Roberts Calls Squester Stand-off, “A Hell of a Way to Run a Railroad” February 19, 2013

Kansas Senator Pat Roberts expressed frustration and defiance over the federal sequester showdown during a town hall in Olathe Tuesday.
Roberts, Senate colleague Jerry Moran and Johnson County Congressman Kevin Yoder were at an hour long meeting in Olathe. Roberts opened the meeting by complaining about the looming sequester deadline.
Many federal programs face a total of $85 billion in automatic cuts a week this coming Friday. No deal to avoid it seems in sight.
Later, Roberts said the nation has no option but to get federal spending under control. Otherwise, he predicted the deficit could roar out if control. “$46 Trillion in 10 years!” Roberts shouted, “my God!”
He warned many Kansans could lose the federal programs they rely upon. He closed, however, by urging people not to give up.
“Let’s roll up our socks and sleeves and get the damn thing done,” he said. A number of the people at the meeting complained about how government works.
Sen. Moran told them he thinks too often politics trumps policy most of the time in Washington these days.
One person insisted President Obama had violated so many laws and abused the Constitution that he ought to be impeached.
Rep. Yoder shied away from that. He says the laws are in place. The problem is the President picks and chooses the laws he wants to follow.
A couple of people criticized Roberts and Moran for supporting tax policies that reward large oil companies that already make big profits.
Both men reminded the questioners the stock of oil companies are often held by middle class families or by Kansas institutions.

Video: Jenkins to POTUS: Take Off Your Superman Cape and Send Us a Serious Plan on the Budget February 5, 2013

Ks. Rep Lynn Jenkins at the House GOP Leadership news conference Tuesday:

Steelman Joins the Rip-Fest on Obama Budget, Ties McCaskill In February 14, 2012

Republican Senate candidate Sarah Steelman blasted the President’s proposed budget Tuesday. She also blamed her potential Democratic rival, incumbent Senator Claire Mccaskill for some of the budget trouble.
“President Obama’s budget proposal is fiscally irresponsible and outrageous. Claire McCaskill and Obama, along with the rest of the senate democrats, sat and watched as our credit rating dropped last summer because of our debt outlook. And what do they do? Spend more money that we don’t have.”

Budget calls for Million More for Mo. River Wildlife, Small Bump in River Flood Control February 14, 2012

Despite months of calls for adjustments by the victims of the 2011 floods, a controversial wildlife program criticized by flooded farmers last year, may get an increase in funding, while flood control lags well behind.
The proposal calls for the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service budget for the lower Missouri River to increase from $72.8 million in fiscal year 2012 to $90 million in the new budget. That fund develops wildlife habitats in the states hit hardest by the flood of 2011.
The budget for the Missouri River Operation and Maintenance project, which is the flood control budget, is proposed to rise from $7.3 to $7.7 million.
The president of the Missouri levee and Drainage District Association, Tom Waters said in a e-mail Monday night, “It’s so very frustrating”.
Many river bank property owners called for a dramatic increase in flood control spending.
At the height of the 2001 flood the Wildlife service operations came under fire.
The Army Corps of Engineers also found itself in the midst of the controversy. In late spring, the Corp’s real estate office sent out letters to possible “willing sellers” of river bottom and farm land.
The intention was to create more wildlife habitats for fish and animals.
The letters hit mail boxes just as the worst of the flooding was striking the region.
Many accused the Corps of trying to hold a ‘fire sale’ to take advantage of property owners and farmers whose land was literally underwater.
The Corps denied that. It also conceded the timing of the routine letters was poor.
Since the flooding, a coalition of Members of Congress and Governors have called for the federal government to reform its wildlife habitat policies along the Missouri and increase spending for flood control.
That push is expected to continue, despite the budget proposal from the White House. Many consider the administration’s budget plan ‘dead on arrival’.

Cleaver: New Federal Budget is a “Neverous Breakdown on Paper” February 14, 2012

From Politico:
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, warned Monday that the federal government should be wary of slashing spending too drastically as he called President Barack Obama’s expected budget proposal a “nervous breakdown on paper.”
“This budget is a nervous breakdown on paper,” Cleaver said on CNN.
While the president has put together a plan that addresses important issues such as education and job training, the Missouri congressman cautioned, “We are still in a recession. We’re still struggling. Unemployment is still too high in every major city in the country. People are struggling.”
Cleaver suggested that “for the federal government to turn the spigot off completely” could push the country into a deeper economic recession.
Still, the congressman emphasized that the most serious challenge for Obama’s budget will be withstanding a “dysfunctional” Congress.
“It’s going to probably have some difficulties over in the Senate. And it’s probably dead on arrival over at the House. But that’s because of Congress is dysfunctional,” Cleaver said. “The danger here is that we’re going to struggle around without addressing the major problems.”
He added, “The president is getting a lot of criticism. I don’t think it’s deserved that, he has create all these problems. We do have a serious ailment as a nation and certainly as Congress, we suffer from Spendigitis, but President Obama is not the one who spread this disease. It was there when he was inaugurated.”