What can we learn from Kansas?

Michael Madowitz writes about the failure of trickle-down economics—and the consequences for the middle class.

Three years ago, Kansas’ conservative government — led by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback — made a bet: cut taxes on the wealthy, and the economy will grow enough to make up for the lost revenue. Spoiler alert: it hasn’t worked out — as I write this, the Legislature is frantically trying to close a $350 million budget hole — but the policy has failed in an informative direction.

There are two clear takeaways: first, supply-side economics didn’t even work with the deck stacked in its favor, and second, we’re seeing what happens when supply-side tax cuts on the rich fail to produce badly needed revenue. The end result is that the wealthy get to keep their tax cuts and everyone else gets to close the gap.

The above excerpt was originally published in MarketWatch. Click here to view the full article.

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