As President Obama prepared to welcome President Bush back to the White House for today’s unveiling of portraits of the former president and first lady, columnist Eleanor Clift was among those struck by how closely Obama has mirrored his predecessor on national security issues. “Bush, perhaps more than any recent president, must feel vindicated by the policies that Obama has chosen to pursue, many of them forged in the post-9/11 era under Bush’s leadership,” Clift wrote. She also said the reporting “by Newsweek and the New York Times on how Obama personally signs off on a ‘kill list’ of al-Qaida terrorists prepared by the CIA and the Pentagon is chillingly reminiscent of the deck of playing cards that Bush used to keep score of top terrorist targets when he was in the Oval Office.”
If Mitt Romney wants a running mate to counter the impression that his interests mirror those of a financial sector “that has run roughshod over the nation and practically brought the nation’s economy to its knees,” he should pick former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairwoman Sheila Bair (in photo), argued Huffington Post blogger Raymond J. Learsy. He wrote of the native Kansan: “Bair, a moderate Republican and holdover appointee from the Bush administration, fought unstintingly against the crony capitalism that had overtaken our government.” Most recently, Bair argued in a Fortune commentary that JPMorgan Chase is too big to manage, let alone regulate, and that CEO Jamie Dimon should take steps to downsize. “The best way for Dimon to provide a better return to his investors is to recognize that his bank is worth more in smaller, easier-to-manage pieces,” Bair wrote.
The Kansas City Star counted Gov. Sam Brownback, House Speaker Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson, and dentists among the winners of the 2012 legislative session – the last because they “quietly won a battle” over whether to allow a new category of dental provider to fill cavities and pull teeth. The session’s losers? They included Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who failed to move up the proof-of-citizenship deadline for voter registration or see Kansas pass an Alabama-style immigration crackdown; the Senate’s moderate leadership; and state Sen. Les Donovan (in photo), R-Wichita, who, the Star concluded, “twice tried hammering out a compromise for moderate tax cuts and twice . . . couldn’t get his chamber on board.”
With Mitt Romney now having locked in the delegates he needs to be the GOP presidential nominee, the fall campaign is truly on. And the money spent is going to be enormous. Through April, President Obama and the Democratic groups supporting him had raised nearly $450 million during the election cycle. And Politico predicts that GOP groups are likely to spend roughly $1 billion related to the presidential and congressional races. Politico reports that groups affiliated with the Koch brothers “will spend the most of any outside outfit on either side: roughly $395 million for issue and political advocacy by groups they support – twice the amount they previously had been expected to commit.” What has the GOP groups ready to open the floodgates? The Politico article concludes: First, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in “Citizens United made it easy and less risky for rich donors to get back in the game. Second, a subsequent lower court case paved the way for the creation of super PACs, giving mega-donors arguably the most effective vehicle for funding ads in the modern campaign finance era. Third and perhaps most important, Obama scared many free-market millionaires into action with what they perceive as his outright hostility to capitalism.”
Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, is one of 15 freshmen in Congress who campaigned on tea party opposition to bank bailouts but have toed the line in backing bills supported by the banking industry, the liberal website Think Progress contends. The lawmakers also backed bills aimed at tying the hands of financial regulators. The website reported that Huelskamp has received nearly $36,000 in campaign donations from the banking industry.
The intelligence complex at McConnell Air Force Base is scheduled to be named this morning in honor of Robert Gates, former defense secretary and CIA director. It’s fitting that a native Wichitan who has played such a crucial role in the nation’s defense and intelligence gathering for four decades will have a permanent tribute to his service in his hometown. It’s what goes on within the complex that will be the real tribute, of course – the handling by the Kansas Air National Guard’s 184th Intelligence Wing of intelligence collected by manned and unmanned aircraft around the globe.
An editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal headlined “What’s Right With Kansas” praised Gov. Sam Brownback for calling the bluff of GOP tax-cut opponents and “signing the biggest tax cut in Kansas history,” declaring that in contrast to the fiscal actions in France and Washington, “some enlightenment reigns in the American heartland.” The editorial concluded: “Low tax rates aren’t the only policy needed for growth, and Kansas would be better off had Senate Republicans agreed to reduce loopholes while cutting rates. But the tax cut will force state politicians to restrain spending, and above all it sends a signal to businesses and taxpayers that Kansas wants more of both.” The editorial made no mention of the schools and social services that will bear the damaging brunt of that restrained spending. The Wall Street Journal editorial board has singled out Brownback for praise repeatedly this year.
Credit is due Wichita City Manager Robert Layton and Sedgwick County Manager William Buchanan for reportedly clearing the way for a merger of the two governments’ code-enforcement departments, slated for Jan. 1. The effort is even more impressive because it necessitated fairly addressing the concerns of the city’s public employee union while transitioning through attrition to a nonunion city-county department. The cost savings may be minimal, but the merger will serve not only the convenience of area contractors but also the metropolitan area’s certain growth in coming years.
The following satirical headlines come from borowitzreport.com and theonion.com:
Hoping for Knockout Punch, CIA Sends JPMorgan Execs to Infiltrate al-Qaida
Blind Chinese Dissident Already Sick of Kardashians
U.S. Sends Emergency Shipment of Negative Campaign Ads to Egypt
North Carolina Weighs Ban on Electricity, Soap
Fox News Reports: France Joins America in Electing Socialist President
Fracking Industry Now Largest Employer of Recent PR Graduates
Report: Every Potential 2040 President Already Unelectable Due to Facebook
Middle-class white voters who are struggling financially favor GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney over President Obama by 58 to 32 percent, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Middle-class nonwhite voters prefer Obama by a better than 3-1 majority. Among all voters, 50 percent think that Obama would do more to advance the economic interests of middle-class Americans, compared with 44 percent who think Romney would do more. Of those surveyed, 68 percent think Romney would do more to advance the interests of the wealthy.
When the Sunlight Foundation ran lawmakers’ words in the Congressional Record through the Flesch-Kincaid readability test, it found that Congress is talking down to Americans these days and that the most conservative members speak on average at the lowest grade level. “Today’s Congress speaks at about a 10.6 grade level, down from 11.5 in 2005. By comparison, the U.S. Constitution is written at a 17.8 grade level, the Federalist Papers at a 17.1 grade level, and the Declaration of Independence at a 15.1 grade level,” according to a post on the foundation’s website. The all-Republican Kansas delegation lined up this way: Rep. Lynn Jenkins of Topeka, 12.3 grade level; Sen. Jerry Moran, 11.9 grade level; Rep. Kevin Yoder of Overland Park, 11.8 grade level; Sen. Pat Roberts, 11.4 grade level; Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Fowler, 10.2 grade level; and Rep. Mike Pompeo of Wichita, 9.4 grade level. Topping Congress was Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., 16 grade level; the lowest spot went to Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., 7.9 grade level.
Fifty years after the U.S. Supreme Court nixed school-initiated prayers as a violation of the First Amendment, 74 percent of Kansans think that public schools should open their day with either a spoken prayer (36 percent) or a silent one (38 percent), according to a SurveyUSA poll conducted for KWCH, Channel 12. Similarly large majorities also favor some kind of prayer to open local and legislative meetings, with 71 percent saying it’s OK for such prayers to mention Jesus. Though 58 percent of those surveyed said they’d be willing to listen to a public prayer in a religion other than their own, 54 percent said it would be unacceptable for a prayer to mention Allah in a public meeting where the majority of citizens are Muslim.
The state says that problems with a new computer system have been fixed and there shouldn’t be such long waits to renew a driver’s license or register a vehicle. In other words, the waits will be excruciating, just not as interminable. There have been waits of multiple hours at the Division of Motor Vehicles office in Wichita and the Sedgwick County tag offices, causing much frustration and prompting citizens to ask such good questions as: Don’t we pay enough taxes to add a few more clerks? Couldn’t more clerks work at once? And shouldn’t a city the size of Wichita have more than one driver’s license office?
Having lost so many headquarters to other cities via mergers and acquisitions, Wichita needs to prize its hometown companies and encourage their growth. So it was exciting news that Koch Industries is considering an expansion of its headquarters near 37th Street North and Oliver. The company employs 2,600 people in Wichita, and 67,000 worldwide, and has 200 vacant positions locally. Wichita and Sedgwick County leaders should stand ready to help however they can. Koch’s continued well-being is crucial to that of the Wichita economy.
Good for Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., the ranking minority member and the chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, for demonstrating bipartisanship and getting a new farm bill formally filed Thursday in advance of a possible June floor debate. In crafting this latest bill, the senators had to account for not only the usual competing agricultural interests that stem from geography but also the Capitol Hill fever to reduce the federal deficit. Stabenow’s goal was to achieve at least $23 billion in savings over the next decade. Roberts’ goals include seeing the bill move quickly. “We have a Sept. 30 deadline; farmers and ranchers and lenders – especially lenders – are getting nervous,” he said.
Ford is introducing an electric version of its Focus. Mitsubishi, BMW, Tesla and other carmakers are also introducing new electric vehicles. And after a slow start, GM is on track to sell between 15,000 and 20,000 of its award-winning Volts this year. But this technology, like any infant industry, needs our support. Given this, it would be folly for Congress to slash the existing tax credit. If we cast a cold eye on the economics of electric vehicles, the credit is a bargain. Research shows that air pollution causes asthma, heart attacks, strokes and lung cancer – and costs taxpayers billions. A 2009 study by the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at the University of California at Berkeley estimates that over 20 years, electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids could reduce health costs by $4.5 billion to $11.2 billion. On top of money and lives saved, we have another clear reason to support electric vehicles: energy security. Yes, gas prices have fallen a bit in the U.S., but many independent researchers believe this is just a temporary reprieve. Electric cars not only save consumers money at the pump, they make our economy more resilient to price shocks and reduce the money flowing to hostile nations. – Nicholas L. Cain, Claremont Graduate University
It’s obvious now that electric vehicles can’t compete with gasoline-powered cars, even with generous government subsidies. And for years automotive engineers have documented that the performance of electric vehicles falls short in virtually every aspect. What’s truly shameful is that such disparities have done nothing to change policy. Subsidizing electric vehicles has been a devil’s bargain, making the development of other alternative technologies like conventional hybrids and advanced gasoline engines more difficult. Since 2008, taxpayers have spent or provided loan guarantees of $6.5 billion for electric vehicles. That includes $2.4 billion for battery and electric drive component manufacturing, $3.1 billion in loan guarantees for electric vehicle projects, and $1 billion in tax credits for the vehicles. Using taxpayer dollars to favor one automotive technology over another is contrary to the free-market principles that undergird our economy. Simply put, subsidizing electric vehicles doesn’t make economic sense. – Mark J. Perry, American Enterprise Institute
A recent CBS News/New York Times poll had Mitt Romney ahead of President Obama by 46 to 43 percent. But a Fox News poll had Obama up 46 to 39 percent. The highlight of the Fox poll was that Romney’s support among independents had dropped (though he still led Obama among this group by 5 percent). A large gender gap also was reflected in the Fox poll, with women backing Obama 55 to 33 percent, while men favored Romney 46 to 37 percent.
“In Kansas, some experts predict that outside fundraising groups in the form of super PACs and nonprofit organizations known as 501(c)(4)s will have a substantial influence on the 2012 elections, and specifically on several key races in the August Republican primary, making them some of the most expensive Senate races the state has seen,” the website PolticalFiber.com reported. If outside groups follow the Kansas Chamber of Commerce’s lead and target seven GOP primaries with $2 million, the website reported, those funds would more than triple average campaign funding. Kansas saw some outside spending during the state attorney general’s race in 2010, when an Iowa group called American Future Fund spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of TV ads in support of GOP candidate Derek Schmidt. “I anticipate that growing even more this year,” said Carol Williams, executive director of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission.
The number of self-identified “pro-choice” Americans has hit an all-time low – 41 percent – according to a new Gallup poll. That’s an 8 percentage point drop from the 2011 survey. However, Americans’ support for abortion rights increased slightly. Of those surveyed, 52 percent believe abortion should be legal under “certain circumstances,” up from 50 percent in 2011. An additional 25 percent of Americans think abortion should be legal under all circumstances, while 20 percent think it should be illegal. Meanwhile, 50 percent of those surveyed identified themselves as “pro-life,” up from 45 percent in 2011.
With Capitol Hill so focused on spending less, proponents of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility slated for Manhattan need to be aggressive about securing the lab’s funding. So it was encouraging to see $75 million for NBAF garner bipartisan support on the House Appropriations Committee, which includes Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Overland Park. The threat of bioterrorism isn’t going to ease while the federal government rights its finances. As Yoder said in a statement, “Numerous studies have confirmed Kansas is the safest location for a biosafety Level 4 facility, and the research completed in Manhattan will ensure our nation remains safe from bioterrorism.”
Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett (in photo) apologized Tuesday for suggesting that President Obama might not be on the November ballot in his state if he didn’t receive a copy of Obama’s birth certificate. “If I embarrassed the state, I apologize, but that certainly wasn’t my intent,” Bennett said. He said he was merely responding to the concerns expressed in about 1,200 e-mails he received. That prompted a liberal group to launch an online petition asking Bennett to investigate whether GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is a unicorn. As of this afternoon, it had more than 17,000 signatures. Meanwhile, renegade Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio sent a posse to Hawaii to investigate Obama’s birth certificate – so the nuttiness continues.
There was some confusion about when Gov. Sam Brownback would sign the drastic tax-cut bill before he did so Tuesday – strange, given the pride he supposedly takes in the “pro-growth” legislation. On Saturday night there was a premature report that it would be Monday in Wichita. A realistic-looking fake press release sighted Sunday on Twitter deepened the intrigue, wryly suggesting the bill signing would be Monday at Koch Industries as a sort of “thank you” for the Koch brothers’ past political contributions to Brownback. In the end, did the administration give only two and a half hours’ notice of the bill signing, and hold it at the Capitol, to avoid public protests?
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., landed an unenviable spot on a list of longtime U.S. senators vulnerable to a challenge from the right, in the wake of the Nebraska and Indiana GOP primaries. Salon.com’s Steve Kornacki wrote of Roberts: “He’s old (76) and has been on Capitol Hill for 32 years – the first 16 in the House and the last 16 in the Senate. He’s also a quiet, behind-the-scenes player whose voting record is only now evolving to sync up with the GOP base’s prevailing mood. It wouldn’t be too hard for an opponent to portray Roberts as a tired insider with Potomac Fever. Plus, the Kansas Republican Party is unusually prone to civil war. Roberts could provide an inviting target for, say, Kris Kobach, the youthful Kansas secretary of state who has become the leading national voice of the anti-immigration right.” The other vulnerable Republicans on the list: South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham, Georgia’s Saxby Chambliss, Tennessee’s Lamar Alexander, Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, Mississippi’s Thad Cochran and Maine’s Susan Collins.
Kansas lost a kind, conscientious lawmaker with the tragic death Sunday night of state Rep. Bob Bethell, R-Alden. Bethell, who died in a car accident on his way home after finishing the legislative session, was a valued voice and advocate for children, senior citizens and the disabled. “We lost a longtime champion for those who don’t have a voice in the process,” said Shannon Cotsoradis, president and CEO of Kansas Action for Children. Gov. Sam Brownback, who ordered flags across Kansas lowered, called Bethell “a man of deep faith and passion for his family and state.” Bethell, a Baptist minister, also believed that the state can neither recklessly increase spending nor cut taxes irresponsibly. He was thoughtful and caring, and will be greatly missed.
President Obama has made some attempts to limit the influence of lobbyists, such as by banning individuals who’ve recently been lobbyists from being in his administration or on advisory boards. But a Washington Post review of visitor logs shows that “the lobbying industry Obama has vowed to constrain is a regular presence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The records also suggest that lobbyists with personal connections to the White House enjoy the easiest access.”
As President Obama prepared to welcome President Bush back to the White House for today’s unveiling of portraits of the former president and first lady, columnist Eleanor Clift was among those struck by how closely Obama has mirrored his predecessor on national security issues. “Bush, perhaps more than any recent president, must feel vindicated by the policies that Obama has chosen to pursue, many of them forged in the post-9/11 era under Bush’s leadership,” Clift wrote. She also said the reporting “by Newsweek and the New York Times on how Obama personally signs off on a ‘kill list’ of al-Qaida terrorists prepared by the CIA and the Pentagon is chillingly reminiscent of the deck of playing cards that Bush used to keep score of top terrorist targets when he was in the Oval Office.”
