved new restrictions on access to abortion, reductions on cash withdrawals for welfare recipients to $25 a day and bans on using that money on anything that resembles frivolity - no tattoos, no movies, no steak, no seafood.
And last month, Brownback signed a bill allowing anyone to carry a concealed weapon without a permit or even safety training. That places Kansas in the first wave of states enacting so-called “Constitutional carry” gun laws, tops on the National Rifle Association’s congressional wish list.
To their credit, Kansas Democrats have stepped aside in order to allow Brownback and his fellow Teapublicans to full own the mess they’ve created. Unable to solve problems of his own creation, and hamstrung by the internecine warfare raging withing the Kansas GOP, Brownback is running out of bullets. This leaves him with only one strategy that mightsave his Reign of Error from ruin: distract the sheeple with healthy helpings of bread and circuses. By focusing with laser-like intensity on abortion, welfare abuse, and gun rights, Brownback has- at least for the time being- purchased the goodwill of the slash-and-burn portion of Kansas’ hard-core Right-wing zealots. It’s only a matter of time before the slash-and-burn wing of the Kansas Teapublican turns on him; in the end, no politician can ever be sufficiently uber-Jesus-y and heartless enough for their tastes. Even a modern-day Torquemada would eventually find himself on the outs with Kansas’ Teapublicans for being “too liberal.”
The question (OK, so there’s more than one) I’m dying to know the answer to is just how long the Governor can continue tap-dancing through the minefield he’s laid? How long before even arch-Conservative Teapublicans realize the Emperor has no clothes? That the Shining City on the hill Sam Brownback promised is naught but smoke, mirrors, and empty promises? That more doesn’t come from less and tax cuts really DON’T pay for themselves by creating supercharged economic growth? That the promises made by Brownback were lies that never had a chance of being anything but? And that being a Conservative doesn’t mean wondering whose taxes Jesus would cut?
I thoroughly enjoy watching Conservatives eat their young… and don’tcha just LOVE it when Karma and Schadenfreude merge into the fast lane of the Paybacks Expressway at the same time? Welcome to the Earthly (not so very) Paradise that is Kansas.
