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E. Thomas McClanahan

FILE - In this May 2, 2011 file photo, Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway gestures during an interview, in Omaha, Neb. Buffett, in a New York Times opinion piece, is calling on the so-called mega-rich to pay more in taxes. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

We are better off when risk is richly rewarded

Last updated Tuesday, August 23, 2011 - 12:19pm

Warren Buffett caused quite a stir last week. In a New York Times op-ed, he told Washington to stop "coddling" the super-rich.

He said that last year he only paid 17.4 percent on his taxable income, while employees in his office paid from 33 percent to 41 percent.

Buffett is a spectacular judge of value in the market, but his suggestion that the tax system is no longer progressive is a head-scratcher. His impressions clash with numbers published by the Congressional Budget Office (as Michigan economics professor Mary Perry noted on the Carpe Diem blog).

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Did Obama change his mind on missile defense?

E. Thomas McClanahan, Kansas City Star McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Last updated Friday, June 17, 2011 - 4:51pm

When President Barack Obama came into office, many people (this writer included), expected him to mothball the nation's missile defense program, much as President Bill Clinton had done. During his campaign, Obama gave lip service to the concept but promised to slice funding for "unproven" systems.

Putting it that way was clever. It made him sound reasonable and moderate. But his phrasing hinted at a Catch-22, because the only way any such system can be "proven" is to test it, and that requires money. Many feared that under this administration, the "unproven" would always remain so.

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U.S. economy is being suffocated by uncertainty

E. Thomas McClanahan McClatchy Newspapers

Last updated Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - 12:55pm

The economic recovery is 2 years old this month. Isn't that reassuring? I didn't think so. As recoveries go, this one is as blah as it gets. Judging by the most recent indicators, we may be headed for a double dip, or perhaps a period of flatlining that feels just as bad. Job growth is sluggish and unemployment is again on the rise. In the first three months of this year, the economy slowed substantially, from a 3.1 percent pace at the end of 2010 to a growth rate of only 1.8 percent.

Consumer spending is lackluster, thanks to stagnant wages and high fuel prices.

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Democrats are creating some fertile turf for Sarah Palin

E. Thomas McClanahan Kansas City Star

Last updated Tuesday, December 7, 2010 - 3:14pm

I have my doubts about Sarah Palin as a potential presidential candidate, but you have to hand it to her. Her instincts are wonderfully diabolical. She's trapped our friends on the left in a no-win debate on American exceptionalism.

Nothing drives liberals battier. Some of them are prone to revolt at the mere suggestion that the United States has any redeeming qualities.

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Dry land still sprouts plenty of history, memories

E. Thomas McClanahan The Kansas City Star

Last updated Monday, October 5, 2009 - 1:15pm

The trees became scarce as we headed west, until we saw them only around human settlements or along the course of streams. At some point, we left the East and entered the American West, a land marked mainly by lack of water.

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