Tag Archives: Sam Brownback

Dec 5, 2017 – Arsenal For Democracy Ep. 206

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Topics: The Senate Tax reform bill, the Kansas low-tax experiment, and tax policy as ideology. People: Bill, Rachel, Nate. Produced: Dec 5th, 2017.

Episode 206 (53 min):
AFD 206

Related links

– Washington Post: Winners and Losers in the Senate GOP Tax Bill
– Washington Post: In a Pro-Trump Area, Many are Skeptical of GOP Tax Plan
– Politico: Senate tax bill and the Hillsdale College endowment
– Washington Post: Here’s what the tax bill means for schools, parents, and students
– Washington Post: This is class warfare: Tax vote sparks political brawl over populism that will carry into 2018 elections
– Kansas City Star: ‘One of the most secretive, dark states’: What is Kansas trying to hide?
– Slate: Republicans are about to repeat Kansas’ tax cut disaster
– NY Times: Kansas Tried a Tax Plan Similar to Trump’s. It Failed.
– Tulsa World: History of Tax Cuts Catches up to Oklahoma

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Jessica Williams heads to Kansas for The Daily Show

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In September, I noted that the situation in Kansas was becoming quite dire for some of the Republican statewide incumbents on the ballot. A lot of that is due to the state’s unmitigated disaster of a fiscal experiment headed by hardline-Republican Governor Sam Brownback. Here’s what I said in September:

Closer to home, in Kansas itself, creating a second competitive statewide race in Kansas could further help boost left and moderate voter turnout against the now-near-universally-loathed Governor Sam Brownback.

Brownback very plausibly might be about to lose re-election to the governorship of Kansas for cutting taxes — because his magical-thinking-based plan cut them so far that there’s a budget catastrophe unfolding. A former Republican state party chair suggested the state may be bankrupt (or at least deeply in debt) within 2 years … and the bond outlook to finance that is not great.

According to PPP in February, Brownback had a lower approval rating in Kansas than Obama has in Kansas. And even Republican-leaning Rasmussen polling [in August] put the Democratic challenger, Paul Davis, ahead of Brownback by an impressive 10 points, pulling above 50%, and with a very low undecided block — which adds up to almost certain doom at the ballot box. (It was unclear, last I checked, what the Democratic challenger would do instead regarding the budget, but I’m guessing Kansas will have to elect first and ask questions later, while hoping it’s better than the monstrosity Brownback enacted.)

 
The Daily Show sent its brilliant and incredibly talented correspondent Jessica Williams into the field in Kansas this week to bring the story to wider attention.