It was discouraging that Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., dropped out of the “Gang of Six,” saying that he doesn’t see how it could reach an agreement on reducing the federal deficit. He was a key member of the bipartisan group — a proven fiscal conservative who acknowledged that a serious plan had to include both spending cuts and revenue increases. But he was also under intense pressure from anti-tax ideologues such as Grover Norquist. Standard & Poor’s warned last month that it might lower its rating on U.S. government debt, expressing doubt that lawmakers could agree on a deficit-reduction plan. If the good-faith members of the Gang of Six can’t agree on a plan, is there any hope for Congress?
GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich called Barack Obama “the food-stamp president” during a Friday speech in Georgia and again Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” then called it “bizarre” that anyone would take that nickname as a racial slur. “I have never said anything about President Obama which is racist,” Gingrich said. In response, Salon editor-at-large Joan Walsh wrote: “Blaming our first black president for the sharp rise in food-stamp reliance (which resulted from the economic crash that happened on the watch of our most recent white president) is just the latest version of Rush Limbaugh suggesting that Obama’s social policy amounts to ‘reparations’ for black people.”
What counts is that the Sedgwick County Commission committed Wednesday to put $11.6 million toward replacing the nightmarish cloverleaf at Kellogg and I-235, should the new interchange be among those funded under the state’s new 10-year transportation program. And it should be — for far too long, drivers have endured the dangerous 1950s-vintage interchange while public officials argued over how to pay for a replacement. The us-versus-them attitude persisted this week, as County Commissioners Richard Ranzau and Karl Peterjohn suggested that the city of Wichita, not the county, should help pay for the interchange. But the city has committed $78 million to numerous road projects that benefit the county, including Kellogg’s transformation. Besides, the 130,000 drivers who use the intersection every day — many of whom pay taxes to both the city and county — just want it fixed.
