Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is taking a gamble, coming out in favor of higher taxes to pay for what he considers important national goals as part of his campaign theme of shared sacrifice.
He argues that higher taxes for some are needed to pay for universal health care. He hasn’t ruled out raising gasoline taxes to address energy savings and global warming. And his main goal, eradicating poverty and the "two Americas," will require a tax increase from Americans, he says.
Edwards acknowledges the political risks of higher taxes. But "I actually believe this is what America needs."
Will voters like the candor, and seriousness, and are they ready to sacrifice for something? Or will it come off as repackaged old-style liberalism?
Meanwhile, executives from Wal-Mart, AT&T and Intel Corp. joined with labor leaders Wednesday in calling for universal health coverage for all Americans by 2012. The executives made one of the more compelling arguments for a universal system: Businesses have trouble competing internationally when they have to recover health care costs in their bottom lines and their foreign competitors don’t.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Not only has the Bush administration rejected the recommendation of the Iraq Study Group to negotiate with Iran, it rejected a dialogue offer from Iran in 2003, when the United States was in a much stronger negotiating position.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried to play dumb about the 2003 offer at a House hearing Wednesday, suggesting that it never happened. But former State Department and White House officials have acknowledged receiving the Iranian offer to discuss nuclear safeguards, action against terrorists, coordination in Iraq, ending "material support" for Palestinian militias and accepting a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Washington Post reported. And Rice seemed the refer to the offer during an interview last June, saying that "what the Iranians wanted earlier was to be one-on-one with the United States so that this could be about the United States and Iran."
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Some things to ponder as Kansas awaits a decision from the Sebelius administration about the three proposed coal-fired power plants near Holcomb, amid a growing outcry about their potential greenhouse-gas emissions and effect on global warming:
Across the country, 148 such plants are planned and 21 are under construction, according to the Edison Electric Institute.
In China, a coal-fired plant goes online nearly every week, and 2,200 are planned to be built by 2030.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
State lawmakers have a bad habit of passing tough-on-crime laws without regard to the impact on the prison population. At least this one should have no such effect, unless there’s some unknown cluster of Dr. Frankensteins operating in the state: State Rep. Forrest Knox, R-Altoona, and 38 other House members want to make it a felony to create animal-human hybrids in Kansas.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Amid the otherwise sad, sordid tale of Lisa Nowak, the shuttle astronaut gone astray, we did learn something interesting: Astronauts wear diapers during liftoff and re-entry.
How many people knew that? And as the Nowak story shows, there are civilian applications right here on Earth.
It’s not too late for NASA to put a positive spin on this.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
State Rep. Mario Goico, R-Wichita, has hatched an admirable plan for how to thank Kansas veterans for their service in the war on terrorism: with free college tuition to public universities. “It’s a way to get them back to the state, first of all,” Goico told the Topeka Capital-Journal. “And we should give them an opportunity to study and improve themselves.” There are some tough questions to answer before passage, such as whether the cost to the state is prohibitive and whether it would overlap with federal tuition benefits available to vets. But credit Goico, a Gulf War veteran, for seeking to show gratitude to these brave neighbors with more than words.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., may need to affiliate with a hospital in Missouri in order to expand its research capabilities, as was proposed last week. But lawmakers are justified in wanting to review the affiliation, given the investment of tax dollars in the medical school. In addition to examining how the new arrangement would affect the KU hospital in Kansas City, lawmakers need to make sure that the KU School of Medicine-Wichita doesn’t get slighted in the research push. The Wichita campus does a great job training physicians and retaining them in Kansas. More research is important, but so is training physicians.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
