The new Republican governor of Illinois is following the Tea Party handbook to the letter. He just hired Donna Arduin, the business partner of Arthur Laffer, the "economist" whose ideas have increased budget deficits and sent economies into the ditch wherever they have been tried.
While the economic consultant whom Rauner named last month as chief financial officer is largely unknown in national circles, she’s served Republican governors intent on shrinking governments through tax cuts, privatization and social-spending cuts from California to Florida. Her business partner is Arthur Laffer, whose so-called supply-side economics suggests lower taxes produce activity and thus revenue.
“She’s the high priestess of the Laffer curve,” said Dan Gelber, the former Democratic leader of the Florida House of Representatives when Arduin was budget director under Governor Jeb Bush. “It’s deja voodoo economics all over again.”
Bloomberg
Tax cuts, privatization, and social spending cuts (aka, welfare for the wealthy) have never been shown at the federal or state level to do anything other than create deficits and strangle economies.
Supply-side shenanigans by Reagan and George H. W. Bush added $3.41 TRILLION to the federal debt. George W. Bush added another $6.1 trillion. Not that empirical evidence matters to Republicans.
Laffer's firm also helped Sam Brownback kill economic growth in Kansas while creating massive budget deficits.
And Laffer recommended that Kansas Republican Governor Sam Brownback push to roll back that state’s income tax. The legislature agreed and the state now faces a projected budget gap next year of more than $700 million as revenue losses from the tax cuts were greater than projected. Brownback has proposed consumption tax increases to close part of the hole.
Bloomberg
Forbes has a nice summary of what Brownback's smoking of Laffer crack has done to Kansas.
Since the first round of tax cuts, job growth in Kansas has lagged the U.S. economy. So have personal incomes. While more small businesses were formed, many of them were merely individuals taking advantage of the newly tax-free status of those firms by redefining themselves as businesses.
The business boom predicted by tax cut advocates has not happened, and it certainly has not come remotely close to offsetting the static revenue loss from the legislated tax cuts.
Forbes
As an Illinois taxpayer, it is heartwarming to see that deficit "hawk" Rauner is not skimping on what we are paying this hack.
Gov. Bruce Rauner lauds Donna Arduin as “the best [budget person] in America,” justifying an eye-opening four-month contract that will pay her firm $120,000 to provide “consulting services” on this year and next year’s budget.
Chicago Tonight
Of course, it is a no-bid contract and we are not allowed to ask substantive questions.
Arduin declined an interview through Rauner spokesman Lance Trover, who would not say why the governor had selected Arduin, how she came to the administration's attention or how her fee was determined. In purchasing paperwork, the Rauner administration said Arduin's firm won the no-bid contract because of her record doing similar work in other states.
Chicago Tribune
I expected Rauner to be terrible. He is shaping up to exceed those expectations.