Opinion Line Extra (May 27)

Save your breath on blaming those who got us into this deficit for election time. Now is the time to find ways to prevent a shortfall. This includes having small businesses pitch in as well. We are all in this together. No free rides.

As a Republican, I am having trouble sorting out how I can justify the governor’s agenda for smaller government by redistributing wealth from the poor to the wealthy.

The problem with consumption-based taxes is they’re dependent on consumption, and when they are raised consumption goes down. Even those dummies in Topeka should know that.

Raising the tobacco tax so people will stop smoking is laudable. But if everyone does, that revenue stops. too. That’s why trying to balance Brownback’s budget mess on the backs of smokers is so stupid. All 2.9 million of us could light up and we still wouldn’t get there.

When you buy products, you pay all of the expenses of the business in the cost of the product, including taxes. Otherwise the business ceases to be a business. This includes all utility companies.

I bet the welfare recipients screaming about restrictions on how and where they spend their “free” money are the first ones to criticize the Kochs and others about how they spend their earned money, a good portion of which is for community betterment.

What’s the new mayor’s plan to eliminate the ever-increasing graffiti in town? He’s had eight years to get up to speed, so he should already have a plan to take care of it and do so quickly.

Yes, fracking and disposal of the wastewater from the process are the cause of the frequent earthquakes and, if you haven’t heard yet, smoking does cause cancer. Who said “not true”? Oil producers and the tobacco industry.

Work at McDonald’s is not meant to be a career. A lot of folks deserve $15 an hour, and many of those have college degrees and years of experience.

If the board of directors and the CEO are paid million in dollars and stock options, they could pay their workers $15 a hour. It’s a matter of priority and fairness.

When the dollar collapses and is replaced by the Chinese yuan, when your 401(k) account is cut by 70 percent, when your savings and checking accounts are devalued and the government is powerless to do anything, you will see why people like me have warned against buying Chinese-made products.

If Hillary Clinton can’t keep tabs on her husband, how would she ever keep tabs on a whole country?

The rules that most of us live by apparently do not apply to the Clintons. Consider Whitewater, Lewinsky, Benghazi. The soap opera drags on as the Clintons flout legal norms. If there were damning e-mails, they have been deleted. They are harder to find than Jimmy Hoffa’s body.

This story was originally published May 26, 2015 at 7:03 PM with the headline "Opinion Line Extra (May 27)."