Red-State Model: The GOP Plan to Flush Your State’s Economy Down the Toilet

[Lakhota]

By Lynn Stuart Parramore

The new “red-state model” seeks to turn your state into Mississippi.

The GOP has plans for a comeback. But it may cost you a lot. The idea is to capitalize on recent Republican state takeovers to conduct an austerity experiment known as the new “red-state model” and prove that faulty policies can be turned into gold.

There will be smoke. There will be mirrors. And there will be a lot of ordinary people suffering needlessly in the wake of this ideological train wreck.

We already have a red-state model, and it’s called Mississippi. Or Texas. Or any number of states characterized by low public investment, worker abuse, environmental degradation, educational backwardness, high rates of unwanted pregnancy, poor health, and so on.

Now the GOP is determined to bring that horrible model to the rest of America.

In Kansas, the Wall Street Journal reports that Governor Sam Brownback is aiming to up his profile “by turning Kansas into what he calls Exhibit A for how sharp cuts in taxes and government spending can generate jobs, wean residents off public aid and spur economic growth.” In remarks quoted in the same article, Brownback announced that "My focus is to create a red-state model that allows the Republican ticket to say, 'See, we've got a different way, and it works.’ "

Brownback’s economic inspiration is Reagan-era supply-side economist Arthur Laffer and the folks at Americans for Prosperity, the conservative outfit backed by the deep coffers of the Koch brothers.

This new austerity talk focused on “fiscal innovations” is emboldening Republicans in other states that have been gerrymandered into submission to the GOP, including Indiana, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, and alas, my home state of North Carolina.

But here’s the really scary part. Slashing taxes, squeezing workers and throwing out environmental protections can indeed lure businesses to states where they won’t have to pay their fair share and can get away with all sorts of abuse. If a state like North Carolina promotes such policies, businesses from nearby states like Virginia may indeed move their operations down the road. Unless you believe in the “Confidence Fairy,” as Paul Krugman calls the naïve GOP faith that making everybody poorer is the way to become rich, then you know that what results is simply trade diversion, not genuine growth. In other words, one state’s gain is another state’s loss. The result is a headlong race-to-the-bottom whereby the states losing business will be pressured to slash their taxes and burden their workers and ordinary citizens, too. Nobody wins in that game -- except the 1 percent.

The blue-state model, evident in high-income states like Massachusetts, has long been associated with high levels of state investments in education, transportation and other public goods. And guess what? It's also associated with economic strength. The red-state model, on the other hand, is linked to backwardness, second-rate educational systems and economic weakness.

What the GOP wants to do is create an image-problem for blue states where taxes have been raised to balance budgets and continue vital services and jobs by crying “Look, Ma! No taxes!” in the states where they’ve taken control.

They’ll soon be able to say, “Look, Ma! No economy.”

More: The GOP Plan to Flush Your State's Economy Down the Toilet

 

[Oldguy]

The Gilded Age, also known as the Era of the Robber Barons, returns.

Who would want that and why?

 

[Lakhota]

The Gilded Age, also known as the Era of the Robber Barons, returns.

Who would want that and why?

Only right-wingers can answer that.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

By Lynn Stuart Parramore

The new “red-state model” seeks to turn your state into Mississippi.

The GOP has plans for a comeback. But it may cost you a lot. The idea is to capitalize on recent Republican state takeovers to conduct an austerity experiment known as the new “red-state model” and prove that faulty policies can be turned into gold.

There will be smoke. There will be mirrors. And there will be a lot of ordinary people suffering needlessly in the wake of this ideological train wreck.

We already have a red-state model, and it’s called Mississippi. Or Texas. Or any number of states characterized by low public investment, worker abuse, environmental degradation, educational backwardness, high rates of unwanted pregnancy, poor health, and so on.

Now the GOP is determined to bring that horrible model to the rest of America.

In Kansas, the Wall Street Journal reports that Governor Sam Brownback is aiming to up his profile “by turning Kansas into what he calls Exhibit A for how sharp cuts in taxes and government spending can generate jobs, wean residents off public aid and spur economic growth.” In remarks quoted in the same article, Brownback announced that "My focus is to create a red-state model that allows the Republican ticket to say, 'See, we've got a different way, and it works.’ "

Brownback’s economic inspiration is Reagan-era supply-side economist Arthur Laffer and the folks at Americans for Prosperity, the conservative outfit backed by the deep coffers of the Koch brothers.

This new austerity talk focused on “fiscal innovations” is emboldening Republicans in other states that have been gerrymandered into submission to the GOP, including Indiana, Louisiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, and alas, my home state of North Carolina.

But here’s the really scary part. Slashing taxes, squeezing workers and throwing out environmental protections can indeed lure businesses to states where they won’t have to pay their fair share and can get away with all sorts of abuse. If a state like North Carolina promotes such policies, businesses from nearby states like Virginia may indeed move their operations down the road. Unless you believe in the “Confidence Fairy,” as Paul Krugman calls the naïve GOP faith that making everybody poorer is the way to become rich, then you know that what results is simply trade diversion, not genuine growth. In other words, one state’s gain is another state’s loss. The result is a headlong race-to-the-bottom whereby the states losing business will be pressured to slash their taxes and burden their workers and ordinary citizens, too. Nobody wins in that game -- except the 1 percent.

The blue-state model, evident in high-income states like Massachusetts, has long been associated with high levels of state investments in education, transportation and other public goods. And guess what? It's also associated with economic strength. The red-state model, on the other hand, is linked to backwardness, second-rate educational systems and economic weakness.

What the GOP wants to do is create an image-problem for blue states where taxes have been raised to balance budgets and continue vital services and jobs by crying “Look, Ma! No taxes!” in the states where they’ve taken control.

They’ll soon be able to say, “Look, Ma! No economy.”

More: The GOP Plan to Flush Your State's Economy Down the Toilet

More deflection from the pushed obama failed economy.

 

[tyroneweaver]

what a hilarious thread
obama is now taking a hundred bucks more out of my check now, and his intentions are to take more thru obamacare, and new taxes; and this thread is about hypothetical suffering caused by the gop.

smoke and mirrors. LOL looked at your pay stub lately

 

[Missourian]

Flushing state economies down the toilet...so, they're planning to follow the blue state model?

Illinois joins California after downgrade as most uncredit worthy states in the nation.

 

[Stephanie]

alterworldnet, the troll has been busy overnight

here's some unbiased crap

The blue-state model, evident in high-income states like Massachusetts, has long been associated with high levels of state investments in education, transportation and other public goods. And guess what? It's also associated with economic strength. The red-state model, on the other hand, is linked to backwardness, second-rate educational systems and economic weakness.

 

[Tech_Esq]

Meanwhile, in the real world, our state has been doing just fine with Republicans in all the top jobs and a Republican House and Senate. We have budget surpluses year in and year out and we have one of the best managed state economies in the country.

Contrast that with almost every blue state economy in the country. Most of them are literally imploding a la California, Illinios, New York and Michigan. Dem policies are a prescription for destruction of the highest order. Where Republican policies get implemented as in Virginia, you see a very healthy economy with low unemployment, job growth, population growth and low crime.

My thought is the person who wrote your article is likely just the run of the mill pol hack with no real insight into much of anything.

 

[Stephanie]

Meanwhile, in the real world, our state has been doing just fine with Republicans in all the top jobs and a Republican House and Senate. We have budget surpluses year in and year out and we have one of the best managed state economies in the country.

Contrast that with almost every blue state economy in the country. Most of them are literally imploding a la California, Illinios, New York and Michigan. Dem policies are a prescription for destruction of the highest order. Where Republican policies get implemented as in Virginia, you see a very healthy economy with low unemployment, job growth, population growth and low crime.

My thought is the person who wrote your article is likely just the run of the mill pol hack with no real insight into much of anything.

that's about all you get from alternet..

 

[Truthmatters]

what a hilarious thread
obama is now taking a hundred bucks more out of my check now, and his intentions are to take more thru obamacare, and new taxes; and this thread is about hypothetical suffering caused by the gop.

smoke and mirrors. LOL looked at your pay stub lately

didnt you know that was a temporary tax gift you had been receiving?

do you want the wealthy to have to pay that tax for you?

remember it was the wealthy the right was all worried about during the election.

they never even thoughtabout or mentioned this expiring tax break during the election.

You know why?

because they dont give a rats ass about anyone like you

 

[bripat9643]

The Gilded Age, also known as the Era of the Robber Barons, returns.

Who would want that and why?

Of course, "the robber barons" are a myth. Who did they rob? During the so-called "robber baron age," the American economy grew at the fast rate it's ever grown. Our standard of living increased by leaps and bounds.

Almost everything liberals know is a lie.

 

[Missourian]

Meanwhile, in the real world, our state has been doing just fine with Republicans in all the top jobs and a Republican House and Senate. We have budget surpluses year in and year out and we have one of the best managed state economies in the country.

Contrast that with almost every blue state economy in the country. Most of them are literally imploding a la California, Illinios, New York and Michigan. Dem policies are a prescription for destruction of the highest order. Where Republican policies get implemented as in Virginia, you see a very healthy economy with low unemployment, job growth, population growth and low crime.

My thought is the person who wrote your article is likely just the run of the mill pol hack with no real insight into much of anything.

And those blue states will demand a bail out, and demand to roll their state pension health care into Obama care, and we'll all be on the hook for their fiscal irresponsibility.

 

[bripat9643]

Flushing state economies down the toilet...so, they're planning to follow the blue state model?

Illinois joins California after downgrade as most uncredit worthy states in the nation.

Baltimore just announced that it will be $2 billion in the red over the next 10 years.

Great model.

 

[Truthmatters]

yeah your party screws us all you think its great

 

[Truthmatters]

Your like the drunk uncle who comes over and trashes the house and then passes out on the couch and wakes up the next moring complaining about how messy the house is.

 

[RosieS]

The Gilded Age, also known as the Era of the Robber Barons, returns.

Who would want that and why?

Of course, "the robber barons" are a myth. Who did they rob? During the so-called "robber baron age," the American economy grew at the fast rate it's ever grown. Our standard of living increased by leaps and bounds.

Almost everything liberals know is a lie.

It is no myth that Florida has a robber baron Governor, head of a corporation convicted of Medicare fraud of the largest scale and taking the 5th 75 times in a deposition concerning that company.

Rick Scott Took 5th Amendment 75 Times

Regards from Rosie

 

[zeke]

Meanwhile, in the real world, our state has been doing just fine with Republicans in all the top jobs and a Republican House and Senate. We have budget surpluses year in and year out and we have one of the best managed state economies in the country.

Contrast that with almost every blue state economy in the country. Most of them are literally imploding a la California, Illinios, New York and Michigan. Dem policies are a prescription for destruction of the highest order. Where Republican policies get implemented as in Virginia, you see a very healthy economy with low unemployment, job growth, population growth and low crime.

My thought is the person who wrote your article is likely just the run of the mill pol hack with no real insight into much of anything.

And those blue states will demand a bail out, and demand to roll their state pension health care into Obama care, and we'll all be on the hook for their fiscal irresponsibility.

You all didn't mention the state of Ohio. Where the auto industry has made the economy come back to life. Where union busting by Kasich got shot down. Where manufacturing has bounced back. Where Kasich decided he was against Obama care before he came out and said he would be for Obama care. (at least to the point where he will expand Medicaid coverage).

Thank God for the Dems in the state of Ohio. Really about the only thing Rethugs have done in Ohio is make it legal to carry your gun in a bar. Wow. What a boon to the economy. What great plans and policies. Well that and some crazy person hood amendment. That didn't go anywhere. Oh, and gambling. And school vouchers.
And private prisons to Kasich's buddies.

Kasich will be gone next election.

 

[Missourian]

yeah your party screws us all you think its great

My State has a sterling AAA credit rating.

We have a Republican Controlled legislature and a Democrat as Governor...I think he won 71% of the vote in the same election where Obama lost the state with only 42% of the vote.

I voted for our Governor.

He understands how to work with the legislature and get things done.

We reduced spending, balanced our budget, while protecting education funding.


Governor Nixon, hero...President Obama, zero.

 

[bripat9643]

The Gilded Age, also known as the Era of the Robber Barons, returns.

Who would want that and why?

Of course, "the robber barons" are a myth. Who did they rob? During the so-called "robber baron age," the American economy grew at the fast rate it's ever grown. Our standard of living increased by leaps and bounds.

Almost everything liberals know is a lie.

It is no myth that Florida has a robber baron Governor, head of a corporation convicted of Medicare fraud of the largest scale and taking the 5th 75 times in a deposition concerning that company.

Rick Scott Took 5th Amendment 75 Times

Regards from Rosie

WHat does Rick Scott have to do with the "robber barons" of the 19th century?

 

[peach174]

The Red States are doing better than the Blue States.
Mississippi is doing better than N.Y. or Calif.

Red states' income growing faster than blue states' ? USATODAY.com