In 2012, Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas introduced the radical “Kansas Experiment” in which state business taxes were eliminated and individual income taxes were slashed to the bone.

Kansas was to be the poster child for Republican supply-side economic policies, and indeed it was. Over the next three years, state revenues plummeted and Kansas’ credit rating was downgraded three times. Schools closed; road and construction projects were canceled, and pension funds were depleted. Job growth and state GDP lagged behind surrounding states and national averages. By 2017, the very Republican state legislature repealed the tax cuts by overriding Brownback’s veto of the repeal legislation. In 2018, Kansas elected a Democratic governor.

The Trump administration and Project 2025 are attempting the “Kansas Experiment” at the national level. It is becoming apparent that the results will be the same. The Atlanta Federal Reserve forecasts negative growth this quarter. Job growth in February was half the expected level, and February job cuts were the highest since 2009. At the same time prices are spiking due to bird flu and expected tariffs, promising “stagflation,” which is recession plus inflation, as the likely outcome of Trump’s economic policy. The stock markets seem to agree, freefalling since the president’s address to Congress. Maybe it’s time for Congress to intervene and halt the madness, the way Kansas’ legislature eventually did.

Peter Toumanoff

Hancock