CDZ Is the GOP state budget disaster the best case for Big Government?

[rightwinger]

The GOP s state budget disaster is the best case for Big Government

In Kansas, Gov. Sam Brownback's experiment in income and business tax cuts has blown a $344 million hole in the budget for this fiscal year, and a projected $600 million hole for the next fiscal year. Part of his plan to close it is to cut $44.5 million from public schools and universities.

Illinois needs to cut over $6 billion to balance its books. So Gov. Bruce Rauner is calling for a $1.5 billion cut to the state's Medicaid program, plus $600 million in cuts to local government finances and $387 million in cuts to higher education (though he may have trouble getting those ideas past the Democrats in the Illinois legislature).

Wisconsin's state budget, meanwhile, faces a $238 million deficit, thanks in small part to tax cuts Gov. Scott Walker pushed through after taking office in 2011. That wiped out a $759 million budget surplus in 2013. Now Walker is looking to cut $300 million from higher education over the next two years, along with cuts to the state park system and its recycling programs, among other things, and to restructure about $100 million in debt payments the state already owes.

 

[rightwinger]

In each case, Republican responses to il-advised tax cuts is not to return taxes to where they were working but to slash social spending for schools, healthcare and social welfare

 

[rightwinger]

These three examples show the GOP's "tax cuts now, tax cuts forever" ideology remains utterly unconcerned with economic reality. But more deeply, they're a lesson in some bad choices America made in how to design its national social safety net, which set the stage for the current crises.
In not one of these three cases do the projected budget gaps rise above 1 percent of the income generated annually by the state's economy. The idea that taxes couldn't be raised, starting on high earners, to close these holes is risible.

 

[Freemason9]

It is widely recognized that the nation is nearing a crisis insofar as highway infrastructure is concerned. Nebraska--a deeply red state--is in dire straits as federal funds for highway maintenance continue to decline. However, Nebraska politicians will not address the issue of how to replace the lost funding.

As in Kansas, this will become a towering Red State issue, as their duly-elected reprentatives in Congress continue to squeeze funding that Red States depend upon. There is simply not enough population in rural states to support the infrastructure they need.

 

[rightwinger]

It is widely recognized that the nation is nearing a crisis insofar as highway infrastructure is concerned. Nebraska--a deeply red state--is in dire straits as federal funds for highway maintenance continue to decline. However, Nebraska politicians will not address the issue of how to replace the lost funding.

As in Kansas, this will become a towering Red State issue, as their duly-elected reprentatives in Congress continue to squeeze funding that Red States depend upon. There is simply not enough population in rural states to support the infrastructure they need.

They have so sold out to the tax cut fairy that they are willing to submit their states to any amount of damage .....just to say they cut taxes

 

[Mr. H.]

LOL. Criticizing Rauner for attempting to correct the fuck-ups of previous Democrat governors.

 

[rightwinger]

LOL. Criticizing Rauner for attempting to correct the fuck-ups of previous Democrat governors.

He seems to be struggling with finding $6 billion just by cutting social spending