Much of the reaction to Gov. Mark Parkinson’s budget cuts has avoided finger-pointing and aptly reflected the fact that Kansans are all in this mess together. Two phrases in the otherwise appreciative statement from the Kansas House’s GOP leadership team stood out, though: “the unchecked spending and government growth that occurred under former Gov. Sebelius” and “a broken budget” that Parkinson’s “predecessor refused to acknowledge.” Surely House Republicans haven’t forgotten that their party controlled both chambers of the Legislature, and therefore the state budget, under all six years of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ administration, just as it has since 1993.
It’s not “the economy, stupid,” that is souring voters, as former President Clinton’s campaign staff used to say. “It’s the stupidity about the economy in Washington and on Wall Street that’s driving most voters berserk,” wrote Forbes columnist Dan Gerstein. He contended that rather than focusing on fixing the financial system and getting Americans back to work, Democrats are fixated on making history with the health care bill while Republicans “seem equally obsessed with making health care a political albatross for the Democrats.” Gerstein noted how the big debate recently was whether abortion coverage would be banned in the health care bill. “I don’t mean to belittle the seriousness of the issue,” he wrote, “but is abortion coverage really a pressing priority when unemployment is at its highest rate in 25 years and many experts are warning that another crippling financial collapse is in the offing?”
Mike Huckabee, still on his 64-city tour to promote his book “A Simple Christmas,” had bipartisan criticism for some of his fellow contenders for the White House in 2008, noting that while he was trying to figure out how to cover his house payments and health insurance while campaigning, he also “was paying their salaries to run against me” and helping cover their health care and pensions. “Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Tom Tancredo, Sam Brownback, John McCain — name ’em all,” Huckabee told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “They all had government jobs. They never showed up for work. And they kept their jobs. If you did that, do you think you’d still get a paycheck?”
Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs, issued an apology of sorts last week for his firm’s role in the subprime mortgage crisis. The investment bank also announced a $500 million program to invest in small businesses. But as McClatchy Newspapers reported, $500 million is only 2.5 percent of the $20 billion in bonuses that Goldman is expected to pay its employees next month. And a New York Times editorial noted that Blankfein never said exactly what he was sorry for or to whom he was apologizing. If Goldman is really sorry, the editorial said, it should make a multibillion-dollar donation to the federal Bureau of the Public Debt.
