And now yet another writer describes the ongoing self-immolation of Kansas thanks to Sam Brownback's little tax cut "experiment." Don't miss the part where Mr. Brownback touts 15,000 businesses created without mentioning the 16,000 businesses lost. Also, n.b. that Mr. Brownback said his tax cuts would be "like a shot of adrenaline into the heart of the Kansas economy." Apparently he's as lousy a doctor as he is a governor -- you only put a needle in someone's heart if you want them to die.
Also in Sam Brownback news: former Senator and Presidential candidate Rick Santorum endorsed Mr. Brownback in front of a crowd of 200 -- and not only suggested that Mr. Brownback's opponents attack him because he might succeed (and not, say, because they can amass a pretty solid body of evidence that he's failed), but said "the left is like the Eye of Mordor." You may recall that he invoked the Eye of Mordor in October 2006 while telling us why we needed to stay in Iraq. I suppose that's something -- it suggests he only invokes the Eye of Mordor when he's really, really desperate.
The New Yorker's James Surowiecki argues that we should punish bankster executives rather than corporations. Why? Because punishing banks like Citigroup (and J.P. Morgan Chase not that long ago) actually punishes shareholders, who have presumably already been taught not to tolerate recklessness by the Crash of 2008 and thus can't be further educated by a settlement with the Justice Department. And also because, you know, people who do wrong should be punished.
House passes appropriations bill that -- among other, even more spiteful things -- cuts the IRS budget by about 25 percent. While the IRS losing all those Lois Lerner emails looks like pretty obvious shenanigans to me, Congress's proper role in this matter is oversight, not cutting off the IRS's nose to spite its face -- though I suppose there's always the possibility that Republicans are objectively pro-tax cheat.
Former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, now running for the New Hampshire Senate seat, goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid a Guardian journalist's questions about the Hobby Lobby decision. He hides in the bathroom of a diner, then turns on a dime when he sees the reporter in a different eatery -- and finally one of his flacks threatens the reporter. Do our elites really wonder why people hate politicians so much?
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