President Bush proclaimed 50 days after the fall of Baghdad that “we have found the weapons of mass destruction,” referring to two small trailers believed to be mobile biological laboratories. The claim was repeated for months by administration officials. But two days before Bush made the announcement, a secret fact-finding team filed a classified report concluding that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons, The Washington Post reported. In fact, the joke apparently was that we found “the biggest sand toilets in the world.”
The Post hasn’t determined whether the report was shared with the White House or other political leaders. If it wasn’t, why not? Was there a culture in which news that didn’t support the administration’s case for war wasn’t welcome? And if it was shared. . . .
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
By popular demand, here’s an open thread about blogger Joe Williams’ idea for building a 500-foot tall “Peerless Tower” in downtown Wichita, just north of the Broadview Hotel.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
I mentioned in an earlier blog entry President Bush’s low approval ratings, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. But even more significant was the poll’s question No. 10, about which political party you trust to do a better job. Those surveyed picked Democrats over Republicans on every issue listed, including traditional GOP strengths such as Iraq (49% Dems to 42% GOP), the economy (49% to 43%) and the campaign against terrorism (46% to 45%). The biggest spread was health care (61% to 29%) and the prescription drug benefit for the elderly (59% to 31%). Whether such opinions hold up and whether they translate to victories for Democrats in November remain to be seen, especially given how difficult it is to defeat incumbents, Republican or Democrat. Also, the survey didn’t ask about social issues such as abortion, which trump all other issues for some voters.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Massachusetts is getting a lot of attention for passing a universal health care plan. And unlike most previous proposals, this plan relies primarily on the private sector.
As Republican Gov. Mitt Romney (in photo) explained in an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal, part of the plan involves enrolling more people in Medicaid and creating a sliding-scale subsidy for people who are poor but don’t qualify for Medicaid to be able to purchase private insurance. But a big key is insuring people who could afford insurance but who choose not to — typically, young men. To do that, the plan creates lower-cost private insurance policies that have higher deductibles and co-pays and fewer mandated benefits. The state then mandates that all citizens either get health insurance — through Medicaid or a private plan — or demonstrate that they can pay for their own health care.
Romney admits that he doesn’t know whether the plan will really work. I’m skeptical that the state can successfully mandate coverage and enforce it.
But, if it goes as planned, the benefits could be a model for the rest of the nation. As Romney wrote: “Every uninsured citizen in Massachusetts will soon have affordable health insurance and the costs of health care will be reduced. And we will need no new taxes, no employer mandate and no government takeover to make this happen.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The Kansas Legislature has yet to reconcile competing House and Senate plans restricting the use of eminent domain to acquire property. But Wichita City Manager George Kolb (in photo) argued in an op-ed piece in Sunday’s Eagle that the proposed plans would “cost taxpayers, stall important government projects and hurt crime-fighting efforts.”
The impetus for the reform was the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that opened the way for local government to obtain property through eminent domain for a private business venture, rather than just for a public project (which has always been allowed). That raised fears that, say, a government could take your home and then give the land to Wal-Mart.
But among Kolb’s concerns, which are shared by Wichita Mayor Carlos Mayans and Sedgwick County Commission Chairman Ben Sciortino, is that the House bill also would change how much governments have to pay for property acquired for a public purpose, such as a highway. Rather arrive at a purchase price through negotiation or, as a last resort, based on fair market value appraisals and court mediation, the bill dictates a confusing formula that could double the cost of acquiring such land. That would dramatically increase cost for taxpayers, Kolb said, and could hurt the city’s ability to combat slums and fight crime by acquiring blighted properties.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
While the State Board of Education has been trying to limit what is taught in sex ed classes, the Kansas House voted two weeks ago to require such classes to provide graphic explanations about abortion procedures, including “the probable physical sensations of pain a fetus feels or detects.” But now that mandate is even too controversial for the state’s largest pro-life group. Kansans for Life wants lawmakers to remove the amendment, because it fears it could hurt the prospects for passage of the underlying bill, which would require doctors to report more information about late-term abortions.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
