Yeah, this is a process story once again involving the President and Air Force One. Since we cover politics and government in the area and President Obama has a big event in Lawrence, Kansas tomorrow we’ve been going through the process to be able to cover the various components of his trip. The President arrived this evening in Topeka on Air Force One. And since the President may or may not choose to speak to the media upon arrival we took a chance and decided to show up to cover it.

There was a lot of hurry up and wait. And more waiting. We waited in a hanger-like building. Then, in a hallway. Towards the end of our wait Kansas Governor Sam Brownback (r) walked by, stopping to shake hands and say hello as he worked his way past the line of waiting media.

Shortly before the arrival of Air Force One we were escorted out on the tarmac. It was cold. Really cold. It was dark. Really dark.

Air Force One landed and taxied about 150 feet from the media riser (an old flatbed trailer). We tried to take photographs in the cold and darkness.

The President was greeted at the base of the stairs by Governor Brownback (r). They spoke briefly. Then the President entered the presidential limousine and the motorcade drove off.

President Obama arriving in Topeka – January 21, 2015.

At the foot of the stairs – Governor Sam Brownback (left) and President Obama (right) – January 21, 2015.

Governor Sam Brownback (r) speaking with the media on the tarmac – January 21, 2015.

After the President’s motorcade left Governor Brownback and a small group of individuals started walking back to the hanger-like building. Someone in the media area started yelling questions. Governor Brownback hesitated briefly and then turned to walk back toward the media area. The media as a whole descended on the spot from the riser and surrounding area. The noise of generators from the lights and media satellite trucks and the impenetrable media scrum made it impossible for us to hear the questions and answers which ensued. Evidently we’re not pushy enough. We did get some photos.

Previously: President Obama flew to St. Louis on Air Force One and then threw the first pitch… (July 15, 2009)

Ed Kilgore of The Washington Monthly draws attention today to an article in Salon on the dire straits Sam Brownback’s no-tax strategy has created in Kansas. Things are really, really bad:

Here’s what Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s supply side economic experiment has wrought: The Republican’s massive tax cuts for the wealthy and businesses will cost the state a projected $5 billion in revenue over seven years; by this summer, legislators must address a $278 million revenue shortfall, which Brownback is looking to fill in part by slashing vital infrastructure spending and reducing contributions to the state’s already underfunded pension plan. Meanwhile, the tax cuts haven’t delivered the economic “shot of adrenaline” Brownback promised. Kansas’ GDP growth lags behind that of other states in the region, its rate of job growth is slower than that of the nation as a whole, and the state’s per-capita income ranking hasn’t changed since the tax cuts were enacted in 2012. Kansas is ascending the national rankings on one measure, however: Last year, it ranked seventh in the nation among states residents left.

Now comes the really astounding news. We know that despite the early signs warning of Kansas’ pending economic decline – make that plunge,  the Missouri legislature took steps last year to take us in the same direction by overriding the Governojr’s veto of a disastrous tax-cut bill. And guess what? That tax cut hasn’t even kicked in yet and we’re already seeing that the state isn’t taking in enough revenue to keep the store open:

— The The Missouri Department of Transportation has indicated that they will only be able to handle routine maintenance for a fraction of the state’s roads and highways.

— On the heels of the President’s promotion of free community college, we learn that the state’s A+ program, which aimed to lessen the expense of two-year education for Missouri students, will probably have to be scaled back because it is so severely underfunded.

— Last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service reported that Missouri refused food aid to more needy people than any other state in the nation. This failure to meet basic social safety net needs was a direct result of an “overhaul” of the Department of Social Services meant to cut costs and, of course, “increase efficiency.” Unfortunately, in common with so many moves to increase efficiency by reducing resources, the result is poor or non-existent service.

— The same problems that affect food stamp distribution characterize the administration of Missouri Medicaid.

There’s lots more if you’re looking for evidence of decline. What you wanna bet tax cuts won’t fix those problems here anymore than they did in Kansas? I could write all day about the problems that Missourians face thanks to the prevalent Republican ideology that views paying for our collective needs via taxation as the original scourge of Satan.

The worst part of this situation is that although this cut-taxes or, alternatively, institute-a-regressive-sales-tax policy-making is failing in all those states trying it, the GOP everywhere continues to tirelessly push forward with more of the same. Reports are that Brownback plans to double down and totally beggar Kansas. Here in Missouri, State Senator Eric Schmidt has filed a bill to make last year’s tax cut even more draconian:

Mr. Schmitt’s Senate Bill 4, pre-filed in early December, would increase the size of the $621 million tax cut, perhaps to $1 billion or more. The top personal income rate would be reduced from 6 percent to 5 percent, instead of the 5.5 percent enacted by last year’s tax-cut bill. The tax rate for corporate “pass-through” income treated as personal income – by sole proprietors, partnerships, limited liability corporations and subchapter S corporations – would be cut to 50 percent. Last year’s bill cut it to 75 percent.

There are other signs that our intrepid Republican legislators haven’t got a clue. Faced with a big, soon to be visible problem with the state’s transportation infrastructure, there doesn’t seem to be any will to abandon the GOP’s collective no-tax delusion. There’s the inevitable talk about robbing poverty stricken Peter to pay pauper Paul, that is, securing transportation funds, for instance, by cutting the resources of other bare-bones agencies and programs. To no one’s surprise, there seem to be murmurings that we’ll have to revisit that sales tax that was defeated last year. The hope seems to be that folks will have learned their lesson and will finally just suck it up as long as the GOP stands firm against fair, progressive taxes. As Luke Brinker notes in the Salon article:

A study released this week underscores one of the most pernicious effects of such a tax regime: It exacerbates inequality. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that “[v]irtually every state’s tax system is fundamentally unfair,” with state and local taxes eating disproportionately into lower-income workers’ wages. But the effect was far worse in states with low or no income tax. In the Institute’s “Terrible 10″ states, the bottom quintile of wage earners pay up to seven times as much of their income in taxes as the top one percent does. The worst offender was Washington state, which has no individual income tax. The remaining states on the list were Florida, Texas, South Dakota, and Tennessee, which all lack individual income taxes; Illinois and Indiana, which tax individual incomes at a flat rate; and Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Kansas.

I’ve got a bad feeling that we’ll be able to add Missouri to that list sometime in the near future. But hey! We may be on the fast path to Poverty Flats, but we can take solace in the fact that we’ll be living the Republican, low-tax dream on the way.

When it comes to Medicaid, Missouri’s GOP is animated by two forces: spite and the sort of rigid ideological simplicity that we commonly label stupidity. What this means for Missourians is that many are going to be royally shafted.

The spite has been evident for all to see for a long time, most notably when our GOP lawmakers refused the federal funds provided by Obamacare to extend Medicaid eligibility. Who denies his or her state its share of the federal pie, especially when that pie is going to help hundreds of thousands of poor Missourians obtain essential health care for the first time? Could it be bitter, hyper-partaisan losers who are determined to defy the will of the electorate and destroy the legacy of a president who actually had the temerity to keep his campaign promises and reform a badly broken health care delivery system?

But it could also be the kind of mean-minded ideologues who think that if you extend a helping hand to those who need it, you’re just enabling worthless social parasites – and God forbid that it should be government (by and for the people, incidentally) that extends that helping hand. Unfortunately, it’s GOPers of this persuasion who claim that they have to “reform” the system in Missouri before they can heed the pleas from all and sundry to just take the Obamacare Medicaid expansion funds.

The nature of the reforms envisioned by our Missouri Republicans aren’t, however, likely to meet the requirements for federal funds which stipulate that access be expanded – some past proposals have actually narrowed eligibility requirements. And it is at this juncture where “the stupid” enters the picture. Just how stupid? Take a look at Kansas where “reforms” of the Medicaid system mirror some of those hinted at by our Missouri Republicans.

As you might expect, given the conservative antipathy to letting government work for anyone other than the 1%, most of the reforms proposed by our state GOP pols involve privatizing Medicaid. Which is just what Kansas has done to a greater extent than any other state, having, as Steve Vockrodt of the Pitch News reports, “cannonballed into the deep end by shifting all of its Medicaid management to three private companies.” So what’s the goal?:

Gov. Sam Brownback has said the wholesale privatization of Medicaid under KanCare was meant to save $1 billion over five years. He also promised that the move wouldn’t sacrifice Kansans’ level of care, and the number of people on Medicaid’s waiting list would be reduced.

But the only way for the three managed-care organizations to realize cost savings on clients with permanent physical disabilities [ . . .] is by cutting Medicaid services. …

Sounds like the goal is savings and qualilty care be dammed. It’s early days yet for the Kansas experiment, but, it’s not looking too good – over 5,000 people on a developmental-disabilities waiting list and a logjam of cases contesting denial of services. Nor is it even clear that crippling state services in this way will result in any real savings.

Interestingly, other states have already backed away from privatized Medicaid. Vockrodt cites the case of Connecticut:

In 2012, Connecticut dumped the insurance companies that were managing its Medicaid program to the tune of more than $800 million a year. A USA Today report said those insurance companies were “erecting barriers to care” while plowing the state’s Medicaid money into administrative salaries and profits.

“Erecting barriers to care” sounds a lot like what Vockrodt describes in Kansas. It’s possible that some combination of managed care and traditional Medicaid could deliver savings without compromising quality of care, but I’m not sure I’m willing to trust folks who don’t think government has a role to play in shaping health care delivery – that is to say, our Missouri Republicans – to come up with the right mix.

When I think about how our state-level Republicans have tried to sabotage Obamacare, I get furious. When I hear them talk about Medicaid reform, however, I just get very frightened. A major precept of medicine is “first do no harm.” I’d suggest that it would be a good proviso for politicians also except that I’ve seen too many lately who are too blinded by either ideological rigidity or just general intellectual incapacity to be able to evaluate the real world in a way that would allow them to make the right choices. There’s a reason, after all, that red states aren’t doing so well right now.

When I recently wrote about the Missouri GOP’s stubborn attempt to render unto Rex Sinquefield what – by virtue of his checkbook – is Rex Sinquefield’s, namely one more dreary iteration of their efforts to reduce or eliminate taxes for the wealthy, I also noted that a similar experiment seemed to be tanking in Kansas – even to such an extent that the popularity of Kansas GOP Governor Sam Brownbeck was in the pits.

Imagine, then, my amazement, when I learned via an opinion piece in The Kansas City Star that there are folks that think Kansas is in exemplary shape. None other than Missouri’s ever-generous billionaire, Rex Sinquefield, seems to have informed readers of Forbes Magazine that “a close look at the data backs up the economic projections of Brownback’s visionary leadership.”

So who’s right? Me? Or Rex Snquefield? The Star‘s contributing author, I’m happy to say, backs up my contentions about the state of Kansas, pointing out that, contrary to Sinquefield’s claims, the state’s economy is “tracking most of the rest of the nation” with “no discernable jolt upward.”

What interests me, though, is the way that Mr. Sinquefield, borrowing a tactic from so many movers and shakers on the right, takes a kernel of truth and by either twisting it or ignoring other equally relevant facts, begins to run a premature victory lap  – with a view to taking a similar lope around the track in Missouri once his pets in the legislature enact his long-sought after rich-man’s tax cut. Not for nothing was his Forbes article titled “How Kansas Governor Brownback Schooled Missouri On Tax Cuts, And Showed The Region How To Grow.”

Mr. Sinquefield asserts that “lower income tax rates have in fact stimulated the economy by reducing the price both of work and conducting business in the state.” Half true. The cost of work – what people get paid – did decrease. A Center for Tax Policy report cites “Bureau of Labor statistics that showed Kansas was one of 20 states where inflation-adjusted average weekly earnings of private employees decreased between May 2012 and last May.” This fact fits well with other reports that document conistent increases during Brownback’s tenure in the number of Kansans living in poverty.

What’s not so true is the part about lower income tax rates stimulating the economy. While some business organizations have upped Kansas “business-friendly” type of rating, based mostly on government policies rather than results, recent economic reports aren’t so glowing:

… another report shows Kansas lagging most states in economic growth from February to May and predicted it will trail in the next six months.

“Most states improved over the past quarter; only Alaska, Kansas, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Wyoming experienced declines,” said the State Economic Monitor report by the Tax Policy Center, which provides independent analyses of tax issues.

The report cited an economic growth measure produced by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia that combines non-farm employment, average manufacturing hours worked, the state’s unemployment rate and real wages.

The Philadelphia Fed also produces an index that measures future economic activity for six months, and again Kansas was among the bottom states.

If  you’re interested in going into Mr. Sinquefield’s claims in greater detail, you might be enlightened by what he fails to tell us, for instance, about the unemployment rate in Kansas. He reports correctly that Kansas unemployment fell from 7% in 2011 when Brownback took office to 5.8%, a decline of 1.2 percentage points. Not so spectacular, however, when you consider that during the same period, Missouri’s unemployment rate fell 2.1 percentage points. Apart from the fact that the Kansas jobless rate is actually currently 5.9%, what Sinquefield also fails to tell us is that the Kansas number reflects an increase in unemployment, from 5.5% in January. This loss of jobs occurred during a time that saw national unemployment numbers decreasing from 7.9% to 7.3%.

I don’t know about you, but when I took a closer look at Mr. Sinquefield’s claims and did a little research, I still wasn’t too impressed with Kansas’ economic growth record over the past couple of years. I will admit, though, that if I were naively reading Sinquefield’s Forbes encomium to Governor Brownback, I might think that he was on to something. Which takes us back to those polls that show Brownback tanking in Kansas. One lesson that one can draw from Mr. Brownback’s fall from popular grace is that folks learn from experience. Another lesson, though, seeks to account for the 30-some percent who still approve of his performance – and goes to show that if you jigger the numbers skillfully enough, you actually can fool some of the people all of the time.

After the Jefferson City GOP posse failed to override Governor Nixon’ veto of HB253, the monumentally bad GOP tax “reform,” I wrote about the fact that as long as the makeup of the legislature stays the same, there’s just too much momentum of the folding green variety behind the idea of a rich man’s tax cut to let it go gently into that good night:

Earlier, when confronted with the obvious fact that the override effort might fail, Speaker Tim Jones had been emphatic that he wasn’t going to let this failure derail his goal, declaring that in such a case “income tax cuts will be a big priority next year.” […] As for the bill’s chief sponsor, Rex Sinquefield,  the $2.4 million dollars the billionaire spent promoting HB253 can easily be written off as a down payment; a first gambit in a game in which he plans to wear down the resistance with a combination of big spending and persistence. Nor, I suspect, will the Missouri Chamber of Commerce let Speaker Jones down when he revives his signature initiative …

I have to say that it gives me no pleasure  to be proven right so soon. Today in the Kansas City Star we learn that a task force put together by State Republican Party Chair Ed Martin and former state Rep. Shane Schoeller has authored a white paper intended to act as a “starting point for further conversations” about how to get the goodies that HB253 promised the Republicans’ rich patrons. And, if you thought HB253 was a disaster in the making, the point from which Missouri Republicans intend to start their latest reform effort is bleak in the extreme:

Recommendation one was to eliminate the corporate income tax and pay for it by erasing many state tax credits.

Calling the corporate income tax “inefficient and burdensome,” the committee said wiping out the tax was “one of the most promising ways to energize Missouri’s underachieving economy.”

In suggesting that Missouri consider eliminating the income tax, the committee said the sales tax should be broadened by wiping out the more than 400 exemptions now included in the tax code.

The panel also said that while the income tax is in place, the General Assembly should reduce the number of tax brackets and include new deductions to encourage savings and simplify the law.

We’ve been here before. Several times, if memory serves me right. Didn’t a guy named Sinquefield try to get something like this – you know, no income tax and lots of sales tax – on the ballot a couple of years ago?

Missouri Republicans probably ought to think long and hard before they go galloping into this minefield. During last year’s forray into GOP-style tax reform, Kansas was held up as the model that Missouri should emulate precisely because it had jumped off the same ideological cliff tax-wise, and our intrepid Republicans were keen to follow in spite of the obvious problems afflicting that state in the wake of the decision to eliminate the income tax. There’s now new evidence that if our Republican legislators are really concerned about the plight of families that are “falling behind,” the Kansas route may not be the way to go.

In fact, it is fair to conclude that recent polling shows that similar families in Kansas aren’t too happy with what GOP Governor Sam Brownback’s tax reform has done for their state. Two polls released Thursday indicate that if the election were held today, Governor Brownback would most likely become ex-governor Brownback poste haste. SurveyUSA has his approval/disapproval numbers at 34/59, while the Fort Hays State University’s Docking Institute of Public Affairs’ 2013 Kansas Speaks survey has his approval/disapproval at 35/42. And this is in a redder than thou red state.

I suppose it’s too much to hope that the GOP geniuses in the state legislators would take to heart indications emanating from Kansas that those who promote this rich-man’s tax voodoo aren’t going to fare too well in the long run. If they aren’t convinced by the damage that Brownback and his GOP collaborators have done to Kansas’ credit rating, physical, educational and social infrastructure, perhaps self-interest might do the trick. Or not.

Previously: Evidently Kansas Governor Sam Brownback (r) doesn’t believe in the First Amendment… (November 24, 2011)

A Missouri republican gets in on the act.

@RyanSilvey Ryan Silvey

So, a teenage girl acts childish on Twitter, a Governor’s staff overreacts & days later we care why? #15minutesareup 2 hours ago

Who is childish, the teenager or the adults?

Ryan Silvey @RyanSilvey Kansas City

Missouri State Representative for District 38, Chairman of the House Budget Committee and candidate for State Senate in 2012.

@johnburnettkc John Burnett

Oh touchy! RT @RyanSilvey: So, a teenage girl acts childish on Twitter, a Governor’s staff overreacts & days later we care why?| hypocrisy? 7 minutes ago

 [emphasis added]

Uh, yep.

Emma Sullivan Apology: Kansas High School Student Not Sorry About Sam Brownback Tweet

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Kansas teenager who wrote a disparaging tweet about Gov. Sam Brownback said Sunday that she is rejecting her high school principal’s demand for a written apology.

Emma Sullivan, 18, of the Kansas City suburb of Fairway, said she isn’t sorry and doesn’t think such a letter would be sincere…..

It’s going to be really interesting to watch right wingnut republicans fall all over themselves as they rush get in line to condemn the First Amendment and free political speech.

Pearl clutching hypocrites.

Update:

Emma Sullivan, via Twitter:

@emmakate988 Emma Sullivan

I’ve decided not to write the letter but I hope this opens the door for average citizens to voice their opinion & to be heard! #goingstrong 1 hour ago

Update II: It took a while, but it looks like a certain amount of grudging sanity prevailed from the folks who are supposed to be adults. From the Shawnee Mission School District, via the Kansas City NBC affiliate:

District officials have reviewed recent events surrounding the reported tweet by Shawnee Mission East High School student Emma Sullivan.  The district acknowledges a student’s right to freedom of speech and expression is constitutionally protected.

The district has not censored Miss Sullivan nor infringed upon her freedom of speech.  She is not required to write a letter of apology to the Governor.  Whether and to whom any apologies are issued will be left to the individuals involved.

The issue has resulted in many teachable moments concerning the use of social media.  The district does not intend to take any further action on this matter.

Somebody did some research.

Also, from the same NBC report, Governor Brownback issued a statement:

My staff over-reacted to this tweet, and for that I apologize. Freedom of speech is among our most treasured freedoms.

I enjoyed speaking to the more than 100 students who participated in the Youth in Government Program at the Kansas Capitol. They are our future.

I also want to thank the thousands of Kansas educators who remind us daily of our liberties, as well as the values of civility and decorum.

Again, I apologize for our over-reaction.

That is what we call a teachable moment – on how to issue a bland apology in public relations speak.

…or Tinker v. Des Moines (393 U.S. 503, 1969).

….First Amendment rights, applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment, are available to teachers and students. It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate….

Also, in a Federal District Court in Pennsylvania in 2003, Flaherty v. Keystone Oaks School District [pdf]:

“The Supreme Court has held time and again, both within and out side of the school context, that the mere fact that someone might take offense at the content of speech is not sufficient justification for prohibiting it.”

On Twitter a few days ago:

@emmakate988 Emma Sullivan

Just made mean comments at gov brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot 21 Nov

[emphasis added]

Disparaging tweet about Gov. Sam Brownback lands Kansas teen in principal’s office

By Suzanne Perez Tobias

The Wichita Eagle

…Brownback’s office discovered the tweet via a Web search for his name, officials said.

Niomi Burget, Brownback’s scheduling secretary, e-mailed a screen shot of the tweet to the Youth in Government sponsor at Shawnee Mission East, writing: “I don’t know if this was someone with your group, but thought if it was, you might want it brought to your attention….”

….Sullivan’s older sister, Olivia, a sophomore majoring in political science at Wichita State University, said she thinks the controversy amounts to Brownback “censoring the opinion of a student.”

“This is something she said on her personal Twitter account,” Olivia Sullivan said.

“It’s unacceptable, first of all, to censor her and punish her for what she said. But for the governor and his staff to waste their time getting a high school student in trouble? That’s ridiculous….”

The student is supposedly composing a letter of apology. An astute student could possibly compose a meaningful letter which might educate Governor Brownback and others on his staff about perspective.

“…But for the governor and his staff to waste their time getting a high school student in trouble? That’s ridiculous…”

Yes, it is. It’s a symptom of the right wingnut republican universe.