So cutting spending (aka other people's income) during a recession makes things worse. Who woulda thunk it!?
Republicans Hint At Another Government Shutdown Over Obamacare. Seriously. WASHINGTON -- Less than a year after House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) called the 2013 government shutdown over funding for Obamacare a “predictable disaster,” Republicans are hinting they might be willing to do it again in a few months. A group of 14 Republicans, led by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) wrote to Boehner on Wednesday identifying a provision of the Affordable Care Act that a Government Accountability Office report concluded would require an additional appropriation from Congress in the next fiscal year. According to ThinkProgress, the provision allows the federal government to reimburse insurance companies that underestimate claims they will have to pay with profits from insurance companies that overestimated. In their letter to Boehner, the Republicans wrote that the program “puts taxpayers at risk of a large bailout if insurers systematically lose money on exchange plans.” The Republicans, including Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and John McCain of Arizona, urge Boehner to end the program when Congress votes to fund the government during the lame-duck session after the November elections. The letter notes that the current continuing budget resolution expires Dec. 11. "Congress will undoubtedly have its feet held to the fire by the American people to pass another stop-gap appropriations bill avoiding a government shutdown,” the Republicans write. “The American people expect us, as Members of Congress, to fulfill our Oath of Office and defend the Constitution. Therefore, we must act to protect Congress’ power of the purse and prohibit the Obama administration from dispersing unlawful risk corridor payments providing for an Obamacare taxpayer bailout.” A Boehner spokesman declined to comment to Roll Call when asked if he could rule out a shutdown over the issue.
Kansas Faces Additional Revenue Shortfalls After Tax Cuts http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/23/u...falls-after-tax-cuts.html?_r=2&abt=0002&abg=1 Kansas has missed its tax revenue targets again, and the state is in for new fiscal pain as a result. You may recall that Kansas gained national attention back in June because it had cut income taxes and lost a lot more revenue than lawmakers had anticipated. For fiscal year 2014, which ended on June 30, the state collected $330 million less in taxes than it had forecast, and $700 million less than it had collected in the prior year. Those are big numbers in a state that spends about $6 billion annually from its general fund, and the revenue weakness led both Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s to cut Kansas’ credit rating this year. The revenue shortfall has become the central issue in the tight race between Governor Sam Brownback, a Republican, and his Democratic challenger, Paul Davis. (More at above url)
There's typically a delay in the Laissez Fairey's arrival. Just give it more time (and cut all government spending) and Kansas will be BOOMING!
It turns out that of the $338 million "shortfall", almost a third $103 million, was due to a mistaken statistical revision on growth that had nothing to due with the economics of the tax cut. Then, another $147 million of the "shortfall" was due to Kansas taxpayers shifting cap gains taxes to the previous year due to Obama upping cap gains rates. This was according to data from the Congressional Budget Office. And several other states have experienced the same shortfall and said it was for this same reason. States that enacted no tax cuts. The Kansas side of Kansas City has outperformed the Missouri side of Kansas City since the tax cuts were enacted. The job losses in Kansas were gov't jobs, which I for one would fully support. The private sector job growth has been second in the region only to Oklahoma which has been undergoing an energy boom. Just what one should expect from tax cuts. The Kansas Tax Cuts Are Not to Blame for Revenue Woes ... Democrats Wrongly Blame Kansas Gov. Brownback's Tax ... Are Tax Cuts Working in Kansas? - Reason.com The bureaucracy is completely out of control at every level of gov't and it needs to be starved to death. There is so much money put into gov't hands that is wasted and abused to the detriment of the taxpayer that I would support any politician that would actually cut taxes and not just talk about it.
Officials: Kansas Faces $279M Budget Gap By July TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas will face a $279 million budget shortfall by July, far worse than state officials had thought before a new revenue forecast Monday that will force Gov. Sam Brownback and legislators to consider spending cuts. The state will also be required to close an even bigger additional gap — $436 million — during the following 12 months, according to the new forecast. Aides to the Republican governor, who narrowly won re-election last week, said his administration will work in the next weeks to find savings while trying to protect funding for schools and core programs. But a Democratic leader called the new projections "devastating." The new forecast revised previous revenue projections made in April for the current budget year, which began in July, dropping the prediction for total general revenues by $206 million, to less than $5.8 billion. The state also faces previously unanticipated costs for social services, public schools, and public employee pensions, driving up the figure for its spending commitments past $6.4 billion. After eating through $380 million in cash reserves, the state still would have to close a 4.3 percent budget gap by July. An unofficial projection previously put the shortfall at $14 million. The new forecast followed short-of-the-mark tax collections in the spring, summer and fall.
They obviously didn't believe the democrats would be a better choice. When you're choices are between "dumb" and "dumber", you stick with "dumb".
So high income taxes are the answer? Read this and weap big tax and spenders. google search this am. Illinois Budget Deficit Worst In The Nation: State Is Reportedly $43.8 Billion In The Red. A report released Thursday by the state's Auditor General claimed that Illinois' ever-bulging budget deficit is "easily" the nation's worst. Illinois Budget Deficit Worst In The Nation: State Is ... www.huffingtonpost.com/.../illinois-budget-deficit-w_... The Huffington Post edit: Their deficit has grown to an estimated 45 billion for fiscal '14