Columnist Charles Krauthammer has a simple explanation for President Obama’s drop in approval ratings: He’s too liberal. “This out-of-nowhere, least-known of presidents dropped the veil most dramatically in the single most important political event of 2009, his Feb. 24 first address to Congress,” Krauthammer wrote. “With remarkable political honesty and courage, Obama unveiled the most radical (in American terms) ideological agenda since the New Deal: the fundamental restructuring of three pillars of American society — health care, education and energy. Then began the descent — when, more amazingly still, Obama devoted himself to turning these statist visions into legislative reality.”
Those worries about “regulatory uncertainty” related to the state’s rejection of a coal plant permit were overblown. But Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” columnist George Will argued that uncertainty is haunting the national economy. He compared it to when, as Franklin Roosevelt put it at the time, capital went on strike. Now, Will said, “people don’t know what energy costs are going to be. They don’t know what the EPA is going to do about carbon emissions, carbon dioxide. Health care costs are uncertain. Now there’s talk about a value-added tax.” And interest rates will “change for the adverse,” he predicted.
With an election season looming, many Kansans would second Attorney General Steve Six’s timely call for a law curbing automated commercial and political calls. Based on a 1987 Minnesota measure, the law would require the recipient’s consent, either “knowingly” in advance or as obtained by a “live operator,” before the recorded message could proceed. Exceptions would be made for robocalls from employers to employees, school districts to students, and agencies to inform crime victims of court dates, as well as for charities soliciting donations of clothing for disabled veterans. Violators would be subject to a possible fine of up to $10,000 per call. The Kansas measure wouldn’t be a total ban, but Minnesota’s law has had that effect, because requiring a live operator makes robocalls cost-prohibitive.
