Opinion Line (July 5)

Wake up, Kansas. You cannot cut the money coming in and not cut the money going out to get a balanced budget. You cannot have it all, so sacrifice with a smile.

I know people using the money from the business tax breaks to spend winters away from Kansas in Indiana-built RVs. The notion that tax savings are reinvested in new jobs is self-serving rhetoric to justify a tax policy that shifts the tax burden to the middle class and poor.

So high lead levels can make you stupid? Quick – check the lead levels in Topeka.

That public employee carrying a gun just might be the one to come onto your property in time to save your life from a real home intruder. They could be our bodyguards when the police aren’t around.

To the letter writer who thinks we should sell the state to the Koch brothers and let them run it: We already have. Where have you been?

If we bail out Puerto Rico, who’s going to bail us out?

The U.S. is becoming increasingly secular. Freedom from the idolatry of religion is enlightenment. Let reason reign.

So with ISIS dialing up on its attacks, even on our homeland, the big announcement from the Department of Defense was not about new initiatives to protect us from terrorism but the rollout of a new transgender policy.

If incumbents can’t run on their accomplishments while in office, but think they have to trash their opponents to get votes, maybe they don’t deserve to be re-elected.

To Republicans who aren’t supporting our nominee: You’ll get what you want for the next four years, just like you’ve messed up the past eight. No backbone. Get behind the American people who want our country back.

Donald Trump is a liar. Building golf courses in Great Britain is not putting America first.

Is Hillary Clinton running for president, or is it her Siamese twin, Elizabeth Warren?

The hardest job in journalism has to belong to the conservative columnists who have to come up with kooky reasons why President Bush was better than President Obama and why Clinton is more dangerous than Trump.

This story was originally published July 5, 2016 at 12:02 AM with the headline "Opinion Line (July 5)."