The Front Page Cover
~ Featuring ~
What's the Matter With Kansas?
by Allyne Cana
.
Top Headlines
Russia nixes U.S.-drafted UN resolution against North Korea. (The Washington Times)
Leftmedia "fact-checkers" get $1.3 million from leftist billionaires Soros, Omidyar. (Newsbusters)
Investigation: Trump admin hit with at least one national security leak a day, threatening U.S. operations. (The Washington Free Beacon)
23 Democrats move to remove Trump from office. (National Review)
House Democrat IT suspects wanted untraceable payments, and millions disappeared. (The Daily Signal)
CBO and OMB Agree: Federal spending will top $4T for first time this year. (CNS News)
Countries that refuse to take back illegals cut in half, "big" win for Trump. (Washington Examiner)
Applicants for U.S. citizenship surge; Mexicans least likely to apply. (CNS News)
Democrats override Illinois governor's tax hike veto. (The Washington Free Beacon)
Ratings collapse: CNN now losing to Nick-At-Nite in prime time ratings. (The Federalist)
Policy: What Trump should tell Putin. (American Enterprise Institute)
Policy: The real dangers beyond North Korea's targeting the U.S. (Independent Women's Forum) ~The Patriot Post
.
liar-nObama Lurking, Stalking President
Trump As Deep State Shadow “president”
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ Noticing that Hussein liar-nObama still seems to think he’s the pretend ‘president’ of the United States, Lou Dobbs has a few thoughts “on a former ‘president,’ who said this during the 2012 presidential campaign... Dobbs then plays a clip of liar-nObama saying, “I would point out that we have only one president imposters included at a time and one administration at a time. And I think traditionally the notion has been that America’s political differences end at the water’s edge.” He’s talking about the hot tubs in the bath houses, apparently. Dobbs says, “Barack liar-nObama, that one ‘president’ back then. And just before he left office, Mr. liar-nObama said he would only speak out when so-called core values were at stake. It took him less than two weeks to completely ignore his assurances that he would observe the historical traditions that there is only one president at a time, that our differences end at the water’s edge.” On January 30th,” notes Dobbs, “liar-nObama denounced President Trump’s travel ban. Since then he’s hit the Republican effort to rescue his failed health care program and President Trump’s decision to exit the Paris climate deal.”...http://rickwells.us/dobbs-obama-lurking-stalking-president-trump-deep-state-shadow-president/
Senate Democrats block Trump court picks
by gopusa.com
{gopusa.com} ~ Senate Democrats are turning to procedural tactics to delay confirmation of President Trump’s appeals court picks, and conservative groups are firing back... with a new ad in Michigan trying to force two Democrats to clear a path for one embattled nominee. The Judicial Crisis Network says it will spend $140,000 on the ad, which demands Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters drop any objections to Michigan Supreme Court Justice Joan Larsen, who Mr. Trump nominated to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on May 8. The senators are flexing the chamber’s “blue slip” tradition, which gives individual lawmakers an exceptional amount of say in judges from their home state. Under the tradition, if both home-state senators don’t return their blue slips, signaling acceptance, Senate leaders will hold off on action on that pick...http://www.gopusa.com/?p=26716?omhide=true
.
Health Care Debate: Debunking
propaganda and more phony claims
by Miguel A. Faria, M.D.
{gopusa.com} ~ In a related column we discussed the content and tone of the political rhetoric used by leftist propagandists in criticizing the proposed GOP health care plans vis-à-vis liar-nObamaCare... We will now describe the propaganda efforts used by progressives to cite dubious statistics, tar, and misrepresent the U.S. health care system. A recent commentary illustrates this propaganda, claiming, “the British Medical Journal revealed the overall danger of American medical care in an editorial, “Medical error — the third leading cause of death in the U.S.” British officials of the National Health Service (NHS) are so proud of their NHS that they are willing to concoct figures, not only to praise their system, but also to lie about the fact they ration health care by queues and waiting lists, restrictions to specialists and access to life-saving medical treatments, and even outright denial of medical care to the elderly...http://www.gopusa.com/?p=26776?omhide=true.
The next Middle East war
by Clifford D. May
{defenddemocracy.org} ~ Eleven years ago this month, Israel went to war with Hezbollah, Iran’s Lebanon-based Shi’a proxy militia. The fighting began when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli villages and missiles at Israeli armored vehicles patrolling the border... Three Israeli soldiers were killed. Two were kidnapped and taken into Lebanon. They would be among the more than a thousand people killed during the 34 days that followed. Hundreds of thousands, in both countries, would be displaced. The passage of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 on August 11 marked a halt to the conflict. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was expanded and granted the authority to use force to ensure that southern Lebanon became free of “any armed personnel, assets and weapons” not under the direct control of the Lebanese government or UNIFIL... http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/may-clifford-d-the-next-middle-east-war/.
McConnell Signals Surrender To Dems On
liar-nObamacare – Just Like He Always Does
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ The master of the art of surrender, Mitch McConnell has dragged things out long enough once again, that a deadline comes into play... This time it is the August recess along with the reality that liar-nObamacare is collapsing that he’s using to force the American people to permanently subsidize the healthcare of millions of others, including illegal aliens. Good job, Mitch, just like always you’ve come through for the Dems and establishment in the past. McConnell said Thursday that if the Republicans are unable to repeal and replace liar-nObamacare, which, having only 52 members, 6-9 Republican no votes and a united opposition is a certainty, Congress will have to pass a more limited bill “to shore up health insurance markets.” Speaking at a Rotary Club luncheon in Glasgow, KY, the chinless, spineless wonder said, “If my side Democrats? is unable to agree on an adequate replacement, then some kind of action with regard to the private health insurance market must occur. No action is not an alternative. … We’ve got the insurance markets imploding all over the country, including in this state.”...http://rickwells.us/mcconnell-signals-surrender-dems-obamacare-just-like/.
.
By Allyne Cana: Deeply bound in an addictive love affair with tax hikes and government spending sprees, the Left — along with which-way-is-the-wind-blowing Republicans — have pounced on the apparent "failure" of Kansas' historic 2012 tax cuts to propagate their "spending is good, tax cuts are bad" narrative.
What's the Matter With Kansas?
Five years ago, Republican Gov. Sam Brownback spearheaded the state's tax reform, which cut the top income tax rate to 4.9% from 6.45% and eliminated income taxes on so-called "pass-through" businesses, including LLCs, partnerships, farms, sole proprietorships, and S corporation.
The promise was that the overhaul would attract businesses and encourage job growth. And in some ways, the reform delivered.
As Americans for Prosperity's Kansas state director Jeff Glendening recently wrote, "The year the tax cuts went into effect, Kansas received over 15,000 new small business filings — a state record. That record was broken again in 2013. ... The target sector of the tax cuts — pass-through entities such as LLCs — have been responsible for 54,424 new jobs since 2013, or 98 percent of private sector job growth overall."
Why, then, are some calling the cuts a failure? And, more importantly, why did the Republican-controlled legislature recently cave to this narrative and undo much of the tax overhaul by voting — and overriding Brownback's veto — to hike taxes by $1.2 billion over the next two years?
It seems that despite new jobs, the state is facing an estimated $900 million budget shortfall. And many are laying the blame squarely on the tax cuts ... because, of course, spending is never to blame. But what's really casting a shadow on the Sunflower State? The answer is twofold.
First, as remedial economics teaches, cutting revenue works best when you also cut spending — particularly if the revenue drop is sudden and any projected revenue increases from future economic growth will (understandably) take time. It's a pretty basic principle but apparently beyond the grasp of many politicians. While revenues dropped after the tax reform, spending grew.
According to the Kansas Policy Institute, spending is expected to increase $181 million this year, $275 million next year, and $42 million the following. This continues an upward trajectory of growth that's been rising fairly consistently (adjusted for inflation) since at least 1995.
Joel Griffith of the American Legislative Exchange Council and Kansas State Senator Ty Masterson note, "General fund spending has increased by more than 4 percent adjusted for inflation since 2012. General fund spending 1995 through 2017 rose approximately 55 percent, adjusted for inflation and a whopping 89 percent in current dollars. If General fund spending growth had been held to the rate of inflation throughout this period, fiscal year 2017 spending would be $1.12 billion less. ... [F]or every 1 percent in population growth, spending increased by nearly 5 percent."
Second, as the Tax Foundation's Joe Henchman explains, while tax reforms in other states have eliminated special carve-outs, Kansas' overhaul added new carve-outs for select businesses. Testifying before the Kansas House Committee on Taxation, Henchman and Scott Drenkard cautioned, "It's important to note here that while decreasing taxes is generally associated with greater economic growth, the pass-through carve out is primarily incentivizing tax avoidance, not job creation."
Indeed, while in 2012 it was estimated that 191,00 entities would capitalize on the carve-out, as of 2015 the number had risen to nearly 400,000, amounting to nearly $300 million per year in lost revenue without much benefit for the state's economy.
Henchman and Drenkard conclude, "Tax reform is about broadening tax bases and lowering tax rates. This state has lowered tax rates in some spaces, but the pass-through exemption significantly narrows the tax base, and this has made for a less stable, productive, and competitive code."
Those who drink the tax-and-spend Kool-Aid are falling over themselves to point to Kansas as "proof" that tax cuts don't work. But the Left doesn't exactly have a stellar track record of convincing anyone that high-tax states are economic utopias (think Illinois, New Jersey, California and Connecticut). Soaring taxes haven't solved these states' budget woes.
The truth is, tax cuts didn't cause Kansas' fiscal problems. Chronic spending hikes combined with poorly planned and executed tax reform led to the budget crunch. Instead of forcing taxpayers to bail out state government years or even decades into the future, Kansas lawmakers should double down on restraining spending and structuring a fair tax system that empowers all Kansans — not just the favored few — to create economic growth and right the ship on the state's budget.
~The Patriot Post
Comments