Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Hays, claimed that complaints about Congress members living at the C Street townhouse in Washington, D.C., come from people trying to stop public servants from practicing their faith. “I don’t think that my interest in studying the Bible with other colleagues of mine in Congress ought to be seen as anything but good or at least personal,” he told students at Washburn University. But the complaint filed last week by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is about whether Moran, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and other lawmakers broke ethics rules by paying below-market rent — not about them studying the Bible. Moran said that the low rent was because the accommodations are sparse. “I have a small bedroom and a bath I share with other people,” he said.
Not only was the mandate to have health insurance an idea that the GOP championed for years, but one of its best defenses was made by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (before he flip-flopped). “Some of my libertarian friends balk at what looks like an individual mandate,” Romney said in a 2006 Wall Street Journal commentary. “But remember, someone has to pay for the health care that must, by law, be provided: Either the individual pays or the taxpayers pay. A free ride on government is not libertarian.”
Romney didn’t mention that the individual mandate is also needed if the government is going to prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions (otherwise people will wait to buy insurance until they know they have an expensive medical problem, which is unfair to insurers). That’s why the House GOP plan, which didn’t include a mandate, didn’t include this ban.
An increasingly erratic Afghan President Hamid Karzai (in photo) claimed that Americans are in Afghanistan to dominate his country and region, and he promised local tribal elders that they would have veto power over coalition military operations in their area. Columnist Thomas Friedman responded: “That is what we’re getting for risking thousands of U.S. soldiers and having spent $200 billion already. . . . And once we clear, hold and build Afghanistan for him, he is going to break our hearts.”
Jail consultant Nancy Insco expressed frustration in e-mails obtained by The Eagle, complaining that Sedgwick County staff was uncooperative and a “boys’ club.” But staff and taxpayers are just as frustrated with Insco and her company, which the county hired nearly two years ago to reduce the jail population. Not only has the population increased, but Insco has yet to produce a written report. What’s more, Eagle reporter Deb Gruver has seemed more successful than the paid consultants at identifying problems contributing to the jail’s overcrowding. Commissioner Gwen Welshimer, who has been an ardent defender of Insco, may be growing frustrated, too. Welshimer had wanted the county to allow Insco to complete her work, but last week said, “I don’t know we should do that. We’ll probably just have to call it good.” Cut the losses and end everyone’s frustration.
