The reason Kansas is front and center is that they've been far far more successful in actually implementing the tax policies that the GOP says they want. I mean MASSIVE tax cuts and the like. Kansas politicians have made their state the great GOP red state "live experiment" as Governor Brownback put it.
After his election, Brownback, who was a U.S. senator for 14 years and a 2008 presidential candidate, quickly moved to consolidate conservative power in the state by successfully challenging more moderate Republicans. Advised by Arthur Laffer, the father of supply-side economics, and supported by special interest groups backed by conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, he pushed through legislation that cut taxes and spending, eliminated state jobs and denied far more applications for welfare assistance — not to mention that he tightened abortion regulations and loosened gun rules.
Brownback promised that the efforts would drive economic growth, create jobs and stabilize the Kansas budget. But the state is now reporting a more than $300 million revenue shortfall. The poverty rate increased. The state’s economy expanded a total of 2.3 percent in inflation-adjusted terms over the past two years, half the rate of its four neighbors. And Kansas’s credit rating has been downgraded.
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Can't condemn all Republicans for this because after he called it a live experiment in republican conservative policies many Republicans got pissed. Mostly because the experiment is failing miserably.
Here's Brownback's position on it:
Brownback didn’t just keep his promise, he embarked on a radical “real live experiment” in conservative governance. As he later explained to the Wall Street Journal, “My focus is to create a red-state model that allows the Republican ticket to say, ‘See, we’ve got a different way, and it works.’ ”
Brownback stepped out and tried to take a lead position by bragging on what conservative governance is and should look like so it's mostly a case of a guy building a giant pedestal to put himself on and watching it collapse in upon itself.