Texas is getting a lot of attention for its job growth, particularly now that its governor, Rick Perry, is running for president. But the Wall Street Journal reported that one of the biggest drivers of job growth in Texas has been government, which added 301,000 jobs during the past decade. Local government jobs in Texas rose by 225,000, with 169,000 of those jobs related to education. Another big driver of jobs was the oil and gas industry, which has surged because of rising world crude prices and new “fracking” techniques. Meanwhile, employment in manufacturing declined during the past decade, and many of the new private-sector jobs are “low-wage and without benefits; according to federal data, the state is tied with Mississippi for the largest percentage of hourly workers who make minimum wage or less, at 9.5 percent.”
The following satirical headlines come from borowitzreport.com and theonion.com:
Rick Perry Promises Universal Hair Care
S&P Downgrades Iowa’s IQ
Predator Drone Seen Hovering Over Standard & Poor’s Headquarters
Murdoch Calls Rioters Criminals: ‘If You Don’t Believe Me, Listen to Their Voicemails’
Nation’s Students to Give American Education System Yet Another Chance
Obama: Debt-Ceiling Deal Required Tough Concessions by Both Democrats and Democrats Alike
New GOP Strategy Involves Re-electing Obama, Making His Life Even More Miserable
Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Wichita, said the predominant reaction he has received from the public about the debt-ceiling deal is that lawmakers created too much risk and that they need to get along. But Pompeo thinks the political process is working just as it is supposed to, telling The Eagle editorial board that this country has argued about its policies since its founding and that the swings in control of the U.S. House reflect the public’s mood. He also objects to criticisms by President Obama and others about a “do-nothing Congress.” Pompeo said the House has “worked really hard,” holding hearings and passing bills. The problem, he said, is that the Senate hasn’t done anything.
A New York Times editorial noted the inconsistency in Gov. Sam Brownback’s stated reasons for returning a $31.5 million federal grant to set up an online health insurance exchange — a move it described as “a foolhardy indulgence of partisan ideology.” It noted that by rejecting the money, Kansas likely will either have to pay to design its own exchange or use a federal model. “Surely such an outcome would be self-defeating for conservative zealots criticizing the health care law and President Obama in the name of states’ rights and resistance to big-government diktat,” it said. The editorial also found Brownback’s concern about “much uncertainty” over the federal government’s ability to meet its obligations to be intriguing, considering his previous service as a U.S. senator. “In that role,” the editorial noted, “he offered unalloyed support for the Bush administration’s enormous tax cuts and Iraq War spending that added to the federal deficit and debt that now concern him so.”
It took four years, a lawsuit and a land deal, but what matters is that the city of Wichita is now on board with trying to exercise more discretion in booking people into the Sedgwick County Jail on municipal charges. This not only promises to save the city on jail fees but also makes Wichita, like other cities in the county, a full partner in the county’s determination to mitigate jail crowding and avoid another costly expansion. Public safety always will require that some people arrested for violating city ordinances go to jail, but the city is smart to be newly seeking other ways of handling arrestees who aren’t dangerous.
Good for Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., for sending a letter to the U.S. postmaster general questioning the justification for potentially closing rural post offices across the country, including 156 in Kansas. He noted that the Postal Regulatory Commission found that maintaining rural post offices only amounts to 0.7 percent of the Postal Service’s total budget and that closing a post office simply because of revenue shortfalls violates the U.S. Postal Code. “I sincerely recognize the situation that the Postal Service is facing,” Moran wrote, “but I believe that reducing service to these communities will significantly impact rural citizens with little benefit to the Postal Service’s bottom line.”
The Washington Examiner’s Byron York asked Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., if she was submissive to her husband. York’s question wasn’t about religion per se, but was an attempt to probe whether, if Bachmann became president, America would be getting her husband’s decisions and not hers. It’s common for Christian politicians questioned about their adherence to submission theology to dodge a scriptural explanation, as Bachmann did. After all, while dominionist-minded evangelicals like Bachmann intentionally set out to bring their “biblical worldview” into politics, they recognize that it’s bad 21st-century politics — especially for a female candidate — to admit to a theology that could cause voters to recoil at the image of an obedient wife as president of the United States. At the debate, Bachmann smiled and talked about how in love she is with her husband and maintained that their relationship is based on respect. But if Bachmann had explained her interpretation of the theology, we would have received greater insight into what her “biblical worldview” means for her understanding of law and policy. — Sarah Posner, Religion Dispatches
Since Rep. Michele Bachmann was asked in a debate whether she would be submissive to her husband as president, the punditry has morphed into a morass of armchair theologians pushing flawed interpretations of what submission means in a biblical context. It was fair to ask the question at the debate. After all, if Bachmann had responded, “I believe that submission means my husband will tell me how to do my job as president,” that is important information. But that isn’t what she said. Ironically, the complaint that is usually lobbed at conservative Christians is that they keep their women barefoot and pregnant. Now the anti-evangelical-Christian mob is up in arms because Marcus Bachmann told his wife she should be a tax attorney and run for Congress. Oh, the horror. Ideally, spouses influence each other, and if Bachmann’s husband saw a talent in his wife and encouraged her to pursue higher office, what is wrong with that? He didn’t say, “Run for Congress or I’ll beat you.” Yes, there are people who distort the doctrine of submission to control and abuse women, but they are not representative of mainstream evangelicalism. — Kirsten Powers, Daily Beast
“I understand the temptation to view anything that has resulted in Al Gore’s receiving a Nobel Prize as a conspiracy of some sort,” columnist Alexandra Petri wrote about GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry’s contention that global warming is a hoax. But, she also said, “the facts just don’t line up. The facts contumaciously persist in asserting that, whether we like it or not, climate change is happening. Science says so. Scientists say so. Data say so. . . . Birds say so. Bees say so. Even educated fleas say so, unless they are running in a Republican flea primary.”
The Washington Post also did a fact check on Perry’s claims about global warming and awarded him “four Pinocchios,” its highest rating for “whoppers.”
Meeting with The Eagle editorial board Tuesday, Kansas Social and Rehabilitation Services Secretary Rob Siedlecki had praise for the way the city of Lawrence and Douglas County each stepped up with $112,500 a year through 2013 to prevent the closure of the Lawrence SRS office. He said that Wellington officials are considering a similar intervention to save their local SRS office. Not everybody is thrilled about this new cost-sharing partnership, though. The Lawrence Journal-World editorialized: “Blackmail may be too strong a word, but by threatening to close the local SRS office, state officials put local governments in a near-impossible situation. Using local tax dollars to take over a state responsibility sets a terrible precedent.” The Kansas City Star editorialized: “If Gov. Sam Brownback’s plan was to reduce taxpayer spending, this doesn’t do it. All it does is move the tax burden from statewide to local, which is little more than a shell game. Local taxpayers are picking up what has always been — and should still be — a state tab.”
Her electability and ideas are questionable. Her gaffes are laughable, such as when she marked Tuesday’s 34th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death by wishing him a happy birthday. But Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., deserves more credit than she’s getting as a trailblazer for her gender. “Most pundits give the males the edge in the political battle shaping up, but Bachmann has made history as the first woman to clobber the guys in a national GOP race,” said Steven Clemons, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, about Bachmann’s win in Saturday’s Iowa straw poll. And unlike Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton, “she didn’t get a helping hand up,” he said. Palin rocketed to prominence because John McCain made her his running mate; Clinton had the name recognition and experience that come with being married to a president. “Mrs. Bachmann is self-made in a tough, male-dominated political neighborhood,” Clemons noted.
Secretary of State Kris Kobach wants lawmakers to move up the start date for when people registering to vote have to provide proof of U.S. citizenship, making it March 2012 rather than January 2013. But people who actually run the elections oppose the change, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. Don Merriman, Saline County clerk and president of the Kansas County Clerks and Election Officials Association, said there already are major election changes to implement for 2012. “We are going to have enough of a struggle,” Merriman said. Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew also warned against rushing the change. Voting is a constitutional right, “so you don’t want to make a decision on the fly about who gets to participate and who doesn’t get to participate,” he said. But Kobach didn’t care when clerks said there wasn’t a problem with election fraud, so he is unlikely to follow their advice this time either.
Just as arts supporters had warned, the National Endowment for the Arts has denied Kansas’ request for federal funding because of Gov. Sam Brownback’s decision to lay off the staff of the Kansas Arts Commission and veto its funding. The Brownback administration repeatedly said that the state would still be able to get the federal funds. But NEA spokeswoman Victoria Hutter said that the “NEA has determined that Kansas is ineligible for fiscal year 2011.” Including grants from the Mid-America Arts Alliance, which is likely to follow the NEA’s decision, Kansas will lose about $1.2 million. Thanks a lot, governor.
The state committee of the Kansas Republican Party struggled during a meeting last weekend in Wichita with how to respond to the debt-ceiling deal. Party chairmen from the districts represented by Reps. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, and Kevin Yoder, R-Overland Park, ginned up a resolution to congratulate those lawmakers and Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., for voting against the deal, reported Martin Hawver of Hawver’s Capitol Report. But because that implied criticism of the three Kansas lawmakers who voted for the deal — Reps. Mike Pompeo, R-Wichita, and Lynn Jenkins, R-Topeka, and Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan. — the resolution committee ended up presenting a resolution that blasted President Obama for “failure to lead in addressing the serious economic woes this nation is facing.” That failed 96-61, with Huelskamp’s delegates rejecting it 29-3 and Yoder’s delegation voting 30-8 against the resolution. Hawver’s conclusion: “If you can’t pick and choose among Kansas’ members of Congress for praise, then conservatives aren’t interested in just praising members of Congress for being there.”
For what it’s worth, Irish bookmaker Paddy Power has released its betting odds on who will be elected president in 2012. President Obama is the favorite with 4-6 odds, but Texas Gov. Rick Perry is closing with 7-2 odds, followed by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at 5-1. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., had 16-1 odds, while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was 25-1 and Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, was 50-1.
It’s no surprise that Kansas is being sued over its new law barring private insurance companies from including abortion coverage in their comprehensive insurance plans sold to private companies and individuals. The prohibition doesn’t make legal or free-market sense. “This law is part of a nationwide trend to take away insurance coverage for a legal medical procedure that is an important part of basic health care for women,” said Brigitte Amiri, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Reproductive Freedom Project, which filed the lawsuit Tuesday. If they want coverage, women in Kansas have to pay extra to purchase a supplemental policy, assuming one is even available. But who plans ahead for a crisis pregnancy or for being raped — contrary to the offensive suggestion by state Rep. Pete DeGraaf, R-Mulvane, that doing so would be akin to carrying a spare tire in your car?
Not only did Gov. Sam Brownback accept a $31.5 million federal grant last February to set up an online insurance exchange, he unofficially approved of Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger applying for it last year. He defended those actions at a meeting in June of the Johnson County Republican Party’s Elephant Club. “The state of Kansas for over a decade has tried to do some form of insurance exchange itself,” he said, noting how such an exchange could help lower health care costs. He then explained that he wanted to use the grant “not to do Obamacare” but to “do an exchange that would provide a market mechanism, because I think we could use more market forces in health care.” He was correct — an exchange is a good idea that had been championed by GOP lawmakers for years. But then last week Brownback flip-flopped and unilaterally decided to return the money.
Gov. Sam Brownback didn’t go far enough in returning a $31.5 million federal health care grant, according to the Kansas Republican Party. Delegates at Saturday’s state committee meeting in Wichita approved a resolution rejecting all aspects of the Affordable Care Act. It said that all efforts by “any government agency, entity, or elected representative in the state of Kansas to study, develop or implement an ACA-compliant exchange or any component part, including those ACA-compliant components related to Medicaid, must be immediately halted.”
The GOP presidential contest is looking like a three-way race between Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R-Minn, the New York Times reported. Should anyone else be in the top tier, such as Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who came in a close second to Bachmann in last weekend’s Iowa straw poll?
Gov. Sam Brownback isn’t the only one getting criticized for turning down federal grants. Miami Herald columnist and best-selling author Carl Hiaasen blasted Florida Gov. Rick Scott (in photo) and state GOP lawmakers for rejecting any and all grants even remotely associated with the federal health care reform. This includes nixing more than $50 million in federal child-abuse prevention funds and almost $36 million in grants to help transition ill and elderly Floridians out of nursing facilities and back to their homes (which would save the state millions of dollars). “With a $3.7 billion budget hole and the nation’s second-highest rate of uninsured residents, Florida is rejecting more federal health-care funds than any other state,” Hiaasen wrote, adding that this is “a matter of button-busting pride” to the speaker of the Florida House and to Scott, “who continues to float through his own squirrelly parallel universe.”
An Opinion Line contributor chided the president, vice president and House speaker for recently playing golf together, imagining the crisis that could have been created if they’d been successfully targeted by a sniper. “I believe Nancy Pelosi would be the next in line for president. Heaven help us,” the reader suggested. Actually, the next in line would be the president of the Senate pro tempore, currently 86-year-old Sen. Daniel Inouye (in photo), D-Hawaii, followed by a succession of 15 Cabinet members led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, a former Kansas governor, is 12th in the line of succession after the president.
Gov. Sam Brownback’s ostensible reason for returning a $31.5 million federal grant to set up an online insurance exchange was that the grant came with too many strings attached. But that’s not the case, said Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, who has been working on the project for months. “There are conditions with the grant that we were going to have to meet, but HHS (the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) has been incredibly flexible,” she told the Lawrence Journal-World. Kansas had an opportunity to “create a process that really worked well for us,” Praeger said. Now, if the health reform law is upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, Kansas will either have to use a one-size-fits-all model developed by the federal government or scramble to create its own exchange — and pay for it with our own scarce state tax dollars. “It’s a missed opportunity,” Praeger said, “but I understand the politics.” Still, Praeger thinks there are things more important than partisan politics. “It’s about doing the right thing,” she said. Not for Brownback.
The state of Kansas continues to waste scarce state tax dollars on abortion politics. It asked a federal appeals court last week to overturn a district judge’s order blocking it from defunding Planned Parenthood. This even though the law clearly violates both federal Medicaid rules and Planned Parenthood’s constitutional rights. What’s more, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services warned last week that it might cut off all of Kansas’ family planning funding if the state doesn’t meet the terms of its federal grant. Not smart.
Good for the U.S. Department of Agriculture for modifying Conservation Reserve Program policies to help ranchers in Kansas and elsewhere affected by drought conditions. The policy changes extend the emergency grazing period on CRP land until Oct. 31 and allow producers to utilize harvested hay from expiring CRP acres when those acres are being prepared for fall seeded crops. “The modification of CRP policies is a positive step that will help Kansas producers in a difficult time,” Gov. Sam Brownback said. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., also praised the change: “I am grateful USDA has taken additional steps to expand relief to those producers suffering from this severe drought and higher feed costs.”
Thanks to fracking, the gas rush is on with tens of thousands of new wells popping up.
And why not? Natural gas burns cleaner than oil or coal, it’s cheaper than foreign oil and it creates jobs. That’s what the industry is pitching, and it’s probably safer than nuclear energy.
Or is it?
When a well broke in Bradford County, Pa., tens of thousands of gallons of fracking fluids leaked into the Susquehanna River, just like the 8,000 gallons that seeped into a creek near Dimock, Pa.
It’s not just chemicals.
The New York Times obtained Environmental Protection Agency documents revealing that wastewater from fracking is often much more radioactive than federal regulators deem safe for treatment plants to handle. We need a moratorium on the helter-skelter drilling of new fracking wells, until the process is proved safe or made safe.
— Arnold Mann, McClatchy News Service
Over the last few years, U.S. and world natural gas reserves have soared as we’ve discovered how to apply the technique known as “fracking” to unleash gas trapped in deep underground shale formations.
Fracking involves pumping a mixture of water, sand and chemicals under pressure into underground formations, releasing the gas trapped there.
This has revolutionized America’s energy picture. Shale gas made up just 1 percent of gas supply in 2000; today it’s 25 percent.
Thus far fracking’s dangers are mostly theoretical. Earlier this year EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson told Congress that there had been “no proven cases where the fracking process itself has affected water.”
The natural gas industry doesn’t have its hand out asking for subsidies. Making sure we do not shut down development of our natural gas reserves with ill-considered regulatory measures is critical to our energy future.
— Andrew Morriss, University of Alabama
It’s a relief that Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer doesn’t have any heart problems. Brewer started feeling pain and pressure in his left arm and chest during Tuesday’s City Council meeting and went to the emergency room that evening. But tests showed no signs of heart-related issues, city officials said. Here’s hoping for continued good health.
Texas is getting a lot of attention for its job growth, particularly now that its governor, Rick Perry, is running for president. But the Wall Street Journal reported that one of the biggest drivers of job growth in Texas has been government, which added 301,000 jobs during the past decade. Local government jobs in Texas rose by 225,000, with 169,000 of those jobs related to education. Another big driver of jobs was the oil and gas industry, which has surged because of rising world crude prices and new “fracking” techniques. Meanwhile, employment in manufacturing declined during the past decade, and many of the new private-sector jobs are “low-wage and without benefits; according to federal data, the state is tied with Mississippi for the largest percentage of hourly workers who make minimum wage or less, at 9.5 percent.”
