By WAYNE GREENE Editorial Pages Editor on Aug 15, 2013, at 8:29 AM Updated on 8/15 at 8:29 AM
WAYNE'S WORLD
Efforts to defund the Affordable Care Act — “Obamacare' — are splitting the state’s all-Republican Congressional delegation.
They’re ...
Tulsa World reporter Curtis Killman had a good story in Monday’s paper , looking at how the state’s voting population ...
I hope U.S. Rep. Markwayne Mullin doesn’t mind me telling this story.
The Second District Republican came to visit the ...
Kathy Taylor and Dewey Bartlett
Tulsa mayoral candidates both took sharp shots at the Obama administration for its intervention in the American Airlines merger with US Airways.
The U.S. Justice Department filed an antitrust suit against the proposed merger this week. The merger was key to American Airlines planned path out of bankruptcy. About 6,200 people in the Tulsa area work for American, and the suit means the merger, at best, will be delayed by months.
Mayor Dewey Bartlett shot first with a prepared statement Tuesday. He said the lawsuit was “a late and irresponsible challenge by the Obama administration.”
Here’s an interesting point, Bartlett made: “Ironically, I believe that if American Airlines had asked for a bailout, the Obama Administration would have already given it to them. But, American Airlines didn't ask for a bailout, they along with US Airways, want to solve their problems in the free market and President Obama wants to stand in the way.”
Taylor issued her statement yesterday.
She said she was “disappointed” with the decision, which she said “underscores a fundamental lack of understanding of job creation and stabilization and free market principles.”
She went on to point out the obvious but true: The lawsuit extends the uncertainty of American Airlines jobs in Tulsa, which she termed “unacceptable.”
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