Why are we doing this? Because we have to keep up with Kansas. You see, Kansas enacted an even more radical tax cut plan last year, so we have to do the same (I can hear my mother saying "If Billy jumped into the lake, would you?"). So far, all the Kansas plan has done is throw that state into a budgetary crisis as funding for schools, roads and everything else dries up. The Kansas tax plan was supposed to bring businesses and jobs to the state, but that hasn't exactly happened. The resulting budget mess has gotten so bad that the architect of the plan, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback's approval rating has fallen to 19 point in the last year, to 36%. For a republican governor in a hard core republican state like Kansas, that's pitiful. The same poll showed President Obama getting a higher approval rating of 38%, IN KANSAS!
I was raised in Wichita, Kansas, so I hear from relatives how thing are going there. One of my brothers is a teacher there, and he tells me that as a cost saving measure, Kansas has closed down schools for children with behavioral problems, and dumped those kids into the regular class rooms, making it nearly impossible to teach. I hope all those businesses that aren't actually coming to Kansas don't expect educated workers.
Missouri legislators say it will be different here, in part because the tax cuts will be fazed in over a five year period. So don't go making any plans for spending that two or three dollar a week tax cut you might be getting just yet.
So to sum up the tax cut plan. A BIG tax cut for your boss, a tiny one for you, crappier state government, and we get to be more like Kansas.