One potential problem with a first-time candidate is that the person may not have been thoroughly vetted. Case in point: Politico reported that at least two female employees complained about sexually suggestive behavior by GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain when he was the head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s. The women ended up receiving financial payouts to leave the association. The agreements also barred them from talking about their departures. Cain and his campaign repeatedly declined to respond to questions about whether he ever faced allegations of sexual harassment. But after the Politico article came out Sunday, Cain acknowledged to Fox News that he had been accused but said he was innocent. “I have never sexually harassed anyone,” he said.
Americans’ distrust of government is at its highest level ever, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll. Only 10 percent of those surveyed said that Congress could be trusted to do the right thing. Meanwhile, only 9 percent of those surveyed thought Congress was doing a good job. The public is evenly split on President Obama, with 46 percent approving of his job performance and 46 percent disapproving. Obama scored highest on foreign policy, with 60 approving of his handling of the situation in Iraq. But only 38 percent thought Obama had a clear plan for job creation. However, that’s better than the GOP Congress. Only 20 percent of those surveyed thought the GOP Congress had a clear jobs plan, and 69 percent thought that the GOP policies favored the rich. Also of note, only 25 percent favored a full repeal of the federal health care law.
In a Washington Times commentary, Rep. Tim Huelskamp (in photo), R-Fowler, argued that Warren Buffett is undermining his own companies by endorsing President Obama’s policies. “Shareholders would be outraged if Berkshire Hathaway hired Mr. Obama as its CEO,” Huelskamp wrote. “But they should be just as outraged that the current CEO is championing the president’s ideas and ideology, both of which threaten and undermine the company’s obligation to maximize shareholder value.” Huelskamp, who recently called for Buffett to release his tax returns, also noted that Buffett only paid taxes last year on $39 million of his income of nearly $63 million. “Sheltering income from taxation is not exactly a testament to his confidence in Mr. Obama’s abilities,” Huelskamp wrote. Meanwhile, a Hutchinson News editorial said that Huelskamp looks bad going after Buffett: “Huelskamp apparently doesn’t know how to recognize when he has been outclassed.”
Opinions diverged at a tense Wichita City Council workshop last week over whether to allow concealed-carry permit holders to bring guns into some city-owned buildings, with the only consensus being that the public needs to be heard through town-hall meetings, district advisory boards or otherwise. A SurveyUSA poll, sponsored by KWCH, Channel 12, found that 54 percent of Wichitans think concealed guns shouldn’t be allow in city-owned buildings and that 45 percent would be less likely to vote for someone who supports allowing them. But 45 percent also said allowing guns would make no difference in whether they visited city facilities. Even if the council does nothing for now, as council member James Clendenin said, “the subject isn’t going to go away” — especially with the Sedgwick County Commission having recently approved concealed-carry at all but 27 county-owned sites.
Kansas superintendents were understandably skeptical of the new school-finance plan that a Brownback administration official outlined at an education summit last week in Wichita. “I think it’s a shell game,” Fairfield superintendent Mary Treaster told the Hutchinson News. “I think they’re trying to put more money on the base and put less in what they’re calling block grants, which are the weightings now, so they can say they’ve raised the base but they’ve not raised total state aid to education.” Hutchinson superintendent Shelly Kiblinger said she was skeptical “because as soon as you take the lid off (the local-option budget), it will create a disequalizing effect and create haves and have-nots.”
Good for the city of Wichita and Sedgwick County for working toward merging code-enforcement services, which will be discussed in a meeting this week. According to Sedgwick County Commissioner Jim Skelton, economic development and animal control also are being eyed for consolidation, in the manner of the current city-county planning department. Even if the promised cost savings of such mergers aren’t huge, the broader community stands to benefit from the greater consistency, efficiency and communication involved in combining resources and bureaucracies.
“What I’m probably sorry about was that I was as accommodating on the tax-cut side as I was. . . . It set us up for some of that economic downturn which the state has had to dig its way out of.” — former Gov. Bill Graves (1995-2003), in the Journal of the Kansas Leadership Center
“We teach people in school how to read and how to write, and we teach them how to make speeches; there’s no class in listening. That’s unfortunate. . . . What I see is happening in (the Capitol) a lot is I see a lot of people talking, but I don’t see very many people listening.” — former Gov. Mark Parkinson (2009-11), in the same publication
“They are chewing on the wrong end of the snake.” — Lynda Tyler of Wichita and the group Kansans for Liberty, suggesting the new anti-Brownback group Kansans United in Voice and Spirit should be trying to influence city halls
Bank of America and several smaller banks recently announced they will impose monthly fees on customers for using their debit cards. Why are these banks taking such an unpopular step and dinging their customers $3, $4 or $5 a month? When Congress pushed through its big financial reform package last year, it included price controls on the so-called “swipe fees” banks can charge merchants for the use of debit cards in retail transactions. So why did Congress include these price caps? Supporters of the measure were aiming to help friends in the retailing industry who don’t like paying the fees. Before the law passed, the banks informed lawmakers that imposition of the controls likely would lead them to raise prices for other services they offer. But the price caps passed despite this warning. And so banks have done exactly as they said they would do — raise fees elsewhere to make up for the lost revenue, estimated at more than $6 billion. Banks are not the most popular institutions these days, but they can hardly be faulted for raising fees in one area of their business after Congress imposed price caps in another. — Nick Schulz, American Enterprise Institute
Bank of America is trying to justify its $5 monthly surcharge on debit cards as a consequence of new federal regulations limiting the amount banks can charge for debit transactions, casting the entire episode as an epic battle between free markets and government price-fixing. But in order to function fairly and effectively, markets require both competition and transparency. Before swipe-fee reform, however, the debit-card market had neither. The two dominant players, Visa and MasterCard, and their banks each effectively fixed the fees banks receive on debit transactions. Rather than charging these fees openly, they hid them by requiring merchants to pay a “swipe” fee on every transaction. A 2010 study conducted by the Federal Reserve found the actual cost to banks for processing a debit-card transaction was about 4 cents. Yet until the new regulations took effect Oct. 1, banks were charging merchants an average 44 cents per transaction — a hidden tax that generated $20 billion a year for the banks but cost the average household more than $175. The new regulations do not “fix” debit-card swipe fees. They merely establish an upper limit of 21 cents on the typical transaction. In other words , under these “draconian” new rules, banks still will be able to charge a 425 percent markup on debit-card transactions. — Mallory Duncan, National Retail Federation
In a commentary in the Hays Daily News written as a private citizen rather than as a member of the Kansas State Board of Education, Janet Waugh of Kansas City, Kan., lashed out at “extremists,” including Gov. Sam Brownback, who were swept into public office and now “say we have to sacrifice certain people by slashing spending where we need it the most.” She noted that K-12 school cuts are translating into fewer teachers and “less help for struggling students” and higher local property taxes and school fees. Waugh concluded: “I can’t tell you what motivates the extremists. I don’t know whether they are selfish or simply misguided. But I do know that the Kansas they would create is a mean-spirited place. In this Kansas, neighbor battles neighbor, and children come last. If they ever succeed in remaking our state, I doubt that I would recognize this place as Kansas, and I wonder if anyone would want to raise a family here.”
Kansas Social and Rehabilitation Services Secretary Robert Siedlecki seems to be downplaying his faith-based initiative, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. In a meeting earlier this month with legislators, Siedlecki said the faith-based initiative didn’t exist. All SRS is doing, he said, is making sure that faith-based groups are neither discriminated against nor favored. But last spring the initiative seemed to be a priority, as Siedlecki created a new deputy secretary position in charge of faith-based community initiatives. SRS also applied for a federal grant, which it didn’t get, that would have used faith-based groups to encourage parents to get married.
The following satirical headlines come from borowitzreport.com and theonion.com:
Gadhafi Killed; Mauled by Tiger in Ohio
Wrong People Arrested on Wall Street; Goldman Boss: ‘Thought They Were Finally Coming for Us’
Cheney Says He Supports Leaving Iraq ‘as Long as We Go Through Iran’
NBA Players, Owners Agree That Both Sides Are Selfish
Federal Government to Reduce Madoff’s Sentence if He Can Infiltrate U.S. Economy in 48 Hours and Turn it Around
Mitt Romney’s Goal to Connect With One Voter by the Time This Is All Over
Former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole was the object of bipartisan admiration last Friday in Washington, D.C., at a fundraiser for the University of Kansas’ Dole Institute of Politics marking the 50th anniversary of the Russell native’s election to Congress. The Kansans speaking in honor of the longtime Senate leader and 1996 GOP presidential nominee included Republican Sen. Pat Roberts and two Democrats, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and former congressman Jim Slattery. In his remarks, the frail-looking 88-year-old guest of honor noted he “didn’t leave politics voluntarily” in 1996 and lamented the shortages of trust, flexibility and bipartisanship in lawmaking today. “You have to be willing to trust one another if you are going to get anything done. . . . I think we can do better, and I believe we will,” Dole said.
Give GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry credit for being bold. Or maybe he is just desperate to win back hard-core conservatives. His new reform plan calls for a 20 percent flat tax, including for corporations, and capping federal spending at 18 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (it is currently 24 percent). He also wants to allow younger Americans the option of diverting their payroll taxes into private retirement accounts (an idea that President Bush pitched without success). Perry would give taxpayers the option of either paying the flat tax or continuing to pay their current income-tax rate. That avoids the tax increases that would result from Herman Cain’s “9-9-9” plan. But it also means many Americans would need to calculate their taxes two different ways, which doesn’t simplify the system. “Fixing America’s tax, spending and entitlement cultures will not be easy,” Perry said. “But the status quo of byzantine taxes, loose spending and the perpetual delay of entitlement reform is a recipe for disaster.”
State Rep. Brenda Landwehr’s (left) decision to challenge state Sen. Jean Schodorf (right) sets up a defining 2012 contest not only within the Wichita delegation but for the Kansas Senate, which proved a moderating check last spring on the sharply conservative will of the House and Gov. Sam Brownback. Schodorf is one of at least half a dozen moderate Republican senators, including Senate President Steve Morris of Hugoton and Senate Vice President John Vratil of Leawood, facing conservative foes next year. The Schodorf-Landwehr race could come down to how the spring redistricting shakes out and then which Republicans turn out Aug. 7 — with photo ID in hand, of course.
Kansas Sens. Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran were among only 15 senators who voted against an amendment last week to discontinue certain farm subsidies for people who make more than $1 million in adjusted gross income. Roberts and some other Senate Agriculture Committee members argued that such a reform should be handled through their committee, which has been working on a plan to cut $23 billion in spending on direct farm subsidies, conservation and nutrition programs. But most lawmakers agreed with Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who argued that “rather than taxing millionaires, the first thing we ought to do is quit giving them subsidies.”
In an interview in Parade magazine in the Sunday Eagle, GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry seemed to flirt with those who still think that President Obama wasn’t born in the United States, saying he didn’t know whether Obama’s birth certificate was authentic. But former Bush political adviser Karl Rove warned Perry to stay away from “a nutty view like that.” Rove said he knows Perry is trying to get Donald Trump’s endorsement, “but this is not the way to go about doing it, because it starts to marginalize you.”
It’s still unclear what GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain’s position is on abortion. In an interview with Fox Business, Cain said that it “is not the government’s role or anybody else’s role to make that decision (about abortion).” And after saying he was against abortion under any circumstances, he told CNN’s Piers Morgan: “It ultimately gets down to a choice that that family or that mother has to make. Not me as president. Not some politician. Not a bureaucrat. It gets down to that family, and whatever they decide, they decide.” That sounds like a pro-choice stance. But Cain then released a statement saying that he misunderstood the questions. “As to my political-policy view on abortion, I am 100 percent pro-life,” he said. “End of story.” Is it?
GOP members of Congress aren’t just out of step with most Americans on key provisions of President Obama’s job bill; most Republican voters don’t agree with them either, according to a new CNN/ORC International poll. Among self-identified Republicans surveyed, 58 percent support cutting the payroll tax for all American workers, 63 percent support providing federal money to state governments to hire teachers and first responders, 54 percent want increased federal spending to build roads and schools, and 56 percent support increasing the taxes paid by people who make more than $1 million a year. The only policies GOP voters didn’t support were increasing federal aid to unemployed workers, which only 36 percent supported, and increasing taxes of people who make more than $250,000 a year, which only 37 percent supported. Overall, 60 percent of Americans want more aid to the unemployed, and 63 percent think taxes should increase on those making more than $250,000.
Johnson County prosecutors won more time today in their effort to authenticate abortion records dating from 2003 and used in 2007 by then-District Attorney Phill Kline to file a 107-count complaint against Planned Parenthood’s Overland Park clinic. But with last week’s news that state health officials shredded their copies of the records in 2005 as part of “routine document destruction,” it’s getting harder to see how this ancient case can be made — or why it should be, given that a professional ethics panel recently found that Kline misled a grand jury (which ultimately refused to indict Planned Parenthood itself) and “engaged in a pattern of misconduct” as district attorney and, earlier, as Kansas attorney general.
Mitt Romney is still getting beaten up by his fellow GOP presidential candidates for the health care plan he backed when he was governor of Massachusetts. It includes an individual mandate to buy health insurance and was a model for the federal health care reform law. But as Romney noted at last week’s GOP debate in Las Vegas, the idea for an individual mandate came from the right-wing Heritage Foundation and had been supported by top Republicans, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. It also seems out of character for conservatives to now be championing people’s right to be irresponsible and stick others with the cost of paying for their health care.
As he cast the only “no” vote last week for a plan raising the salaries of state university presidents, Kansas Board of Regents member Tim Emert of Independence lamented that the state employees “keeping the engines running are not receiving increases.” But as Christine Downey-Schmidt of Inman argued, “it seems we have asked more and more and more” from the university leaders and “we ought to be able to deliver.” In their first raises since 2009, all the presidents received 1.8 percent cost-of-living increases; the presidents of Fort Hays State University, Kansas State University and Pittsburg State University also received “market adjustments,” respectively, of 12.2, 12.5 and 14.7 percent.
“President Obama’s teleprompter was stolen. Police are on the lookout for a thief that’s eloquent and spreading a message of hope.” — Conan O’Brien
“It was on this day (Oct. 18) in 1867 that the United States bought Alaska from the Russians. And about six months from now, we’ll probably be selling it to China.” — Craig Ferguson
All the other presidential candidates panned Herman Cain’s “9-9-9” plan at Tuesday’s GOP debate. And a wide range of independent analysts have concluded that the plan would raise taxes on the poor and most of the middle class. Few serious people are taking it seriously. So it’s troubling that former Reagan economist Arthur Laffer (in photo) is a fan of the plan, because this is the same guy the Brownback administration is paying $75,000 to help develop a new tax policy. “The whole purpose of a flat tax, a la 9-9-9, is to lower marginal tax rates and simplify the tax code. With lower marginal tax rates (and boy will marginal tax rates be lower with the 9-9-9 plan), both the demand for and the supply of labor and capital will increase,” Laffer wrote in the Wall Street Journal. “Output will soar, as will jobs. Tax revenues will also increase enormously — not because tax rates have increased, but because marginal tax rates have decreased.”
Secretary of State Kris Kobach is taking pride in the fallout from Alabama’s immigration law, which he helped write and calls “air-tight” despite the ongoing legal war over it. “I’m proud to have been a part of it, and the untold story is how successful it has already been in opening jobs for Alabama citizens,” Kobach said in a Mobile (Ala.) Press-Register profile. “There haven’t been mass arrests. There aren’t a bunch of court proceedings. People are simply removing themselves. It’s self-deportation at no cost to the taxpayer. I’d say that’s a win.” Farmers disagree, complaining that they can’t find workers to harvest their crops. Opinions also diverge about Kobach. Southern Poverty Law Center spokesman Mark Potok said: “Wherever he’s gone, you find communities torn apart culturally, economically and racially.” But Alabama state Rep. Micky Hammon said, “As far as I’m concerned, he is a godsend.”
Many people are wondering why the Sedgwick County Commission signed a letter of intent last week to sell the Kansas Coliseum site for only $1.5 million when it was last appraised at $22 million. Commissioner Karl Peterjohn contends that the appraisal amount is “about as bogus as a $3 bill.” He said it was valued when Britt Brown Arena was still open and before it needed extensive repairs, including a new roof. He also argued that the value of property is ultimately determined by what a buyer is willing to pay, and the county hasn’t been getting offers since it requested proposals in 2009. Peterjohn said that during the eight days between when The Eagle first reported the possible sale and the commission’s vote last week, his phone was silent as to other offers.
One potential problem with a first-time candidate is that the person may not have been thoroughly vetted. Case in point: Politico reported that at least two female employees complained about sexually suggestive behavior by GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain when he was the head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s. The women ended up receiving financial payouts to leave the association. The agreements also barred them from talking about their departures. Cain and his campaign repeatedly declined to respond to questions about whether he ever faced allegations of sexual harassment. But after the Politico article came out Sunday, Cain acknowledged to Fox News that he had been accused but said he was innocent. “I have never sexually harassed anyone,” he said.
