President Obama certainly answered those who say he has no ideas for deficit reduction. In the process, of course, he provided numerous specific targets for his opponents. “This is not class warfare. It’s math,” Obama said of his plan, which includes repealing the Bush-era tax rates for couples making more than $250,000 and a “Buffett Rule” newly taxing millionaires. But charging corporate jets more per flight, for example, didn’t fly under President Bush. Four other ideas that a Washington Post blog highlighted as unexpected: Reforming the U.S. Postal Service, including by refunding $6.9 billion in pension overpayments; cutting back flood insurance; selling off federal property; and capping contractors.
If Gov. Sam Brownback and legislative Republicans push to change — and, many would argue, politicize — how judges come to sit on the Kansas Supreme Court and the Kansas Court of Appeals, that will be fine with Attorney General Derek Schmidt. When Schmidt was a state senator, he sponsored legislation to require Senate confirmation of those judges and otherwise change the merit-selection process, which involves a nominating commission dominated by attorneys. Now, Schmidt told the Southwest Daily Times, “I believe it is important to let the policymakers decide, but my views have not changed.”
The satirical news site theonion.com did a fake news story about the “Wichita Zoo.” It said that in a desperate attempt to attract visitors, the zoo was heavily promoting a fruit bat that was “christened Dwayne following a statewide naming contest and has since become a ubiquitous presence on the backs of benches and sides of buses” throughout the area. “We’ve all got Dwayne fever around here,” fictitious zoo director David Tucker said, sporting a Dwayne the Fruit Bat mesh trucker cap. Though the Sedgwick County Zoo does have bats, it is the state’s top outdoor family tourist attraction and hasn’t had to resort to the promotions tried by the “Wichita Zoo,” including “Bring Your Own Food for the Animals Week.”
President Obama certainly answered those who say he has no ideas for deficit reduction. In the process, of course, he provided numerous specific targets for his opponents. “This is not class warfare. It’s math,” Obama said of his plan, which includes repealing the Bush-era tax rates for couples making more than $250,000 and a “Buffett Rule” newly taxing millionaires. But charging corporate jets more per flight, for example, didn’t fly under President Bush. Four other ideas that a Washington Post blog highlighted as unexpected: Reforming the U.S. Postal Service, including by refunding $6.9 billion in pension overpayments; cutting back flood insurance; selling off federal property; and capping contractors.
