This week the Kansas Legislature passed some screwball bills and allowed the vitally important tax bill to be highjacked by the governor and speaker of the house. This editorial in the Wichita Eagle newspaper pretty much speaks to the tax issue and tells the state citizenry that the ‘powers-that-be’ in Topeka are going in a direction that will hurt all Kansans.

Debate on the tax bill was severely limited. No House Democrats were allowed to speak during the tax bill debate. However, debate on the United Nations Agenda 21 bill and the Sharia Law bill were given several hours. These bills are paper tigers that accomplish absolutely nothing.

Our state’s legislative process makes those who know about how laws are made to just shake their heads in disbelief.

Secretary of State Kris Kobach conceded that his bill requiring proof of citizenship to become law by June 15 is dead. The requirement is already scheduled to go into effect in January of 2013. But Kobach wanted it in effect earlier for the 2012 general election.

The bill was passed by the House but was stalled in the Senate when it was assigned to a commitee that was hostile to the date change. Moving the date up would have been very hard on voters who needed to register but also needed to obtain proper documents. The speed of the implemetation was the issue.

Both U. S. Senators from Kansas voted to double interest rates on federal student loans. College costs are already out of reach of most students without the ability to borrow money. Now that borrowed money will cost twice as much as it used to.

With their vote, they proved that using federal loans to get an education is not what they want for American students. By increasing student loan interest rates, the federal government will eventually be left out of consideration for loan applications by students looking for help to get through school.

The votes they cast and the rhetoric they use have little to do with each other.

Reggie Marselus has a Letter-to-the-editor printed in the Saturday, May 5 edition of the Kansas City Star. Title and text:

Common Sense Missing

The conservative economic message claims that cutting taxes and reducing regulations will create prosperity. This message is a complete fallacy.

The only segments of our society that would prosper with tax cuts and regulation repeals are crooks, cheats, con artists and malicious politicians. And the nation’s corporations would make more money. But to what end?

America’s corporations had the chance to foster prosperity with the amnesty program in the Bush administration. But when they repatriated funds, they did not use them for increasing jobs or investing in the economy. They used the money to give investors dividends, increase executive bonuses or share buybacks, or they simply hoarded the cash in vaults — by the billions.

Cutting taxes and removing regulations will never create prosperity under any circumstances. Smaller government means smaller protective forces and less security.

To claim anything else is to despise common sense.

Reggie Marselus

Lenexa

Here are two Letters to the Editor of the Kansas City Star written by Melissa Carlson. Congratulations Melissa!

ALEC’s CHOKEHOLD-

A vacuum is a good thing, but try telling my dog. She’s afraid, and her response is to attack (4-17, A1, “?‘Secretive influence’ alleged”).

An educated workforce, high voter turnout, health care reform and a clean environment are all good things, but try telling the right-wing extremists. Their response is irrational aggression.

For example, the individual mandate came from an ultra-conservative American Legislative Exchange Council-related think tank — it was for it before it was against it.

Reasonable people agree Republican policies have become too extreme. A frequent source, ALEC, has a 40-year history of valuing profit over people, and many Kansas lawmakers are early adapters.

Most voters don’t realize that their elected officials pick up bills at ALEC conventions like they’d pick up information on new gutters at a home show. Right-wing representatives read from cheat sheets prepared by corporate sponsors, which makes them look smart, so these “poll” cats return for more. Soon they shamefully assault the public interest.

Do Democrats have an equivalent? No. ALEC would like to tell you 25 percent of its members are Democrats. But the truth is they’re not the same Democrats each year.

Melissa J. Carlson

Overland Park

Both Kansas Senators- Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran- voted ‘NO’ on renewing the Violence Against Women Act.

Kansas City Star columnist Steve Rose wrote a scathing piece on the new Kansas voter ID law. In it he explains some of the negative aspects of how the law will affect voters and new registrants.

He does a fairly good job of dissing Kobach and the legislature. While Mr. Rose does not make a habit of siding with liberals, this article is very refreshing. Hopefully, those who pay attention to him will pay attention to the damage this new law will do.

One major part of the new law that no one seems to have addressed is that because of the strict provisions of registering and voting, there will be a lot of poorer, older and less advantaged Republicans that are going to get bit by all these new regulations.

Perhaps the state Supreme Court will see the error of this new law and strike it down. We sure hope so.

Two of the dates for furloughs of Kansas courts have been postponed. They were temporarily set aside until the legislature could take up funding of the state judicial system when they return on Wednesday.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Nuss delayed the furloughs through a promise made by legislative Republicans that they would fully fund the courts once they returned. They also expressed frustration with the original decision to schedule the furloughs in the first place.

They claim that that Justice Nuss should have known that they would fund the courts. However, Nuss had no way of knowing whether or not the delay in funding would continue once they returned. He could not assume the court funding would go through.

That’s two major instances of a decision by a branch of Kansas government that have been changed by political wrangling. The first was a decision by the Senate to pass a tax bill without a provision the governor wanted. After some phone calls, the Senate re-considered the vote and passed the bill with the provision. Now, the Supreme Court decides to schedule furloughs. And because of contact made by legislators, the court changes its mind.

The three branches of government are surely becoming one.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has seemingly been demoted by the Romney campaign. He was recruited to be an advisor to the campaign on issues of immigration policy because of all the work he has done on immigration laws in other states.

However, Kobach says he is still advising the campaign on immigration issues. There seems to be a disconnect between what is happening and what is perceived. The campaign now says that Kobach is only a “supporter”, not an “advisor”.

The Obama campaign’s David Axelrod believes that Romney’s campaign is trying to curry favor with latinos by playing down their involvement with Kobach. Romney has a distinct disadvantage in polling among latino voters. They are in need of a drastic improvement in latino support.

There’s a lot of ”he said- she said”.

Governor Sam Brownback’s Chief of Staff, David Kensinger has left his job for two other jobs. One is to work on the campaign of Mike Pence for Governor of Indiana; the other is as Chairman of Road Map Solutions.

Since Pence does not have an opponent in the primary election, Kensinger’s role is unclear. Road Map Solutions has been described as an organization to consult on policy for Governor Brownback. Kensinger will head that office. It takes its name from the governor’s policy initiatives dubbed “Brownback’s Road Map for Kansas”.

Since it’s a not-for-profit issues oriented organization, it can legally raise unlimited amounts of money without disclosing its donor lists. It is affiliated with the Road Map PAC, Inc., which is Governor Brownback’s leadership committee.

However, some Kansas Republicans believe he may be leaving his post to work on targeting moderate Republican Senators for defeat in the upcoming elections.