Many people contributed to the global financial collapse, but perhaps no one more than James A. Johnson, the former head of Fannie Mae. Johnson helped transform the government-sponsored housing lender into “the largest and most powerful financial institution in the world,” according to the new book “Reckless Endangerment” by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner. As Fannie Mae grew, so did its political influence and the bonuses to its top executives. During a nine-year period, Johnson received $100 million in compensation. Columnist George Will’s conclusion: “Although Johnson left Fannie Mae years before his handiwork helped produce the 2008 bonfire of wealth, he may be more responsible for the debacle and its still-mounting devastations — of families, endowments, etc. — than any other individual. If so, he may be more culpable for the peacetime destruction of more wealth than any individual in history.”
Sam Brownback was one of 29 GOP governors who sent a letter last month to congressional leaders asking for greater flexibility in spending Medicaid dollars. Medicaid has long been the biggest budget challenge facing states, accounting for 22 percent of state budgets last fiscal year. In Kansas, the number of people served by Medicaid has increased about 33 percent in the past decade to nearly 325,000. Kansas Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer and other administration officials are hosting public forums on reforming Medicaid, including one today in Wichita. “These forums will provide Kansans from across the state the opportunity to give their input about health care in their communities,” Colyer said. But critics contend that GOP-backed reforms such as block grants are mostly aimed at reducing services to poor people in order to free up more money for tax cuts.
Willfully missing the point of Wednesday’s Eagle editorial, Sedgwick County Commissioners Karl Peterjohn and Richard Ranzau defiantly doubled down on their abuse of the “other” agenda time at Wednesday’s commission meeting. Peterjohn sounded off again about ACORN, Somali pirates and a New York Times writer’s anti-Kansas remark, also criticizing President Obama’s call to end tax breaks for corporate-jet owners. Ranzau, after getting emotional about his love of liberty, accused the Transportation Security Administration of molesting children and humiliating ailing senior citizens in the course of body scans and pat downs. “I will not fly with my children at the age (of) 7, 9 and 11,” Ranzau said. “When they become adults, they can make that decision for themselves. But I’m not going to put them in a position to essentially be sexually assaulted by TSA agents and by my government.” Both commissioners pushed back against The Eagle editorial board’s suggestion that there was anything inappropriate and excessive about their use of meeting and TV time to express personal and often partisan opinions about federal and political issues. “I didn’t give up my First Amendment rights when I took the oath of office,” Peterjohn said. True, but if commissioners don’t have enough respect for the office and county resources to curb their own speechmaking from the bench, apparently it’s time, as Commission Chairman Dave Unruh has suggested, to set some formal rules about such commissioner comment time.
Many people contributed to the global financial collapse, but perhaps no one more than James A. Johnson, the former head of Fannie Mae. Johnson helped transform the government-sponsored housing lender into “the largest and most powerful financial institution in the world,” according to the new book “Reckless Endangerment” by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner. As Fannie Mae grew, so did its political influence and the bonuses to its top executives. During a nine-year period, Johnson received $100 million in compensation. Columnist George Will’s conclusion: “Although Johnson left Fannie Mae years before his handiwork helped produce the 2008 bonfire of wealth, he may be more responsible for the debacle and its still-mounting devastations — of families, endowments, etc. — than any other individual. If so, he may be more culpable for the peacetime destruction of more wealth than any individual in history.”
