. >> reporter: shortly after kelly mccracken launched her small business, amazing smiles of kansas city, some five years ago, she was given a gift in the form of a tax break from the state, which was undergoing a real live experiment in tax reform. governor sam brownback cut personal income tax rates and scrapped taxes altogether for mccracken's.businesses lik she saved thousands of dollars and was able to reinvest in her startup due to the tax break. >> the realization of several thousands of dollars, which goes back into the business in the form of hiring other small businesses to help with our website, do seo, hire another employee, and most recently, we made a durable equipment purchase. >> reporter: but the experiment didn't go as planned. the state wound up with a budget deficit in the billions. impacting its schools, roads, and pension systems. in june 2017, the state legislature reversed the cuts and made taxes retroactive for pass throughs for the entire year. not all small businesses thought the experiment was a success even though they saved money. carl miller, owner of lark

well just a few months into mccracken's presidency his approval ratings have already nosedived dr paul smith an expert in french politics at the u.k. snubbing him university believes it's too early to tell if mccall will be able to push through his reforms it's the same as we've seen over the last ten years the trade union movement or least paul to be in for all its likes to mobilize people and this is. these these changes all right a call but i think what we need to what we need to look at very carefully is just how many people really want this test is being seen as what today is being seen as is a test of the strength of opposition i'd also the strength of one of the trade unions which the main trade union that called the action it really remains to be seen whether over the months to come whether this government on like it's pretty decisive is able not only to talk the talk but she to walk the walk and that's to say to deliver the reforms it wants to deliver a key river in syria is where the latest battle to remove myself from the country is taking place we've got the updates from th

the chance songs and they've given flowers that's the kind of people we have so few things that mccracken emery any such a happy people that it's unfair it's unfair to paint that in any other way alfred and i'm weak and i want to play a little clip of the spanish gentleman cause rafael nadal everybody knows he's a tennis player here oh my thing is no introduction this is him on september thirteenth talking about the catalonia situation having isn't his take. i feel like all spaniards should feel worried because there is a conflict that needs to be a result and at the moment this allusion seems complicated or at least not friendly let's hope things can be fixed like i have said many times i feel very close to catalonia i obviously feel spanish and as i understand that the loneliness part of spain i don't see spain without get a loan or at least i wouldn't like to see one without it we are better and stronger together than separate and i hope we can remain like that for ever saying it about. so you outside of catalonia if you could take the temperature of what spanish people are thinking ab

it divides not just the mccracken republicans. republicans. in fact, there is an nbc/wall street journal poll out today that has some fascinating divides within the republican party between trump supporters and people that call themselves more or less traditional republicans. so, this is a big issue. this is an issue that everyone has an opinion about, as opposed to many of the other issues we talk about here at brookings -- tele communications, and things like that. really, normal people don't really have strong opinions about those issues. this is one where people who have strong opinions, and therefore it is of interest to everyone. the issue also runs the gamut of -- from what i call a heart issue to a head issue. people have strong opinions about what this means for our country -- what kind of country we ought to have, and we get emotional about it, but it also goes to more very practical issues. my colleague you will be moderating this panel and i, we just, a couple of months ago took a look at the practical side. is it possible to do wh

it meant a lot to kelly mccracken. she wound up taking out a line of credit once she heard this was being reversed and that she would be responsible for retroactive payments we talked to other companies who said this did not save me enough money it wasn't enough for me to hire a new employee or reinvest. it's interesting to see what it means to different people. while a lot of small companies appreciate that extra pocket change, we talked to one guy who said i like having roads that are run well a police system well funded, clean water, school systems that are operating well these priorities, they mean different things to different people >> i'm glad we have the state labs, so to speak. kate, thank you very much. >> like everything, there's so much other -- jt fact >> factors >> exactly >> correlation is not always causation. you never do a perfect experiment i don't know >>> coming up, puerto rico beginning to assess the damage from hurricane maria we'll talk to the island's representative in congress congresswoman je