They are setting a dangerous precedent in Topeka.

Never before – at least not in such a stunning fashion – has a regulatory action been so contrived by political desires than the rejection of the Sunflower application to expand their electrical production. In a shocking decision, the Secretary of Health and Environment (who has absolutely no training or education in environmental science) rejected his own scientific PhD’s and declared that Kansas has wholly accepted the Al Gore Theory of Global Warming as scientific fact. Let’s not kid ourselves – the decision is not scientific at all – it is purely political – one aimed at reviving the national political ambitions of certain Topeka politicians.

There is no regard for the economic impact of such a decision – it creates enormous economic and business uncertainty across the entire state. It sends a clear, distinct message to the rest of the United States and the world – Kansas is closed to new or expanded business. For every business in the world, indeed every person on this planet, is now considered a polluter. And every economic activity, every human activity must now be inspected with an understanding that Secretary Bremby, Governor Sebelius and every state agency is concerned and must reduce CO2 emissions. Havoc is about to break loose in Kansas.

Does this mean current Kansas power plants – including the dirtiest one near Lawrence – must be mothballed because of their CO2 emissions? If we take this Administration at their word, these plants should be closed. Does this stop any new manufacturing facilities or expansions? Yes. Does this prohibit any new ethanol plants? It should – if they keep their word. Should all cattle be removed from the state? Of course, because they are emitters of CO2. Does this mean a 100% increase in the cost of electricity – yes. Should we ban all imports from and exports to China – because they are constructing one new coal-fired power plant nearly every week – all dirtier than most current U.S. plants?

And the list goes on and on. Few believe the so-called logic of the decision extends this far, but exactly how far do Sebelius and Bremby intend to take this illegal, unconstitutional approach to regulation in Kansas? No one knows – at that is the uncertainty. There is not a business in this state that can honestly tell its investors – we know what the state’s regulatory rules are and how they will be enforced. For what is written may be ignored, what is unwritten may now have the force of the law.

In such uncertainty, business investment and expansion just can not continue, can not be risked. There are 49 other states – and dozens of other countries – that will welcome every business expansion that doesn’t occur in Kansas.

Friends, we can not afford the Sunflower decision to stand. It is a killer, not only to economic growth in western Kansas, but to the entire state. Rest assured, I will be working hard to restore not only regulatory certainty to the state, but provide opportunities for more deregulation – so prevent future opportunities for unelected bureaucrats and Courts and elected politicians to interfere in the economic life of Kansas.

There is also great fiscal insecurity in Topeka.

Not uncertainty about the next Attorney General. For Governor Sebelius has handpicked another friend for that job – after Paul Morrison rides off into the legal sunset after 12 months of legal shenanigans rewarding campaign contributors and harassing ex-employees and manipulating the legal system.

No, not uncertainty about the Governor’s desire to leave Kansas. She is desperately searching for a job in Washington, D.C. – so desperate she recently posed for a shoot in Vogue magazine. And arranged with Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid to give the Democrat response to President Bush’s State of the Union Address later this month. Friends, there is no doubt – Sebelius wants to be gone from Kansas – soon.

And who could blame her – the clouds of financial uncertainty are gathering in Topeka. For the first time in Kansas history, the Governor has provided a budget guaranteed to hit the tank in two years. Sebelius has promised dozens of new programs – with no funding for them. Indeed, in her State of the State speech, she promised new programs – and received the media headlines the next day – that wouldn’t even start for another two years (that would be all-day Kindergarten)!

Tax revenues are coming in below expectations, in part because of the economic uncertainty noted above. Her two-year budget deficit is budgeted at more than $600 million – a tremendous over-spending amount for a $6 billion budget. And the state borrowed $350 million just last month – in order to meet cash flow needs because of the failure to maintain any rainy-day fund.

Financial uncertainty – just like that left by the previous Governor Bill Graves – will likely by the real legacy of Kathleen Sebelius and Mark Parkinson. Let’s hope we can revive the statewide economy and hold the line on government spending in order to avoid the economic meltdowns that occur in times of fiscal irresponsibility.

Jim Pfaff is a good friend of mine. He is also the President of the Colorado Family Institute. He is also the author of the following excellent article. Let us ponder his words of wisdom as we reflect on the value of Human Life during this sad anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Where's the Life?
Today in Washington D.C., tens of thousands of people, young and old, will participate in the annual March for Life.

On January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that abortion on demand should be made legal. With no established precedent and without any specific statement in the Constitution that such a right exists, seven of nine unelected judges came to the conclusion that an unborn child did not have the same right to life as it's own mother or a born child. And this against the backdrop of our Declaration of Independence which clearly asserts the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness have their origin in eternity and are not subject to revision by any government of man.

The history of man is filled with the tragedy of death imposed by an unelected elite. From ancient times, the slaughter of innocents has been brought about under the authority of kings and even some religions. I remember as a young man reading in the Bible about God's condemnation of Israel for following after the god Moloch. One of the forms of worship prescribed for Moloch was that his worshipers were required to make some of their children "pass through the fire" (e.g. Jeremiah 32:35). As a teenager reading this, I had no clue what this phrase meant. Then someone shared it with me. Children who were passed through the fire were placed on the arms of the bronze statue of Moloch and from there they were rolled to their death into a cauldron of fire. This was an abominable practice condemned by God (Lev. 18:21, 20:2-5; 2 Kings 16:3, 17:17, 21:6, 23:10; 2 Chron. 33:6; Eze. 16:21, 20:26).

Some years later, I heard a live performance of Michael Card's song "Spirit of the Age". Its haunting lyrics point back to the biblical account of Jesus' birth found in the Gospel of Matthew. The Jewish King Herod destroyed every child in Bethlehem two years old and under after he realized that the Magi from the East had "tricked" him and did not return to Jerusalem to tell him where he could find the child whom he thought would replace him as King. Michael Card used Matthew's quote of the words of Jeremiah the prophet as part of the lyric of that song. Jeremiah prophesied of "weeping and great mourning. Rachael weeping for her children . . . because they were no more." This prophesy was fulfilled, according to Matthew, through Herod's destruction of so many innocent children in Bethlehem. Card goes on to say this incident is but one example in an historical cycle where the innocent are slaughtered for convenience's sake. He concludes:

Now every age has heard it, the voice that speaks from hell.
Sacrifice your children and for you it will be well.
The subtle serpent's lying, his dark and ruthless rage.
Behold it is revealed to be the spirit of the age!

Fast forward through centuries stained with many such incidents to 20th Century America. A group of unelected, unaccountable judges decide to review the complaint of an unnamed Jane Roe. She sued the state of Texas challenging its law which forbids abortion except when the life of the mother is at stake. Jane Roe, whom we later discovered was Norma McCorvey, was a poor, uneducated woman pregnant and in crisis. She said later that the Ivy League educated lawyers who recruited her never lifted a finger to help her in her situation. Instead of ministering to the wounded heart of a desperate woman in need, they made a case out of it. The result on that cold January day in 1973 was that a child in the womb of its mother ceased to be a child, and became a fetus. A miracle of life forming in silence to be nurtured by loving parents suddenly became a mass of tissue subject to the choice of its carrier.

Since then, 45 million such "fetuses" have perished. Millions of women have been told a lie that their abortion was just another medical procedure which could help them out of a "tough spot" or provide them a convenient way to avoid an unplanned pregnancy. The majority of them, if they search deep within their hearts, will tell you not a day goes by when they don't regret their decision. Many stay awake at night replaying over and over the circumstances which led to their decision and wondering what that child could have been. At some level, they live with the pain we all feel when we make a mistake because we believed a lie; except their pain is much worse.

Ronald Reagan, a one-time supporter of abortion rights as Governor of California came to regret signing a 1967 law legalizing abortion in his state. What was billed as a way to stop "back alley" abortions instead caused the number of abortions to skyrocket leading to the slaughter of 2 million babies. By 1980 he had become a staunch, pro-life advocate. He wrote an unsolicited article which appeared in the Human Life Review while he was President in 1983. He shared his conclusion about the rights of the unborn which arose out of his own pain over the realization of his own decision about abortion:

I have often said we need to join in prayer to bring protection to the unborn. . . . William Wilberforce, prayed with his small group of influential friends, the "Clapham Sect," for decades to see an end to slavery in the British empire. . . because he believed in the sanctity of human life. . . . Parliament outlawed slavery just before his death. Let his faith and perseverance be our guide. We will never recognize the true value of our own lives until we affirm the value in the life of others, a value of which Malcolm Muggeridge says:. . . "however low it flickers or fiercely burns, it is still a Divine flame which no man dare presume to put out, be his motives ever so humane and enlightened. . . ." [W]e cannot survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion or infanticide. My Administration is dedicated to the preservation of America as a free land, and there is no cause more important for preserving that freedom than affirming the transcendent right to life of all human beings, the right without which no other rights have any meaning.

On this day when we remember the slaughter of 45 million innocent babies, should we resolve to do any less?

As we continue this fight 35 years later, I am hopeful that Roe v. Wade will be overturned. Polls show increasing support for the pro-life cause. But a development which gives me great hope is the attitude of many young people who are committed to taking up the cause of the unborn and women in crisis. I heard one of them recently on a conservative talk radio program. She was a 25 year old woman who had called in to say she would be marching today in our nation's capital. She explained the reason she opposes abortion is that every child born since 1973 should be grateful to their mother for making the choice for life because many millions didn't have the chance at life she's had.

Thomas Carlyle observed, "permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragement, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak." We will win this battle by remaining strong in our resolve refusing to give up the ground that all life is precious. In the long run we will succeed when we refuse to fail.

Jim Pfaff

De ja vu – all over again. One year ago, I wrote a column about Governor Sebelius proposing another tax hike – back then, on turnpike tolls. She is at it again – and once again, she refuses to use the words of “tax increase.”

The Sebelius Administration is proposing a 50 cent per-pack increase in cigarette taxes – plus indexing the tax so that it automatically increases every year. Wish we could do that for our income.

What is the new tax increase to be used for? Clinton-Edwards-Obama-styled government health care ideas. A laundry list of twenty-one ideas generated, a poll-tested (I believe) by an appointed group of health experts. Some of the ideas seem reasonable – most require more government control of our lives, more of our money, and more government bureaucrats.

Upon questioning yesterday, the agency director who outlined these proposals admitted many things she wanted to do didn’t make the cut – such as a complete ban on smoking (that would be everywhere), a sucrose tax, a French fry tax, and on and on. Her reason – folks need to be encouraged (or forced) by government to quit doing bad things.

But as Milton Friedman, the real Nobel prize winner (unlike Gore), clearly argued and DEMONSTRATED – the demand for free things is infinite, whether it be provided by government programs or any other entity who would pay our bills. Hence, as long as our insurance claims and/or premiums are paid for by someone else, we have limited incentive to be personally or financially responsible. Applying Friedman economic principles, there are then only two routes to take on health care reform – either turn over our lives and health care choices to government for their control OR create a truly consumer-based, consumer-responsible, consumer-responsive health care system.

I am not kidding – this is a true story. Good news from Gallup Research:

“Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats or independents to rate their mental health as excellent, according to data from the last four November Gallup Health and Healthcare polls.” The report continues, “Fifty-eight percent of Republicans report having excellent mental health, compared to 43 percent of independents and 38 percent of Democrats. This relationship between party identification and reports of excellent mental health persists even within categories of income, age, gender, church attendance and education.” To be sure, there are many reasons for this disparity. While Republicans generally emulate the optimism of Ronald Reagan, Democrats are busy running around telling everyone how terrible things are. Republicans believe that their fellow Americans can do things themselves, while Democrats believe that we’re all too stupid to do anything without gubmint assistance. And as Gallup notes, “[O]ne cannot say whether something about being a Republican causes a person to be more mentally healthy, or whether something about being mentally healthy causes a person to choose to become a Republican.”