One year of President Trump: Kansans have been singing this same song for years now
After a year of Donald Trump as president, there’s no getting past the sense of déjà vu. Trump and Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback are very different personalities, but both are governing from the same right-wing playbook. There’s no reason to expect a different result for our nation if Trump and congressional Republicans keep dragging our nation down the ultra-conservative path followed by Brownback and Republicans in the Kansas Legislature.
As President, Trump has worked with Republicans in Congress to pass tax giveaways to multi-national corporations and the wealthiest Americans, even though the giveaways shortchange America’s retirees, children, workers and families. We have been promised supercharged economic growth as the result of shifting taxes away from corporations and the super-rich and onto working Americans — but we heard the same promises when Brownback worked with the Republicans in the Kansas Legislature to pass a similar tax scheme.
As part of the sales job for that Brownback tax plan, we were assured that growth and jobs would follow on the heels of tax cuts for corporations. We’re still waiting on the growth to come here in Kansas, but our economy has lagged behind neighboring states that followed more moderate economic agendas. We ought not expect that America will reach a different destination if Trump is following Brownback’s roadmap.
As president, Trump and Republicans in Congress have sought to make regular Americans pay for the giveaways to their donors. Their chief — but by no means only — way of shifting costs onto the rest of us is by making it harder for Americans to receive health care. First, Trump and congressional Republicans tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which millions of Americans (including my family) rely upon for health insurance. Now, Trump and congressional Republicans have allowed funding to expire for the bipartisan Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, prioritizing corporate profits over the well-being of our children. Even though the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has found that CHIP effectively pays for itself by avoiding worse and more expensive outcomes for American children, Trump and his congressional allies have refused to re-authorize the program.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve seen the same attack on health care here in Kansas. Brownback and Republicans in the Kansas Legislature refused to expand Medicaid, even though expansion would have been paid for by the federal taxes Kansans are already paying, and even though expansion would have provided a lifeline to Kansas’ children and our rural doctors and hospitals.
The similarities between what we’ve seen come out of Topeka under Brownback’s leadership and what we’re getting out of Washington from Trump go on and on. Here in Kansas, Brownback and legislative Republicans have shortchanged our schools and our children by cutting support for public education. In Washington, Trump and congressional Republicans have stocked the Department of Education with appointees determined to privatize our schools.
In Kansas, we’ve seen our infrastructure ignored because the Brownback tax scheme required the state to raid our highway fund. In D.C., Trump’s tax scheme hasn’t left the resources to invest in America, despite his campaign promises about infrastructure.
Don’t be fooled by the superficial differences between Brownback and Trump. Yes, Brownback is a boring man. While a candidate, he was honest about his policy preferences. He lacks a string of personal peccadillos and a penchant for picking fights on Twitter to distract us from his policy failures.
Trump is not boring — not in the slightest. Unlike Brownback, Trump didn’t tell the truth while he was a candidate about how he would govern. But we should not let these superficial differences between Trump and Brownback distract us from their deep policy similarities.
We’re only a year into Donald Trump’s presidency, but Kansans have suffered through his policies for seven long years. We shouldn’t expect different results from Trump’s Washington than we’ve been getting from Brownback’s Topeka.
John Gibson is chair of the Kansas Democratic Party.
This story was originally published January 20, 2018 at 7:00 AM with the headline "One year of President Trump: Kansans have been singing this same song for years now."