Some of the Republicans who are feeling underwhelmed by the current GOP presidential field see the perfect nominee in House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the architect of the House GOP budget plan. The seven-term congressman is the subject of a new DraftRyanNow.com online petition drive. Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, suggested to National Review that Ryan is a “Beltway insider” whose past bailout votes could be a problem with the GOP base. And “is he old enough to run?” Huelskamp joked about Ryan, a P90X fitness devotee who looks younger than his 41 years. In any case, Huelskamp said, Ryan “does a great job” as budget chairman.
Credit technology and globalization for the strange reality in which the nation finds itself, with the gross domestic product higher than it was in 2007 but with 7 million fewer workers, wrote Fareed Zakaria in Time. His five-point “flight plan” for the economy: “Specialize in high-end, complex manufactured products that can command a premium price.” Undertake a program as ambitious as the GI Bill to retrain the workers whose jobs aren’t coming back. Double down on areas of job growth, including U.S. entertainment products, top-quality medical care and tourism. “Focus on improving the ecosystem for startups and small businesses by funding basic research, streamlining the patent process, limiting regulation and encouraging venture-capital and private-equity companies that fund new ventures.” Further invest in infrastructure short term, both to busy laid-off construction workers and fix airports, bridges and highways.
The following satirical headlines come from borowitzreport.com and theonion.com:
IN PARTIAL RAPTURE, CREDIBLE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES VANISH FROM EARTH; Gingrich Left Behind
SCHWARZENEGGER: ‘I AM THE SPERMINATOR’
COMEDIANS BEG TRUMP TO RECONSIDER; 20,000 Jokers March on Trump Tower
BIN LADEN INVESTED MILLIONS IN COMPANY THAT MAKES 3-OZ. BOTTLES OF LIQUIDS AND GELS; Seized Computers Yield Shocking Discovery
NEW PETITION FAVORS REPLACING CONGRESS WITH SEAL TEAM 6
CONGRESS GETS IN 12 SOLID HOURS OF GRIDLOCKING BEFORE CALLING IT A DAY
NATION DOWN TO LAST HUNDRED GROWN-UPS; ‘Mature Adults Could Be Gone Within 50 Years,’ Experts Say
JOHN EDWARDS PAYS $30 TO REGISTER EDWARDS2016.COM JUST IN CASE
OBAMA BEFRIENDS RICH ELDERLY WIDOW IN HOPES SHE’LL PUT NATION IN HER WILL
FINAL MINUTES OF LAST HARRY POTTER MOVIE TO BE SPLIT INTO 7 SEPARATE FILMS
“This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War. On this Memorial Day, we remember those thousands of servicemen and women who made the ultimate sacrifice and never returned home,” wrote Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., on today’s Opinion page. “On this day, we remember that freedom is not free.”
Judging GOP presidential hopefuls by their high school yearbook photos may not be fair or accurate, but it’s fun. A favorite: Newton Leroy Gingrich, class of ’61 at Baker High School in Columbus, Ga., who was voted “most intellectual” and whose picture is accompanied by these words: “Specialization may produce success, but greatness is acquired only through generalization.”
When 63 percent of Sumner County voters favored a casino in an advisory vote in late 2005, for the jobs and economic development it could bring, the county’s unemployment rate was just 5.2 percent. Few could have imagined then the recession ahead, or that by last month the county’s unemployment rate would be 7.6 percent. Consider the 4,000 employment applications submitted to Peninsula Gaming as a kind of second endorsement. They confirm that the up to 575 jobs available for the first phase of the Kansas Star Casino near Mulvane are well-timed and much-needed in the county, especially with the average salary estimated at $38,000.
Where is the conservative principle in requiring a photo ID to vote and a birth certificate to register to vote for the first time? “No one has justified the cost and inconvenience of this nuisance intrusion into our lives to our satisfaction,” wrote Ned Valentine, editor of the Clay Center Dispatch. Arguing that errors related to voter machines are a greater concern than noncitizen voters, he concluded: “Whatever happened to conservative passion to err on the side of individual freedom — to make government leave us alone and stay out of our lives? Should buying a gun now be easier than casting a vote? Put another way, should casting a vote be as difficult as buying a gun? It is no wonder the ranks of independent voters continue to swell with former Republicans.”
When state lawmakers amended a bill with a provision prohibiting insurance companies from including abortion coverage in their general insurance plans, it “caused a chill in the Statehouse,” according to Martin Hawver of Hawver’s Capitol Report. Not only did the move violate legislative rules, because the provision hadn’t previously cleared either chamber, but it raised the possibility of lobbyists adding anti-abortion provisions to unrelated bills to help get them passed. “Could an anti-abortion provision somehow get hung onto a tax bill or a driving-while-intoxicated bill or a school-finance bill, and get legislators who are focused on abortion prohibition to pass it?” Hawver asked, adding that “we’ll find out next year whether it was an aberration or a new way of doing business under the dome.”
Former Kansas Attorney General Robert Stephan wants the U.S. Supreme Court to hurry up and weigh in on the constitutionality of the health reform act, much as the court expedited Bush v. Gore in 2000. “A case may be taken by the Supreme Court before judgment upon a showing that the case is of such public importance as to justify deviation from normal appellate practice as to require immediate determination by the court,” wrote Stephan in a Kansas Health Institute News Service commentary. “If there ever was a case of public importance that would justify deviation from normal appellate practice, it is the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act.”
Medicare is facing $38 trillion in red ink. The recent Medicare trustees’ report showed the program is careening toward bankruptcy and will run out of money in 2024 — five years faster than the trustees predicted just one year ago. Not changing Medicare is not an option. Yet the prevailing wish appears to be that politicians will simply leave Medicare alone. But without a serious course adjustment, the program faces a steep and inevitable decline. Medicare will become a third-rate, price-controlled program that rations a lower quality of care through waiting lines and other restrictions. If Medicare’s antiquated, open-ended, fee-for-service model isn’t reformed, then we will continue to pour deficit-funded dollars into the program or raise taxes to levels that would topple the economy as millions of baby boomers hit retirement. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., recognizes that reality in his proposal to begin modernizing the program, starting 10 years from now. — Grace-Marie Turner, Galen Institute
The traditional Medicare program, coupled with a supplemental private insurance policy, covers most of our seniors’ medical bills, with far less in co-pays and out-of- pocket costs than private insurance. Therefore, proposals to privatize Medicare — like Rep. Paul Ryan’s — have been met with fierce opposition, because it was revealed in the national media that privatization meant much higher out-of-pocket costs for seniors. National polls have shown strong general support for maintaining Medicare or even increasing funding for it. There are several ways to strengthen Medicare other than privatization. For example, research by respected economist Dean Baker shows that the federal government and Medicare beneficiaries would save $600 billion between 2006 and 2013 if Medicare were allowed to directly negotiate prices with pharmaceutical manufacturers. It would only make sense for there to be bipartisan support for Medicare to be able to negotiate down the rising costs of prescription drugs. — Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich.
Why don’t presidents think before they do photo ops? As Joplin, Mo., was picking through the rubble for bodies, President Obama was seen playing table tennis with British Prime Minister David Cameron. “The photo says three words: out of touch,” wrote Ron Bonjean for USNews.com. But Republicans largely haven’t beaten Obama over the head with the image. “To go down this road would dishonor all those who had lost their lives or who are now missing in Missouri. And besides, Republicans are too busy figuring out ways to force the other side to join them in their effort to cut spending and rein in entitlement programs. Instead of criticizing the president’s lack of sensitivity, they rightly scorned the Democratic political strategy.”
Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., was among the 40 senators who voted Wednesday for the GOP Medicare overhaul plan. (Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., didn’t vote.) Republicans complain that Democrats are demagoguing the issue. But Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank noted how similar the fight over the Medicare reform has been to the GOP’s fight against President Obama’s health care reform. “In both cases, the proponents decided to act without bipartisan support,” Milbank wrote. “Opponents whipped up opposition at televised town-hall meetings. Proponents discovered that their nuanced explanations of the policy couldn’t compete with the other side’s shrill sound bites. Endangered lawmakers began to waver, and voters registered their disapproval in special elections (Scott Brown in Massachusetts, and now Kathy Hochul in New York). But the advocates, figuring the public would side with them once all the facts came out, refused to budge.”
Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration has cited Vermont as an example of a state that has a nonprofit arts agency. But Alexander Aldrich, the executive director of the Vermont Arts Council, sent an open letter to Brownback this week to “set the record straight” and to make the case “for keeping the Kansas Arts Commission on sound financial, public footing.” He said the Vermont council is effective “only because” the state appropriates it more than $500,000 year. And he argued that “every state should invest in the arts sector simply because it makes good economic sense.”
GOP House leaders are scrambling to defend their plan to overhaul Medicare after losing a conservative district in New York in a special election Tuesday. They blamed the loss on scare tactics by Democrats. But their main problem is that they are bucking public opinion, which overwhelmingly opposes the Medicare plan. Dan Balz of the Washington Post argued that Republicans made the same mistake that Democrats made after the 2008 election: “assume a mandate when one doesn’t exist.”
State Rep. Pete DeGraaf, R-Mulvane, is getting heat — deservedly so — for comments he made about the bill the Legislature approved prohibiting general insurance plans from covering abortions, including for victims of rape and incest. When asked during the debate about the likelihood of someone buying a separate policy that covers abortion, DeGraaf said, “We do need to plan ahead, don’t we, in life?” Then when asked how women are supposed to plan ahead for issues over which they have no control, DeGraaf responded, “I have a spare tire on my car.” And he added: “I also have life insurance. I have a lot of things that I plan ahead for.” How insulting and insensitive. Reports of DeGraaf’s comments made national websites, and the Kansas National Organization for Women plans to deliver a model spare tire to DeGraaf in protest.
The tell-all book from a former top aide to Sarah Palin is out. And it isn’t flattering. “Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin: A Memoir of Our Tumultuous Years” tells of Frank Bailey’s time working for Palin when she ran for Alaska governor and then for vice president. He says he isn’t bitter or disgruntled. “I’m sad at a lot of wasted potential,” Bailey said.
Conventional wisdom says that presidential candidates can’t win in corn-rich Iowa without supporting ethanol subsidies. But while announcing in Iowa Monday that he is running for president, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said that “the truth about federal energy subsidies, including federal subsidies for ethanol, is that they have to be phased out.” That impressed the Wall Street Journal editorial board, which lauded Pawlenty for passing “an early test of fortitude.” But how will he fare in the Iowa caucuses?
Congratulations to Wichita South High School’s Junior ROTC for winning the recent National High School Drill Team Competition in Daytona Beach, Fla. South’s unarmed regulation drill team won first place, and the armed and unarmed color guard teams each finished fourth. In addition, Nicholus Cox was the national unarmed commander champion, and Caitlin Sumpter finished 10th in the national Individual Drill Down competition. Great job, everyone.
Kansas taxpayers keep paying for former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline. The Topeka Capital-Journal reported this week that taxpayers have paid about $220,000 to defend Kline’s administration against charges of sexual discrimination when he was Johnson County district attorney. It reported previously that state taxpayers have paid nearly $530,000 defending Kline and his former aides in ethics cases, with more expenses to come, as Kline’s ethics hearing is scheduled to resume in July.
Frankly, it is a bit puzzling that Wichita’s airport officials want to borrow $50,000 to pay for an out-of-state roof inspector when the city has an Office of Central Inspection and an engineering division. Reportedly, airport officials think that an outside inspector will bolster negotiations with the city’s insurer over storm-damage claims. Maybe so. But at their meeting today, Wichita City Council members need to question whether borrowing and spending $50,000 really is justified.
“It is important for school leaders, parents, patrons and state officials to understand the impact of the downward spiral in education funding,” John Heim, executive director of the Kansas Association of School Boards, said in a statement. “There is no way to avoid the fact this budget will damage the programs that have helped more students reach higher levels of achievement, and create the need for significant reductions in staff.” He noted that the base per-pupil funding next year will drop to $3,780, the lowest level in 10 years and a 14 percent decrease from four years ago. Including additional aid for special education, at-risk students, bilingual instruction and other “weightings,” general operating funding will be 11 percent lower than four years ago.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach promoted Kansas’ new voter ID law in a commentary in today’s Wall Street Journal, noting how the law is stricter than any other state’s and how it was “drafted by my office.” Kobach wrote that “in Kansas, 221 incidents of voter fraud were reported between 1997 and 2010.” He didn’t clarify that these were claims of fraud, not actual violations. Sedgwick County officials reviewed the local claims and determined that nearly all of them were either groundless or were honest mistakes by voters and their families, not fraud. Kobach also emphasized how “fear that elections are being stolen erodes the legitimacy of our government.” But whose fault it that? Kobach scares people into believing there is rampant voter fraud, then uses that fear to justify new laws.
At a time when urban school districts seem to only make news for their epic failure, Memphis’ Booker T. Washington High School has people talking about its success. The school, where President Obama recently delivered the commencement address, is 100 percent African-American, with 98 percent of students eligible for free or reduced lunch. But in the past several years its graduation rate has risen from 55 to 82 percent, its rate of college-bound seniors has gone from 4 to 70 percent, and its math scores are 20 percent higher than the state average. One interesting reform linked to such success: separate freshmen academies for boys and girls.
Despite pronouncements to the contrary, moderate Republican lawmakers are still relevant in Topeka, according to Bernie Koch of the Kansas Economic Progress Council. Koch noted that, though their numbers are few, moderate Republicans were key to the state budget passing the Kansas House. “Without their support, the Kansas Legislature might still be at the Statehouse,” Koch wrote last week. He also said that moderate Republicans were somewhat isolated this session by House Speaker Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson. “Will that isolation end now that they supported him, while the more conservative elements of the party proved somewhat troublesome?” Koch asked.
One positive new law that didn’t get much attention during the legislative session was a change championed by state Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, D-Wichita, that will help protect the rights of grandparents during child custody cases. Senate Bill 23 allows grandparents to serve as interested parties in court proceedings when a child has been removed from home. “Nearly 18,000 Kansas grandparents are the primary caregiver to their grandchildren. . . . As more and more grandparents open up their homes and hearts to their grandchildren,” Faust-Goudeau said, “we must make sure that a system is in place to support them.”
Some of the Republicans who are feeling underwhelmed by the current GOP presidential field see the perfect nominee in House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the architect of the House GOP budget plan. The seven-term congressman is the subject of a new DraftRyanNow.com online petition drive. Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, suggested to National Review that Ryan is a “Beltway insider” whose past bailout votes could be a problem with the GOP base. And “is he old enough to run?” Huelskamp joked about Ryan, a P90X fitness devotee who looks younger than his 41 years. In any case, Huelskamp said, Ryan “does a great job” as budget chairman.
