Kan. GOP right sees less spending, more tax cuts

[JRLeft]

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Conservative Republicans anticipated Wednesday that they'll trim Kansas' budget and even consider additional tax cuts after cementing large majorities in the Legislature that should give GOP Gov. Sam Brownback broad freedom to move the state further to the right.

Republicans were poised to maintain their majorities of 32-8 in the Senate and 92-33 in the House, but the more important dynamic was within the GOP. The Senate had been controlled by GOP moderates, who worked with Democrats to stall some of Brownback's initiatives, but conservatives scored big victories in the August primary — then followed up on them by winning in Tuesday's election.

Conservatives are now on track to hold a supermajority of 27 in the 40-member Senate. They also could have as many as 75 seats in the 125-member House, short of the two-thirds majority of 84 needed to approve possible changes in the state constitution but more than enough to pass a wide range of proposed laws on taxes, abortion and other issues.

Massive income tax cuts enacted this year have left the state facing a self-inflicted budget shortfall, and Brownback will need the newly constituted Legislature's approval for spending cuts or measures to bring in more revenue — with an emphasis on belt-tightening far more likely. With a new financial forecast Tuesday, legislative researchers immediately projected a $328 million gap between anticipated revenues and current spending commitments by July 2014.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Kan-GOP-right-sees-less-spending-more-tax-cuts-4017812.php#ixzz2BevpabR8

I feel sorry for Kansas dems. Keep your heads up and keep fighting.

[sadbear]

1. I feel for Kansas Democrats.

And I live in Texas.

[JRLeft]

2. Well Texas has a much brighter future, Kansas can have one but it will take a lot of work.

[sadbear]

3. Yes, we are on our way up.

I assume Kansas is quite a bit less culturally diverse than Texas.

[patrice]

4. There MUST be more cuts, because studies are saying they have to come up with 37-40% INCREASE in

revenue from elsewhere, read that from the middle class, in order to make up for the zeroed-out taxes on corporate owner income that they enacted last session.

Door-knocking around a couple of districts revealed to me that this situation is a REAL eye-popper for lots of voters and some are even asking why a good thing, like seeding entrepreneurship at the low end of the corporate ownership spectrum is SADDLED with un-necessary tax-breaks for the Koch bros et al.

I don't go into it with people at their doors, but my answer to that question is that it isn't a "saddle", it's the chains of slavery and those low level entrepreneurs better mind their religious-political and social justice 'p's and 'q's, not to even mention the ALEC-approved acceptability of their business plans, OR ELSE.

I live in a slave-state and I fear I'm blackballed and will never work here again.

[JRLeft]

6. I am sorry to hear that.

[patrice]

8. I have chosen my path. That doesn't mean I can't tell others the stories of Kansas. nt

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

5. Should be interesting to see how this turns out.

I more like 'results' more than 'prognastication'.

[geek tragedy]

7. Thankfully, What's the Matter with Kansas is irrelevant to the rest of us. nt

[patrice]

9. You didn't see all of those red states on these maps this week? Same thing, more or less. nt

[JRLeft]

10. Some states are moving in our direction.

[patrice]

13. If you don't see how deeply things are up for grabs, you underestimate what we're up

against. They're NOT going away and they will NOT change.

"moving"? Who/What/Why/When/Where/How? just to name a few crucial issues here.

Diligence and honesty are needed.

[geek tragedy]

18. Not all red states are equal. Some like Arizona and Texas have some potential

to go blue in the future. Even Montana or Georgia.

Others, like Kansas, Oklahoma, Idaho, Wyoming, Alabama--will never be anything but deep, deep red in our lifetimes.

[patrice]

11. Allow me to congratulate you on your sense of community ...

I bet you're a real sweetie to live and work around.

[JRLeft]

12. I believe with some work especially on the younger generations in places like Kansas we can make

inroads in states like Kansas and Nebraska.

[patrice]

14. Education is a GOOD way to go. Young people are naturally free and curious. That is NOT permitted

here.

Thanks, I think you are correct about that.

I still have hope; I'm really nowhere near giving up.

Just letting off steam here.

We should follow this situation CLOSELY.

[JRLeft]

15. I feel horrible for you because I know Clownback is just awful.

I believe I read an article about him golfing with lobbyist and fundraising with them. I know he wants to run for President in 2016.

[patrice]

16. The guy has never made it on his own anywhere in his entire life. His career is built on SUBSIDIES.

He's so insular and isolated, he has NO idea how empty he is compared to an actual LIVING breathing for real person.

"Jesus plus nothing" for everyone but him and his war mongering Evangelical End-Timing, kill 'em all, except the fetuses, and let "God" sort 'em out friends.

I REALLY try to be reasonable, but we've been sold down the river here and some, well intentioned, Democrats helped out over the years, by not standing up and taking the hit to start, to begin the long arduous work of taking back the party's heart.

But then, I remember our Kathleen Sebelius and I do feel much better.

Brownback: I honestly do consider SOME people, no matter how nice they look and act, to be the exact opposite of Love, which isn't hate, btw, because you have to care in order to hate someone. This is more like absolute NOTHING. Like anti-matter, only it's anti-Love. Pardon me, but their blasphemous Civil War II talking, self-righteous bullshit IS The End and there are some of them, like Rev. Phelps, and Lou Engle and those who are a curse on us.

Where's a nonviolent John Brown, when you need one?

:end of rant:

[geek tragedy]

17. The point is that we can afford to stop pandering to rural white voters

with our new coalition.

That means more progressive policy on a national basis.

[FDRLincoln]

19. I'm in Kansas too

It's lonely here in Douglas County....one patch of deep blue in a very, very red state.

I love Lawrence. It has been my home for 22 years and is a great place to raise children. The rest of the state is very different...much more insular, much more conservative.

I'd think about leaving, but I have a disabled child and uprooting him is just not going to happen. Fortunately there are good community supports for him in Lawrence that the rest of the state doesn't have.

The cuts being planned by Brownback are brutal and I think they will backfire on the GOP once they take effect. But lots of people will suffer in the meantime.

[patrice]

20. I love Lawrence too, "the Seattle of the Midwest" & my graduate school. Yes, Douglas county &

Wyandotte county, the only blue places in a sea of red. I think Dems could have gotten more state seats in Wyandotte county that we did. In fact, I'm pretty sure of it.

Moderates don't make good, functional, deals with the "center" is a false center that is skewed/biased to the right, really, at this point, much more like the "center" in this state is NOT even center-right, but to the right of center-right. Deal-making in this situation is NOT moderate, it's extreme right-wing, because any move toward the authentic center, let alone to the left, is threatened with factors and players that are even more to the right of what's already going on.