Associated Press
To get a good look at the kind of budget policies we might see at the federal level in 2013, take a look at what happened in Kansas in 2012.
Andrew Leonard had this recent piece on Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback's (R) new tax policy: "Here's how it works when conservatives control everything: The wealthy get coddled and the poor get a bum's rush."
[Conservative policymakers] agreed on a new tax plan that will sharply cut income taxes for wealthy state residents while at the same time raising taxes on the poor. The result, predictably, will be a shortfall in state revenue that will undoubtedly force additional cuts to state services.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities provides the analysis, but you don’t have to trust the left-leaning think tank for the spin. A newly formed group of retired Kansas Republican legislators are also declaring that enough is enough. The bottom line is this: If you’re wealthy enough and smart enough to structure your business affairs correctly, you can avoid both corporate taxes and income taxes. But if you’re poor, you will have to choose between whether you qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit, or a state-funded rebate on sales taxes charged on groceries. One or the other! Not both! Because if there is a tax loophole that favors working-class Americans, we’d better close it!
Brownback signed the tax policy into law on Tuesday, over the objections of some moderate Republicans who balked at more tax breaks for the wealthy, paid for through cuts to education and social services.
State Sen. Steve Morris (R), president of the Kansas Senate, said, "It is not good public policy."
Brownback, who brought on Arthur Laffer, of all people, as a tax advisor, doesn't much care.
Don't be too surprised if we see a very similar situation play out in 2013 if there's a conservative Republican White House working with a conservative Republican Congress.
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The thought of a Republican President and Congress should scare the HELL out of everyone who doesn't make over $500,000.00 a year! Unless you are part of the 0.02% you will all be taken to the cleaners. No schools, no assistance for children or elderly, higher taxes on the middle and poor will not pay for all that is owed. Defense must be cut as well as all our aide to foreign countries!
I wonder how many of them will be taking in their elderly parents and relatives because the benefits are greatly reduced. It won't kick in to these numbsculls what they've done until the "you know what" hits the fan.
Eliminating foreign aid would be foolish and hardly cost effective.
"Compared with our military and entitlement budgets, this is loose change. Since the 1970s, aid spending has hovered around 1 percent of the federal budget. International assistance programs were close to 5 percent of the budget under Lyndon B. Johnson during the war in Vietnam, but have dropped since."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-foreign-aid/2011/04/25/AF00z05E_story.html
I'm with Mary. The thought of a republican president and congress is the scariest thing I can think of unless it's bringing back bush and cheney. Yikes.
Enrich the rich. Vote Republican.
Good Bumper sticker
care to copyright and print that as a bumper sticker? i'll buy one for my car.
go to www.cafepress.com and make bumper stickers, tee shirts etc. you can also sell them. no minimums. i don't work for them, but i love them ;)
Let the 99.9% eat cake. Vote Republican.
time to learn the words to the canadian national anthem.........
Official English Version, O Canada
O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
Just to help ya out. Conservatives scare the hell outta me but with my past, I can't go to Canada. I'm stuck here.
No. I won't be surprised. Not at all.
And I believe it would be fully supported by the majority of all FOX "News" viewers here in the bible belt bigot country. Yes, that's what's being watched and believed down here. Even @ the local Chinese restaurant!
GAH?
I'm not surprised, horrified but not surprised. I'm horrified by the stupid Americans that keep voting these traitors to the 99% into office, and then pretend to not understand or worse yet fall for the "it's the (immigrants, LGBT, Unions, etc.) fault because "those greedy people" are getting more than you. E-N-O-U-G-H!! Enough with buying into an ideology that isn't working for the 99%! Enough blaming others when you voted (or not) these greedy, selfish, sociopaths into office! Enough blaming "other" for your miseries because you are too tired from working hard and still not making ends meet! Get off the dayum couch, stop watching FAUX NOISE, get involved, get to the library and read up on the issues - JUST DO SOMETHING POSITIVE!
And get out in November and vote the TRAITORS to the 99% out of office!!
Kansas is what happens when people who work for a living decide to start obsessively voting against themselves. I used to feel sorry for them. Now, not so much. They are getting exactly what they deserve.
Some of us Kansans do educate ourselves, we do vote Democrat, and some of us are scared out of our wits at the callous greed and stupidity perpetrated by our governor and legislators in their zealous, Bible-driven adenga. And WE don't deserve this.
Lee Ann, it's like that in many parts of the country. I live in NC, and have to stay here because of my job, and yet, oddly, I am actually NOT a homophobic idiot.
Same here. I live in Northern Virginia - which is a liberal bastion in one of the worst states in the Union. I'm also transgender, which is a non-protected class in discrimination cases in the state. I can be kicked out of my apartment with no recourse. I can be beat up and it's my fault. I could be murdered and the murderer would get away scott free cause of trans panic defense being a legitimate one.
Go Kansas! No, really! Please go!
I live in kansas. Yes, I do pity myself for that. When we moved here, they'd say "yeah, we do have high taxes, but we have great schools". There goes their one bragging right. (truth be told, the schools are no better than they were where we moved from). I've lived here for 20 years, and still don't think of myself as a kansan or "from here". How long will that take? I'm guessing forever + an eon.
number one school in the country (newsweek or time, i forget) is in kansas. its a private school with 126 kids. they all get college level work. nys has 18 schools; most are public schools in great neighborhoods, a couple of nyc special schools and some charters. interesting to read
Sadly that might not last forever given the Republicans' disdain for education and ensuring teachers get paid well, and that there's enough supplies for schools.
The Republican controlled legislature of Kansas scares the hell out of me. I live here/there/whatever and they are trying to take us back to the Middle Ages. I didn't vote for those people! I have more sense than that! What really pisses me off is that I actually know people who either say, "I can't vote because I can't find a candidate that I totally agree with on all his policies," or "I'm just not into voting." I have to stop now or I'm going to start swearing and using obscenities to the point I'm going to get banned from here. *pounds head on desk and cries*
I live here, too and did not vote for them either. I have a moderate Republican for a senator and a Dem for a legislator. They are good legislators, but have both been targeted by the far right. If we can't get people out to vote this year the state will be irreparable for decades. Not feeling very hopeful.
So this is the JBS/ Kock grand design for a better America..... They have not studied or retained anything in history about trying such a grand scheme..... Not even the recent past.... So they don't think this will ultimately fail in the end like it did for so many plutocratic societies.... Not to take up so much time but you can not legislate like this it has never worked and never will..... You Politicians who past this law go back and study you will find you are eventually doomed to fail.......
That's where you're wrong. Those in power DO know history; they just don't care. And why should they when they have a flock of ignorant, uneducated sheep practically giving them PERMISSION to fill their pockets by bankrupting the social contract? Worst of all, when it's all said and done, most in the GOP today have the exact same attitude as Eduardo Savarin when it comes to caring about any real sense of community (let alone patriotism), but are just too gutless to say it aloud.
i have no comment at this time....but i'm so disgusted for what's going on allover the country...I never thought we could reach this low..where people on the top are lying thru their theeth and still we' have stupid peoples who believe them....
Ultra conservatives need folks to be afraid and compliant. Therefore (1) kill education because educated people think and reason and can question and are therefore more likely to vote Democratic, and (2) spread the Big Lie - "be afraid especially of those who are different, arm yourselves, don't trust others, do unto others before they can do it to you", etc. The result of this strategy will be a continued flow of wealth to the "job creators" and the perpetual serfdom for all the rest of us.
I have been telling this to all our people in Florida, The repubs are complete @!$%#s, Canto, McConnell and Boener head mr cry baby, I really feel sorry for you people in Kansas, Just remember that come november, Romney is full of @!$%# on everything he says, and Those dam Tea Party people are the real problem in the US. If you have been reading lately, you will find that all of there canidates are getting in, we are being held hostage by the tea party people, period.
I'm really old and in all my years, I have never seen politics so corrupted and just plain dirty. When the Republicans say, "We have to look out for OUR interests" they mean coorporate interests. Don't forget, one of those guys appologized to BP for fouling the entire Gulf of Mexico. The entire Southeast is completely under Big oil and Coorporate influence. The average guy down there listens to the radio and watches FOX tv. They have thousands of little radio venues that blow propaganda at people so battered by this economy and media noise, even if they didn't believe the crap, they hear it so often they automatically mouth the quote of the day. If ya live down there, push back, or demand proof that's not tainted, you'd probably get a brick through your window, or smeared with some hated "liberal" label. God help you if you want safe working conditions, or highway bridges that won't collapse when us poor folks drive over them.
Racheal I love your show
This is capitalism run a muck under the disguise of the Republican party. I now understand the saying Capitalist pigs!
Unfortunately, I live in Kansas for the foreseeable future. What is happening in Kansas, and Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, Texas, and any other state controlled by republicans, is that the state is being systematically destroyed to the point that the argument will be made that the only way to save it will be to sell it to the Koch Bruddas. There is no other valid reason legislators and governors would willfully destroy where they live. Their next target is the United States itself. They already started the process with Halliburton and Blackeye, or whatever that company was.
Republican governance = transfer public tax dollars from poor to rich; allow roads, bridges, water and sewer lines to deteriorate; shut down public schools; fire teachers, police, firemen, ems workers, public employees; eliminate all regulations on business; reintroduce debtors prisons; reintroduce indentured servitude; let the elderly, the disabled, and the poor die off from neglect. I think the Republicans have taken their governing model from North Korea.
The Kansas policy enacts the Americans for Prosperity Agenda (i.e. Koch Brothers) and they probably got the model language from ALEC (i.e. Koch Brothers). If you want a business to fail, you make sure it can't raise enough money to provide its good and services. The business often has to lay off workers and outsource services that it always had provided. This is the Koch formula for governments in America. Don't raise taxes and give tax breaks to the "job providers" (really the job killers) and then outsource government goods and services (so the purchaser can make a huge profit, of course). Koch, Koch, Koch! We know they are for "prosperity," but are they really for the United States of America?
I am so tired of hearing John crybaby say the American people what which American people is he talking about, the rich used to be middle-class, or working class I thought we all live in America's and I'm so tired of hearing the Republican talk about taking back their country well if is their country were the rest of us supposed to live I have a friend very nice person well-educated retired teacher who believes all of this Republican bull hockeywe need to stand together as a people in November and take back our country from the rich stupid greedy egotistical . The sent a message to John crybaby and take him out of office I'm just saying
Bush and Cheney ARE back. Romney has surrounded himself with former Bushies and Cheney is fund raising for him.
Frightening? You bet and I don't even live in America.
So, I want to know. What is so conservative about today's "conservatives?"
BTW, JT, did you know that the Canadian National Anthem is the ONLY none belligerent one? Neither in French nor English does it refer to war or battles.
In an episode of THE SIMPSONS when everybody was fighting after a ball game (can't remember the details) someone suggested they sing the Canadian Anthem referring to it as "soothing". The fight stopped.
FYI....Gov. Brownback of Kansas is running for President, and he is hoping that he can squelch the spirit of the people with his suffocating laws before he announces himself as the savior of All the states! But people are getting tired of it....and he had better be very wary of treating people like inferiors....it finally catches up with you!
Folks, just realize this, When the Republicans say "WE'VE GOT TO LOOK OUT FOR OUR OWN INTERESTS". That means Coorporate, rich people interests. The trouble with that viewpoint is it leaves the false feeling that they are looking after all people covered in the Constitution. They don't mean Poorclass Bills, that make less than 40,000 per year. They protect the ultra-rich because that's where they get paid. Us poorclass guys and ladies are battered with thousands of radio station, TV ads, hundreds of times each day. The effect is so numbing that the average Southeast brain, mine included, will mouth conservative talking points even when you don't believe that crap. If you push back, or ask for real proof of the lies they utter daily, you are lambasted with a dreadful "liberal" brand, or if you're down south, you'd probably get hit with a brick. There is not enough serious real newsmen, who just give us the facts. With these thousands of small venues blowing that crap, lies, half truths, twenty-four hours a day, the average, human U.S. citizen is brainwashed, most poor republicans who live in mobile homes believe they're the ones whose interests are being looked after, while the "fries" they should have kept their eyes on get voted into the rich coffers of rich religious churches and political PACs who try to influence their sheep, Unh-hunh, they're rich enough to compete with the cooperations for the power to control it all. This is the dirtiest, lying mouth bunch I have seen after 65 years of watching the political Circus. They're blatant with their lies and let 'em fly at will. I can't imagine what they'd do with Jesus Christ if he were here saying the things he said 2000 years ago. Oh, yeah, in case anyone has forgot, they crucified him.