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Opinion
Barry Ritholtz

The Kansas Supply-Side Experiment Unravels

Tax cuts were supposed to spur growth, boost revenue and create jobs. The results were the exact opposite.
The truth hurts.

The truth hurts.

Photographer: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

When a governor announces an economic theory as a solution to a state’s fiscal problems, while challenging all comers to observe the results, that's something I want to pay attention to. And so for the past five years, I have been watching the public-policy experiment in Kansas with great fascination.

With the state legislature now rejecting the governor’s experiment, we can move onto to the next phase: Not recrimination and blame, though there is lots of that going around. Instead, I want to look at how the experiment played out, and what lessons there are to be learned from it.