Who would have thought that a positive television advertisement about pulling together to overcome adversity would be so controversial? But some GOP operatives are complaining that the ad by Chrysler during the Super Bowl was political payback to President Obama for bailing out auto companies. “It is a sign of what happens when you have Chicago-style politics, and the president of the United States and his political minions are, in essence, using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising,” former Bush administration political adviser Karl Rove said on Fox News. But actor Clint Eastwood, who narrated and appeared in the commercial, said that the ad wasn’t about Obama. “It was meant to be a message about job growth and the spirit of America,” Eastwood said. “ I think all politicians will agree with it.” Or they should.
Jonathan Williams, director of the tax and fiscal policy task force for the American Legislative Exchange Council, is scheduled to testify today before the House tax committee, presumably in support of Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax-reform proposal. ALEC is a corporate-funded group that provides “model” legislation to states on issues ranging from taxes to voter ID to climate change. Williams also is meeting with lawmakers at a luncheon today sponsored by the Kansas Policy Institute, Americans for Prosperity-Kansas and the Kansas Chamber of Commerce. About 50 Kansas legislators are ALEC members, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. Several groups are planning a protest in Topeka on Feb. 15 about the close ties between ALEC and the Brownback administration. “ALEC is the primary influence on the current administration, not Kansans,” Kansans United in Voice and Spirit said in a statement.
The announcement last week that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas would not bid on the state’s managed-care contracts for Medicaid raised more concern about the wisdom of including long-term care for the developmentally disabled in the contract. “Because there were new populations in new settings that we can’t serve in our current business model, we decided to not submit a bid,” Blue Cross spokeswoman Mary Beth Chambers said. Wichita-area service providers complained to The Eagle that the insurance companies looking at bidding on the contract don’t have a track record of providing services to the developmentally disabled.
Who would have thought that a positive television advertisement about pulling together to overcome adversity would be so controversial? But some GOP operatives are complaining that the ad by Chrysler during the Super Bowl was political payback to President Obama for bailing out auto companies. “It is a sign of what happens when you have Chicago-style politics, and the president of the United States and his political minions are, in essence, using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising,” former Bush administration political adviser Karl Rove said on Fox News. But actor Clint Eastwood, who narrated and appeared in the commercial, said that the ad wasn’t about Obama. “It was meant to be a message about job growth and the spirit of America,” Eastwood said. “ I think all politicians will agree with it.” Or they should.
