Opinion

GUEST COLUMN, Jorge Martinez, America First Works

Thanks to the bold leadership of President Donald J. Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon, America is taking a decisive step toward restoring commonsense and accountability in our Nation’s student loan system.

For far too long, the Biden-Harris Administration used federal student loans as a political tool, prioritizing short-term popularity over long-term stability. Since March 2020, collections on defaulted loans have been suspended under the guise of pandemic relief. Yet even after pandemic conditions subsided, the Biden-Harris Administration continued its reckless “on-ramp” strategies and unconstitutional loan cancellation schemes, leaving taxpayers exposed to hundreds of billions of dollars in unpaid debt. The facts are staggering: Over 42 million borrowers owe more than $1.6 trillion, with nearly 10 million borrowers either already in default or at imminent risk.

GUEST COLUMN, J. Basil Dannebohm

At the beginning of each new month, I receive an email from the manufacturer of my thermostat providing me with a usage report. The report gives me a usage breakdown, lets me know if there are any problems with the HVAC system, provides reminders when it’s time to change the filters, and offers tips on how to improve energy efficiency. Our government used to be a lot like my thermostat. I knew it was working effectively because things felt comfortable. Occasionally, elected officials would provide detailed updates on how things were going. If something didn’t seem right, I could look to the news for a fairly reliable, mostly unbiased explanation. If things were especially dysfunctional within the government, we would vote out the problematic officials during the next election cycle and hope for a return to normalcy.

GUEST COLUMN, Glenn Brunkow, Kansas Farm Bureau

Kansas Farm Bureau is fully engaged in the process of developing policy for members’ consideration at our annual meeting in December. The Resolutions Committee has received your ideas from issue surfacing and we have started developing proposals for the full delegation to consider.

We all know that we live in interesting times, and it is even more critical that we hear from all of our members and gather as many opinions as we can. The policy in our book reflects the direction our members want Kansas Farm Bureau staff to engage with legislators and other leaders as they make decisions that affect your farm or ranch.

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

I like Pete Hegseth, but someone needs to strip all the apps off his phone, and he needs to be more selective about who he is allowing in on his conversations.

As Secretary of Defense, he will be privy to sensitive information, and not everyone in his circle wants him to succeed.

This is the problem with the way our government is being conducted and why it is important that this time around, Donald Trump gets serious about draining the swamp.