Wednesday’s top stories

So where was my virtual front page Tuesday? Hey, I’m not getting paid to do this, so get offa my back! Be grateful for what I give you.

Harrumph. You may now join me in harrumphing. Harrumph, harrumph. (I didn’t get a ‘harrumph’ outta that guy…”)

Where was I? Oh, yes, today’s virtual front page:

National/International

  1. Lede: Obama Would Take Bigger Role in Markets — OK, this is not a perfect “Buzz” lede because it didn’t quite HAPPEN, but the event was the president proposing it. And it’s more important than the gay benefits thing, and more new than the  continuing Iran story. And nothing local or state was really lede-worthy.
  2. Iran Regime Cracking Down — Continued post-election strife in Iran. Look for a sidebar to go with it. Lots to inform readers about here.
  3. U.S. to Extend Gay Benefits — Just another turn in the screw of the Kulturkampf, but a fairly significant one.

Local/State

  1. Handcuffed Tax Study Commission Created — OK, so I threw in an editorial modifier there. The thing is, you sort of need that to see why what happened is important. Two things were essential to making it possible for comprehensive tax reform to happen: There must be no sacred cows, and the Legislature must have a straight up-or-down vote on the final result — no tinkering. That’s the only way anything could pass that would really clean up the tax code. So what did they do? They passed a bill that walled off as sacred the biggest, baddest immediate problem in our tax system — the 2006 property/sales tax swap. (This demonstrates why a commission is needed, because the Legislature itself is too invested in bad policies it created.) Whether they required an up-or-down vote, I could not learn from the coverage I saw.
  2. Vetoes sidebar — The XGR (that’s wire-service jargon for “legislature,” by the way) overrode all 10 of the governor’s vetoes. But that’s pretty much a dog-bites-man story now, isn’t it?
  3. Tenenbaum Draws Bipartisan Praise — This good-news story (anytime you can document bipartisan consensus, it’s good news) is one where local and national intersect.

3 thoughts on “Wednesday’s top stories”

  1. Brad Warthen

    By the way, the governor should veto the tax study commission bill. Of course, he won’t do it for the right reasons, but I hope he does it anyway. And lawmakers should NOT override the veto.

    And then, next year, everyone who understands the need for comprehensive tax reform should try again. Harder.

  2. Kathryn Fenner

    Brad–just b/c we do not pay cash for your analysis does not mean we do not confer value on you–our eyeballs, our clicks are valuable, if you can figure out how to capitalize on them….

    and thanks for doing this.

  3. Lee Muller

    Private citizens, real taxpayers, need to write their own tax reform law and give it to the legislature for an up or down vote. Everyone who opposes, we should work to end their political careers.

Comments are closed.