Want to see how a Republican president would perform? Just look at the abysmal record of GOP governors.

(Image credit: (AP Photo/ Richard Shiro))

published 18 June 2015

If you want to know what kinds of policies the Republican candidates would bring to the White House, you don't have to look much farther than Republican governors. Even the non-governors running for president agree on the basic theory that they've been implementing: cut taxes, cut regulation, cut spending, and watch as your state is transformed into a Shangri-La of prosperity and human flourishing. Freed of government's yoke, businesses will create untold numbers of jobs, revenues will swell, and government will be able to do the important things better than ever.

Fortunately, we have an ongoing test in how this template works. Let's visit a few of these showcases to see how it's going:

Wisconsin: Scott Walker's early moves to cut taxes and crush labor unions have somehow not produced the spectacular results he predicted. During his tenure the state's job growth has often been the worst in the Midwest. While Walker is off campaigning for president, Republican state legislators are struggling to figure out how to pay for some of what Walker wants, including a $500 million arena to keep the Milwaukee Bucks from moving. Prospects are good, however, for Walker's plan to force poor people getting assistance to submit to drug tests (at press time, there was no word on whether the owners of the Bucks would have to pee into a cup before getting their $500 million handout).

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Louisiana: Faced with a budget deficit, Gov. Bobby Jindal resorted to a comical set of contortions to bring in revenue while convincing Americans for Tax Reform's Grover Norquist not to proclaim that Republicans in the state had violated their pledge not to ever, ever, ever raise taxes. The word "gimmick" is insufficient to describe this bizarre scheme, in which students at state universities are assessed a $1,500 fee and then immediately given a $1,500 credit, while money is credited to and simultaneously drawn from a special fund...you get the idea. The sole point of the exercise is to raise taxes while pretending that they haven't actually raised taxes so as not to anger the mighty Norquist.

Kansas: Gov. Sam Brownback instituted perhaps the most extreme version of the Republican template, completely eliminating many taxes on businesses. Instead of the economic nirvana he predicted, revenues plunged and the state was forced into brutal cutbacks in services. Faced with their continuing budget problems, Republicans are now planning to raise taxes on poor people as a way to deal with the mess that cutting taxes for rich people created. Seriously.

Maine: Paul LePage, without a doubt the most buffoonish governor in America (he got elected and re-elected when in both races a third-party candidate split the Democratic vote), has literally pledged to veto every bill passed by Democrats until they approve his plan to eliminate the state's income tax, which would of course decimate the state's revenue and require huge cutbacks in services. The state is currently facing the possibility of a government shutdown.

Those are just a few examples; other Republican-run states like Oklahoma have had to cut government services and tap rainy-day funds in order to balance their budgets, even as the national economy continues to improve. And that's not to mention the way so many Republican governors and legislators have refused the Affordable Care Act's expansion of Medicaid, leaving low-income workers without health coverage while damaging their state's economy. And of course, not every GOP governor is the same — some have accepted the Medicaid expansion, while others have pursued tax cuts with less single-minded zeal. But the overall trend is hard to miss.

I know what conservatives will respond: "But Texas!" And yes, it's true that Texas is blessed with oil and an abundance of cheap land, which has helped the state grow. But it relies heavily on low-wage labor, and in the last year, California — run by that hippie Jerry Brown with Democratic super-majorities in the state legislature — has created many more jobs.

If you ask Republicans why their economic theory has failed in so many places, they'll answer by saying that the theory is as sound as ever; all they need is some more time and more upper-end and business tax cuts, and you'll see how great things will be. That's what the GOP candidates for president are saying, too.

Governors know how to get things done, the governors who run for president inevitably argue. And that's true — the current batch of presidential candidates who are governors, along with their colleagues from around the country, have certainly been getting things done. The question is whether what they've been getting done is something we want to duplicate on a national scale.

Paul Waldman is a senior writer with The American Prospect magazine and a blogger for The Washington Post. His writing has appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines, and web sites, and he is the author or co-author of four books on media and politics.