If states are supposed to be the laboratories of democracy, then red states should be worried about the results of their trickle down experiments. That’s Paul Krugman’s recent take on Texas’ underwhelming economic performance. Although the Lone Star State embraces the sacred trickle down principles of growth ( 1) lower taxes on the rich and 2) harsh treatment of the poor), employment growth in Texas has now dipped below the national average and a fall in leading indicators points to a further slowdown ahead.

Krugman is the first to acknowledge that while “in most states, this slowdown would be no big deal…everything is bigger in Texas, including inflated expectations, so the slowdown has come as something of a shock.”

The problem with this shock? The right will most likely ignore it, because even though trickle down policies have failed (over and over) to live up to their promises, the trickle down myth

should have died long ago in the face of the facts, but just keeps shambling along. Nothing that has happened in the past quarter century has supported tax-cut mania, yet the doctrine’s hold on the Republican Party is stronger than ever. It would be foolish to expect recent events to make much difference.

While the right continues to believe that tax cuts are the “universal elixir that cures all economic ills“, we know this is a load of baloney. Just look at Kansas’ tax cut experiment starting in 2012 which spurred a $400 billion budget deficit, as opposed to spurring economic growth. Now, ironically, Governor Brownback is frantically proposing new tax increases to take care of this self-imposed deficit.

And to rub some more salt in the wound, California’s economy offers a profound counter example to both Texas and Kansas’ trickle down failures. Krugman says that while the Golden State has

“long been mocked by the right as an economy doomed by its liberal politics…it turns out…[their] budget is back in surplus in part because the emergence of a Democratic supermajority finally made it possible to enact tax increases, and the state is experiencing a solid recovery.”

All of this is to say, trickle down economics is a sham, as Nick Hanauer observed last week. If an economic theory cannot achieve its stated purpose, it should be called out. It’s great to see that Paul Krugman is doing just that.

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