Meet the Budget-Slashing, Job-Killing GOP Governors Who've Ruined Their States

By Joe Conason

October 2, 2014  |  Even as Republicans boast of their chances to take over the United States Senate come November, their party's governors across the country are facing dimmer prospects. From Georgia to Alaska, right-wing ideological rule imposed by GOP chief executives has left voters disappointed, disillusioned and angry.

The problem isn't that these governors failed to implement their promised panaceas of tax cutting, union busting and budget slashing, all in the name of economic recovery; some did all three. The problem is that those policies have failed to deliver the improving jobs and incomes that were supposed to flow from "conservative" governance. In fact, too often the result wasn't at all truly conservative, at least in the traditional sense -- as excessive and imbalanced tax cuts, skewed to benefit the wealthy, led to ruined budgets and damaged credit ratings.