Vivek Ramaswamy, on the other hand, has not exactly been a profile in courage in recent months. While other Ohio politicians have been doing their best to protect the Springfield Haitians, he is saying as little as possible on the issue. He is also promising to roll back property taxes and to ultimately eliminate the state income tax. When he is asked about the fate of a similar tax cut in Kansas, he simply advises us that Ohio isn’t Kansas, without identifying the relevant differences.
Ramaswamy isn’t stupid, so he can’t possibly believe that his tax cut will pay for itself, regardless of what he tells the public. He has a different course in mind. Unlike the federal government, state governments can’t run deficits or print money. As a result, a “starve the beast” program, which notoriously failed in the Reagan years, can work in Ohio.
Ramaswamy is a CL. You have to think that his tax cut is largely a pretext for a ferocious attack on state spending. He probably thinks he can stand tall where Brownback faltered. For the sake of the people of Ohio, let’s hope he never gets the chance.