Brownback is the worst thing that’s happened to Kansas in a long time - he brings a dangerous blend of wild West libertarianism combined with a religious zealotry that excludes and denies Kansans. His policies hurt my neighbors: through refusal of Federal funds for his anti-Obamacare theater or his cutting of taxes beyond the bone for his deficit grandstanding, he’s hurting ordinary Kansas citizens day in and day out.

In 2012, Kansas governor Sam Brownback signed a massive tax cut into law, arguing that it would boost the state’s economy. Eventually, he hoped to eliminate individual income taxes entirely. “Our place, Kansas, will show the path, the difficult path, for America to go in these troubled times,” he said.

“WE’VE GOT RED INK UNTIL THE COWS COME HOME”

National conservative activists raved. Patrick Gleason of Americans for Tax Reform said Kansas was “the story of the next decade.” The Cato Institute praised Brownback’s “impressive” tax cuts and gave him an “A” on fiscal policy. And the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol said that, if reelected, Brownback would be “a formidable presidential possibility.”

Yet though Brownback is running for reelection this fall in a deep red state, he’s trailed his Democratic challenger in 3 of the 4 most recent polls — and his marquee tax cut appears to be the main reason. Kansas is now hundreds of millions of dollars short in revenue collection, its job growth has lagged the rest of the nation, and Moody’s has cut the state’s bond rating. “Governor Brownback came in here with an agenda to reduce the size of government, reduce taxes, and create a great economic boom,” says University of Kansas professor Burdett Loomis. “Now there’s been a dramatic decline in revenues, no great increase in economic activity, and we’ve got red ink until the cows come home.”

More: Kansas Was Supposed to Be the GOP’s Tax-Cut Paradise. Now It Can Barely Pay Its Bills. - Vox

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