Wichita Eagle: Opinion

Kansas Views on core services, Roberts’ pandering, waiting lists, closed records, AP probe, Amtrak

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:04 CDT

Core services – The current cost-cutting efforts of state government should spur serious conversation about what Gov. Sam Brownback often calls “core government services.” Are some of the services being cut really not worthy of tax support, or is that rationale just a way of pushing more government responsibilities onto a different set of taxpayers at the local level? If a public health issue like monitoring sexually transmitted diseases in the state no longer is considered a “core government service,” it’s troubling to consider what other functions of government will soon be added to that list.

Lawrence Journal-World

Roberts – U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts is Kansas’ most experienced lawmaker. At age 77, the Republican has announced he will seek a fourth term in 2014. That is good news for Kansas because Roberts’ seniority can help Kansas, and especially Kansas agriculture, on Capitol Hill. Unfortunately, the political climate in which Roberts is running has brought him to the point of pandering to the energetic, fringe right wing of his party in hopes of fending off a primary challenge. Perhaps the senator is wise to run fiercely to the far right; but if he wins, we have to wonder what kind of a senior statesman he can be.

Opinion Line (May 20)

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:07 CDT

E-mail comments, 50 words or fewer, to opline@wichitaeagle.com.

Something should be done about the lines to get driver’s licenses. Waiting six hours (after the text message told me my wait would be two hours) to spend three minutes at the counter was ridiculous.

Letters to the editor on Keystone pipeline, Benghazi, gun rights

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:07 CDT

We can’t afford Keystone pipeline

TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline would bisect the United States, carrying up to 830,000 barrels per day of dirty Canadian tar sands crude to be exported from the Gulf of Mexico. Extracting crude from tar sands is one of the most carbon-intensive ways of getting at fossil fuels.

Keystone alone would mean 181 million metric tons of carbon-dioxide emissions annually, emissions that are disrupting the Earth’s climate and putting our economy and environment at risk. From droughts and wildfires to rising sea levels, mass extinction, and loss of habitat, the ongoing effects of the global climate crisis are demonstrating that we cannot afford to invest in dirty oil infrastructure like Keystone.

Leonard Pitts Jr.: IRS abuse should concern everyone

Leonard Pitts Jr. — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:09 CDT

Well, this is a fine mess.

After years of moaning about various “conspiracies” against them, conservative activists finally have a real (not manufactured by Fox News or inflated by Rush Limbaugh) piece of evidence to take before the court of public opinion.

Meaning, of course, the revelation that the Internal Revenue Service has been giving extra scrutiny to groups with the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their names. Extra scrutiny from the IRS is about as welcome as extra scrutiny from the proctologist, so one can hardly blame conservative groups for complaining, as they’ve done since last year.

Michael Hirsh: Five myths about Benghazi

Michael Hirsh — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:09 CDT

The events surrounding the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012, look dramatically different depending on your politics. Republicans tend to see a cover-up and a scandal. Democrats see an attempt to damage President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. A Pew poll suggests that the public is divided as well, with 40 percent saying the administration has been dishonest, 37 percent saying it has told the truth, and 23 percent saying they’re not sure. Let’s assess what we do and don’t know:

• Myth No. 1: U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice gave a deliberately false account of the attack.

This is ground zero in the alleged scandal. Conspiracy theorists contend the administration covered up evidence that Stevens was killed in an organized terrorist attack because Obama, during the 2012 campaign, claimed he had “decimated” al-Qaida. On Sunday talk shows five days after the attack, Rice gave interviews based on talking points supplied by U.S. intelligence agencies; she suggested that Stevens’ death resulted from “spontaneous” protests that spread from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, provoked by a movie trailer lampooning the Prophet Muhammad.

Opinion Line Extra (May 20)

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:48 CDT

Eric Holder now oversees the U.S. Department of Injustice. It is a sad day in America.

President Obama just gave his “I am not a crook” speech. History repeats itself.

Eagle editorial: Not a good model

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:19 CDT

After the 2012 election put the entire Legislature under conservative Republican control, Gov. Sam Brownback touted Kansas as a “red-state model” for the nation. By Friday that model was looking a bit black and blue, though, as House and Senate leaders traded blame over their inability to agree on taxes and the budget.

Every legislative session includes some culminating drama, inevitably leading to deals and adjournment. But House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, and Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, clearly overpromised when they said the usual 90-day session would be trimmed to 80 days.

Brownback and Wagle underestimated the sales job necessary to persuade House Republicans, many of whom have signed no-tax pledges, that it technically would not be a tax increase to prevent a three-year sales-tax increase from ending June 30.

Opinion Line (May 19)

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:20 CDT

E-mail comments, 50 words or fewer, to opline@wichitaeagle.com.

What genius figured out how to make going to an event at Century II more difficult? I love to stand in line for 15 minutes in the rain to pay for parking.

Lane Filler: End tax breaks for all nonprofits

Lane Filler — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:21 CDT

You are a financial supporter of the Westboro Baptist Church. You know, that posse of full-blown whackdoodles from Kansas that descends on our nation’s most tragic moments, particularly military funerals, waving signs that say “Thank God for dead soldiers.”

You don’t (please say you don’t) support Westboro by sending cash for its placard ‘n’ Magic Marker budget. What you do pay, infinitesimally, is that church’s taxes, because it, like all houses of worship and so many other institutions, is exempt. You also pay the taxes of its contributors, because the money those folks fork over is tax-deductible.

Why is this now notable? Because the Internal Revenue Service got caught trying to crash the tea party, punk the patriots and deny conservative groups their 501(c)(4) status. Such status exempts groups’ income from taxes. It also allows “nonprofits” to do political activism without disclosing donors, as long as the organizations also promote social welfare.

Dorian T. Warren: Gatsby and ‘McJobs’

Dorian T. Warren — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:22 CDT

“Great Gatsby,” meet Raise Up Milwaukee. And New York. And Chicago. And St. Louis. And Detroit.

How ironic that while the film is recreating a past era of excess and greed, employees in the fast-food and retail industries across the country are engaging in unprecedented strikes over today’s flow of wealth from working people to the rich.

In the past month, hundreds upon hundreds of fast-food and retail workers walked off the job in five major cities, including, most recently, Milwaukee, where hundreds of workers went on strike Wednesday at major national brands like McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell and Denny’s. These historic one-day strikes follow a similar walkout on last fall’s Black Friday shopping day by workers at Walmart.

Michael Austin: Is higher education a public or private good?

Michael Austin — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:23 CDT

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., proposed that the federal government charge the same interest rates for student loans as the Federal Reserve Board charges large banks for overnight loans – a rate currently set at 0.75 percent. In making this intriguing proposal, Warren made it very clear that her ultimate purpose is to prevent student-loan interest rates from doubling on July 1 from 3.4 to 6.8 percent.

Critics have been quick to point out that the proposal does not make a lot of economic sense, because students default on school loans far more often than major banks default on overnight loans. This proposal, they say, amounts to nothing less than a taxpayer subsidy of the cost of higher education.

Warren knows this. Her point, I suspect, is that the taxpayers should subsidize higher education. It is a reasonable point.

Letters to the editor on Medicaid expansion, Southeast High, water solutions, Obamacare, bicyclists, needs vs. wants, confusing books

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:20 CDT

Kansas needs to expand Medicaid

The gigantic 518-person jump to 2,251 homeless children attending Wichita public schools (May 7 Eagle) leads me to aggressively push the expansion of Medicaid in Kansas.

An expansion of Medicaid would provide much-needed health care insurance to about 150,000 additional low-income Kansans, with 75,000 more receiving access to dental care. In addition, a study by the Kansas Hospital Association found an expansion of Medicaid would create 4,000 jobs and add more than $3 billion to our Kansas economy over the next seven years. What’s more, KHA projected a net savings of $82 million from 2014 to 2020, as our federal government picks up 100 percent of the expanded Medicaid costs during the first three years and a vast majority of the costs after that.

Opinion Line Extra (May 19)

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:21 CDT

Topeka seems to have money for car dealers, Canadian pipelines, the wealthy, health clubs and golfers, but not for health care and teachers. Nice priorities, Republicans.

Next year, let’s pay the Kansas legislators with what they earn and deserve – a 90-day Vision card. The lobbyists’ bribery ought to take care of all their food and drink.

Trudy Rubin: What Russia gave Kerry on Syria – very little

Trudy Rubin — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:06 CDT

Those who oppose greater U.S. involvement in Syria were no doubt relieved at the announcement that Moscow and Washington want to convene an international conference to end the country’s civil war.

They shouldn’t be.

Secretary of State John Kerry’s announcement contained no hint of a diplomatic breakthrough. Indeed, diplomacy stands no chance unless President Obama first does what he has long avoided: takes the lead in helping the Syrian opposition break the military stalemate on the ground.

Opinion Line (May 18)

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:04 CDT

E-mail comments, 50 words or fewer, to opline@wichitaeagle.com.

Gas is nearly $4 a gallon and expected to climb higher. When President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were in office, the liberals blamed the Halliburton connection. Who is to blame for the Obama administration’s gas prices? The Wizard of Oz or the Tooth Fairy? Or maybe the Republicans?

Letters to the editor on medical school, Constitution, gay athletes, abortion, drinking

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:04 CDT

Don’t cut program at KU medical school

The proposal to cut funds to the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Wichita and go back to a two-year program is unwise (May 14 Eagle).

The difference between the local branch and the Kansas City medical school is focus. The Kansas City school is part of a large urban area and focuses on procedures and specialties, which can do marvelous things with costly appropriate equipment. The Wichita branch promotes family practice utilizing volunteer faculty, often in small-town locations.

Opinion Line Extra (May 18)

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:06 CDT

Regarding “Obama fires IRS chief for targeting conservatives” (May 16 Eagle): The trouble is that acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller was already set to resign in June. Obama is doing nothing more than putting on a show to try to fool the American people into thinking he is really concerned about what is right.

If the IRS had failed to focus its attention on organizations affiliating themselves with the anti-taxation tea party, I would have thought it wasn’t doing its job.

Eagle editorial: United for rail service

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:47 CDT

The questions about reviving passenger rail through Wichita still start with “if” rather than “when,” but hopes surged last week when Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett and Kansas City, Mo., Mayor Sly James formally joined Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer in advocating for connecting the cities via passenger trains.

The mayors’ target is the 200-mile service gap between the Heartland Flyer’s northernmost stop, Oklahoma City, and the Southwest Chief’s route through Kansas north of Wichita.

In their joint letter, the mayors called on “Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas to work together to promote, plan and develop a unified passenger rail service that allows our megapolitan area to reach its economic potential.”

Rep. Dave Crum: KanCare will provide excellent DD support

Rep. Dave Crum — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:49 CDT

On Jan. 1 of this year, the state of Kansas rolled out KanCare, our Medicaid reform program. The state has contracted with three managed-care organizations to administer KanCare.

Implementation for long-term care of developmentally disabled Kansans was delayed one year at the request of the Community Developmental Disability Organizations, a network of 27 providers from around the state. A pilot program has been established to aid in the transition to KanCare.

Some CDDOs have resisted change from the beginning and have advocated for a “carve-out” of long-term care. However, a study conducted in 2008 by the University of Kansas School of Medicine involving four CDDOs and 955 developmentally disabled clients revealed deficiencies in medical care for chronic disease management and appropriate cancer-screening protocols. Experts including Robert Moser, a primary-care physician and secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, have stated that better health outcomes will occur when health care, behavioral care and long-term support and services are incorporated under one umbrella of care with one entity, the managed-care organization, accountable for appropriate health outcomes. They state that long-term care cannot be conducted in a vacuum.

Margaret Carlson: Will Republicans let Obama have his scandal?

Margaret Carlson — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:48 CDT

Republicans in Congress are so hungry for scalps, they just can’t leave well enough alone.

When you are in a hole, the saying goes, stop digging. The corollary is that when you’re on top, don’t pile on.

What happened at the IRS is significant, easily understood by a distracted public and being taken seriously by President Obama. What happened in Benghazi – the other scandal Republicans are obsessed with – is none of the above. The differing ways the president is treating the two stories says a lot about the state of Washington scandals.