No free lunch
by Tom Sullivan
Our friends on the right get almost gleeful whenever they see an opening to use their superior command of economics to explain to liberals how the world really works.
Yet, the basic concept they themselves have trouble wrapping their brains around is "no free lunch."
Gov. Sam Brownback's tea party-driven economic experiment in Kansas is taking a toll. The latest poll shows him trailing his Democratic opponent, Paul Davis, by 8 points. The Kansas City Star says Brownback is "paying a political price for bold leadership." This is what bold leadership looks like:
Brownback has slashed income taxes, cut thousands off welfare, curbed abortion rights, tried gaining control of judicial appointments and made a failed attempt to cut arts funding.
When the moderate wing of his party stood in the way, Brownback successfully campaigned for conservatives more in step with his political philosophy so he could exert a tighter grip on the statehouse.
The result? His state's economy is headed into the tank after slashing income taxes at Brownback's urging, with more cuts scheduled and growth below projections. Standard & Poors downgraded Kansas' credit rating in August. Davis charges that another Brownback term will bring cuts to Kansas schools.
Five hundred women from across the state gathered last week at the Taking Back Kansas convention in Wichita, put on by Women for Kansas and chaired by Lynn Stephan. The bipartisan group aims to turn out Brownback, Secretary of State Kris Kobach, and U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts in November. Most of the candiidates they support are Democrats.
“Women in this state are scared,” Stephan said. “We’re going broke” under the leadership of Brownback’s tea-party fiscal ideas. Schools and hospitals in some small towns may have to close, she said, and then “the town will dry up and blow away.”
Although she considers herself a moderate Republican, Stephan said that “the Republican party abandoned me 10 years ago.”
That's about two decades after the party abandoned reality for the magical thinking of trickle down economics and started worshiping the Market as a deity.
As much as conservatives discuss curtailing entitlements, many of them behave as if they are entitled to kick ass on any country they feel is stepping out of line, and to doing so without paying for it. They feel entitled to beat their chests about how exceptional America is, and entitled to the public infrastructure their parents and grandparents built with their taxes and sweat in making it a world power. Yet they seem to have no sense of pride in maintaining it. Not their responsibility. They're taxed enough already.
They complain their taxes are too high, and all the while the country is running a budget deficit that proves they are not paying enough to cover its costs and to keep it from crumbling.
A report last year ranked U.S. highways 18th in the world, behind Korea, Luxembourg, and Saudi Arabia. Point this out, and conservatives insist that the problem is government is spending too much. That we need to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse -- the bane of Republicans' perpetual motion economy.
See, America could maintain its infrastructure, fund top-notch schools, and support a costly global empire indefinitely without raising taxes just by eliminating the friction of waste, fraud, and abuse.
And by installing this simple device -- one that big oil companies have tried to suppress -- your car can get 500 miles per gallon. Order now!
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