Republican Kansas State Senator Tim Owens: "Koch Industries is just a terrible, terrible citizen."

[Scuba]

Coverage thanks to Cognitive Dissidence.

Kansas State Senator Tim Owens is a moderate Republican that was unseated thanks in a large part by the Koch Brothers and their teahadist group, Americans for (Koch's) Prosperity. The Kochs, as you already know, bankrolls AFP to attack anyone and everyone who they see as a threat, like Owens.

...

Slate: But Koch Industries is a Kansas-based company that ostensibly provides jobs in Kansas, pays taxes in Kansas.

Owens: Sure, but they are absolutely opposed to taxes. If it were up to them they'd want us to do away with all taxes and leave them alone. They may be a Kansas business, they may be the biggest company run by a single family, but they need to be asking the question "What can we do for Kansas?" and not "What can Kansas do for us?" Koch Industries is just a terrible, terrible citizen as far as I'm concerned. I think Koch Industries has done a major disservice to the state of Kansas.

...

Owens: I've seen projections that say we'd be at a $2.7 billion in five years if we cut taxes too deeply. We have a constiutional mandate in Kansas that we have to balance the budget. if we're $2.7 billion in the hole, we either have to go back and raise taxes, which the new senators won't do, or we have to cut the programs. What do you cut in Kansas, where 67% of the budget is K-12 or higher ed? You're talking about higher ed taking a huge hit, and I suppose you're expecting private or parochical school to fill the gap. But Kansas right now is sixth in the nation for quality of public education. The theory, as I understand it, will be that businesses will bring enough new jobs to Kansas to make up the difference in funding. But if part of his tax plan is to eliminate income tax, it's not gonna make a lot of difference, is it? Do they raise the property tax instead? The whole theory is haywire.

Yes, it sounds just like Fitzwalkerstan.

[Ikonoklast]

1. Destroy education, and in ten years businesses will flee Kansas.

What use are a mass of under-educated workers besides unskilled labor?

[Yavin4]

8. "What use are a mass of under-educated workers besides unskilled labor?"

And they can get 1,000x more workers like that in China and India without any regulations at all.

[charmay]

2. Exactly like Fitzwalkerstan.

When will people wise up to these bigoted self-serving jerks. They will soon be flooding Wisconsin with tons of money to flip the senate back to republicans. If that happens, Wisconsin is doomed.

[BlueToTheBone]

3. And the Waltons are the same in Arkansas

Terrible terrible citizens.

[Doctor_J]

4. Kansas "moderate" (sane) Repukes are under seige

they see what's happening to the budget, the schools, the assistance programs, etc. and don't know what to do.

[MuseRider]

5. Making out like bandits

Brownback is giving tax breaks to business and in a year many will never have to pay any taxes at all and that includes much of the smaller off-shoots of Koch Industries. This was their year, everything they have added to the Republican platform is being worked on here too. There is nobody left who will speak against this unless you count the very few moderate Republicans who will speak and the cowering few Democrats who will squeak and hide.

Tim Owens is a good guy. I had my problems with some of his votes, after all he is a Republican, but we lost a very good and strong voice against the Talibornagain who have total control here now.

I went to KC to walk door to door for him in his primary several years ago. I am hoping he will think about running for a higher office, we need to hear from these moderate Republicans in this state. The Democrats may as well go home, nobody will ever hear them and they will never make enough of a noise to force them to hear them. We have to depend on some sensible moderate Republicans here at the moment.

[RKP5637]

6. My gut feeling is KS is going to see a flood of people leaving the state than supposedly flooding

to Kansas for all of the jobs this is supposed to create.

Residents, I think, are going to see educational levels falling, more and more services gutted, an increasing deterioration of the infrastructure and those not interested in a KS theocracy for government will be ready to leave.

Additionally, probably, real estate tax and sales tax will soar as the regime tries to fill the gap from lost income tax and corporate tax.

The educational levels in rural areas will fall horribly. The net/net will be a state falling backward in time, especially with the loss of education. Employers will flee Kansas as the level of literacy falls and falls.

In short, it's a recipe for a theocratic dystopia.

And who really wants to live under the feet of the Koch Brothers who have purchased the state.

[MuseRider]

7. It is raise hell time.

There is nothing left for us to do. No help in government anymore or at least no way for anyone who does want to help to help. It is going to go down fairly quickly I think but since this state sees nothing but good republicans and if it hears about democrats it is always bad. I see a push to elect moderate republicans but it did not work in the primaries so we have fewer of the few we had. It is going to be hell with no way out except to raise hell. <---this is something I look forward to, it is WAY past time

I wonder what the breaking point will be. Any thoughts? Sinking education does not seem to bring out enough interest, hurting the poor makes everyone go to God after all he only gives you what you can deal with, losing business just pisses off the right and makes them get worse.

[RKP5637]

13. I've been amazed that nothing seems to get a rise out of Kansans. It's like many

vote under robotic control. For lack of a better word, so many seem rum-dumb when it comes to paying attention to political issues and voting accordingly. I've been shocked at the loss of moderate republicans.

I was reading someplace the next area is an assault on judges, to vote in more RW judges to have a teabagger judicial system. And that is easy, since most people have no clue about voting for judges, if they even vote for them at all. So, of course, it does not take too many votes and only an organized concerted effort to swing the judicial system to a teabagger majority.

Sometimes I think only the complete failure of the system for the masses will lead to change. Without the great depression, much of what FDR did would not have occurred. I think more and more people will turn to religion, and that will be fertile ground for more teabagger authoritarianism and persecution.

Another thing I think will happen is more and more blue vs. red regionalism. I think, over time, students graduating, people wanting a different environment, different laws, etc. will gravitate more and more toward red and blue states ... because this country has become so radically polarized. That, sadly, will probably move Kansas, for example, into even more teabagger territory.

The politicians in Kansas, the teabagger RW group, do a gave disservice to Kansas nationally. Kansas, when in the national news, is usually a story about the next most outlandish thing these politicians have said or done. It makes it look like Kansas is a state of loonies. Most people would never consider moving to Kansas as a destination of choice. It is so sad what they have done and are doing to a state that is really pretty nice.

Maybe when residents see their real estate and sales tax soaring, maybe that will get their attention, anymore, though, I just don't know.

I think the net/net of it all is until voters get their heads out of their butts nothing is going to change. Somehow, voters have to eventually comprehend that most of the time they are being fed propaganda filled with lies, half-truths and distortions. They need to learn to do a bit of fact finding, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

[MuseRider]

22. Please don't hold your breath!

It is all a big circle, they get it from their elected officials and then they get it reinforced at the feed store with their pals and then in church on Sunday. Without a presence of another view point, and I mean a BIG and CONSTANT presence, there is no hope. We do not have anyone who is willing to do that, certainly not on their own dime and that is how it has to be, big and constant and on their own dime.

It is going to be hell here for the foreseeable future. I am set to die here so I will have to deal with it somehow. I have to admit, I have entertained the idea of just dropping out of the whole thing. There are so few of us out working for equality and other supposed liberal issues that it has become worse than beating your head against a brick wall. Most of the Dems that are left shut the door in your face without even telling you they will not talk to you (we had much better luck with the moderate Republicans, they seemed to be our main allies) This has been rare. Only the really conservative Dems, and when I say conservative dems I mean those that even the most right here would consider right of them, had done that before but now it is more often than not. Walking the halls with our lobbyist has gone from continual stopping to shake hands and chat to walking quietly through hallways full of people who do not even see you. Still, I can't do it. I have too much Free Stater blood in me to stop chewing on legs.

I guess my old adage about living here, it is a great place to vacation from, is about to become more true than ever.

I wish this state had not been given up on. We are certainly not alone in that. To give up on entire areas seems a crime to me, and STUPID.

[RKP5637]

23. Being a transplant here myself, I do not have the same ties, but I think Kansas is a pretty

nice place when/if one can get away from the politics ... which seems ever more invasive. I never thought I would see this happening in Kansas, and I never thought I would see the democratic party in Kansas seemingly vaporize. I think the DNC has pretty much written off Kansas, I guess. My same feelings, "I wish this state had not been given up on. We are certainly not alone in that. To give up on entire areas seems a crime to me, and STUPID."

[MuseRider]

24. I agree, it is a nice place

a very nice place. Thankfully these days I am rather isolated living out on the farm now. I do interact but mostly it is with other musicians, actors and literary people and most of them, not all, agree with me

Farmers I rarely engage in direct politics, most of them know how I think so we just talk around the issues. I stand by what I have always said, most farmers and ranchers are as socialist as I am but they do not know it and somehow can't think or don't think around it. Dissonance and heredity of party. Sure there are some issues they are definitely TB or RW on but as a whole just watch them as we suffer with the drought. Hay may very well be climbing astronomically in price but those around you will make certain your animals do not starve and never ask for return. My husband just had heart surgery but do you think my next load of 200 bales will be dealt with by me alone? I guarantee my hay guy will bring help at his expense and I will not even have to do much cause I would get in their way. We are as different as night and day in the way we think but the way we behave? I will pay him back someday but I would not have to, it is called being neighborly but what is that exactly? Republican Right Wing? Don't think so. It goes on forever around here, you don't even have to know someone for them to show up and help if they hear you are in need.

It is when I hit the statehouse or actually have to directly talk to others about issues I am supporting that I find myself so totally stunned at the stupid that goes right along with the hateful. It was never like that before. The nastiness with the Puerto Rican woman last night at the convention was nothing you would ever see here before but now it is common. You read it in the paper in the comments, you hear it on the radio, you hear it if you directly engage people and you hear it loud and clear from our state government.

We need to really think outside the box.

[madrchsod]

9. reminds me of one of the guys my dad worked back in the early 60`s...

my dad asked him why he moved his family from mississippi to northern illinois. he said he moved because he wanted his son to get a good education. he told my dad that only the rich white kids received a good education because they went to private schools. the rest of the white kids went to sub standard schools and the black kids were on their own.

it`s just not kansas... it`s happening across america.

[RKP5637]

12. Yep, it's the underpinnings of truly a third world country. Frankly, I do think the US

is headed to be some type of dystopia. The drag of an uneducated and poor society will pull the entire country down, eventually.

History repeats and repeats, and we have a growing group of politicians and wealthy that are too selfish and not bright enough, and not enough vision, to realize they are ravaging a war on this country that will topple 'society' ... and, they are too stupid and too selfish to comprehend that 'society,' is what made them what they are.

[Doctor_J]

19. Maybe we'll revisit the 1860's

only this time the president will have to good sense to cut off the "conservatives" and let them have their own 3rd world hell-hole. they can call it GlenBeckistan (until the precise moniker of North Haiti becomes a reality). The real Americans can live in the United states and share roads, water, education, health care, and other necessities.

[CanonRay]

10. The Koch brothers economic theories only work for the Koch brothers

When are Republican voters going to figure this out?

[porphyrian]

11. We need to pass a law that specifically denies citizenship and personhood to corporations.

As long as companies can reap the benefits of citizenship without the responsibilities or accountability of actual citizens, they will continue. When most people become aware of how bad this is for the majority of us, it will be too late. "Corporate personhood" needs to be squashed immediately.

[RKP5637]

15. It is absolutely insane, "Corporate personhood." SCOTUS is of absolutely no help, they are

stacked toward the right, and frankly, I don't find SCOTUS to be very bright!

[porphyrian]

21. Two of them will likely be appointed under the next President.

Fingers crossed...

[Doctor_J]

17. I assume some Dem/progressive groups are drafting a law suit

to do just that. Then as soon as Fat Tony or Slappy goes toes up, and the president appoints a real judge to the bench in place of a Bush political hack, they'll walk it through and this dark era will begin to wind down.

[porphyrian]

20. I like your optimism. Hear that, attorneys? n/t

[Initech]

14. If corporations are people can't we start arresting and prosecuting them for their crimes

[RKP5637]

16. They should be, and CEO heads should be rolling, but they hide behind legions of

attorneys and also have a bribed government/congressmen behind them.

[Doctor_J]

18. Corporations exist in the US AT OUR WHIM

they can have their charters yanked if they get out of line. Sadly no one's had the nerve to forcibly dissolve one of the most egregious criminal enterprises.