At least she didn’t stab him debating wolf pelts

By Steve Brawner, © 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Feb. 6, 2020

You saw or heard about Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi ripping up her copy of President Trump’s State of the Union address, right behind him, after Trump started off the speech by not shaking her hand.

Ugh. As a reminder that our political climate could be worse, let’s recall that on Dec. 4, 1837, Arkansas’ speaker of the House stabbed to death a legislator during a debate about wolf pelts.

According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, Speaker John Wilson was presiding over a special session called by the governor to discuss an expected tax surplus.

House members were debating a Senate bill allowing bounties to be paid for wolf pelts presented to a county justice of the peace. During a discussion about how to verify where the wolf was killed, Randolph County Rep. Joseph Anthony offered a not-serious amendment requiring each pelt to be signed by the Arkansas Real Estate Bank president. That president was Speaker Wilson, and the bank was “notoriously corrupt,” according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Continue reading →

Cotton goes to war against a virus

By Steve Brawner, © 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Feb. 4, 2020

Sen. Tom Cotton, the ex-combat infantryman, tends to see the world – and describe it – in terms of threats and adversaries: Iran, terrorists, illegal immigrants, legal immigrants who take Americans’ jobs, the Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei, President Obama and other Democrats, etc. He often uses strong, uncompromising language.

Lately, he’s focused on a new, developing threat, the coronavirus that China says has killed more than 400 of its people, and which has started spreading to other countries. As of Monday, there were 11 confirmed cases in the United States.

On Jan. 30, Cotton said in a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting that the coronavirus is “the biggest and most important story in the world” and something that “could result in a global pandemic.” He called for banning all commercial air travel between China and the United States and for a “Manhattan Project-level effort” to develop a vaccine. The Manhattan Project created the atomic bomb in World War II.

Cotton’s remarks are notable because this time the threat he’s talking about isn’t a person or group of people, but a virus.

Viruses are microorganisms that invade the body and reproduce by attaching to cells and reprogramming them to create more viruses. They can mutate, frustrating our efforts to stop them. Continue reading →

‘We have all, on both sides of the aisle, failed’

By Steve Brawner, © 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

What has been expected is now pretty much official: the federal government will spend $1 trillion more this year than it will collect, and it will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Whose fault is that? Everybody’s, according to Rep. Steve Womack, who represents Northwest Arkansas in Congress.

The $1 trillion forecast – equal to about $3,000 in red ink for every American – came from the Congressional Budget Office Tuesday. The CBO said Uncle Sam will spend $4.6 trillion this fiscal year while collecting only $3.6 trillion in taxes.

That $1 trillion will be added to the cumulative national debt, which has reached $23.2 trillion and counting, or about $70,000 for every American. Continue reading →

Change the oath, and impeach less often

By Steve Brawner, © 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Arkansas’ two senators will inevitably vote the same way on impeachment – against it, if they haven’t already done so by the time you read this.

Their approaches and rhetoric leading up to the vote has been as different as they are. While Sen. John Boozman has made it clear where he’s headed, his tone has been measured. Sen. Tom Cotton, on the other hand, has been all over the airwaves blasting Democrats and defending President Trump.

But the results will be the same and will come as no surprise, just as there will be no surprises coming from virtually all the other 98 senators. In the final vote, the only questions will be whether any Democrats – maybe Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia – vote to acquit, and whether any Republicans vote to convict, which is highly unlikely. And then we’ll see how it all plays out in this year’s elections. Continue reading →

Arkansas Works? They’d rather not say

By Steve Brawner, © 2020 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Among the biggest ongoing issues in Arkansas politics is one that some Republican legislative candidates would rather avoid discussing, particularly if they’re running against another Republican.

That’s Arkansas Works, previously known as the private option.

The program uses mostly federal dollars under the Affordable Care Act – Obamacare – to purchase private health insurance for 250,000 lower-income adults. It was created in 2013 after the U.S. Supreme Court said states could choose to expand their Medicaid populations rather than be required to do so.

While most Republican-led states said no, Arkansas took a different approach under the leadership of some young Republican legislators and Democrat Gov. Mike Beebe’s administration. Instead of simply expanding Medicaid, a government program for poor and disabled people, it used that money to buy private insurance. Continue reading →