Just Admit It: Trickle-Down Ruins Economies

First, Kansas hit rock bottom. Now, Oklahoma is joining them. Which will be the next state to commit suicide by trickle down?

I’ve written a lot about Kansas as the vanguard of trickle-down economics. Former Kansas Governor Sam Brownback’s “real live experiment” of extreme tax cuts and corporate deregulation as a lever to create economic growth was a catastrophic failure.

Kansas’s schools are falling apart and the situation in the state has gotten so bad that Republicans are actually raising taxes to pay for essential government services. Kansans are pleading with the rest of the country not to follow their lead, because they know from experience that “the trickle-down experiment doesn’t work.”

It’s important to note, though, that Kansas wasn’t the only state engaged in a trickle-down experiment. Now Oklahoma is in the news because its trickle-down experiment has similarly collapsed and the bill has come due.

Sean Murphy writes for the AP that “When the GOP took full control of Oklahoma government after the 2010 election, lawmakers set out to make it a model of Republican principles, with lower taxes, lighter regulation and a raft of business-friendly reforms.”

How did that work out? Well, it looks almost exactly like Kansas:

Rural hospitals are closing, and teachers are considering a statewide strike over low wages.

“I’m not scared to say it, because I love Oklahoma, and we are dying,” said Republican state Rep. Leslie Osborn. “I truly believe the situation is dire.”

Oklahoma’s woes offer the ultimate cautionary tale for other states considering trickle-down economic reforms. The outlook is so grim that some Republicans are willing to consider the ultimate heresy: raising taxes to fund education and health care, an idea that was once the exclusive province of Democrats.

That’s two states now that have conclusively proven trickle-down economics doesn’t help economies grow—it kills them.

I’m all for states experimenting with different ways of doing things. And I’m proud of Washington state for its willingness to foster a high-quality economy with a high minimum wage and smart investments in the future. I’m glad we had the freedom to pursue growth while also fostering green technologies and sensible regulations, and I’m glad that Kansas and Oklahoma Republicans had the opportunity to try out their ideas and test the trickle-down hypothesis.

But the thing about conducting an experiment responsibly is that you have to know enough to quit once you get catastrophic results.

Somehow, even though Kansas and Oklahoma are both suffering from the disastrous effects of trickle-down economics, politicians around the country are still encouraging the same agenda in their states. It looks as though Mississippi might be the next trickle-down economy to collapse, and Arkansas might not be very far behind. It’s very likely that more will follow: Republicans control all branches of government in a thin majority of states, after all. And Paul Ryan’s Congressional caucus is still relentlessly pushing a trickle-down agenda for the whole nation.

How many students in our public schools have to be sacrificed on the altar of tax cuts before we acknowledge the reality of the situation? How many public services have to be cut to the bone? How many people have to go hungry? How many rural Americans will be unable to get adequate health care before we stop experimenting with their lives?

It’s time to admit that trickle-down economics just doesn’t work. Let’s stop performing the same experiment over and over again while expecting different results every time. Real people are getting hurt. It’s time for a different path.

We now have conclusive, real-world evidence in Kansas and Oklahoma: tax cuts for the rich, deregulation for the powerful, and wage suppression for everyone else simply doesn’t work. Two states have basically hit bottom in their pursuit of a trickle-down fantasy, and more are on the way.

Could you imagine what the mainstream media would be reporting if four high-wage states—say, California, New York, Massachusetts, and Washington—were failing to the point that elected leaders were publicly reversing course on years of policy? I expect we’d see prominent headlines for months on CNBC, the New York Times, and other mainstream outlets announcing that a high minimum wage and regulations turned out to be economy-killers. Instead, the reverse has proven true. This experiment is over.