http://www.politicususa.com/2015/01/15/obamas-national-economic-success-republican-state-economies-failing.html
Republican economic lies continue, Republican led states continue to falter and no one on the right wants to admit they might be wrong. (Any underlines are mine.)"...(In 2014) Republicans ran on, and won big with their claim that the GOP is 'the party of solutions' founded on conservative pro-growth economic policies, deregulation, and tax cuts for the rich they claimed were more successful than anything 'hapless' Democrats or Obama could every hope to achieve. This is despite the President's nearly five-year job growth record, world-leading GDP growth, and increased revenue paying down the nation's debt at a record pace."
Democrats, demonstrating a pathological fear of confrontation, ran timid campaigns, choosing to mollify their Republican foes rather than point out how successful Obama's policies, including his economic policies, have been."This column has given special attention to the trickle-down economic disaster in Kansas, but plenty of other Republican states' economies are failing miserably; especially states with Republican governors held up as the model for the nation in hopes of winning the White House...Republicans said throughout 2014 that Democrats and the President consistently offer up 'ineffective economic policies' responsible for the President's failed economic policies leading to increased income inequality plaguing the poor and middle class."
Conversely, the GOP has very little to say about how states with Republicans at the helm are faring under their policies of corporate tax cuts and reduced taxes for the wealthy.
A look at three states whose governors are hoping to become president in 2016."In New Jersey, Chris Christie campaigned on and entered office on a pledge of balancing the state budget and 'replenishing the state's pension program.' Instead, Christie's 'pro-growth agenda' of cutting corporate taxes drastically increased pension liabilities, created Kansas-style revenue shortfalls, and earned the state a record eight credit downgrades, a new mark for a sitting governor. New Jersey is also, like Kansas, lagging the rest of the nation in creating jobs according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and while the national unemployment rate has been steadily dropping, New Jersey's is growing just over the past year."
Maybe it's because of all those people who lost their jobs over that bridge closing fiasco."In Louisiana, Republican Governor Bobby Jindal's conservative economic policies have the state facing 'a very large shortfall as we go into the spring session of 2015 because (the Governor) has been relying too much on...one time funds for recurring expenses' according to (Brett Geyman) a fiscally conservative Republican state representative.
The 'very large revenue shortfall' is in spite of 'the steepest cuts to education ever proposed for the state' that the Republican speaker of the Louisiana House has vowed to block because they 'will set us back generations.' Jindal claims the steep education cuts are necessary to balance the state's budget even though with the drastic cuts, the state still faces a substantially large reveue shortfall. Jindal wants to completely eliminate corporate taxes and raise them on the bottom 80% of the population...(because) eliminating business taxes will be 'a great benefit to big corporations.'"
In other words, screw the poor. They don't vote Republican anyway."Republican Scott Walker of Wisconsin is also facing a 'pro-growth agenda' revenue shortfall this year to the tune of $2.2 billion as well as a record 'slower than average job and wage growth' compared to the national figures...Walker claims the facts are false, and that he will make up the $2.2 billion shortfall by 'adjusting funding priorities' that in Republican economic parlance means cuts to domestic programs and pension payments. Walker already cut taxes for the rich and funded them partially with Medicaid cuts."
See comment above re: screwing the poor and add policeman, fireman and union members.
Common sense tells you that cutting taxes for the rich is not going to feed the economy. Cutting a millionaire's taxes is not going to make him spend more; they have plenty to spend already. They can only eat out so many times a day, they can only buy so many cars or new suits or new dresses or new handbags. A weekend in Bimini is not going to add anything to local coffers. Give a millionaire an extra thousand, and it's going into their portfolio; or maybe into the re-election campaign of their favorite Republican candidate to make sure this largess keeps on coming. The only ones who profit by tax breaks for the rich are the rich and their politician toadies. It's a closed loop that only the wealthy and those who worship them are permitted to join.
But cut taxes for the middle class and they will spend more. If a middle class family that has been pinching pennies to pay their bills suddenly finds it has an extra $25 a week, they are going to spend it--at a local restaurant, maybe on a movie night out or clothes that don't come from a thrift store. Give a poor family $25 a week and they might visit a farmer's market or maybe make a down-payment on a washing machine. This is money that goes directly into the local economy and supports small businesses that hire local employees--a self-feeding system of economic improvement open to everyone.
What is really depressing about red state economies and the economic fate of their citizens is that those citizens are so easily duped into believing their personal fiscal situation is entirely the fault of Democrats and President Obama. They look around, they see their state spiraling down and down, just shake their heads and mumble "Obama." And it angers me that Democrats in these states fail to stand up and fight this misconception.
By failing to point out the truth about positive national economic indicators, by failing to offer examples of states that have raised taxes (hello, California!) and are now seeing their state economies booming, Democrats are allowing Republicans to continue to serve the kool-aide first offered up by a George W. Bush aide in 2004 when he told Ron Suskind that it is wrong to live "in what we call the reality-based community (where people) believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality. That's not the way the world really works anymore. We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality."
He might have added, "and we don't care who we hurt as long as we stay in power." It would go a long way to explain why Republicans see education as expendable and unnecessary...no one on the right wants constituents who think.
Someday--and may it come soon--citizens in these failing Republican led states are going to wake up, look at liberal states where the citizens are fat, happy, employed and covered by healthcare and realize they've been lied to. I expect the blow-back will be swift and ugly.
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