Kansas's ravaged economy a cautionary tale as Trump plans huge tax cuts for rich

Kansas slashed taxes at the top to try to spur growth - but the plan crippled the state's finances and proved disastrous for its Republican governor

Is Donald Trump about to turn America into Kansas? It's a question some worried people who live in the state are asking as the Republican party pushes through the biggest tax overhaul in a generation - an overhaul that, they claim, bears an uncanny resemblance to a tax plan that left their midwestern home in disarray.

After a failed economic experiment meant to boost economic growth blew a hole in the Kansas budget as big as a prairie sky (a $350m deficit in the current fiscal year and nearly $600m in the next) state jobs and services have been slashed.

Related: 'We are a cautionary tale': Kansas feels the pain of massive Trump-style tax cuts