As if health care, cap-and-trade, the economy and two wars weren’t enough, immigration looms as an unsolved problem, noted columnist Michael Barone. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the status quo is “is simply unacceptable,” calling for stronger enforcement and some legalization. Barone wrote: “Now that a combination of public indignation and high-tech ingenuity have increased government’s enforcement capacity, and while the inflow of immigrants is slowing and an outflow of illegals may be accelerating, we may have reached a point when we can put in place immigration laws with enforceable limits and that encourage an influx of the kind of immigrants we need most. Can Congress act?”
“The Obama administration’s plan for stimulating the creation of green-energy jobs is going in an odd direction,” noted Dallas Morning News columnist Jim Landers. Most of the wind-energy projects seeking money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act are using foreign-made turbines, often from China.
Meanwhile, David Brandon, a consultant analyzing the Wichita area’s economic development potential for the Greater Wichita Economic Development Coalition, told The Eagle editorial board that manufacturing wind-turbine parts is an obvious fit for Wichita, given its manufacturing base and proximity to potential wind farms.
Some administration officials are saying that the progress on health care reform legislation, and the increasing likelihood that it will become law, vindicates President Obama’s largely hands-off strategy to reform. Rather than come out with his own reform plan, as President Clinton did, Obama set broad principles and let Congress develop the details. The approach had its risks, especially as the debate about a public insurance option threatened to derail the entire effort (and still could). And many lawmakers complained that Obama needed to be clearer about what he would and wouldn’t sign into law. But by keeping some distance, Obama has forced lawmakers to take ownership of the legislation and work through their differences.
The state’s 5.3 percent sales tax produced $3 billion in revenue in 2008. But the state missed out on another $4 billion in taxes from sales that were exempt, the Lawrence Journal World reported. If all those sales had been taxed, the state sales tax rate could have been lowered to 2.3 cents to raise the same $3 billion. “Undoubtedly, many sales tax exemptions do not help increase the tax base, and we should repeal them,” said Bradley Borden, an associate professor at Washburn University School of Law.
