The federal budget deficit is projected to be nearly $490 billion this fiscal year, a new record. The deficit will add to the national debt, which already is more than $9 trillion and requires annual interest payments of about $235 billion.
This means that the next president will face a huge financial hole. But that hasn’t caused John McCain and Barack Obama to stop digging – both are proposing more tax cuts.
It’s difficult to remember another election year with so many revelations about local candidates’ serious personal and professional issues. A stalking protection order, bad personal debts, bad business debts, a personal bankruptcy, a Kansas Supreme Court censure – and it’s just the primary season. Some explanations may inspire empathy in potential voters also going through tough stuff in this economy. But you have to wonder what makes people overlook their failings to file for elective office, then expect voters to overlook them as well.
Barack Obama promises to remove barriers preventing homosexual men and women from serving in the armed forces, while John McCain wants to preserve Bill Clinton’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, columnist Rowland Nethaway wrote. Meanwhile , the House Armed Services Committee’s Military Personnel Subcommittee held a recent hearing on the policy. One person who has changed his mind is John Shalikashvili, the retired Army general who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when the current “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was adopted. Shalikashvili now believes that allowing homosexuals to serve openly in the military “would not undermine the efficacy of the armed forces,” Nethaway wrote.
“He based his opinion in part on a 2007 Zogby poll that reported 75 percent of the troops interviewed who served in Iraq and Afghanistan said they were comfortable around gay men and lesbians and did not believe morale would be hurt.”
Although 38 percent of Americans surveyed think “too old” describes John McCain somewhat or very well, there’s no indication that McCain, 71, isn’t physically up to being president. But voters might wonder whether McCain is too out of touch with modern technology. McCain admits he hasn’t mastered the Internet, and he doesn’t use e-mail. “I’ve never felt the particular need to e-mail,” he said.
Words of caution to Kansas school districts planning bond issues: Don’t make Hutchinson’s mistake. As the Hutchinson News editorialized, USD 308’s $78.8 million bond issue, passed in 2006, only factored in a 4 percent inflation rate: “What wasn’t considered, and understandably so, was the volatile market two years later, when many of the projects were put out for bids. As a result, projects are coming in so high over projected costs that the school district will face some tough choices: either sacrifice quality or quantity.”
The federal budget deficit is projected to be nearly $490 billion this fiscal year, a new record. The deficit will add to the national debt, which already is more than $9 trillion and requires annual interest payments of about $235 billion.
