6 ms·

Reason why this is not important is if your only path of attack is through the "who did it" path and you have nothing whatsoever to say about the actual content

Reason why this is not important is if your only path of attack is through the "who did it" path and you have nothing whatsoever to say about the actual content, maybe you should base your attack on more solid ground. Should be easy: OP gave us facts to verify, not an opinion. If his facts are indeed facts you will need more than merely point to the Koch brothers, regardless of their well-known agenda.

Steko 9y ago
Context is important because the number of true facts we can spout about the economy of Kansas is legion and its highly likely a propaganda shop has cherry picked the ones they deliver. Sadly, OPs linked claims don't tell us anything about Kansas' performance under these tax cuts which is really what matters since the point of the tax cuts was to supercharge growth. Did that happen? I'm going to say no: http://econbrowser.com/archives/2016/10/the-kansas-economy-three-pictures http://econbrowser.com/archives/2016/10/the-kansas-economy-t... http://econbrowser.com/archives/2016/12/trends-in-kansas-gdp http://econbrowser.com/archives/2016/12/trends-in-kansas-gdp Predictive value of conservative "freedom" rankings: http://econbrowser.com/archives/2015/07/the-information-content-of-the-alec-laffer-moore-williams-economic-outlook-ranking http://econbrowser.com/archives/2015/07/the-information-cont... Commentary on Kansas budget by former Kansas Republican Budget Director (former for both): http://www.kansasbudget.com/ http://www.kansasbudget.com/
- jessaustin 9y ago
  ...the point of the tax cuts was to supercharge growth. No, the point is that we subjects get to keep more of the resources for which we work. Any primarily agricultural state would have had trouble "supercharging growth" over that period. Also Kansas sucks, so it's perfectly possible that "tax cuts" were implemented as direct handouts to the Koch brothers, which of course I wouldn't defend. The general idea of tax cuts is fine, though. b^)
  - MarchHare 9y ago
    The tax cuts were sold with the phrase, "supercharge growth". So yeah, that kinda was a bit of the point.
  - atqtion 9y ago
    You're technically correct, I think -- the actual point isn't to super-charge growth. But without massive spending cuts, you need supercharged growth to offset lost revenue. The premise of Kansas-style tax policy -- which coincides in spirit with Trump's proposed tax policy -- is that you can avoid massive spending cuts by supercharging growth. Without that premise, these tax policies would be much more difficult to push through. Because they'd have to admit massive deficit spending, or else come pre-packaged with huge cuts to popular services. So, the end goal isn't necessarily to supercharge growth, but the promise to supercharge growth is a huge aspect of what makes these tax plans politically viable.
  - Analemma_ 9y ago
    > No, the point is that we subjects get to keep more of the resources for which we work... Any primarily agricultural state would have had trouble "supercharging growth" over that period. You are moving the goalposts after the experiment has failed. Before these tax reforms were passed, their advocates said over and over that the point was to supercharge growth, and that the tax cuts would surely accomplish that.
- Noseshine 9y ago
  > the number of true facts LOL Anyway - once again you did NOT respond to what OP wrote. What you did has a name: Whataboutism. Care to say something about what OP actually wrote? Is he right or wrong? Should be easy to prove him wrong since he made very concrete claims.

Steko 9y ago

Context is important because the number of true facts we can spout about the economy of Kansas is legion and its highly likely a propaganda shop has cherry picked the ones they deliver. Sadly, OPs linked claims don't tell us anything about Kansas' performance under these tax cuts which is really what matters since the point of the tax cuts was to supercharge growth. Did that happen? I'm going to say no: http://econbrowser.com/archives/2016/10/the-kansas-economy-three-pictures http://econbrowser.com/archives/2016/10/the-kansas-economy-t... http://econbrowser.com/archives/2016/12/trends-in-kansas-gdp http://econbrowser.com/archives/2016/12/trends-in-kansas-gdp Predictive value of conservative "freedom" rankings: http://econbrowser.com/archives/2015/07/the-information-content-of-the-alec-laffer-moore-williams-economic-outlook-ranking http://econbrowser.com/archives/2015/07/the-information-cont... Commentary on Kansas budget by former Kansas Republican Budget Director (former for both): http://www.kansasbudget.com/ http://www.kansasbudget.com/

jessaustin 9y ago
...the point of the tax cuts was to supercharge growth. No, the point is that we subjects get to keep more of the resources for which we work. Any primarily agricultural state would have had trouble "supercharging growth" over that period. Also Kansas sucks, so it's perfectly possible that "tax cuts" were implemented as direct handouts to the Koch brothers, which of course I wouldn't defend. The general idea of tax cuts is fine, though. b^)
- MarchHare 9y ago
  The tax cuts were sold with the phrase, "supercharge growth". So yeah, that kinda was a bit of the point.
- atqtion 9y ago
  You're technically correct, I think -- the actual point isn't to super-charge growth. But without massive spending cuts, you need supercharged growth to offset lost revenue. The premise of Kansas-style tax policy -- which coincides in spirit with Trump's proposed tax policy -- is that you can avoid massive spending cuts by supercharging growth. Without that premise, these tax policies would be much more difficult to push through. Because they'd have to admit massive deficit spending, or else come pre-packaged with huge cuts to popular services. So, the end goal isn't necessarily to supercharge growth, but the promise to supercharge growth is a huge aspect of what makes these tax plans politically viable.
- Analemma_ 9y ago
  > No, the point is that we subjects get to keep more of the resources for which we work... Any primarily agricultural state would have had trouble "supercharging growth" over that period. You are moving the goalposts after the experiment has failed. Before these tax reforms were passed, their advocates said over and over that the point was to supercharge growth, and that the tax cuts would surely accomplish that.
Noseshine 9y ago
> the number of true facts LOL Anyway - once again you did NOT respond to what OP wrote. What you did has a name: Whataboutism. Care to say something about what OP actually wrote? Is he right or wrong? Should be easy to prove him wrong since he made very concrete claims.