Steve Bantly: Ample evidence that Republican economic strategy doesn’t work

Re “State's economy expanding” (Page A5, Jan. 17): The article describes the California economy being on-track to becoming the world’s seventh largest economy, suprpassing Brazil shortly, with a GDP of $2.2 trillion in 2013. This contrasts sharply with comments by conservatives like Mitt Romney in 2012, who compared California’s economy with that of Greece. The dire predictions of businesses leaving California and a ruined economy because of Gov. Jerry Brown’s temporary tax increases have not happened.

The conservative economic agenda over the last 30-plus years, starting with Reagan’s supply-side economic theory (aka, “trickle-down”), has been tax cuts mainly for corporations and the wealthy, a free-market economy, globalization and Wall Street deregulation. The tax-cuts have resulted in chronic high deficits (the Reagan and G.W. Bush administrations added $7.6 trillion to the deficit) and the free-market globalization resulted in modest export gains at the cost of 10 million permanently outsourced U.S. jobs. We all know what happened in 2008 to a self-regulated Wall Street.

These policies don’t work, as evidenced by the mess in Kansas under Gov. Sam Brownback. Gov. Brown went to the voters over a super-majority deadlocked state legislature and asked for a temporary tax increase to balance the budget and help the economy. Apparently it worked.

This story was originally published February 13, 2015 at 10:31 AM with the headline "Steve Bantly: Ample evidence that Republican economic strategy doesn’t work."