WE Blog

Pro-con: Is ‘cash for clunkers’ a good idea?

Phillip Brownlee — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:02:19 +0000

The “cash for clunkers” program would allow car owners to turn in their old gas-guzzlers in exchange for a voucher for up to $4,500 to help buy a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle. Way too many people still drive their SUVs and large trucks because they apparently don’t care about the harm that their vehicles do to the environment. Smaller cars generally cost less up front than big gas-guzzlers, and they use much less fuel. But SUV drivers bought SUVs instead. So these drivers are apparently not motivated by the price of a vehicle or the ongoing cost of fuel. Perhaps they will be motivated by the prospect of a $4,500 voucher. I hope they will be, because that would mean fewer gas-guzzlers on our roads. But it pains me to realize that we have to bribe people into doing the right thing. — Mary Shaw, Philly Freedom.blogspot.com

“Cash for clunkers” is a bad idea whose time seems to have come. Congress added trade-in incentives for old gas-guzzlers to a $106 billion supplemental appropriations bill. Motorists who have owned an older car or truck for at least one year may trade in their vehicles and receive vouchers to help pay for new, more fuel-efficient models. The bigger the fuel-efficiency gain, the bigger your voucher, up to a maximum of $4,500. The program, which is expected to start in August and run through October, is supposed to help the auto industry and modernize the U.S. auto fleet. It’s modeled on similar plans in many European countries, which have boosted new-car sales. The program is capped at a total cost of $1 billion, down from $4 billion in earlier versions. Even $4,500 per clunker may not be enough to help many owners trade up: Clunker “owners are either not looking for an increased car payment or cannot afford to purchase a new vehicle, which averages nearly $30,000,” a report by analysts at Edmunds.com concluded. They believe the program will struggle to produce sales of 250,000 vehicles — or half of Congress’ goal. — Washington Post editorial

Open thread 7/4

The Editors — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:01:26 +0000

Unluckiest guy in Minnesota

Rhonda Holman — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:00:21 +0000

“Norm Coleman has now lost statewide elections in Minnesota to a wrestler and a comic. So, next time out, beware that rodeo clown.” — Commentator and author Will Durst, on Twitter

Palin stepping down

Rhonda Holman — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:56:57 +0000

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has decided to resign. Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will take over on July 26, according to the Anchorage Daily News. “Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional ‘lame duck’ status in this particular climate would just be another dose of ‘politics as usual,’ something I campaigned against and will always oppose,” Palin said at a news conference in Wasilla. “It is my duty to always protect our great state. With that in mind, my family and I determined that it is best to make a difference this summer, and I am willing to change things, so that this administration, with its positive agenda, its accomplishments, and its successful road to an incredible future, can continue without interruption and with great administrative and legislative success.”
What’s next? “I look forward to helping others — to fight for our state and our country, and campaign for those who believe in smaller government, free enterprise, strong national security, support for our troops and energy independence.”
If this is her way of building up her executive experience and reform record toward a 2012 presidential run, it’s a funny way to do it. “We’ve seen a lot of nutty behavior from governors and Republican leaders in the last three months, but this one is at the top of that,” GOP strategist John Weaver said. Then again, there is nothing conventional about Palin.

Time for a bigger stimulus?

Phillip Brownlee — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:25:59 +0000

“O.K., Thursday’s jobs report settles it. We’re going to need a bigger stimulus,” argues columnist and economist Paul Krugman. Krugman contends that the U.S. economic reports look “depressingly familiar to anyone who has studied economic policy in the 1930s. Once again a Democratic president has pushed through job-creation policies that will mitigate the slump but aren’t aggressive enough to produce a full recovery. Once again much of the stimulus at the federal level is being undone by budget retrenchment at the state and local level.”

Do the wave for Tiahrt’s climate-change analogy

Rhonda Holman — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:03:02 +0000

At a campaign event in Newton, Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, argued that carbon dioxide is getting more emphasis than it deserves in the climate change debate, likening the gases of the Earth to people in a 10,000-seat-stadium.
“There would be 4,200 people in the stadium wearing nitrogen jerseys, representing that portion of the atmosphere,” Tiahrt said. “Twenty-four percent would be wearing oxygen jerseys, and four people would have on carbon dioxide jerseys. We are arguing about how long the sleeves are going to be on one of those jerseys.”

Open thread 7/3

The Editors — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:02:11 +0000

Stephan championed victims’ rights

Phillip Brownlee — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:01:10 +0000

Congratulations to former Attorney General Robert Stephan for being honored this week by Gov. Mark Parkinson for his work on behalf of crime victims. A plaque recognizing the former Wichitan is being placed by a tree that was planted on the Capitol grounds 20 years ago to commemorate the passage of the Kansas Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights. During the 1989 legislative process, Stephan said, “My firm conviction that crime victims need to be guaranteed certain rights flows from an appreciation of how they have been denied access to the criminal justice system in the past.” Stephan continues to work on behalf of crime victims as chairman of the Governor’s Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board and by trying to raise public awareness about domestic violence.

Another Brownback in a hot spot

Rhonda Holman — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:00:33 +0000

When the president of Honduras was arrested by soldiers and exiled Sunday after a controversial referendum, the Americans in the country included Andy Brownback, a son of Sen. Sam Brownback. He’s a Kansas State University senior studying at the Panamerican School of Agriculture at Zamorano. Classes have continued, but students are no longer permitted to leave campus, he wrote in the Topeka Capital-Journal. “The response to the news by students at the university was remarkably disinterested,” he wrote. “The majority of students come from Latin American countries in the region, all of which are accustomed to varying degrees of civil unrest.” Brownback is scheduled to leave July 12.

Employers still cutting jobs

Phillip Brownlee — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:56:07 +0000

From the Washington Post: “The number of jobs on employers’ payrolls fell by 467,000, the Labor Department said. That is many more jobs than were shed in May and far worse than the 350,000 job losses that economists were forecasting. Job losses peaked in January and had declined every month until June. The steep losses show that even as there are signs that total economic activity may level off or begin growing later this year, the nation’s employers are still pulling back.”

Is cap-and-trade opposition based on politics?

Phillip Brownlee — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:02:25 +0000

“If you watched the debate on Friday, you didn’t see people who’ve thought hard about a crucial issue, and are trying to do the right thing,” columnist Paul Krugman wrote about House members who voted against the cap-and-trade legislation (which included Kansas’ three GOP House members). “What you saw, instead, were people who show no sign of being interested in the truth. They don’t like the political and policy implications of climate change, so they’ve decided not to believe in it — and they’ll grab any argument, no matter how disreputable, that feeds their denial.” In addition to being wrong about science, opposing lawmakers also misrepresented the results of studies of the bill’s economic impact, which all suggest that the cost will be relatively low, Krugman wrote.

Open thread 7/2

The Editors — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:01:31 +0000

Higher court fees won’t suffice

Rhonda Holman — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:00:00 +0000

The multiplying “what ifs” related to the state’s budget situation are sobering. This one comes Kansas Chief Justice Robert Davis, on what will happen if the state’s court system doesn’t get a $2.6 million grant it’s seeking in federal stimulus funds and is forced to furlough nonjudicial employees: “Children in need of care, persons seeking protection from abuse and protection from stalking, and persons and their families who are seeking mental health or substance abuse treatment all would be placed at risk.”

Latest admission leads to more calls for Sanford to resign

Phillip Brownlee — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:21:14 +0000

Pressure is mounting on South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford to resign after he admitted this week that he “crossed the lines” with several other women, though he said he never had sex with them. “A lot of us are talking to him behind the scenes in hopes that he’ll make the right decision about what needs to be done,” Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said today. Sanford says he is trying to reconcile with his wife, but that could be difficult given that he told Associated Press he still loves Maria Belen Chapur, the Argentine woman Sanford called his “soul mate.”

Sotomayor and the firefighters

Rhonda Holman — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:04:06 +0000

Will Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court be jeopardized by the court’s decision Monday overturning her ruling in the case of the New Haven, Conn., firefighters? Should it be?
The Wall Street Journal editorialized: “Ms. Sotomayor’s supporters have been at pains to argue that she has ended up on both sides of racial discrimination complaints while on the 2nd Circuit. But those examining her record can reasonably ask if the disregard she exhibited for a Title VII claim by white firefighters falls into the category of neutrality or its own kind of bias.”
The Dallas Morning News editorialized: “Yes, her panel was criticized for a one-paragraph dismissal of the plaintiffs’ claims — claims the Supreme Court later recognized as significant constitutional questions. Yet one case does not a judicial philosophy make. Sotomayor has participated in hundreds of rulings from a number of benches — so many that Senate Republicans complained that they could not read them all in time to question her. They should remember that before focusing too narrowly on any single case.”

Open thread 7/1

The Editors — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:03:08 +0000

No more left-lane hogging with impunity

Rhonda Holman — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:01:28 +0000

Through Tuesday, Kansas drivers could hog the left lane of multilane highways and risk only a honk or dirty look. As of today, they can get an officer warning if they loiter in the left lane on roads outside cities. A year from today, they may draw a fine. Is this the most important measure the Legislature passed this year? No. But it puts the law on the side of those who’ve always taken care to use the left lane sparingly, for passing and left turns.

Bair knew banking when

Rhonda Holman — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:00:30 +0000

In a New Yorker profile titled “The Contrarian,” Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chairwoman Sheila Bair is variously referred to as a “Republican regulator liberals love” and “the skunk at the picnic.” A Bush appointee, Bair was among the few voices warning about the economic threat posed by subprime mortgages. The University of Kansas graduate, former aide to Bob Dole and onetime Kansas congressional candidate discusses her roots in Independence (“It’s an area where people make it, but you’ve got to work at it,” she said) and recalls working as a teller in a small-town bank in the simpler ’70s. “Everybody had a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage back then,” she said. “It was a ritual to come in and make your mortgage payment personally. There was a kind of pride in living up to your obligations, and, on the lender side, in making loans that people could understand and afford.”

May Sen. Franken take his seat now?

Rhonda Holman — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:09:05 +0000

Even though it’s been an appalling seven months since Election Day, it still may take those of a certain age some time to adjust to the idea of Al Franken — of Stuart Smalley and the “Al Franken Decade” fame — as a member of the U.S. Senate. (Check out his Mick Jagger clip on YouTube.) Today’s Minnesota Supreme Court ruling certainly seems to make the career change official, though, unless incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman has more legal options up his sleeve.

GOP’s health care to-do list

Rhonda Holman — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:04:07 +0000

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., got the diagnosis right on health care on“Fox News Sunday,” acknowledging problems with access and cost. But surely his prescription would fall short for many of the 45 million Americans who are uninsured: “Let’s equalize tax treatment” of employer-provided and individually purchased health care, he said, “target prevention and wellness, do something about medical malpractice junk lawsuits against doctors and hospitals that drive up the cost of health care. All of those things could be achieved on a broad bipartisan basis and not wreck the finest health care system in the world.”

Open thread 6/30

The Editors — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:03:06 +0000

Tiahrt wins Olathe test

Rhonda Holman — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:02:57 +0000

As the GOP Senate primary unfolds over the next year between Rep. Todd Tiahrt of Goddard and Rep. Jerry Moran of Hays, Tiahrt can now point to an early show of strength in crucial northeast Kansas: He won 165 votes to Moran’s 46 in the Olathe Republican Party picnic and straw poll over the weekend. According to the Kansas City Star, Tiahrt was there with a busload of supporters from the Wichita area. Moran did not attend. No surprise that Sam Brownback and Kris Kobach ran away in the polling for governor and secretary of state, respectively. The 2012 presidential nomination race came down to Sarah Palin (76 votes), Mike Huckabee (54) and Mitt Romney (52).

Brownback added reparations disclaimer

Rhonda Holman — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:01:36 +0000

Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., has received praise for his leadership in persuading the Senate to pass a resolution June 18 that formally apologizes for slavery and Jim Crow laws. But the Web site Politico reports that Brownback also was responsible for inserting language in the Senate version that has angered some members of the Congressional Black Caucus — by stipulating that the resolution does not authorize reparations for descendants of slaves — and derailed hopes of reconciling the two chambers’ resolutions so a joint ceremony could be held. The House passed its version last summer. “I wish we could have had my version passed in the Senate, but it’s still a historic achievement,” said Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., who has been pursuing a compromise.

Stamps vs. tuition

Rhonda Holman — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:00:05 +0000

In 1989, a first-class stamp cost 25 cents and a semester of in-state tuition at the University of Kansas was $578. If the cost of the former had risen as fast as the cost of the latter, notes Topeka Capital-Journal columnist Ric Anderson, the stamp would go for $1.32 today rather than 44 cents. (An incoming KU freshman will pay $3,645 per semester this fall, as of tuition increases approved last week.)

Madoff should be just the beginning

Rhonda Holman — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:51:20 +0000

Given the loot stolen by investor Bernard Madoff and the lives he ruined, the maximum 150-year sentence imposed today seems just — if symbolic, given that he’s 71. But Madoff and one of his accountants, who also has been criminally charged, represent just a sliver of the global financial collapse. Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford faces charges of bilking investors, too. But where are the other perp walks, prison sentences and accountability for what has cost so many investors so much?