"It is stunning to realize that in today's Democratic Party, being a capitalist is something one must ... apologize for" The Democratic Party’s frightening embrace of socialism http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/syndicated-columnists/article210669809.html Speaking at an event in New York City last week, Hillary Clinton said something interesting about Democrats today and their lurch to the left. Clinton said being a capitalist “probably” hurt her when campaigning against democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Think about that. Part of the reason so many Republicans are frozen like deer in headlights when it comes to President Donald Trump is the horror of thinking about Clinton as president. It is stunning to realize that in today’s Democratic Party, being a capitalist is something one must either apologize for or at least give qualified acceptance. Talk about nostalgia for the 1950s. It seems that socialism is making a comeback. I think if Bill Clinton had been asked the same question Hillary was, he would have thought it was a softball and proceeded to give a valuable history lesson on the negative impact of socialism versus the global benefits of capitalism. Of course, Hillary Clinton’s instinct is to pander and hedge, but it is nevertheless revealing that she thought she had to keep from alienating the socialists. Democrats want to talk about Republicans living in the past, but the new progressives, as they like to call themselves, are in fact a lot like the old socialists. They want free college, free cash, free health care and so on. The latest progressive policy du jour to be gaining traction among Democratic Party presidential hopefuls is the so-called “job guarantee.” Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey announced one. Sanders has one in the works, and Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York supports the idea, too. Yet there are some signs of intellectual honesty on the left. Kevin Drum of Mother Jones thinks the jobs guarantee is a ludicrous idea: “Even our lefty comrades in social democratic Europe don’t guarantee jobs for everyone. It would cost a fortune; it would massively disrupt the private labor market; it would almost certainly tank productivity; and it’s unlikely in the extreme that the millions of workers in this program could ever be made fully competent at their jobs.” Well said. If Democrats go down this road, their only way forward will be to one-up each other. Clueless liberals such as Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes want to guarantee $500 per month for every American earning less than $50,000 a year. A guaranteed monthly stipend would become the floor. And every subsequent election would be a referendum on whether voters want to support the candidate promising a larger pay raise from Washington. Is that where we want our elections to go? Anyway, Clinton’s admission of the Democrats’ matter-of-fact acceptance of socialism couldn’t have been any timelier. Saturday marked the bicentennial of Karl Marx’s birth, and as Paul Kengor reminded us in his smart Wall Street Journal commentary last week, Marx’s communist philosophy “set the stage … for the greatest ideological massacres in history.” Marx’s rebuke of capitalism and individual property rights inspired the likes of Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Mao Zedong, the Kim family, the Castros and countless others to wage mass murder against millions of innocents. But never mind that, at least according to many of today’s millennial voters. According to the 2017 Report on U.S. Attitudes Toward Socialism by YouGov, more millennials would prefer to live in socialist countries than they would in capitalist countries. That fact reveals a powerful force shifting today’s Democratic Party. Barack “you didn’t build that” Obama and his contempt for private business are starting to seem quaint. It certainly means every Democrat running for president in 2020 will be asked if they favor socialism or capitalism. It will be interesting to see if they have the confidence to give a robust endorsement of free enterprise and an accurate critique of socialism versus capitalism. I’m not holding my breath. I hope at least a few Democrats will have the courage to teach millennials and others the history of socialism’s debilitating, murderous past and the historic advancement that has been produced by a free market. Remember, socialism is just a kinder, gentler version of communism. Democrats should think twice before they abandon capitalism.
I have no data on this, but I wouldn’t be surprised if at least half the US billionaires identified as left wing judging from a look at prominent Democratic Party donors.
I couldn't help but notice the source, Kansas City. How is Kansas these days under Republican economics? They must have a booming economy!
Actually since the Brownback tax cuts - the economy in Kansas is booming. The problem is that the politicians did not do their math and blew a deficit hole in their state budget as wide as the Mississippi. Kansas: An Unsung Hero For Economic Growth https://www.forbes.com/sites/rexsin...unsung-hero-for-economic-growth/#3794f1e658f4 During this news cycle, the Midwestern governor occupying the greatest media bandwidth is the one just selected for a spot on the GOP ticket. We can certainly expect to see Indiana Governor Mike Pence’s name all over the news for the next four months, but it’s also worth taking a look at how other Midwestern governors are making a real impact, and at the state level. Now in the third year of his bold tax experiment, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback can see the ways in which reducing (and, in many cases, eliminating) the state income tax is yielding incremental, positive effects for Kansans. Significantly, every year since the tax cuts were implemented, Kansas has surpassed the state record for new business formations. When we consider that startups have decreased nationwide since the Great Recession of 2008, this achievement is particularly remarkable. What’s more, the Kansas unemployment rate stands at 3.7% – the lowest the state has seen since 2001, and well below the national average of 5.5%. Why the incremental success in Kansas? We certainly can’t attribute these victories to the state’s core industries; due to economic turmoil felt nationwide, Kansas too has seen dips in farm incomes (owing to consistently low crop prices and steep declines in cattle prices), a fall in commodity prices and exports, sluggish movement in oil and natural-gas markets, and declining manufacturing. Without these four industries buoying Kansas’ economy, we must look to other factors: namely, the income tax cut that continues to make a real difference, particularly for small businesses and working families. Governor Brownback put his faith in the private sector to grow the Kansas economy, rather than the government. By eliminating the income tax for small business, the Brownback administration effectively put money back in families’ pockets and provided promising new businesses with an environment primed for growth. Following the major tax reform in 2013, individual income taxes for individuals, families and small business went down by 30% on average. Seventy-one percent of the savings went to individuals and families, who could then save or spend as they chose. Twenty-nine percent of the savings went to small businesses, allowing them to make larger investments in equipment, space and staff. Prior to tax reform, Kansas possessed the second-highest individual income tax in the region; today, it is the region’s second-lowest, bested only by Colorado. This is meaningful not just for small businesses and middle- to upper-class families, but also for Kansans of fewer means. Kansas now offers the highest Earned Income Tax Credit in the region. Plus, the Brownback administration increased the standard deduction for “head of household” filings in order to help single-parent households. Importantly, 388,000 of the lowest-income Kansans have been removed from the tax rolls, leaving them with zero tax liability. Equally important from a regional perspective is that fact that Kansas is gaining ground over neighboring Missouri when it comes to gains in net adjusted gross income. In 2013, the same year that the Brownback tax cuts took effect, Kansas experienced a positive reversal in migration of wealth between the two bordering states. Kansas enjoys a nearly $85 million advantage in income gains from Missouri. This is a major reversal. Consider the data between 1995 and 2009, which shows more than $263 million leaving Kansas for Missouri. A longitudinal examination of this trend will bear out whether the flow of money correlates with the institution of Brownback’s tax policy, but the current evidence is certainly compelling. While other state economies struggle under the weight of current economic uncertainties, the incremental successes in Kansas make a solid case for pro-growth reform through income tax cuts.
You might want to keep googling Kansas or look at the Kansas thread on this site, it's not a success story. Hell if you went one year further into Forbes, The Great Kansas Tax Cut Experiment Crashes And Burns .
I started an earlier thread on the failure in Kansas. The tax cut did not hurt the economy in Kansas; in fact it boomed over the past few years. The problem is that the politicians cut too deep and have no money to fund state operations. Their projections on revenue increases due to economic growth from their tax cuts were absurdly optimistic (even though the state economy did grow). The reality is that tax cuts may have created short term economic growth but Kansas blew its entire long term economic future due to their inability to fund schools, infrastructure and other critical needs.