Richard Kogan gives us one more reason to reject Paul Ryan's plan to combine 11 federal poverty programs into one "opportunity grant," to be doled out to the states to spend as they like: "history shows that block grants that consolidate a number of programs or may be used for a wide array of purposes typically shrink — often very substantially — over time." Which stands to reason, since it's easier to cut one program than 11 programs, especially if the one program does 11 different things and any one of them are unpopular.
The Government Accountability Office reports that the EPA is doing a bad job overseeing gas drilling wells, particularly the 170,000-plus wells that carry hazardous and/or radioactive materials. Some "job terrorists," eh, Eric Bolling? Now we already knew the EPA was doing a bad job at this, though we didn't know that the EPA generally agrees that they're doing a bad job at this. But increasing their budget to help keep toxic chemicals out of our drinking water shouldn't be a hard sell for Democrats.
Jim Hightower reminds us that, though American corporations whine about the "crushing" 35% tax they supposedly have to pay, American corporations actually pay 12% on average. And partly because they get to deduct the fines they pay, as a price for their wrongdoing, from their taxes! Nice work if you can get it!
The Club for Growth turns on a former House Rep for whom it used to have mad love. The Club called former Rep. Todd Tiahrt's record on cutting spending "atrocious," even though he voted with the Club's wishes exactly 100% of the time in 2010. Why the change? Simple: they like his successor, current House Rep. Mike Pompeo, a.k.a. "R-Koch Industries," much better. Still, it's amusing to hear that Mr. Tiahrt's 77% lifetime rating "pales in comparison" to Mr. Pompeo's 90%. And when did agreeing with someone more than three times out of four become "atrocious"?
Finally, sticking with Kansas, we learn that Gov. Brownback has, for all intents and purposes, been outraised by his putative Democratic opponent this year -- and that Mr. Brownback has only officially "outraised" him because his own Lieutenant Governor has loaned the campaign $500,000. That loan represents over 40% of Mr. Brownback's total campaign haul for 2014, and what a waste -- Lieutenant Governor Jeff Colyer could be creating jobs with that money.
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