By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
The Obama administration, we were told, would practice diplomacy that's "tough but smart." If only: A better description, based on what's unfolded so far, would be inept and incompetent, especially in the Middle East.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Florida's move wasn't in the area of health insurance. It was property insurance. The state's property-insurance arm originally had above-market rates, but later it began competing directly with private insurers.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Red-light cameras were approved by the Kansas City Council, and 29 are now installed and working. But they remain controversial. Why not subject the issue to a public vote? That's what happened in College Station, Tex., and the issue lost. Now the cameras must come down.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
The GOP's thumping sweep in Virginia and the surprising win in New Jersey sends a clear message to wavering Blue Dog Democrats in Washington. The looming House vote on health care now looks a lot more iffy, given that Blue Dogs in swing districts will be more inclined to defy Nancy Pelosi on health care.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
A must-read piece on the problems of the Massachusetts plan, which is a kind of pilot project for what Congress has in mind for national health care reform. Main points: Thanks to "reform," insurance premiums are rising faster than the national average and access to care is declining.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Well, I’m glad that’s settled. The agreed-upon media-pack narrative explaining last year’s market mayhem? Brace yourself:
The problem was lavish bonus plans at financial firms. Bank executives engaged in frenetic risk-taking in the hopes of a whopping short-term payoff.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
One of the most persistent myths regarding health care reform is that it will improve America's international competitiveness. After all, the argument runs, our companies are saddled with ever-rising insurance costs, which companies in many countries don't have to pay. Rep. Henry Waxman, for example, has said reform "is something to do right now to help fix our economy."
But what congressional Democrats have in mind won't "fix" our economy, it will weaken it.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
The stimulus package, loaded with pork for Democratic constituencies, has failed to create as many jobs as the Obama administration claimed.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
And fading fast. At Intrade, where you can bet real money on such things, the likelihood of health reform with a public option by December has dropped from about 50 percent in August to around 10 percent today .
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Hardly. Support is sliding and time isn't on the side of reformers. If the Dems do poorly in next month's off-year elections, many Democrats will become even more cautious about radical changes in such a large sector of the economy.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
It may not feel like it, given the still-grim employment situation, but the economic climate is improving. A good sign: Capital spending is appears to be up. Over at the Carpe Diem blog, Mark Perry serves up lots of data showing solid improvement. Just keep scrolling.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page colmnist
Interesting letter to the president from an Afghan vet.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
No wonder the Obama administration wanted the House to finish work on its health care bill before the summer recess. The more people learn about the legislative blob slouching toward passage, the less they like it.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Many members of Congress hope to lay a lot of heavy taxes on the wealthy to help pay for a big chunk of health reform. But there was never any chance that a program so massive could be financed solely by soaking the rich.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
At least that's my prediction. He'll strain to find what looks at first like a middle way, something that avoids the choice of "all in" or wimp-out. Whatever, it will be his biggest foreign policy decision so far, and it will send a telling message to allies and adversaries alike.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser’s effort to encourage development in the inner city has taken form as the “New Tools” initiative.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
You’re going to see a lot more of this kind of speculation if GM and Chrysler keep reporting bad numbers. Last month, GM’s sales dropped 45 percent compared with September ’08, while Chrysler was down 42 percent. Ford? Not so much: down only 5 percent.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
It's drawn little comment in the blogosphere, but the story was significant nonetheless: The new catchphrase among Iraqi politicians is "national unity." Politicians preparing for parliamentary elections are reaching across religious and ethnic lines.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Two years ago, the U.S. intelligence community published -- with "high confidence" -- its dubious conclusion that Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Then-candidate Barack Obama eagerly embraced the theory, arguing that it made a "compelling case for less saber-rattling and more direct diplomacy."
The Star's Tuesday editorial
From January through July, more than 770 U.S. commercial airline flights have been stuck on the ground waiting to take off, with passengers confined aboard for more than three hours.
The Star's Sunday editorial
For years, Interstate 70 across Missouri has been operating well beyond its design capacity. It’s a crowded, stressful stretch of road. The volume of truck traffic is growing twice as fast as that of cars.
The Star's Wednesday editorial
Since taking office, President Obama has frequently declared himself a free trader.
In several appearances over the last few months, he has driven home the message that protectionism is dangerous to our economic health.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
President Obama recently received a report from his top general in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, saying we're in danger of losing this war unless more resources -- meaning troops -- are approved.
The Star's Wednesday Editorial
Congress is giving greater attention to the problem of bank overdraft fees, and rightly so.
Most banks automatically offer transaction-covering loans to cover insufficient account balances, and then charge customers a fee — the average is $35 — often without immediately notifying the customer.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Pretty soon all the people who talked about the "money" in the trust fund will learn otherwise. The CBO projects that the first cash deficits since the 1980s will show up next year and 2011. Ed Morrissey has the details at Hot Air.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist
Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl nailed it: President Barack Obama’s decision to scrap missile defense facilities in Eastern Europe “turns back the clock to the days of the Cold War, when Eastern Europe was considered the domain of Russia.”
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial columnist
I've gotten several calls from people whose argument boils down to the idiotic belief that I'd be perfectly happy with ObamaCare or cap and trade or whatever, if only the president were white. One guy has called up a couple of times to say, flat out, "You're only against him because he's black."
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
President Obama hauled out the big podium for his health care speech: an address to a joint session of Congress. Alas, his bounce in the polls has proved short-lived, and support for the plan has dropped back to pre-speech levels.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
The first hints of real trouble can be found in President Barack Obama’s initial address to a congressional joint session on Feb. 24. That’s when the jarring incoherence of his lavish plans came into full view.
By E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
I heard little that was new in Obama's health care speech and the most glaring problem was the cost issue. He said he wouldn't sign a plan that added one dime to the deficit, but by the way, it will cost $900 billion.
