Apostasy in the provinces
by Tom Sullivan
Kansas State Capitol, Topeka. Photo via National Park Service.
Cutting “wasteful spending” (waste, fraud and abuse, to be more precise) has long been the perpetual motion machine of American conservatism. If only it could only be harnessed, it could power virtually the entire government, a political version of “zero-point energy.” The latter is pseudo-science. The former we might call pseudo-economics — along with trickle-down theory. It seems a few Republican leaders out in the provinces belatedly have arrived at that conclusion. Or at least, they have begun to question their faith. The same cannot be said for their colleagues inside the Village.
The New York Times reports:
Conservative lawmakers in Kansas, South Carolina and Tennessee have agreed to significant tax increases in recent weeks to meet demands for more revenue. They are challenging what has become an almost dogmatic belief for their party, and sharply diverging from President Trump as he pushes for what his administration has billed as the largest tax cut in at least a generation.
It seems you can’t pay for something with nothing. States with constitutional obligations to provide for public education are finding starving it both unpopular and illegal. Waste, fraud and abuse don’t fill potholes or build new roads.
The debate promises to test the enduring relevance of one of the most fundamental principles of modern conservatism — supply side economics, the idea that if you cut taxes far enough, the economy will expand to the point that it generates new tax revenue.
With the federal deficit growing and economic growth sputtering along in the low single digits, the Republican Party is facing questions from within over what many see as a blind faith in the theory that deep tax cuts are the shot of economic adrenaline a languid economy needs.
Leeching and bloodletting worked on the same principle. Recognizing that after years of crushing budget deficits, last month the Kansas legislature overrode Governor Sam Brownback’s veto and raised taxes by $1.2 billion. Brownback’s experiment in trickle-down economics has trickled out.
Stephanie Clayton, a Republican legislator from the Kansas City area, had advice for colleagues in Washington eager to cut federal taxes even more: Don’t do it. Clayton wasn’t through:
She criticized what she said was a desire by her party to be more faithful to the principle than to the people Republicans were elected to help. Mr. Brownback and many conservatives, she said, overpromised on the tax cuts as a “sort-of Ayn Rand utopia, a red-state model,” citing the author whose works have influenced the American libertarian movement.
“And I loved Ayn Rand when I was 18 — before I had children and figured out how the world really works,” Ms. Clayton added. “That’s not how it works, as it turns out.”
A lot of people read Ayn Rand in high school. Most of them grow up.
The current Speaker of the House is not one of them. Rep. Paul Ryan would do well to listen to Clayton’s advice when he’s not at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue holding the hand of another elected official who never grew up.