Let's take a look at reality. The Republican moderates supported the tea party conservatives in recent elections. Several states including Kansas and North Carolina have effectively served as experimental proving grounds for the conservative agenda. Let's take a look at the results. First the conservatives stated that cutting taxes would increase overall tax revenue because business would improve thereby generating more taxes. As expected, this proved to be totally false. In both Kansas and North Carolina overall tax revenues dropped sharply, leading to huge budget shortfalls requiring drastic cuts to critical services. On top of this, the conservative agenda cut taxes for the top 10% while raising overall taxes for the bottom 90% in these states. Where is the business improvement should be the next question. In both North Carolina and Kansas business growth ground to a halt state-wide. This led to the Chamber of Commerce in both states opposing the conservative Republicans, and well as most of the large business owners (and in-state donors). There are examples of the conservatives chasing entire industries away from the state, for example the film industry in Wilmington NC turned into a ghost town over a 6 month period after the conservatives targeted getting rid of it. The economic loss to North Carolina is over $1 Billion. In NC, the conservatives rolled back environmental regulations, allowed Duke Energy to dump coal ash in rivers with no financial punishment, and instituted the weakest fracking regulations in the nation. Add to this what infuriated the parents in our state the most, the cuts in education funding which now have 39 kids in classrooms instead of 24 - all while maintaining the teachers in our state near the bottom in pay nationwide. When the people protesting outside your conservative legislature sessions are not the NAACP but the College Republicans - then you have problem with your agenda. The conservative legislature spend their entire sessions presenting bills directly written by ALEC and passing them. No thinking was done about the needs of our state, nor was any type of realistic economic planning performed. As expected the results are a fiasco that will set the Republican party back for decades in our state once these clowns are removed from office. Moderate pro-business Republicans expect government to be run efficiently without waste. However they understand the need for reasonable taxes so the state & local government can provide basic services such as public education, roads, parks, police services, and business regulation. A conservative agenda focused on "starve the beast" that cuts services to the point where the public sector is not longer effectively operating is not in the best interest of the citizens of our state. Keep in mind that it was the Republican party that was the original champion of improving infrastructure and providing public education in the U.S. - these "conservatives" do not represent traditional Republican values.
To be fair, there is a well-known delay (variable in length!) between bringing reform into force, and the beneficent work of the Laissez Fairey. ; )
I'm not at all surprised that the likes of rectum and spiked hair support this nonsensical, idiotic narrative. You have great company! Moderate republicans aren't called rinos for nothing. They are scared spitless to do anything that the the nytimes or the washpost might make fun of them over. Don't make waves! Let the democrats have whatever they want! Just make sure that you give big business a few handouts from gov't while you're at it! Let's take a look at this truly moronic view of yours that cutting taxes is terrible for a state. We have five states with NO INCOME TAXES and a historical record with which to view their economic growth, their job creation and their demographic patterns. For decades! Oh! They've led the nation! People and business actually move there! For decades! On top of this, we've got economic freedom studies which show unequivocally that countries with low taxes and low regulation lead in growth and prosperity for decades! But instead of that, you want to look at what happens to one state after one year after a tax cut. DUMB! Did you ever consider that it takes longer for a business or a person for that matter longer than a year to decide to pack up and move to a state for it's low taxes. Maybe they want to make sure that there aren't a bunch of tax happy loons (know who i'm talking about?) in the state who won't ratchet taxes back up the next year after they get there. So they move to Florida or Texas instead because they have a history of keeping taxes low. Wake up and smell the coffee. I left the republican party because of people like you.
Great post, but I doubt he is republican. I really could care less what moderate republicans want. They have been part of the problem for decades. They have this habit of expecting support from us but then backstabbing conservatives. They need to either get with the program or take a hike. They complain and whine about conservative republicans, but never complain about how extreme democrats are. Conservatives scored a great victory in NC, similar to the one they scored in Wisconsin. And just as could be predicted, they're getting the same scorched earth opposition from those who benefitted from decades of crony capitalism and log rolling.
First, I have been a registered Republican since the age of 18. Second, there is no crony capitalism more absurd than the recent crop of conservatives in NC - just take a look at the private commerce partnership they set-up which serves solely to fund tax payers money to businesses owned by conservatives as incentives. Never have so few stolen so much in so little time from the tax payers. Keep in mind that the primary reason the Republicans were voted into office in North Carolina is because the public could no longer stomach the corrupt Democrats who stolen everything that was not nailed down in our state (for over 100 years they were in power until 2010). It is unfortunate when the huge majority of our state population is starting to view the democratic tenure as the good, old days.
Yeah, I bet it really chaps you,a moderate republican and chamber of Commerce supporter. Say, I saw that the NC Chamber endorsed Thom Tillis, the Speaker of the NC House, over your candidate Sen. Kay Hagans Dem. Hagans is best known for staging a sprited battle with Sen. Patty Murrayy of Washington for the title of dumbest person in the Senate. So I guess the Chamber must not be too upset with the way republicans are running things.
Sounds like several years ago when people were arguing about who was the better American. Now it's who's the better Republican (or TeaPartier or Libertarian or Christian or whatever). Fun to watch.
Well first... don't let the door hit you on your way out of the party. Let's look into your assertion about states with no income taxes. The following states have no income taxes: 1) Alaska (no sales tax either - tax revenue primarily from natural resource royalties). 2) Florida (makes up for it with high property and sales taxes) 3) Nevada (depends on tax revenue from gambling operations) 4) South Dakota (to make up for it they tax everything else including coin operated Laundromat fees) 5) Texas (depends on high state & local sales taxes plus property taxes to pay the bills). 6) Washington 7) Wyoming 8) New Hampshire (high property taxes, income tax on dividends and interest) 9) Tennessee (income tax on dividends and interest) Only three of the above states (Texas, Washington, Tennessee) have been in the top 10 in economic growth at any time during the past three decades. Four states - Wyoming, Alaska, New Hampshire and South Dakota are regularly in the bottom 10 states in economic growth. I will note that "high tax" California is always in the list of top 7 states for economic growth. States with no income taxes http://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/states-with-no-income-tax-1.aspx List of U.S. States by Economic Growth Rate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_economic_growth_rate There is a proper balance between taxes, regulation, and economic growth. There is also a social and future cost for lax regulation, China has low regulation with high economic growth but they are turning large parts of the country into a toxic wasteland. As the results above show, there is no correlation between not having a state income tax and the economic growth rate of a state. The bottom line is that a state will always get it's tax revenue, if they don't take it from income tax then they are simply going to get it from sales tax, property tax, natural resource royalty tax, or gambling tax.