The first year of the Brownback reign was notable for the lack of focus on creating jobs and opportunities for Kansans. But, that isn’t to say that Gov. Brownback didn’t go out of his way to put some out-of-luck Americans back to work.
No, we aren’t talking about all of the Floridians that he hired to run the Kansas Social and Rehabilitative Services agency (…into the ground).
We are of course referring to the star of today’s Tax Committee hearings: Arthur Laffer. Laffer is the Koch-funded (via ALEC) economic propping up the myth of “trickle-down economics” that has failed so spectacularly over the last three decades. He is a paid advisor to Governor Brownback on tax policy.
Before we preview Laffer’s magical theory of how lining the pockets of the already-wealthy is actually good for everybody, you probably deserve to know that he does have some credibility issues.
For your consideration: Laffer has recently been sued for allegedly promoting a Ponzi scheme that cost investors millions. He apparently was paid to endorse an investment in BizRadio that the investors now say was going bust and that their investments were only used to prop up the scheme.
And then there was the time in August of 2006 when Laffer went on CNBC and said “The United States economy has never been in better shape.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfascZSTU4o 1:45 mark)
So, that’s who we are hearing from today. Setting aside the moment on CNBC when he was 100% wrong about the American economy, just remember that Arthur Laffer is a guy who is more than happy to take money to endorse something and walk away before it goes bust.
Did we mention that Brownback found a spare $75,000 after cutting schools and services for vulnerable Kansans last year to pay Laffer for his services in developing his tax proposal?
Now, his Arthur Laffer’s Big Idea is this: that if you lower taxes on the wealthy you will actually increase government revenue, but if you lower taxes on the middle class or working poor you lose government revenue.
It will be interesting then to see if the Tea Party sympathizers in the Legislature – those whose primary goal is eliminate government – will hear the second part of his Big Idea. Or if they will only hear the first bit about lowering taxes on the wealthy…yadda, yadda, yadda.
Laffer will likely be reading today from the playbook he wrote for Koch-funded anti-worker policy think tank ALEC. We certainly don’t want to steal his thunder, so if he says anything even remotely interesting or unexpected we will let you know.
