COVID-19 & Healthcare

(Update) Kansas is a cautionary tale for Arizona

by

I have done a series of posts on the topic that Kansas is a cautionary tale for the state of Arizona.

Doug Ducey, the man hired by Koch Industries to manage their Southwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Arizona (h/t Charles Piece), has dictated that there “shall be no new taxes” on his watch.

This is the same tax philosophy shared by Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas, who dramatically cut taxes in Kansas as part of his “Kansas Experiment” in faith based supply-side “trickle down” GOP economics.

The “Kansas Experiment” has been an unmitigated economic disaster for his state.

The reliably Republican Washington Post editorializes today, Kansas reaps the whirlwind of its right-wing experiment:

DorothyKansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) proposed raising taxes over the weekend. You read that correctly.

That is the same Sam Brownback who, along with state GOP lawmakers, embarked on a bold conservative experiment in tax-cutting three years ago. The experiment failed, and Kansas is now in big, if predictable, trouble. Instead of spurring a treasury-filling economic boom, the deep tax breaks pushed the state’s budget far out of balance: Even after Republicans hacked away at education and highways and fiddled with payments for its pension program, the state still faces a $400 million gap.

With the legislature deadlocked and state workers facing mandatory furloughs if lawmakers don’t have a budget by Sunday, Mr. Brownback bowed to reality and proposed raising more tax revenue.

But he bowed only so far. He didn’t roll back his steep cuts to income and business taxes, instead proposing an increase in the sales tax from 6.15 percent to 6.65 percent.

Read more

The Save Our Students initiative is a weak half measure that will not achieve its goal

by

Doug Ducey, the man hired by Koch Industries to manage their Southwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Arizona (h/t Charles Piece), has dictated that there “shall be no new taxes” on his watch.

DuceyClassroomsIl Duce has vowed to oppose any citizen initiated ballot measure that seeks to impose new taxes for education (ironic photo) during his term, and he will rely on “dark money” from his “Kochtopus” henchmen to do it.

An organization calling itself Save Our Students has filed paperwork with the Secretary of State for a citizens initiative to cap university tuition in Arizona to the cost of living increase from the previous year and to mandate the rate be guaranteed for four consecutive years. The measure also proposes to increase corporate taxes if the Legislature appropriates less to universities than it did in fiscal-year 2015 (why they would choose the nadir of university funding is a mystery to me). Click here for full text of initiative:  PDF.

The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports, Proposal to cap tuition gets frosty reception:

The Legislature and Gov. Doug Ducey cut $99 million from the state’s three universities in fiscal-year 2016, leading to the regents’ decision to increase tuition and fees for the next school year. The spending reduction cut state aid to about $650 million, compared with nearly $1.1 billion eight years ago.

Most students attending Arizona public universities will see tuition and fee increases between 3 and 4 percent next fall.

Ducey’s spokesman, Daniel Scarpinato, said the governor has made it clear he does not support raising taxes. Ducey last month warned business groups in a private meeting against pursuing a ballot measure without his approval or he would fight it with dark money.

Katie Paquet, a regents’ spokeswoman, said they can’t take a position for or against the measure.  But she said it probably won’t keep tuition affordable or hold the Legislature’s feet to the fire, and it could have negative consequences.

Read more

GOP abortion bans struck down by Appellate Courts

by

On Wednesday, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the state of Arkansas’ 12-week abortion ban, the most restrictive in the nation. US appeals court rejects Arkansas’ 12-week abortion ban based on fetal heartbeat:

TalibanA federal appeals court struck down one of the nation’s toughest abortion restrictions on Wednesday, ruling that women would be unconstitutionally burdened by an Arkansas law that bans abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy if a doctor can detect a fetal heartbeat.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with doctors who challenged the law, ruling that abortion restrictions must be based on a fetus’ ability to live outside the womb, not the presence of a fetal heartbeat that can be detected weeks earlier. The court said that standard was established by previous U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

The ruling upholds a decision of a federal judge in Arkansas who struck down the 2013 law before it could take effect, shortly after legislators approved the change. But the federal judge left in place other parts of the law that required doctors to tell women if a fetal heartbeat was present; the appeals court also kept those elements in place.

Read more

The right is contemptuous of American democracy

by

SupremeCourtI posted yesterday about the U.S. Supreme Court agreeing to hear the appeal  of Evenwel v. Abbott which will be heard and decided next Term. The Court will define the meaning of “one-person, one-vote,” based upon a radical theory put forward by the right-wing Project on Fair Representation.

Ed Kilgore at the Political Animal blog and Paul Waldman at the Washington Post’s Plum Line noticed the similarities between the radical theory of the Project for Fair Representation and the radical theory of the Libertarian lawyers pursuing the King v. Burwell case.

I also noticed these similarities. In fact, it is part of a conservative legal strategy to use the courts to undo much of the progress of the 20th Century. This strategy has been pursued for a number of years, but was recently crystalized in the latest book from Charles Murray, “By the People: Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission,” that has the right-wing all in a lather. (More on this below).

Ed Kilgore writes, Here’s How Republicans Could Repel Latinos Even More!

We talked briefly yesterday about SCOTUS accepting a challenge to the traditional understanding of “one person one vote” in a case from Texas. This is turning out to be even a bigger deal than I initially expected, particularly among Latino groups who see it as a direct threat to their political representation in both Washington and in state capitals.

Read more