Reps. Mike Pompeo, R-Wichita, and Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, were among the GOP House freshmen who held news conferences this week to demand that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (in photo), D-Nev., pass a current-year budget bill, preferably the House-passed version with $61 billion in domestic spending cuts. “We don’t need senators defending cowboy poets,” Pompeo said — referring to Reid’s recent complaint that the “mean-spirited” House budget would end funding for a Nevada poetry festival. “We need them taking seriously the financial crisis that the 111th Congress left for the folks who came here in January.” Huelskamp counseled Reid: “It’s time to stop stalling.”
Having presented his case against raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling on Sunday’s Opinion pages, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., is being called the “first official ‘no’ vote” on the issue, which could come to Congress between mid-April and late May. But Moran won’t be the last. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has predicted that most Senate Republicans would oppose a higher debt ceiling without “some credible effort to do something about our debt,” and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has said he won’t even hold a House vote to increase the debt ceiling “without real spending cuts and real changes to the way we spend the people’s money.”
It’s the end of March, and a Kansas school is playing for a national basketball title. And it’s Wichita State University, not the University of Kansas. Be honest — how many people predicted that? Still, the Shockers’ success in reaching tonight’s championship game of the National Invitation Tournament isn’t too surprising. After all, they’ve won 28 games this year, and two of their defeats were close losses to the University of Connecticut and Virginia Commonwealth University, two teams in this year’s NCAA Final Four.
The state Capitol has seemed like a time machine this week. Lawmakers are finalizing a budget that will return base funding for schools to 1999 levels. The Legislature passed and Gov. Sam Brownback will soon sign abortion laws that seem aimed at transporting the state back to the early 1970s. And the Legislature passed voter ID and registration laws reminiscent of efforts in the 1960s and earlier to discourage minority voting. What’s next? Prohibition?
Thanks are due a bipartisan group of Hispanic state legislators, including Rep. Mario Goico (in photo), R-Wichita, for injecting some common sense and civility into Kansas’ debate about illegal immigration by co-sponsoring a resolution stating what should be obvious: that immigration is a federal issue, not a state one, and that Congress should “enact thorough, commonsense, workable and humane reforms that reflect the realities of our country’s work force needs and represent America’s values at its best.” Their resolution cuts through the noise over this issue, including some outrageously insensitive comments by other lawmakers, and emphasizes that Kansas should be “a welcoming and business-friendly state,” that the Legislature should oppose policies that separate families, that law enforcement resources should focus on criminal activities rather than civil violations, and that immigration is important to the nation’s past and future. Passage of such a symbolic resolution may not change much, but its failure to pass would be sadly telling.
“It is an article of faith among top Republicans that President Obama has repeatedly apologized for the United States and its behavior,” the Washington Post noted. But after reviewing all the speeches and comments Obama made in which he allegedly apologized, the newspaper concluded: “The claim that Obama repeatedly has apologized for the United States is not borne out by the facts, especially if his full quotes are viewed in context.” It gave the claim a “four Pinocchios” rating, its highest rating for falsehoods, and offered this final fact to GOP speechwriters and campaign ad makers: “The apology tour never happened.”
As expressed in a speech Monday night, President Obama’s high-minded and nuanced reasons for involving the United States in Libya invited criticism from left as well as right. He also established what’s inevitably going to be thought of as the Obama doctrine, whether or not it’s sustainable — that even when U.S. security isn’t directly threatened, the United States will step in to defend its “interests and values” and prevent a slaughter and humanitarian nightmare. “In such cases, we should not be afraid to act — but the burden of action should not be America’s alone,” Obama said. So now what? The Wall Street Journal’s Gerald Seib suggested four likely scenarios, noting the first two are much preferred: “The Libyan army turns or collapses, and the rebels prevail.” All the outside pressures force Moammar Gadhafi out. “Libya effectively separates into two, setting up a stalemate.” Or Gadhafi and his sons just sit tight, “then destroy their opponents when the world loses interest.”
Forty years ago, divorced people were more concentrated in cities and suburbs, but now rural Americans are just as likely to be divorced as city dwellers, the New York Times reported. One reason for the change is that college-educated Americans are now more likely to stay married than those with only a high school diploma, and 1 in 6 rural residents has a college degree, while 1 in 3 city residents does.
Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in Wichita was named the fourth-best minor league baseball stadium by livability.com. The website praised the stadium, built in 1934, for its “interesting blend of old and new,” citing its manual scoreboard that features a goose laying an egg whenever the opposing team does not score. The website noted that the ballpark was one of the few that featured a natural grass outfield with an artificial turf infield — though that is changing as part of a $2 million renovation project that is placing artificial turf over the entire field. The top-rated stadium was Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi, Texas.
If you are still finalizing your tax return, here is a news item from the New York Times to ponder: General Electric “reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States. Its American tax bill? None. In fact, GE claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.” It doesn’t pay any U.S. taxes, the paper reported, because of “fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore.”
Given the partisan split over health reform, it was inevitable that Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger would gain attention for being both “a reform leader and a Republican,” to quote the headline of a Politico profile. “Unlike every other statewide elected official in Kansas, she’s working hard to make the state a leader in the implementation of the (Affordable Care Act),” reported Politico, noting Praeger chairs the Health Insurance and Managed Care Committee for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and has applied for grants for Kansas under the reform law. Praeger said, health reform “has been my focus even when I was in the Legislature. . . . This is the right time for me to be here.”
Nobody would call Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, a moderate. But he looked that way by comparison with some of the questioners at a Hutchinson VFW town hall meeting last week. According to the Hutchinson News, members of the crowd asked whether U.S. sovereignty could survive President Obama’s term, called for repeal of the Federal Reserve Act, and said voters sent Republicans to Washington, D.C., “to really turn the screws.” One retiree asked Huelskamp: “Could you start impeachment proceedings against Obama as soon as you get back?” The congressman replied, “Frankly, I haven’t thought much about it, because I haven’t seen a basis for it,” reminding the audience that impeachment would mean a Joe Biden presidency.
“You started here. Come on back.” — Gov. Sam Brownback, on his recruitment message to the CEO of Wichita-launched White Castle (“the little mini-burgers that you can eat 10 of; you shouldn’t, but . . .”)
“I honestly don’t care what adults do in their businesses. I don’t care if they smoke. I don’t care if they take off their clothes and dance.” — Rep. Clay Aurand, R-Courtland
“”Will China loan us the money to defend Taiwan?” — Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, sharing his fears about U.S. debt with a Salina audience
“President Nobel Peace Prize is overextending our troops. What’s the plan for Libya anyway? Gitmo, Iraq, Afghan. Whew.” — former Rep. Todd Tiahrt, on Twitter
The Power Line blog lashed out at the efforts of Think Progress and the Center for American Progress to tar Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Wichita, for his links to Koch Industries and the Koch brothers. In a blog post headlined “Anatomy of a smear,” Power Line dissected a recent Washington Post article on the Pompeo-Koch connection and said, “This may be the ultimate dog-bites-man story: Republicans support Republican candidate in Republican district! Republican candidate wins, despite opposition from goofball, communist-leaning websites! Not only that, having taken his seat, the Republican proceeds to vote with his fellow Republicans!”
Illegal immigration shouldn’t have much to do with the Secretary of State’s Office. But because Kris Kobach has made it so, he won’t be eligible to receive a $10,000 honorarium for delivering a lecture at the University of Kansas School of Business, the Lawrence Journal-World reported ($10,000 for a lecture?). No state officer or employee can accept an honorarium for a speaking engagement, per state rules. Exceptions have been made when a state officeholder speaks on an issue unrelated to his job, but the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission noted that Kobach has made immigration policy part of his job.
“Just as the deep recession created a political opening for President Obama to pass a huge economic stimulus package that included many policies long sought by liberal activists, many GOP governors are using state budget crises to pursue long-held policy ideas, such as tax cuts, the expansion of school vouchers and limitations on collective bargaining for public employees,” the Washington Post reported. “With a few notable exceptions, the changes are being pursued by governors who not only refuse to raise taxes, but also are moving aggressively to lower them for corporations and the wealthy.”
Local and national human rights groups gathered more than 55,000 signatures on an online petition calling for state Rep. Virgil Peck, R-Tyro, to resign for “joking” that illegal immigrants could be shot from helicopters like feral pigs. The groups delivered the petitions today to Gov. Sam Brownback and House Speaker Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson. But Peck has refused to resign, and House GOP leaders are refusing to discuss the matter.
Polling indicates that most Kansans support requiring voters to show photo ID, so it isn’t surprising that voter ID bills have now passed the Kansas Senate and House with 36-3 and 78-36 votes, respectively. If Kansas must have such a law, though, the Senate’s version is preferred — it delays until 2013 the requirement that people show proof of citizenship when they register to vote for the first time, and it denies Secretary of State Kris Kobach the power he wants to file and prosecute cases of election fraud. Still, it’s too bad that lawmakers have been so unconcerned about the two best arguments against such legislation — that it’s unnecessary because voter fraud is a negligible problem in Kansas, and that it could deter eligible voters from voting and make turnout even lower than it already is.
Sales of Boeing 747s and Airbus A380s to private clients are breaking records, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Wealth Report blog. Boeing delivered 12 VIP jets in 2010 and has four new orders. Half a dozen Boeing 747-8s — each with a list price of $317 million — are on backlog for private customers, and a dozen Boeing 787s also are scheduled for sale. The blog said that sales of business jumbo jets offer further proof of the growing wealth divide between the hyper-rich (billionaires) and the mere millionaires.
It was good that an overwhelming majority of Kansas House members rejected an effort to pass an Arizona-style immigration bill. That’s the last thing Kansas needs right now, especially after the recent “joke” by Rep. Virgil Peck, R-Tyro, about shooting illegal immigrants. The measure pushed by Rep. Lance Kinzer, R-Olathe, and Secretary of State Kris Kobach stalled in the House Judiciary Committee. An attempt Wednesday to force it out of committee failed 84-40.
“Republicans — especially in the tea party faction of the GOP — frequently charge that the current incumbent counts as an unprecedented, frightening fanatic with an alien, un-American agenda,” wrote talk-show host Michael Medved. “But this view of Obama can’t possibly survive an honest examination of the record of his Democratic predecessors.” Medved also challenged those who insist on characterizing Obama as a fringe figure to name one significant policy or appointment during his first term that would have been inconceivable for Hillary Clinton or the other leading Democratic presidential alternatives. “Republicans need not despair that President Obama fails to conform to the hackneyed (if groundless) charges of radicalism,” Medved said. “They will find the president easier to beat when they readjust their attacks to portray him as typical rather than radical. The problem with Mr. Obama isn’t that he functions far outside the Democratic mainstream. The real problem is that mainstream itself, a toxic stew of dysfunctional and discredited notions that have flopped reliably whenever they’ve been employed.”
Those running for one office naturally want to use campaign funds left over from other races. Then-Reps. Todd Tiahrt and Jerry Moran transferred $1 million and $2.4 million, respectively, from their congressional campaign accounts to compete for the U.S. Senate seat last year. Then-Insurance Commissioner Kathleen Sebelius did it when she successfully ran for governor. Then a state representative, Carlos Mayans also wanted to do it when he successfully ran for Wichita mayor in 2003 — though competitor Joan Cole and ultimately the Kansas Supreme Court had other ideas. The bill approved by the Kansas House this week allowing such transfers, and also raising donation limits, seems reasonable.
It’s a matter of fairness — if state lawmakers are going to cut the salaries of state employees, the cuts should apply to legislative staffers. It may be true that “they work so hard, and we couldn’t do our work without them,” as state Rep. Sharon Schwartz, R-Washington, said in proposing to exempt them. But lots of state employees out of legislators’ view work hard, too. As Rep. Pete DeGraaf, R-Mulvane, noted, “it sends the wrong message” for lawmakers to make a special exception for their staff.
On today’s one-year anniversary of health care reform becoming law, there are still plenty of bogus claims from both parties about the impact of the reform. The Washington Post fact-checked some of the claims that Democrats are making —that the reform will create 4 million jobs and reduce the deficit by more than $1 trillion, and that the percentage of small businesses offering health insurance has significantly increased — and judged them to be misleading or exaggerated. Conversely, the paper determined that the GOP claim that unions and businesses receiving temporary waivers are getting special treatment is not true, and the claim that the law will cost 800,000 jobs is misleading and “the kind of political gamesmanship that gives politics a bad name.”
“Anyone looking for principle and logic in the attack on Moammar Gaddafi’s tyrannical regime will be disappointed,” columnist Eugene Robinson wrote. “President Obama and his advisers should acknowledge the obvious truth: They are reacting to the revolutionary fervor in the Arab world with the arbitrary ‘realism’ that is a superpower’s prerogative.” Robinson noted that dictators in other countries have murdered protesters. “Why is Libya so different?” Robinson asked. “Basically, because the dictators of Yemen, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia — also Jordan and the Persian Gulf sheikdoms, for that matter — are friendly, cooperative and useful. Gaddafi is not.”
Reps. Mike Pompeo, R-Wichita, and Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, were among the GOP House freshmen who held news conferences this week to demand that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (in photo), D-Nev., pass a current-year budget bill, preferably the House-passed version with $61 billion in domestic spending cuts. “We don’t need senators defending cowboy poets,” Pompeo said — referring to Reid’s recent complaint that the “mean-spirited” House budget would end funding for a Nevada poetry festival. “We need them taking seriously the financial crisis that the 111th Congress left for the folks who came here in January.” Huelskamp counseled Reid: “It’s time to stop stalling.”
