Brownback, S Gov

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STEVE FUCKING MOORE LAFFER

gibney dk money docu 2025

paleo cath? leo? lAFFER MOORE kudlow?

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tight midterm endorse 10 26

Kansas Reflector

https://kansasreflector.com › 2026 › 10 › 13 › former-gov-sam-brownback-steps-into-us-senate-campaign-to-endorse-roger-marshall

Former Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback steps into US Senate campaign to ...

Oct 13, 2026Former Kansas Gov. and U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback endorsed GOP Sen. Roger Marshall's reelection campaign. Democratic nominee Adam Hamilton pounced.

News for **sam brownback endorse

-=-=

capt bak txt 820 html honoree

primary 5/18 on poster boy tax cut

FAIL voodoo econ, stephen moore advisor:

:{:{Indeed, Moore does not have the typical qualifications of a Fed appointee, the vast majority of whom have a PhD in economics. Moore has a Master of Arts degree from the famously right-wing George Mason Universityand served as a fellow at the also famously right-wing Heritage Foundation. }:

He has advised several GOP campaigns, including Trump’s, and co-wrote a book with conservative economist Art Laffer titled “Trumponomics: Inside the America First Plan to Revive Our Economy.”}:

Moore is a proponent of supply-side economics,the theory that tax breaks for billionaires and corporations will increase investment and production to the point that prices fall for everyone else — which has broadly failed but nonetheless forms the backbone of the Republican Party’s economic agenda.As a pundit, he has made some spectacularly wrong predictions, like that the U.S. was risking hyperinflation during the Obama years and that ACA was increasing the deficit. His errors have had human consequences: he helped craft formerKansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax cut plan,which essentially wrecked the state.

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AI Overview

Economist Stephen Moore heavily advised and championed the 2012 Kansas tax cuts pushed by then-Governor Sam Brownback. Moore incorrectly predicted the cuts would act like a "shot of adrenaline" and cause an economic boom. Instead, the policies led to massive state budget shortfalls, deep cuts to public services, and severely lagged job growth, ultimately resulting in the repeal of the tax experiment. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

The Prediction

Stephen Moore and Arthur Laffer served as key architects and advocates for former Kansas Governor Sam Brownback's tax-cutting agenda. They heavily promoted a supply-side, trickle-down economic model, predicting that slashing income tax rates and eliminating pass-through taxes for small businesses would rapidly stimulate business growth, increase state revenues, and trigger an unprecedented economic boom. [1, 2, 3, 4]

The Failure

The promised economic growth consistently failed to materialize. Real-world outcomes included: [1, 2]

Revenue Collapse: Tax revenues plunged dramatically, leading to hundreds of millions of dollars in budget deficits. [1]

Service Cuts: The state was forced to slash funding for critical infrastructure, public services, and education. [1, 2]

Legislative Reversal: The fiscal situation became so dire that in 2017, even the Republican-controlled Kansas legislature overwhelmingly voted to repeal Brownback’s signature tax laws over his veto. [1, 2]

Resignation: Governor Brownback ultimately resigned in 2018 having suffered record-low approval ratings and an economic track record that became widely recognized as a textbook policy failure. [1]

For further details and analysis regarding the reversal of this economic experiment, you can review the ⁠KU ScholarWorks report detailing the fallout.

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Mission

This organization has not provided GuideStar with a mission statement.

Ruling year info 1972

Principal Officer

Herman D Bontrager

117 Barn Owl Rd

Lititz, PA 17543 United States

EIN 38-3630813

NTEE code info Protestant (X21)

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990-N.

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an raw 11 22

On Tuesday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial board shredded Republicans for clinging to a pro-tax cut political theory of economics pushed by former President Ronald Reagan decades ago — despite it having repeatedly failed.

The "Laffer curve," famously first scrawled on the back of a napkin at a restaurant by right-wing economist and GOP adviser Arthur Laffer, is the notion that tax cuts actually raise revenue for the government because the investment spurred by more money in the hands of businesses and millionaires grows the tax base more than the marginal revenue lost.

The ideology has a kernel of truth to it in that taxation generally reduces economic activity; however, there has never been any evidence U.S. taxes were high enough to begin with to depress economic activity beyond the returns to government revenue.

"Today’s stubborn Republican mythology that treats tax cuts as a magical economic elixir is largely traceable to Laffer’s theory, which arose in the late 1970s," wrote the board. "His famous 'Laffer curve' presumes to prove that tax cuts for the rich will spur economic investment, causing such strong economic growth that the government’s tax revenue would actually rise instead of falling. Even 1980 Republican presidential candidate George H.W. Bush derided the notion as 'voodoo economics.' That is, until he became vice president to Ronald Reagan, who embraced it."

"And how did Laffer’s theory, recast as 'Reaganomics,' turn out in practice?" wrote the board. "Yes, the economy was robust in the 1980s after Reagan’s historic tax cuts. But that’s also when the era of big budget deficits began, to the point that Reagan himself had to implement a series of later tax hikes to address it. Republicans today always seem to forget that part of the story.They certainly forgot it in Kansas in 2012, when they went full-Laffer with massive tax cuts. This deliberate test of Laffer’s theory, known as 'The Kansas Experiment,' was a debacle. The state’s economy didn’t skyrocket, but the deficit did, forcing deep cuts to education before the legislature finally acknowledged defeat and reversed the tax cuts."

Republicans then went on to try the same thing at a national scale under Donald Trump, noted the board, passing enormous tax cuts for corporations in 2017 — which did not deliver the sweeping economic growth Republicans promised. In fact, some experts believe, those tax cuts made the post-COVID inflation spell worse than it would have been otherwise. But still, House Republicans want to use their new majority to force President Joe Biden to do another round of tax cuts — when what is really needed to reduce inflation is targeted tax increases.

"You’d think after blaming the Biden administration (with some justification) for making inflation worse by pumping more money into the economy, they would at least see the irony of what they’re proposing, if not its damning precedent," concluded the board.

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brownback just keeps on giving // texas cold disaster

https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/kansas-gop/

gutted soc safe net, now covid fail

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http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2007/09/hillarys-prayer-hillary-clintons-religion-and-politics

Coe's friends include former Attorney General John Ashcroft, Reaganite Edwin Meese III, and ultraconservative Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.). Under Coe's guidance, Meese has hosted weekly prayer breakfasts for politicians, businesspeople, and diplomats, and Pitts rose from obscurity to head the House Values Action Team, an off-the-record network of religious right groups and members of Congress created by Tom DeLay. The corresponding Senate Values Action Team is guided by another Coe protégé, Brownback, who also claims to have recruited King Abdullah of Jordan into a regular study of Jesus' teachings.

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719

https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/what-**kansas-rebounding-economy**-tells-us-about-the-farce-of-republican-tax-cuts/

Kansas had one of the worst economies in the Midwest when, in June 2017, its state legislature reversed former Gov. Sam Brownback’s disastrous tax cuts for the wealthy. And according to CNBC America’s Top States for Business study,...in the U.S. and is enjoying a budget surplus.

In 2018, Kansas’ economy came in at an embarrassing #45 in the Top States for Business study and at #35 overall — and since then, it has improved by 16 points in general as well as by 16 points in the economy category, according to CNBC....ansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a centrist Democrat, was delighted with the news, telling CNBC, “We are returning to our roots as a very progressive, thoughtful, forward-looking state.” The Democrat went on to say, “Kansas, for years now, has been at the low end of all economic metrics. That’s changing.”

The economic problems that Kansas suffered under Brownback’s watch were the exact opposite of what the far-right Republican claimed would happen. When the GOP-controlled state legislature dramatically cut taxes for Kansas’ wealthiest residents and its largest businesses and Brownback signed the tax cuts into law, Republicans insisted that the state would boom economically.Instead, Kansas’ economy plummeted, and in 2017, a combination of Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature reversed the tax cuts.7

Brownback, whoresignedas governor in January 2018, was wildly unpopular during his final year in office. According to a Morning Consult poll, his approval rating was only 25% in July 2017. In contrast, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker — a Republican in a very Democratic state where Sen. Elizabeth Warren was reelected by a landslide in 2018 — enjoyed 71% approval in that poll and was cited as the most popular governor in the United States.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), Kansas had a $351 million revenue shortfall for fiscal year 2018. But with the reversal of Brownback’s tax cuts having taken effect, Kansas now has a budget surplus.

However, some Republicans in Kansas’ state legislature are pushing to restore some of the tax cuts and are arguing that the problem with Brownback’s economic program wasn’t the tax cuts — it was a failure to reduce spending.

A major shock in Kansas politics occurred in 2018 when the deeply Republican state elected a Democratic governor: Kelly, who defeated far-right Republican gubernatorial nominee Kris Kobach (Kansas’ former secretary of state and a one-time promoter of the racist “birther” conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama wasn’t really born in the United States).

Although Kansas’ economy has improved, according to CNBC’s study, Kelly stressed that there is still work to be done in that state We will be studying our entire tax structure because it’s way out of whack right now,” Kelly told CNBC. “We want to take us back to what works for Kansas, which is really essentially what we call the three-legged stool: balance out our property taxes, our sales tax and our income taxes.”

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===nat cath reg

no lnx

Pro-Religious Freedom Political Action Committee Says Big Bank ‘Chase-d’ It Away

The faith-based organization, which is endorsing candidates in the midterm elections, abruptly lost its bank account in June.

Murff told the Register the bank gave no advance warning of the closure. He also said subsequent explanations from the bank haven’t added up.

Matthew McDonald

Nation

October 27, 2022

A pro-religious-freedom political action committee that lost its bank account abruptly is asking individuals and faith-based organizations to share details of their cancellations by financial institutions.

“What we want to do is gather these stories and then hand them over to state attorneys general for investigation,” said Rev. Justin Murff, executive director of the National Committee for Religious Freedom, in an interview with the Register.

If religious groups can’t get satisfaction from large corporations or from the government, Murff said, then perhaps they need to go their own way when it comes to financial matters, describing a sort of “Benedict Option for money.”

“So who knows? Maybe there needs to be a banking version of the Knights of Columbus,” said Murff, a canon in the Anglican Church in North America.

Bank Account Disappears

The National Committee for Religious Freedom is designed to support candidates with campaign donations and to support or oppose legislation and ballot questions pertaining to religious freedom.

:{:{}:

It began in January 2022. The founder is Sam Brownback, a Catholic and a former Republican congressman, U.S. senator and governor of Kansas, who served most recently as U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom in the Trump administration.

:{:{}:

Among the members of its board of advisers are Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, chairman of the Committee for Religious Liberty of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Mary Ann Glendon, a Harvard law professor emerita and former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See.

Murff took over as executive director in March. On April 15, he and Brownback opened a Chase bank account for the organization in Washington, D.C. — partly because Murff is a third-generation Chase customer who worked as a teller for Chase while in college and has always loved the bank.

In May, while at a conference in Sweden, he said, he got a call from Brownback, who had tried to deposit a check at a Chase bank near his home in Kansas, only to find that the account had been closed.

Murff told the Register the bank gave no advance warning of the closure. He also said subsequent explanations from the bank haven’t added up.

A spokesman for Chase contacted by the Register last week did not respond by deadline.

Murff provided the Register a transcript of a telephone conversation he says he had with a Chase employee on June 8, which he recorded (as did the company, according to the employee). A spokesman for the organization also enabled the Register to listen to a portion of Murff’s audio recording of the encounter, which is substantially the same as the portion of the transcript that it reflects.

According to the transcript, the Chase employee said what she called “the internal partners” of Chase wanted committee staff “to visit a local branch and provide the most recent financial statements of the organization. And then, outside that, they wanted to know if you have any donors that contribute 10% or more of the charity’s funding. If you have any donors that provide 10% or more, then they need the names of the individuals or entities.”

Murff said the U.S. Internal Revenue Service doesn’t require a 501(c)(4) organization such as his to disclose such information, so it doesn’t make sense the bank would require it — and that the committee’s new bank has made no such requests.

Even so, Murff said, he never got word of what Chase supposedly wanted from the committee until weeks after the bank had already closed the account.

“Whether it’s religious or political, we don’t fit the mold that Chase is looking for in a customer,” Murff said. “It was a shock to me when we were canceled — and, as we call it, Chase-d away.”

Indeed, “Chased Away” is now a landing page on the organization’s website, inviting de-banked customers to share their stories.

Murff highlighted the testimony, before Congress last month, of the head of the bank for what he described as unintentional irony.

Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., appeared Sept. 22 before the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

:{:{}:

In his opening statement, Dimon touted “freedom of religion” as one of five “foundational beliefs” that have helped make America “the greatest country in the world” and “still the most prosperous and innovative economy the world has ever seen.”

Brownback told the Register the bank’s action against his organization appears to be an example of cancel culture.

“There have been a number of lines it seems to me people didn’t cross in the past that people are willing to cross over now,” Brownback said. “I don’t think it’s healthy for the democracy.”

Advisory Board Perspectives

Committee officials emphasize that the organization is nonpartisan and has representation from both major parties.

One of the advisory board members is Dan Lipinski, a pro-life Democrat from Illinois and Catholic who served in Congress from 2005 to 2021. Lipinski is socially conservative but generally voted with his party on other issues. He lost a primary election to a pro-abortion Bernie Sanders supporter in the Democratic Party in 2020.

Religious freedom needs defending in part, Lipinski told the Register, because too many people don’t understand it.

“The culture has changed,” Lipinski said. “Part of that is we have not done a good job of explaining what religious freedom really is and why it is so important, starting with why they put it into the Constitution to begin with.”

Another member of the board of advisers is Frank Wolf, a Presbyterian and former Republican congressman who represented a district in northern Virginia from 1981 to 2015, before retiring.

Wolf told the Register he worries that as fewer people attend church in America, interest in religious freedom will wane.

He noted that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, which made it harder for the government to infringe on religious practices, passed almost without opposition three decades ago. (The House passed it on a unanimous voice vote, while the Senate approved it 97-3.)

Today, “I don’t know that it would pass. That’s how much the Congress has actually changed,” Wolf said.

Wolf likes to quote a dramatic statement the late Cardinal Francis George (1937-2015) made in 2010: “I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square.”

(As a blog in the Register reported in 2015, Cardinal George added: “His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the Church has done so often in human history.”)

Another board of advisers’ member, Thomas Farr, president of the Religious Freedom Institute, told the Register that the Respect for Marriage Act, which would codify same-sex civil marriage in a federal statute, and the Equality Act, which would extend federal civil-rights protections to “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” and prevent using the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 as a defense, demonstrate that some in the country equate certain religion-based moral teachings with bigotry, and want others to do so, as well.

“The symbolism is as clear as the goal: Morally orthodox Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and all others may, like racists, hold their despicable views in private, but if they bring them into public life, they will be punished. Today, much of the left views dissenting, orthodox religious actors not as fellow citizens with opposing views but as wicked, hateful bigots whose ‘right’ to religious freedom must not be permitted to stand in the way of the ideology of sexual liberation,” Farr said by email. “Nothing could be more un-American, or a greater threat to the pluralism necessary for the sustenance of American democracy.”

Religious-Freedom Endorsements Issued

The National Committee for Religious Freedom recently issued endorsements of candidates for Congress.

“To my knowledge, this is the first time that candidates have been endorsed because of their stance on religious freedom,” Brownback said, noting that some other organizations use religious freedom as a factor, but not the only factor, in their endorsement decisions.

For the November 2022 election, the committee has endorsed two incumbent U.S. senators, six incumbent U.S. representatives, and four challengers for the U.S. House.

All are Republicans. But that’s not by design, said Executive Director Justin Murff, who emphasized that the organization is nonpartisan.

Murff told the Register he is disappointed that not a single Democrat has yet signed onto a pro-religious-freedom statement the committee has sent all members of Congress.

It states: “I PLEDGE to defend religious freedom for all Americans and all of America’s religious communities, a freedom protected in our Constitution’s First Amendment guarantee of the inalienable right of religious free exercise. I will condemn any discrimination, bigotry, or violence against any religion that is practiced in the United States of America.”

Fast Facts

— The National Committee for Religious Freedom lost its Chase bank account earlier this year.

— Chase has not publicly explained why.

— A transcript obtained by the Register suggests the bank wanted otherwise-private information about the organization’s finances and donors.

— The political action committee has switched banks and has issued a list of endorsements for November 2022.

— Advisers to the committee say religious freedom in America is in jeopardy.

Keywords:

religious freedom

political action committees

midterm22

matt mcdonald

Matthew McDonald

Matthew McDonald Matt McDonald joined the Register as a staff writer in October 2022. He is the editor of New Boston Post.

ggl 11 22

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Are Banks Going Woke and Canceling Relig - News

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Oct 21, 2022 — Chase informed NCRF that the bank would be closing the account less than three weeks after it was opened. Brownback explained:.

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https://www.youtube.com › watch

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Nov 14, 2022 — Chase Bank Closing Republican Accounts: Chase Bank has canceled Sam Brownback's account due to his political beliefs...

Chase Bank Cancels Nonprofit's Bank Account - CBN.com

https://www1.cbn.com › cbnnews › october › chase-ba...

Oct 12, 2022 — According to Sam Brownback, the group's chairman and the former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom under the Trump ...

Chase Bank Demands Donor List from Religious Nonprofit

https://unitedforprivacy.com › chase-bank-demands-do...

Nov 9, 2022 — According to former U.S. Senator and Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, Chase not only closed the group's account without explanation, ...

no lnx

april

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/republican-governors-radical-tax-cut-plan-backfires-exposes-conservative-economics

Republican Governor's Radical Tax Cut Plan Backfires, Exposes Conservative Economics As a Scam

His tax break was a colossal failure.

By Stephen Talbot / Salon April 18, 2018

“It’s like shooting adrenaline into the heart of growing the economy.” That’s how Sam Brownback, then governor of Kansas, described his radical tax cut plan in 2012. He was evangelical about it. Slashing corporate and personal income tax rates and completely eliminating taxes on limited liability companies, he promised, would create tens of thousands of jobs and bring prosperity to the state.

It did not work out that way.

This article was originally published at Salon

At first, there were many believers, including the Kansas State Legislature, which passed the governor’s revolutionary tax package in 2012. Some 330,000 independent business owners took advantage of their new tax exemption. Corporations and individuals enjoyed their income tax cuts and refunds. The result was a $700 million loss in revenue for the state the first year the tax plan went into effect.

For the next five years, as revenue continued to tank, the state found itself mired in fiscal crisis, and job growth was anemic compared to the national recovery. Last year, a bi-partisan majority in the legislature essentially repealed the entire Brownback tax package.

Brownback had won a landslide victory in the 2010 gubernatorial race and was re-elected in 2014, though by a thin margin. Early this year, the Trump administration nominated him as U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom and pushed his confirmation through the Senate. But by the time Brownback resigned as governor at the end of January 2018, his “Kansas experiment” had been shelved.

Filmmakers Melinda Shopsin, Paul Lovelace and Jessica Wolfson were curious about what Brownback had left behind. Crisscrossing the heartland state (population just under three million), the crew wanted to hear what ordinary Kansans thought about their state’s experiment in tax policy.

“Our focus was to talk to regular people and get away from the divisive political rhetoric that has been so prevalent in this debate over taxes,” says Shopsin, who directed the video, which you can watch here:

Where better to start then than the Fraternal Order of Eagles Lodge in Manhattan, Kansas, on bingo night?

“The [tax] policies, in my mind, they were the same old trickle-down theories,” one bingo player opines. “Cut them at the top and it will trickle down to the bottom, and in the past four years that has not worked.”

But what surprised the filmmakers most was how many Kansans they spoke with were unfamiliar with the details of Brownback’s tax plan. “Taxes don’t bother me, unless they raise taxes,” was a common refrain. A lot of people they encountered just hadn’t been paying much attention until state budget cuts delayed highway repairs, threatened hospitals with closure and compelled some schools to close on Fridays.

On the other hand, the filmmakers found that people who did follow the news and were knowledgeable about state tax policies had developed a deep appreciation for the importance of tax revenue.

“When the funding disappeared for things people really cared about, especially public education and medical care, they told me they really began to think about the importance of where their tax dollars went,” Shopsin recalls.

“Yikes!” was fifth grade teacher Sherry Owen’s response to the discovery that the state was drastically reducing funding to the schools in her small town of Caney, Kansas. There were staff cuts, fewer supplies and finally no classes at all on Fridays.

“Our school is our center in our town,” Owen declares. “What are we thinking pulling those resources?”

There are, of course, citizens who benefited from and still believe in the corporate and individual income tax cuts. One company, Wenger Manufacturing, says they saved $18 million from the tax cuts and have re-invested the money in new technology and jobs. But these days, Shopsin reports, it’s not easy to find people willing to defend the cuts. “What we mainly heard from people, even from those who benefited from the cuts personally, was that the overall policy was a failure and how unfair these cuts were in practice.”

For example, says Shopsin, “Many doctors and lawyers were exempted from income tax because of their pass-through businesses, while their secretaries and nurses still had to pay.”

The most poignant segment of the short video is a visit to Stormont Vail Health, a hospital in Topeka, Kansas. On top of his tax cuts, Gov. Brownback had also pushed to privatize the state’s Medicaid program. Budget cuts compounded the problem of providing medical care for low-income residents. Hospitals, especially in rural areas, feared they would have to close. “The healthcare system only works when people have access to it,” says Stormont Vail CEO Randy Peterson. “It’s part of our social responsibility.”

While Brownback pitched his tax cuts as a job-creation strategy, Melissa Hildebrand, a fourth-generation dairy farmer who welcomed the tax cuts, offers one reason why lowering business taxes doesn’t necessarily lead to more employment. She tells Shopsin that on her farm, any increased cash flow from the tax cuts will likely go to the installation of more cost-efficient robotic milkers “which would actually eliminate some labor.”

As the Kansas legislature continues to work to stabilize state funding and improve the state’s credit rating, people like hospital CEO Randy Peterson say, “Quite frankly, I think the experiment failed.” What worries him now is that Congress has enacted similar tax cuts. “I’m a little concerned that we have the same concept at the national level now.”

At a Heritage Foundation panel last month, veteran tax cut advocate Grover Norquist acknowledged that the bad publicity generated by the “Kansas experiment” had been “unhelpful” to the tax reform movement. He recommended that supporters pay more attention to tax cutting efforts in North Carolina and Florida.

But the impact of the tax-slashing experiment in Kansas is still being felt by people in all walks of life across that conservative state, and as the video shows, they remain concerned, even if it’s expressed in a very polite, restrained Midwestern voice.

Caney Valley School District Superintendent Blake Vargas says he’s seen what can happen at the state and local level as a result of severe tax cuts, and he has a word of advice: “If it’s not worth it, if it’s not paying off, don’t be afraid to pull the plug.”

https://www.alternet.org/donald-trumps-ambassador-religious-freedom-lobbied-behalf-anti-islam-activist?src=newsletter1094336

an ambassador representing President Donald Trump lobbied the United Kingdom on behalf of jailed activist Tommy Robinson, the founder of the far-right English Defence League. According to Reuters, the U.S. ambassador inquired about Robinson's safety during a meeting with Britain's ambassador in Washington, D.C.

The discussion about Robinson, who gained worldwide notoriety for his anti-Islam rhetoric, was peculiar considering it was brought up by Sam Brownback, the U.S. ambassador of international religious freedom. Why an ambassador of religious freedom would speak on behalf of a religious persecutor has not yet been explained by the Trump administration.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was arrested in May after broadcasting a Facebook live video outside a courthouse during a child-molestation trial. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison for contempt of court and an additional three more months for breaking the terms of a previous suspended sentence, the Guardian reported.

Robinson has become a figurehead of the alt-right at home and abroad, including the U.S. He has stylized himself as a journalist who covers Islamic issues. In 2009, he founded the English Defence League, a far-right, counter-jihadist group that harasses Muslims.

Robinson's cause has attracted solidarity in America. On Friday, Turning Point U.S.A. founder and staunch Trump supporter Charlie Kirk referenced Robinson in a tweet that attacked the mayor of London.

“Sadiq Khan is trying to lecture the world on ‘free speech’ while Tommy Robinson is locked in a London prison for speaking his mind,” the tweet said.

Robinson's jailing has generated mass protests in Britain. On Saturday, demonstrators campaigning for the release of Robinson incited a riot in central London by blockading a bus being driven by a woman in a headscarf, the Independent reported.

Dozens of protestors reportedly surrounded the bus as it entered Trafalgar Square. The group displayed “Britain Loves Trump” signs as they shoved them on the bus' windows.

Those protestors would be happy to learn that Brownback shared their concerns about Robinson's safety. The failed former governor of Kansas told Kim Darroch, the British ambassador to the U.S., that the U.K. would need to show Robinson more sympathy, otherwise Trump may feel compelled to speak out against the case, Reuters reported.

Brownback's interference on behalf of Robinson represents another situation in which a member of the Trump administration acted counterintuitively to his or her supposed role. Like former EPA chief Scott Pruitt, who rolled back regulations that were designed to protect the environment, Brownback's lobbying efforts could not be justified as an attempt to restore religious freedom. If anything, his lobbying furthered the marginalization of Muslims

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/republican-governors-radical-tax-cut-plan-backfires-exposes-conservative-economics

no linx

Republican Governor's Radical Tax Cut Plan Backfires, Exposes Conservative Economics As a Scam

His tax break was a colossal failure.

By Stephen Talbot / Salon

April 18, 2018, 8:11 AM GMT

“It’s like shooting adrenaline into the heart of growing the economy.” That’s how Sam Brownback, then governor of Kansas, described his radical tax cut plan in 2012. He was evangelical about it. Slashing corporate and personal income tax rates and completely eliminating taxes on limited liability companies, he promised, would create tens of thousands of jobs and bring prosperity to the state.

It did not work out that way.

This article was originally published at Salon

AlterNet - The best daily political newsletter. Don't miss out.

Brownback had won a landslide victory in the 2010 gubernatorial race and was re-elected in 2014, though by a thin margin. Early this year, the Trump administration nominated him asU.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom and pushed his confirmation through the Senate. But by the time Brownback resigned as governor at the end of January 2018, his “Kansas experiment” had been shelved.

...

even grover calls fail

doc

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/republican-governors-radical-tax-cut-plan-backfires-exposes-conservative-economics

pension plan plum

After Long Wait in Kansas, Gov. Sam Brownback Gets Ambassadorship

By MITCH SMITHJAN. 24, 2018

Continue reading the main storyShare This Page

Photo

Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas on Wednesday after the Senate took action on his nomination to be ambassador at large for international religious freedom. Credit Thad Allton/The Topeka Capital-Journal, via Associated Press

Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas was narrowly confirmed to an ambassadorship on Wednesday after a six-month wait that left Kansans increasingly confused about who was in charge of their state.

The Senate split 49-49 along party lines on the nomination of Mr. Brownback, a Republican who has grown unpopular in Kansas, to be ambassador at large for international religious freedom. Vice President Mike Pence cast the tiebreaking vote.

Thank you to @POTUS, @VP, and all the Senators who supported my nomination. I'm looking forward to starting my new position as Ambassador and working hard for the American people and religious freedom around the world. #ksleg

— Sam Brownback (@govsambrownback) Jan. 24, 2018

Many religious leaders praised Mr. Brownback’s confirmation, and said he could use his political experience to help religious minorities, including oppressed Christian and Yazidi communities in the Middle East.

“He has been a consistent, vocal, competent and impassioned advocate for these issues,” said the Rev. Johnnie Moore, a Southern Baptist minister who served on the evangelical advisory board for President Trump’s campaign. “It was all very logical to us that he would be the nominee, and we were thrilled by it.”

Many Democrats and gay rights advocates opposed the nomination of Mr. Brownback, who ended anti-discrimination protections for gay state workers in 2015.

Oh yeah, and in his fifth year as Governor of Kansas, Brownback rescinded anti-discrimination protections for #LGBTQ state employees.

With his confirmation as international ambassador, it is clear @realDonaldTrump & @VP Mike Pence are preparing to export their hateful agenda.

— Lambda Legal (@LambdaLegal) Jan. 24, 2018

Mr. Brownback, who served seven years as governor after stints in both chambers of Congress, drew national attention to Kansas after he oversaw the largest income tax cuts in state history. But the missed revenue forecasts and wholesale cuts to state services that followed led many legislative Republicans to buck Mr. Brownback and undo his signature policy last year.]

Mr. Brownback, whose term would have ended next January, was passed over for more prominent jobs in the Trump administration. When he was nominated for the religious freedom ambassadorship last summer, many expected a swift confirmation.

Mr. Brownback began handing off tasks to Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer after he was nominated, but month after awkward month passed in Topeka without a confirmation vote. Mr. Trump had to renominate Mr. Brownback this month after the full Senate declined to vote last year.

“Our state’s been in kind of a leadership vacuum of chaos,” said Jim Ward, the Democratic leader in the Kansas House of Representatives and a candidate for governor. “It’s really slowed down and pretty much stopped all progress on any kind of policy because you’ve got two different guys acting like the governor.”

Mr. Brownback announced on Thursday that he will resign as governor next week, on Wednesday. “Wherever my new duties may take me, my Kansas values and experience will always travel with me,” he wrote in his resignation letter.

Mr. Colyer, a Republican and a plastic surgeon from suburban Kansas City, will assume the governorship. Mr. Colyer, who is seeking a full term as governor in the election this year, will face several challengers in the Republican primary.

Continue reading the main story

RELATED COVERAGE

Awkward: Brownback Said He Was Leaving as Kansas Governor. He Hasn’t. JAN. 8, 2018

Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas Will Be Nominated as Religious Ambassador JULY 26, 2017

Waiting in the Wings in Kansas: Who Is Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer? JULY 27, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/24/us/sam-brownback-kansas-ambassador.html

LCV 13%

http://scorecard.lcv.org/moc/samuel-d-brownback

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Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas Will Be Nominated as Religious Ambassador

By MITCH SMITH and JACEY FORTINJULY 26, 2017

Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas at an event in National Harbor, Md., in February. Credit Al Drago/The New York Times

Sam Brownback, the beleaguered governor of Kansas whose aggressively conservative fiscal polices turned some fellow Republicans against him, will be nominated to serve as ambassador at large for international religious freedom, the White House said in a statement on Wednesday.

Mr. Brownback, 60, represented his home state in Congress before being elected to two terms as governor beginning in 2011.

On Twitter, Mr. Brownback wrote on Wednesday: “Religious Freedom is the first freedom. The choice of what you do with your own soul. I am honored to serve such an important cause.”

Melika Willoughby, a spokeswoman for Mr. Brownback, said he remained Kansas’ governor as of Wednesday night. She said there would a news conference on Thursday afternoon, but declined to comment beyond Mr. Brownback’s Twitter statement.

Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, a doctor from suburban Kansas City who previously served in the State Legislature, is expected to take over as governor if Mr. Brownback’s nomination is confirmed by the United States Senate.

In the ambassadorship, Mr. Brownback would lead the Office of International Religious Freedom, which is under the umbrella of the State Department and charged with promoting religious freedom as a foreign policy objective.

Mr. Brownback’s popularity has plummeted in recent years as the state slashed services and struggled to meet its revenue projections, problems that many attributed to Mr. Brownback’s signature tax-cutting doctrine. Despite Republicans’ dominance in Kansas, the party suffered losses in last year’s legislative elections.

Kansas lawmakers rolled back Mr. Brownback’s tax policies this year, with Democrats and moderate Republicans banding together to override the governor’s veto and raise taxes. Mr. Brownback has also clashed with some members of his own party on Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, which he vetoed this year.

Mr. Brownback’s policies were seen as a test of the Republican doctrine that lowering the tax burden on businesses would attract employers to the state and help the economy grow. It was being closely watched by conservatives across the country to see how it might affect Kansas. But the growth never came.

Mr. Brownback will leave Kansas at a time of uncertainty over funding for public education. The Kansas Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on the constitutionality of the state’s new school funding mechanism.

“He leaves behind a legacy of failed leadership,” said State Representative Melissa Rooker, a moderate Republican who has frequently opposed Mr. Brownback’s policies. She said she did not know what to expect from Mr. Colyer, a Republican and an ally of Mr. Brownback’s, because he was not involved in the day-to-day dealings of the Legislature.

Representative Jim Ward, the Democratic leader in the Kansas House, said he was “not surprised” to hear of the appointment, which has been rumored in Topeka for months.

“I’m not going to miss him,” Mr. Ward said. “He has left a state in carnage and destruction.”

Mr. Ward said that he believed the governor “had the background” for his new role, but that “he hasn’t embraced diversity” consistently in Kansas. “Hopefully, this job that he’ll step into, he’ll realize that Americans are of all kinds of faith,” Mr. Ward said.

Representative Ron Ryckman Jr., a Republican and the House speaker, said Mr. Brownback was “uniquely qualified” for the ambassadorship. “I wish him all the best in his new post and would like to express my gratitude for his extensive service to the State of Kansas,” he said.

Kris Kobach, the Republican secretary of state, who is running to succeed Mr. Brownback, said, “He is the first truly conservative governor that Kansas has had in the last 40 years, and so he definitely made history in that respect.”

Mr. Kobach added, “On the other hand, though, he faced a real battle at the end to preserve the tax cuts, and I wish he had won.”

In announcing the intended nomination, the White House noted that Mr. Brownback, a former United States senator and congressman, “worked actively on the issue of religious freedom in multiple countries and was a key sponsor of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.”

Mr. Brownback, a father of five who comes from a farming family, has also been a lawyer, a state secretary of agriculture and a one-time presidential candidate.

http://www.alternet.org/education/devos-and-alecs-plan-american-education-ugly-unpopular

Secretary Betsy DeVos’ speech to the American Legislative Exchange Council met with protests before she’d even arrived in Denver.But teachers and activists aren’t the only ones objecting to the extreme, anti-public education agenda DeVos shares with ALEC. One of the great questions of our time is just how far to the fringe the right wing of the Republican Party can march before the business-minded set steps in and yanks the chain. ALEC’s education platform is providing a real-time test case.

Virtually everything you need to know about ALEC’s education priorities is captured in the group’s most recent Report Card on American Education.Here, “forward-thinking” states likeArizona reign supremethanks to a ranking system that prizes freedom from the education monopoly above all. Arizona’s high school graduation rate may be a full 25 percent lower than my own adopted home state of Massachusetts (languishing at #32 on the ALEC scale), but at least students aren’t choked by burdensome homeschooling regulations. In fact, thanks to far-sighted lawmakers like Arizona ALEC state chair Debbie Lesko (ALEC lawmaker of the year '16), young Arizonans can now eschew school for a buffet of “a la carte learning options,” paid for with pre-loaded edu-debit cards, a vision DeVos regards as a model.

The theme of this year’s state Report Card was the underfunding myth: “exposing the lack of a connection between funding increases and student performance.” (DeVos watchers will recognize this as one of her stock arguments.) It’s a claim based on ideology rather than research, but more importantly, more moderate Republicans no longer seem to be buying it. The revolt against Governor Brownback’s deep tax cuts in Kansas included business leaderswho worried that starving the schools threatened the state’s future workforce and imperiled their ability to attract workers to the state. In Arizona, which ranks 48th in the country in education spending, business leaders recently announced that they plan to press for a big boost for the state’s schools, including raising teacher salaries. The state that topped ALEC’s education ranking has a teacher shortage so severe that schools are hiring teachers who lack any qualifications at all, even college degrees.

It’s a sign of the times that the education agenda at ALEC this year was almost exclusively focused on expanding private school choice: vouchers, education savings accounts and tax credit scholarships, a nifty way for big donors who share ALEC’s aversion to public institutions and the taxes that pay for them to undermine the former while avoiding the latter. All of that bipartisan happy talk about sending all kids to college and closing achievement gaps has largely disappeared. Instead, the ALEC agenda, indistinguishable from DeVos’ own, prizes school choice as an end unto itself. They envision a future where parents are freed—from the education monopoly, from regulation, from greedy unions, and most importantly, from schools—to navigate an education marketplace that abounds in choices. It is also replete with money making opportunities, but that is not something that appears on the ALEC press releases.

As for how we’ll know when we’ve reached the future ALEC promises, as bright as the Arizona sunshine, well, that’s a bit vague. Trust families instead of regulators, goes the talking point. Or as DeVos’ spokesperson, Liz Hill, answeredwhen pressed about the lack of transparency in many voucher programs: parents don’t need “more data sets... A child’s progress—or lack thereof—is fully transparent to his or her parents.”

Diminishing Expectations

DeVos wasn’t listed among the ALEC headliners this year, a line-up heavy on conservative has-beens like Newt Gingrich, William J. Bennett and Jim DeMint. But among this crowd she’s regarded as a conquering heroine. That’s because the right-wing in Michigan just realized a decades-long dream and a top priority for the DeVos family: not only did they succeed in making Michigan, the cradle of industrial unionism, a right-to-work state, they also killed teacher pensions. New teachers in the Mitten state, where teacher salaries dropped for the last five years in a row, will now fund their own retirement. ALEC called the move a win for teachers and taxpayers, but didn’t mention the part where taxpayers will have to cough up at least $255 million to “fix” a problem that the anti-public school crowd largely created. Ending teacher pensions, one of the last remaining benefits the state’s once-powerful teachers unions could offer their members, will only hasten the unions’ demise. In the words of the old Mastercard commercial: “priceless."

In a new book that examines the work of ALEC and other corporate lobbies in all fifty states, economist Gordon Lafer argues that the singular fixation upon crushing teachers unions is about much more than mere money. In virtually every community, schools represent the largest employer, providing something that is increasingly underheard of these days: decent wages, good benefits and the prospect of a retirement that doesn’t involve collecting cans. The presence of these large employers—schools, public universities, hospitals—raises the expectations of the public about what’s possible, Lafer argues. “ALEC’s vision of the future is actually really bleak,” Lafer told me recently. “That’s why so much of their legislative focus is on limiting what people are entitled to, especially in education.” The relentless effort to rid the world of teachers pensions, says Lafer, is also about lowering the expectations of everyone else....

2x? note volutary:

James H. Davidson believes in the First Amendment. The former college newspaper editor turned lawyer turned Senate aide is now one of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington.

For two decades, Davidson has been the point man for the advertising industry in free speech issues. More recently his clients have also included food and beverage companies in alliance with advertisers. They have joined forces to lead the fight against the proposedgovernment guidelines on sugar, salt and fat in food marketed to 2- to 17-year-olds.

Davidson also says there is no proof that food marketing causes obesity, and without it, there is no legal basis for restricting the ads.

"The First Amendment protects this type of speech," he said.

Other lobbyists pointed to the role of potentially unlimited political donations in explaining how industry has been able to so thoroughly defeat the proposed salt, sugar and fat guidelines.

In 2009, Congress passed a measure proposed by Harkin and Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) to ask the FTC and three other agencies -- the CDC, the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration -- to draft voluntary nutrition standards for children's food marketing. The two senators were motivated by studies showing that children develop lifelong preferences from watching ads that target them with saltier, sweeter foods than adults.

Working Families Hit Hardest by ALEC Policies

The devastating impact of the Koch/ALEC budget agenda in Kansas must be enough to make some people glad they're not in Kansas anymore.

The result of Governor Brownback's ALEC-backed policies in the Sunflower State has been to widen the income inequality gap by shifting income to the state's wealthiest taxpayers and corporations, while suppressing wages and cutting services for the middle class, low-income children, and veterans. Brownback slashed education funding by $51 million last school year, forcing the early closure of Kansas schools, and asked for another $62.6 million in cuts this past July. Meanwhile, Kansas corporations walked away with $276.7 million in tax breaks and subsidies during Brownback's first term in office.

The biggest benefits of Governor Brownback's 2012 tax program went to the top 1% while actually increasing taxes for the bottom 20%. Kansas now has the 9th most unfair tax system of any state in the country, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The poorest 20% of Kansans pay 11.1% of their income in state taxes, while the richest 1% pay just 3.6%.

ALEC's supply-side policies are getting a cold reception among Kansas residents. A recent poll found that Governor Brownback is the most disliked governor in the country, with an approval rating of only 26%, and that three out of four people surveyed believed they were paying higher state taxes now than two years ago.

"ALEC is rolling out this latest report on the eve of its meeting in Arizona with the 2016 election heating up to try to convince people that its prescription of tax cuts for the rich and austerity for the rest of us is sound economics," said Lisa Graves, Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy. "Those policies have failed in Wisconsin, and they are failing in Kansas."

For more information on ALEC business climate rankings and Kansas please see a newly launched website, Grading the States — gradingstates.org — which dissects several state business climate rankings, including ALEC's Rich States, Poor States. The website is a project of Peter Fisher of the Iowa Policy Project.

Last Friday, Brownback signed a bill prohibiting local courts from relying on sharia, or Islamic law, as well as other non-U.S. laws when making decisions. The fact that such a thing had never occurred in the Midwestern wheat capital did not matter. The bill was approved in a landslide vote: 33-1 in the Senate and 120-0 in the House.

“Serious economists across the political spectrum consider the notion that income tax cuts will pay for themselves fanciful,” Erica Williams, senior analyst for the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities wrote in the report published this week and discussed during a teleconference Wednesday with news reporters from across the country.

Eliminating the state income tax has been a cornerstone of Brownback’s agenda and also is supported by ALEC in Kansas and other states. The governor has proposed extending a 2010 sales tax increase as part of what he call’s “the glide path” to eliminating the Kansas income tax, which historically has accounted for 25 percent to 30 percent of state revenues. For at least the past four decades, schools and social services have been the biggest areas of state spending.

Brownback singled out

The report singled out Brownback for the tax cuts he signed into law last year, the biggest in state history, and his reliance on advice from controversial, supply-side economist Arthur Laffer, who has worked for ALEC as a consultant.

2/13

Cutting income taxes won’t generate enough economic growth to offset resulting losses to government coffers, forcing policy makers to cut funding for public schools and needed health and social services, according to a coalition of national policy analysts who issued a report taking aim at Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council. - See more at: http://www.khi.org/news/article/brownback-and-alec-tax-policies-criticized-liberal#sthash.RhvCUCEA.dpuf

Brownback predicted when he signed last year’s cuts, which became effective Jan. 1, that they would be an “adrenaline shot” to the economy.“Kansas has done more than any state in recent years to implement ALEC’s fiscal agenda,” the report said. “In 2012, Governor Sam Brownback hired ALEC’s Arthur Laffer to design and help sell a tax plan for Kansas. A version of Brownback and Laffer’s proposal became law.”

But this year, like last, he has proposed extending a 2010 sales tax increase scheduled to lapse on July 1, in order to make up for some of the anticipated losses in revenues from the income tax reductions. For that, Brownback has earned opposition from conservatives and liberals. Conservatives say they would choose deeper spending cuts over the sales tax increase. Liberals say sales taxes are regressive and hurt poor people more than those with higher incomes.

Brownback has heard before the criticisms of supply-side economics, a theory famously described as “voodoo economics” by Republican George H.W. Bush when he ran for president against Ronald Reagan in 1980. Some of the more recent criticism has come from conservative policymakers convinced the benefits have been oversold since the theory’s earlier heyday during the Reagan presidency.

But Brownback said he remains convinced cutting income taxes will recharge the state’s economy.

See more at: http://www.khi.org/news/article/brownback-and-alec-tax-policies-criticized-liberal#sthash.RhvCUCEA.dpuf

When Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) launched his radical economic plan, which cut taxes far beyond what his state could afford, he called it “a real-live experiment.” The governor said at the time, “We’ll see how it works.”

More than four years later, we have, indeed. Brownback’s plan has resulted in debt downgrades, weak growth, and state finances in shambles. The latest data adds insult to injury: “State figures released Tuesday showed that tax revenue came in $11.2 million below expectations in March, the latest in a string of lower-than-expected tax receipts.” The report came two weeks after the governor said his plan is “working.”

As msnbc’s Trymaine Lee reported over the weekend, it’s reached the point at which some Kansas public school districts are wrapping up the school year early because they don’t have the money needed to keep the doors open.

As a result of [Brownback’s] cuts, the two Kansas school districts have announced that they’ll be cutting their school years short because of an expected budgetary shortfall, including a reduction of state aid and increasing financial pressure. The Twin Valley School District will end its year on May 8 instead of May 20, while the Concordia school district will end its school year about a week short, on May 15 rather than May 21. Concordia schools also will be closed on April 16 and May 1, to spread out the days certain staff won’t be paid.

“The board’s made a difficult decision,” Twin Valley Superintendent Jan Neufeld told The Wichita Eagle. “We have just a few fiscal reserves.”

Nothing says “21st-century super power” like American schools closing early because a state can’t afford to keep the lights on.

Though the governor’s office is trying to avoid responsibility for the early school-closings, the Wichita Eagle reported last week that these districts are “losing $51 million they expected to receive for the current school year after Gov. Sam Brownback signed a school funding overhaul bill in March.”

In theory, this might cause state policymakers to take a fresh look at the tax policies that have ruined state finances, but as of last week, Kansas Republicans appear to have a very different priority in mind: imposing new restrictions on how welfare recipients can receive and spend limited benefits.

Kansas welfare recipients will be unable to get more than $25 per day in ATM cash withdrawals under a new law sent this week to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s desk by the state legislature.

The bill also prohibits welfare recipients from spending their benefits at certain types of businesses, including liquor stores, fortune tellers, swimming pools and cruise ships.

As the Huffington Post’s report explained, under Kansas’ TANF program, a low-income family of three is eligible to receive $429 per month in benefits through government-issued debit cards.

portfolio --> vol 5/15

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-real-world-effects-brownbacks-kansas-experiment

The Kansas legislature has sent a bill to Gov. Sam Brownback’s (R) desk that limits welfare recipients to withdrawing just $25 a day from their benefits and enacts a range of other restrictions.

If Brownback signs the law, recipients of the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program would only be able to withdraw $25 a day with their benefits cards from ATMs, which act like debt cards. No other states or the federal government currently limit withdrawals.

While one of the backers of the bill asserted that recipients could take out more at a bank counter, the cards can’t be used at counters and many poor people lack access to bank accounts given the need to maintain balances and pay fees. Seventeen million Americans are unbanked, going without formal financial products. Meanwhile, during debate over the bill state Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau (D) pointed out that many recipients need to withdraw hundreds of dollars some days in order to be able to pay rent. The bill bans welfare recipients from using their benefits or withdrawing them at movie theaters, nail salons, pools and spas, liquor stores, jewelry stores, casinos or racing facilities, tattoo and piercing parlors, cruise ships, and other locations.It also imposes hard caps on how long recipients can get benefits. After 36 months, poor people would hit the lifetime limit and not be able to get any further benefits unless they could prove they had an extraordinary hardship such as sexual assault, in which case they could get 12 additional months. The federal lifetime limit, on the other hand, is five years. It also bans anyone with two felony drug convictions from ever getting welfare and suspends anyone who tests positive for drugs after enacting a drug testing program in 2014 that has cost $40,000 and only turned up 11 positive tests out of 2,783 applications. State Sen. Michael O’Donnell (R) said he wanted the bill to go “back to the ‘T’ and making sure this is ‘temporary.'”

But in spite of conservatism's seeming upswing, there are signs at a statewide level that its ideology is coming apart at the seams. Even conservatives are starting to take notice and worry.

First and foremost is the laughingstock that extremist Republican Sam Brownback has made of Kansas. Brownback slashed social welfare spending and implemented steep regressive income tax cuts, promising that his Laffer curve-based supply-side economic experiment would bring jobs and prosperity to Kansas while increasing government revenue.

In fact, the opposite has happened. Revenue projections in Kansas are in freefall, and the economic growth benefiting the rest of the country--including economically similar areas in surrounding states--has bypassed the Sunflower State. Just in the last week Kansans received another flurry of bad news: revenue projections are even worse than the disastrous figures projected last month, forcing even deeper cuts to education and other services. But that won't be possible, as a panel of judges has ruled that Kansas is already shortchanging K-12 education. In desperation, Brownback has proposed further reductions in state funding to its already woefully underfunded public employee pension system, a move that is meeting with stiff resistance even from his fellow Republicans.

As a result, Kansas Republicans are confronting the previously unthinkable possibility that the tax cuts may need to be repealed. Brownback's own budget director has said that "everything is on the table, including the tax policy." It has been many years since a Republican-dominated state government has publicly considered the need to reverse course on low-tax economic policy.

The failure of Brownback's experiment is also being replicated in New Jersey, where governor Chris Christie slashed pensions, cut taxes for the rich, laid off public employees and gave away $2 billion of tax incentives, only to watch New Jersey rank next-to-last in job growth. Christie's obvious fiscal mismanagement in New Jersey has been a major reason for his slide in early polling of potential Republican presidential contenders.

GOP legislators in other states have taken notice. Writing at Politico, Rachael Blade captured the nervousness of conservative legislators around the country. Indiana's Senate Majority leader said, "It’s a cautionary tale on a national scale...we have to ensure the stability of a revenue stream to provide basic services that our citizens expect." Legislators and their aides from Ohio to Arizona have gone on the record with similar statements.

brownback fails

This should come as no surprise. His tenure in the Senate was characterized by his righteous absolutism and entirely predictable ultra-conservative vote. There was no tax cut he did not back or military adventure he wasn't in favor of. He voted to impeach President Clinton and even took the unusual step of decrying the immorality of the American public for failing to be properly outraged. But it was in the realm of culture and religion where he made his mark.

Once a devout evangelical Protestant, Brownback converted to Catholicism later in life. (His chief of staff at the time was none other than Congressman Paul Ryan, who is credited with counseling him in his conversion.) In the Senate he took up the banner of the culture war, even chairing a Senate group called the Values Action Team which included such conservative activist groups as Concerned Women for America, Family Research Council, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the National Right to Life Committee, where he and fellow right-wing senators plotted their strategy for taking America back to the Dark Ages. He was so doctrinaire he even refused to vote for a particular judicial candidate because she had once attended a lesbian commitment ceremony. (She didn't officiate or participate; she merely attended.) For the two terms he served in the Senate he was a ferocious culture warrior.

But he wasn't always so intensely focused on the decadence and moral dissipation of modern American life. When he first ran for congress in the mid-'90s he was considered a moderate Kansas Republican like Eisenhower. But a tough campaign against an opponent backed by well-organized right-to-life zealots converted him to an evangelical culture warrior and Republican revolutionary so committed to cutting taxes and shrinking government one profiler said he even gave Newt Gingrich "the willies."

He became leader of a House group called the New Federalists which devoted itself to the dismantling of the government one brick at a time. Fortunately, they were unable to pass their ambitious agenda so they instead became the far-right's hitmen, pioneering the use of hard-core obstructionist tactics to paralyze the government. They were the faction agitating the hardest for a government shutdown in 1995, pushing Gingrich to his most obstreperous limits (and setting the stage for his precipitous fall from grace). Joe Scarborough famously quoted Brownback telling him not to be disillusioned by the PR disaster that ensued, saying "Rome wasn't burnt in a day."

His far-right fiscal bona fides solidly demonstrated, Brownback turned his attention to social issues when he ran for the Senate in 1996 at the height of the religious right's growing clout in the GOP. He spent the next 12 years as a hardcore fiscal conservative but more importantly, as a far-right Christian crusader, sometimes fashioning himself as a "Wilberforce" conservative (after the British anti-slavery activist) comparing abolition of slavery to his determination to ban abortion. He's been closely associated for years with the secretive Christian fellowship group known as the Family.

By the time he tried to run for president in 2008, he appeared to be perfect conservative candidate. Unfortunately, the anticipated groundswell didn't materialize and he dropped out before the primaries. But he did participate in the early debates and was memorably one of the three (with Mike Huckabee and Tom Tancredo) who raised his hand to declare he did not believe in evolution.

Evidently, he really wanted an executive position, so he set his sights on the governor's seat in Kansas and in the Tea Party wave of 2010, won decisively. Brownback's Kansas has turned out to be a perfect petrie dish for every right-wing policy proposal he's championed for the past 20 years. With a Republican legislature and a strong mandate, he quickly established his tenure as the right-wing experiment to end all experiments. The results are in and they are amazing. And not in a good way.

Unlike other Tea Party governors around the nation who have tried out a handful of their more extreme policies, Brownback went for broke. First he and his Koch brother allies (they are Kansas homeboys too, you'll recall) engineered a full-blown Tea Party takeover of the legislature with a well-funded primary strategy in 2012. It is now the most conservative legislature in the nation (and that's saying something considering how conservative Republican legislatures have become). In their minds, they are on a mission from God.

He went after the teachers' union, in one particularly clever move creating what he called "innovation zones" which allow districts to circumvent existing state law regarding curriculum and teacher salaries. He slashed education funding, including cutting the arts programs entirely. He privatized Medicaid. (It goes without saying refused the Medicaid expansion under the ACA.) He defunded Planned Parenthood and signed one of the most far reaching anti-abortion laws in the land, declaring that life begins at "fertilization" and forcing the last remaining Kansas providers to read an anti-abortion script filled with frightening misinformation to women seeking the procedure. (He doesn't even try to hide his religious motives—he wrote the words Jesus + Mary on top of the bill when he signed it.)

Gun legislation has been similarly extreme. Adopting the language of the 10th Amendment fetishists, they managed to pass what they called the Second Amendment Protection Act, a thoroughly useless piece of legislation declaring that the state of Kansas does not have to observe federal gun laws under its "sovereign" status. This last April, Brownback signed the "CLEO Shall Sign and Comprehensive Preemption legislation" which, among other things, prohibits all county and municipal initiative to regulate firearms and ammunition. So much for the vaunted small government, local control portion of the conservative program.

All of this was to be expected from Sam Brownback. But the results of his equally fundamentalist approach to economics has made a lot of people stand up and take notice. First and foremost, he slashed taxes to the bone. Well, not for everyone. The Center on Budget and policy priorities shows how that tax cut has been distributed:

Click to enlarge.

And he cut spending, especially for education, as far as the eye can see:

Click to enlarge.

(Of course, Governor Brownback is a huge proponent of religious home schooling so this is killing two birds with one stone.)

His economic mentor and top adviser, the thoroughly discredited inventor of supply-side economics, Arthur Laffer, explained the game plan back in 2012 this way:

Laffer told more than 200 people at a small-business forum at Johnson County Community College that there is a war among states over tax policy and that nowhere is that revolution more powerful than in Kansas. He said Kansas’ tax cuts and political shifts will produce “enormous prosperity” for the state.

How's that working out? Well, last May this happened:

Moody’s Investors Service dropped Kansas from its second-highest bond rating, Aa1, to its third highest, Aa2. The Kansas Department of Transportation also took the same downgrade.

“The downgrade reflects Kansas’ relatively sluggish recovery compared with its peers, the use of non-recurring measures to balance the budget, revenue reductions resulting from tax cuts which have not been fully offset by recurring spending cuts, and an underfunded retirement system for which the state is not making required contributions,” the report said.

And that's not all. This graph shows what's the matter with Kansas in 2014 in red, white and blue:

Click to enlarge.

As Michael Hiltzik of the LA Times pointed out, if the last few years have shown anything, it's that draconian spending cuts inhibit economic growth while preservation of the services that businesses and workers require to thrive enable it. He cites the example of California where Gov. Jerry Brown successfully raised taxes once the recession was over. As you can see above, California's job growth and prosperity is now leading the nation.

Yes, the citizens of Kansas voted in this right-wing wrecking crew, but it must be remembered that there was a whole lot of help from the deep pockets of native sons Charles and David Koch, who wanted to demonstrate once and for all how well their libertarian economic ideas would work if only they were given a chance. Unlike their counterparts in DC, they didn't have to deal with a Democratic usurper in the Governor's Mansion—they had a true believer leading the way and full rein to see their ideology put to the test.

Their problem now is not because they are seen as the Party of No, or that they are using obstructionist tactics that offend the sensibilities of those who seek a nice bipartisan consensus. These Republicans got everything they wanted. Governor Brownback's approval rating is unsurprisingly in the dirt and he is in grave danger of losing re-election. Another nail in his coffin was pounded in last week when more than 100 current and former Republican officialsendorsed Brownback's Democratic opponent, citing the failure of his economic program and the extreme nature of his overall agenda.

Just as other races in the country are reflecting the fight between the GOP establishment and the Tea Party wing, Kansas will be a battleground in the fall for the latest fight for the soul of the Republican Party. But this time it isn't just about race or the culture war or bad political tactics. This one is about all of that to be sure. But this time the Koch brothers' libertarian economic dream agenda has been enacted and it's on the ballot. If America wants to see what the country will look like if the Brownback wing of the GOP manages to get its way nationally, they only need to look at Sam Brownback's Kansas—a disaster on every level.

Heather Digby Parton is a writer also known as Digby. Her political and cultural observations can be found at www.digbysblog.blogspot.com.

http://www.alternet.org/what-happened-when-extremist-christian-fundamentalist-got-run-whole-state?paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark

perry response rally?

Over the weekend, the Kansas City Star published 404? a lengthy article explaining how Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Kansas, has for years maintained a symbiotic relationship with the right-wing oil plutocrats David and Charles Koch and their conglomerate Koch Industries. Alongside Brownback in the Senate, Koch Industries, which is based in Wichita, has counted outgoing Wichita Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) as one of its closest allies in the House of Representatives.

"We are calling on the food industry to tackle this threat and boldly reinvent the food marketplace," FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said at a hearing in December 2009. As for kids' marketing, he noted, not only Congress but some companies wanted government guidance. "We will have such a uniform framework in place, we expect, by this summer," Leibowitz said.

Summer came and went. Brownback left the Senate at the end of 2010. When the draft guidelines were finally published in April 2011 -- to praise from health groups -- business interests say they were shocked by the low sugar and salt suggestions.

"These are voluntary guidelines," Harkin said. "What's the industry so afraid of?" The companies said the recommendations could become requirements and kill marketing of 88 of the 100 most popular food products, including Cheerios, whole wheat bread and yogurt.

The industry mobilized. Food and media companies hired Anita Dunn, former White House communications chief under Obama, to run media strategy. The industry created a group called the Sensible Food Policy Coalition. And it paid for a report that said the restrictions would result in 75,000 lost jobs and $28.6 billion in lost revenue to companies -- estimates based on the supposition that the guidelines would cut one in five food ads.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Sam_Brownback

Sam Brownback

From Sourcewtch

Samuel Dale Brownback, a Republican, is the governor of Kansas since January 2011.^[1] Previously, he was a Senator from Kansas since winning a 1996 special election until 2011. (map). He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for the 2008 presidential election.^[2]

Contents[hide]

Record and controversies

General information about important bills and votes for can be found in Congresspedia's articles on legislation. You can add information you find on how Sam Brownback voted by clicking the "[edit]" link to the right and typing it in. Remember to cite your sources!

Iraq War

Brownback voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq in Oct. 2002.

For more information see the chart of U.S. Senate votes on the Iraq War.

Jack Abramoff money

Brownback accepted $42,000 from Jack Abramoff, a disgraced ex-lobbyist involved in a wide-reaching public corruption scandal. This prompted Wyandotte Nation Chief Leaford Bearskin to state in a press release that he was "outraged and so very disappointed to learn that Senator Brownback reportedly received large sums of dirty money from Jack Abramoff, a Washington D.C. lobbyist who abused the political system for financial gain at the expense of the Native American community."[1]

D.C. flat tax

In December 2005, Brownback advocated using Washington, DC as a "laboratory" for a flat tax. His advocated position on this issue was "that making D.C. a test case would, with limited potential for negative impact, provide valuable data about the effects of a flat tax that would prove helpful in determining whether it should be applied nationwide." [2] This has irked many residents of the District, as the idea of a Senator from Kansas forcing a system of taxation on them would seem to only further the District's taxation without representation. Indeed, DC mayor Anthony A. Williams said "Leaving aside the merits of this proposal, we continue to resist any efforts on the part of any member of Congress to impose rules and regulations on the people of the District." [3]

Same-sex unions

Brownback was recently criticized for comments he made during an interview with Rolling Stone magazine. In the interview, he is quoted as having criticized Sweden for allowing same-sex civil unions. "You'll know them by their fruits," Brownback said, quoting Matthew 7:19. [4] Rolling Stone writer Jeff Sharlet publicly stated that the term was a faux pas and informed Brownback's office that he would be glad to back Brownback up on this one specific point, but Brownback preferred to insist that Sharlet had misunderstood his scriptural reference. In fact, as Sharlet later wrote on The Revealer, the journal of NYU's Center for Religion and Media, the Brownback's comment came in a conversation in which he defended his opposition to queer rights even though he did not know the Bible verses upon which he claimed to base it. [5] Wrote Sharlet:

"I ask the senator whether he’s aware of the contested interpretations of the Hebrew and Greek passages on which Christian conservatives base their opposition to homosexuality. I’m particularly interested in Leviticus 20:13, which some ultraconservatives believe mandates the death penalty for gay men, and Romans 1, both of which, I tell him, I’ve been discussing with some Bible scholars. He frowns. It turns out he’s not aware of the passages. This does not bother him. “It’s pretty clear,” he says, his fingers folded into a temple beneath his chin, “what we know in our hearts.” [6]"Brownback calls this knowledge “natural law,” but the “evidence” produced by a heart that hates homosexuality is a far cry from the “natural law” St. Paul spoke of in Romans 1:19-20, which simply holds that gentiles as well as Jews could infer God from the world around them. Rather, Brownback has embraced a circular logic of self-observation: Homosexuality is wrong based on the evidence that he believes it is wrong. To legislate against it or any other practice his heart tells him is sin is not theocratic, it’s “natural.” " [7]

Support for General Pace's remarks on homosexuality

Brownback backed General Pace a few days after he came under fire for calling homosexual acts immoral. When asked if he agreed with Pace's comments, Brownback stated, "I do not believe being a homosexual is immoral, but I do believe homosexual acts are. I'm a Catholic and the church has clear teachings on this." [8]

Regulations on violent television programming

In mid-July of 2007, Brownback planned to introduce legislation to establish a new federal standard that would prevent some television shows from airing on broadcast networks before 10 p.m.. The bill would be an amendment to a financial services appropriations bill that would have the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopt measures to "protect children from excessively violent video programming."^[3]

Critics of the legislation argue that the amendment's definition of excessively violent programming, which is violence that is "patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards," is simply too vague, giving the FCC too much control over what it would be able to restrict.^[4]

Others pointed out that this bill would restrict shows like "Law and Order," which used to feature one of Brownback's rivals in the GOP presidential nomination, Fred Thompson.^[5]

Bio

Background

Born September 12, 1956, Brownback grew up on his family's farm near Parker, Kansas. He graduated from Kansas State University in 1979 and received a law degree from the University of Kansas in 1982. He was an attorney before becoming the Kansas secretary of agriculture in 1986. In 1990, he was selected to be a White House Fellow for the Class of '90-91, to serve in George H.W. Bush's Administration. After serving one year, Brownback returned to Kansas to resume his position as secretary of agriculture until 1993.

He was received into the Roman Catholic church in 2002, with the assistance of fellow Republican Senator Rick Santorum. Contrary to popular rumor, he is not a member of the Catholic Church's Opus Dei, although he was introduced to Catholicism by a member.

Congressional career

Brownback was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives in 1994, and served one term before he was elected Senator in a special election in November 1996 to replace Bob Dole. (Dole resigned his Senate seat during his presidential campaign). Brownback was elected to a full term in the Senate in 1998.

Brownback has announced that he will not run for reelection in 2010 in accordance with his support of term limits.

Views and positions

Brownback is a far-right, outspoken, socially conservative politician, joining staunch senate conservatives such as Rick Santorum, Pat Roberts and Tom Coburn in pushing for hard-line social reform. He opposes federal-funding of embryonic stem cell research and also favors capital punishment. He believes that homosexuality is an "abomination." He is averse to same-sex marriage, is "concerned" about pornography [9], and is pro-life, having compared abortion to the Holocaust or infanticide. [10].

He was one of the leading opponents of Bush Supreme Court nominee Harriet E. Miers, whom many regarded as not qualified enough and perhaps too moderate.

According to his web site, "Brownback has taken an active role in developing U.S. foreign policy concerning India, Pakistan, Central Asia and Iraq."[11]

Brownback has been active on attempting to increase U.S. involvement in the Darfur conflict [12] and is an endorser of the Genocide Intervention Network [13].

Presidential bid

Through 2006, Brownback had little name recognition outside of Washington, D.C. and his home state of Kansas. In 2006, however, he began making visits to early primary and caucus states such as New Hampshire and Iowa. In an appearance on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson voiced support of a Brownback presidential bid.

Brownback announced that he had formed a presidential exploratory committee on December 4, 2006, officially signaling his intention to pursue his party's nomination. [14]

Brownback officially announced his candidacy in the 2008 presidential election on January 20, 2007.[15] He was running on a "compassionate conservative" platform. His presidential campaign ended after he peaked in the polls with the support of 3 percent of Republicans.^[1]

2010 election

In 2010, Sen. Brownback ran for governor of Kansas. He won the seat of former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) who left to become President Obama's health and human services secretary.^[1]

Money in politics

This section contains links to – and feeds from – money in politics databases. cid=N00005244&cycle=2006

Links to more campaign contribution information for Sam Brownback from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org site.	Links to more campaign contribution information for Sam Brownback from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org site.	Links to more campaign contribution information for Sam Brownback from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org site.
Fundraising profile:	2006 election cycle	Career totals
Top contributors by organization/corporation:	2006 election cycle	Career totals
Top contributors by industry:	2006 election cycle	Career totals

Links to more campaign contribution information for Sam Brownback

from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org site.

Links to more campaign contribution information for Sam Brownback

from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org site.

Links to more campaign contribution information for Sam Brownback

from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org site.

Fundraising profile:

2006 election cycle

Career totals

Top contributors by organization/corporation:

2006 election cycle

Career totals

Top contributors by industry:

2006 election cycle

Career totals

Revolving door profile for Sam Brownback from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org website.

2006 privately funded travel profile for Sam Brownback from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org website.

Personal finance profile for Sam Brownback from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org website.

Committees and affiliations

Advisory Committee, Susan B. Anthony List ^[6]

Advisory Board, Institute on Religion and Public Policy ^[7]

Advisory Board (2000 at least), The Sudan Campaign ^[8]

Board of Reference, Servant's Heart ^[9]

Presidium, Jerusalem Summit ^[10]

Committees

Senate Committee on Appropriations

Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, and Related Agencies

Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science

Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government

Subcommittee on Military Contruction and Veterans Affairs

Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs

Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, Judiciary, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies

Senate Committee on the Judiciary

Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights

Subcommittee on the Constitution

Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law

Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security

Joint Economic Committee - Ranking Member

Committee assignments in the 109th Congress (2005-2006)

Joint Economic Committee

Senate Committee on Appropriations

Subcommittee on Agriculture Rural Development and Related Agencies

Subcommittee on Commerce Justice and Science

Subcommittee on the District of Columbia - Chair

Subcommittee on State Foreign Operations and Related Programs

Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs

Subcommittee on Transportation Treasury the Judiciary and Housing and Urban Development

Senate Committee on the Judiciary

Subcommittee on Antitrust Competition Policy and Consumer Rights

Subcommittee on the Constitution Civil Rights and Property Rights - Chair

Subcommittee on Corrections and Rehabilitations

Subcommittee on Immigration Border Security and Citizenship

Subcommittee on Intellectual Property

More background data

Background information on Sam Brownback from Project Vote Smart

Interest group scorecard ratings for Sam Brownback from Project Vote Smart

Voting record for Sam Brownback from the Washington Post database

Information on Sam Brownback from Congress Merge

Wikipedia also has an article on Sam Brownback. This article may use content from the Wikipedia article under the terms of the GFDL.

Articles and resources

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 Sam Brownback profile, The Washington Post, accessed January 2011.

↑ James Carlson, "GOP hopes to pack punch in 2010", "The Capital-Journal", November 9, 2008

↑ Ian Swanson. [http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/brownback-takes-aim-at-law-and-order-2007-07-12.html "Brownback takes aim at ‘Law and Order’," The Hill. July 12, 2007.

↑ Advisory Committee, Susan B. Anthony List, accessed December 19, 2007.

↑ Advisory Board, Institute on Religion and Public Policy, accessed June 29, 2008.

↑ The growth of the Sudan Campaign, SudanReeves, accessed August 4, 2008.

↑ About us, Servant's Heart, accessed August 4, 2008.

↑ Jerusalem Summit Presidium, Jerusalem Summit, accessed August 4, 2008.

Resources

Official website

Sam Brownback on the Issues

Technorati Search: Sam Brownback

Google News Search: Sam Brownback

Yahoo! News Search: Sam Brownback

Power Trips: How much does Sam Brownback travel?

GovTrack Statistics: Sam Brownback

Segment on Brownback's stem-cell presentation on the Senate floor, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (delivered by Crooks and Liars.) (Other Daily Show non-interview segments on members of Congress.)

See how you compare to Sam Brownback

Profiles

Profile: Sam Brownback, Politics Nationwide.

Official Biography

Brownback blogs

Anybody But Brownback

The Anti-Sam Brownback Blog

Catholics for Brownback

Koch Industries	$127,050	$101,050	$26,000
AT&T Inc	$88,120	$26,450	$61,670
American Medical Assn	$41,450	$1,450	$40,000
Sprint Communications	$36,050	$17,800	$18,250
American Institute of CPAs	$35,000	$0	$35,000
Herzog Contracting	$33,124	$28,124	$5,000
National Assn of Realtors	$32,000	$0	$32,000
National Beer Wholesalers Assn	$32,000	$0	$32,000
Hallmark Cards	$31,700	$14,700	$17,000
Russell Stover Candies	$30,000	$30,000	$0
New Republican Majority Fund	$29,998	$0	$29,998
Lockheed Martin	$27,200	$700	$26,500
National Auto Dealers Assn	$27,100	$0	$27,100
National Restaurant Assn	$26,600	$0	$26,600
United Parcel Service	$26,450	$250	$26,200
PepsiCo Inc	$26,300	$12,800	$13,500
American Bankers Assn	$26,250	$250	$26,000
Westar Energy	$26,200	$20,450	$5,750
Wal-Mart Stores	$25,700	$700	$25,000
Boeing Co	$25,200	$1,500	$23,700

Retired	$495,916
Health Professionals	$423,890
Oil & Gas	$412,589
Real Estate	$324,676
Lawyers/Law Firms	$321,538
Commercial Banks	$264,539
Securities & Investment	$250,605
Insurance	$245,412
Pro-Israel	$243,850
Telephone Utilities	$225,414
Leadership PACs	$223,357
Food & Beverage	$195,252
Air Transport	$192,474
General Contractors	$177,664
Republican/Conservative	$162,024
Automotive	$153,261
Retail Sales	$150,375
Misc Finance	$142,850
Food Processing & Sales	$142,150
Business Services	$137,233

Sector	Total	PACs	Indivs
Agribusiness	$518,493	$273,100	$245,393
Communications/Electronics	$701,797	$374,575	$327,222
Construction	$481,581	$220,800	$260,781
Defense	$98,898	$84,375	$14,523
Energy & Natural Resources	$571,589	$222,649	$348,940
Finance, Insurance & Real Estate	$1,412,596	$497,069	$915,527
Health	$626,557	$184,714	$441,843
Lawyers & Lobbyists	$458,611	$83,595	$375,016
Transportation	$545,142	$391,381	$153,761
Misc Business	$1,030,390	$401,490	$628,900
Labor	$26,200	$26,200	$0
Ideological/Single-Issue	$773,570	$499,126	$274,444
Other	$677,109	$0	$677,109

Brownback, S Gov

Attachments