In an earlier post we accused the Democrats of "build it and they will come" thinking, except I just thought of a classic Republican policy -- "trickle-down economics" aka Reganomics. It is often stated in the aphorism "a rising tide lifts all boats" is commonly attributed to Democrat John F Kennedy who used it in a 1963 speech. The phrase has been used to defend tax cuts and other policies where the initial beneficiaries are high income earners.
A more recent attempt at this kind of thinking was attempted in 2012 by Republican Governor Sam Brownback who urged the Kansas legislature to slash income taxes without an exact plan to make up the missing revenue. This "trust me" policy led to a $400 Million budget deficit. In response Kansas had to approve in 2015 the largest tax increase in its history.
However, never fear "the rising tide" dupe has not been totally defeated. According to the non-partisan Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy the poorest 20% of Kansans will not pay 1.5% more in taxes than in 2012, while the wealthiest 1% will pay 1.9 percent less.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/the-buzz/article24742423.html
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