I’ll get you, my pretty

The grand austerity experiment of the once great state of Kansas has finally collapsed. The Republican-dominated legislature of Kansas passed a bill to reinstate some previous taxes in an effort to raise $1.2 billion in two years, but Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback vetoed the bill, which forced the legislature to override the veto. The Kansas state budget already faced a whopping $900 million shortfall over the next two years, according to CNN reports.

Can this kind of Republican madness occur in Arkansas?

The mainstream media may not have caught on yet, but there are two factors driving the Kansas fiscal calamity. The first factor is the Republican lack of will to cut Republican spending. Austerity cannot work until everybody cuts spending. The second factor is the Koch factor. The infamous king-makers, the Koch brothers, are headquartered on 37th Street in Wichita, Kan., which makes Kansas the veritable ground zero for austere Republican directives.

A better analogy would be the black-hole metaphor in which the Koch brothers have created a political black hole in Wichita that is destroying all common sense in the surrounding red states, and swallowing up Arkansas. For instance, just five months ago President Barack Obama left our nation and Arkansas with low unemployment and a booming economy. Gov. Asa Hutchinson and his general assembly of Koch zombies cannot even fund a highway bill.

Hey, Toto—we’re in Kansas! GENE MASON

Jacksonville