Exciting news  to share in the Show Me State!

For Immediate Release: June 7, 2011
Contact: Sean Soendker Nicholson, 573-427-7326 or sean@progressmissouri.org

As soon as this evening, my colleagues and I in the Senate will vote on the Republican budget plan that ends Medicare as we know it and gives tax cuts to multimillionaires.

It’s offensive. It’s unacceptable. And I will cast a firm no vote when it comes to the Senate and reject these extreme ideas.


I believe a good compromise would be one that includes the following:

preservation of Medicare as we know it
protection of Social Security
spending cuts that include discretionary domestic and defense spending
safeguards that protect our nation’s veterans
additional revenues from multimillionaires and removal of tax goodies like subsidies to Big Oil

I’m in the Senate because I work for you, and I want to know how you feel. Will you tell me?

Please leave a comment on my Facebook page now and share how you feel about the Republicans’ plan to end Medicare as we know it.

I’m asking you to weigh in on Facebook because of the opportunities it provides me to interact with people. I will read the comments you leave and I will offer responses where I can.

I am fully committed to addressing our federal deficit in the long term, but I am strongly opposed to dismantling Medicare and other programs — as the House Republican proposal suggests — in order to get there.

For Republicans to claim that ending Medicare as we know it and giving money away to the super rich is actually a deficit reduction plan is disingenuous and harmful.

What do you believe? Click here to leave a comment on my Facebook page and let me know. I hope to hear from you.

Protecting Medicare from Republican attacks is one of the most serious issues facing seniors right now. And you can be assured that I am fighting as hard as I can.

Sincerely,

Claire McCaskill

TEA PARTY FOOLISHNESS

By Reggie Marselus

If you pay any attention to politics, it’s impossible to avoid the media obsession with what has been labeled the “TEA PARTY”. They are an ultra-extreme right wing bloc of the Republicans.

Born as a response to the Democratic sweep of the 2008 elections, they have become a force in conservative politics. National media has given them unfettered access to public outlets. Fox News allows Tea Party candidates to campaign for office without challenge or opposition.

Their political muscle is voters in primary elections. Conservative voters usually turn out in very high percentages. Under threats of primary opponents, Republican legislators and office holders are kow-towing to them on a national scale.

However, upon investigation and a little bit of history education, we discover that the Tea Party is nothing like the original group of revolutionaries at Boston Harbor in the late 1700′s.

In 1773, the East India Tea Company had a monopoly, granted by the British government, to sell tea to the colony of Massachusetts. Not only were they forced to buy from them, they also had to pay taxes on the tea that was sent back to Britain.

A group of protesters to the monopoly, and the taxes, were assembled in Boston. When the tea arrived unloading was refused. Not only that, the ship was blocked from returning the tea to Britain.

On December 16, 1773, they boarded the ship and destroyed the tea, dumping it in the harbor. These protesters were battling corporate greed and a government that gave them carte blanche to operate as they wished.

Today, the Tea Party hardly resembles those true patriots that helped found a nation. Now, it’s more a collection of silliness and clownish behavior that dominates the airwaves.

People with tea bags dangling from hats, goofy costumes and hate filled protest signs are what define the group now. Men dressed in Revolutionary War uniforms and other cheesy get-ups appear to be patriots.

The public claim to their actions is disgust with government spending. The message that permeates their rhetoric is cutting budgets and lowering taxes. But the real agenda of the Tea Party lies way below the radar.

Underneath the major public planks of the Tea Party platform there are four foundational floor joists. Anyone who knows construction realizes that a plank floor cannot hold up without joists underneath. It’s the joists that are the true and unseen motives behind this movement.

Those joists are: 1) Bust unions; 2) Eliminate corporate taxes; 3) Defund all liberal government aid programs; 4) Institute conservative social and religious ideals into American life and law.

1. Busting unions is the key to economic power that corporations are eager to achieve. Wages will be lowered to poverty levels. Benefits will disappear completely. It will end the ability of working people to support their own future. The America economy will become one humongous company store.

2. Eliminating corporate taxes is the Shangri-la that American business desires. They can control the government by funding the people who run it. No taxes means political donations rule the world.

3. Defunding all liberal government aid programs will cripple the poor and working class. Without any kind of aid (government or otherwise), they will not be able to fund anything more than their next meal.

4. Instituting conservative social and religious ideals into American life and law will control the masses. Only conservatives will be allowed public exposure in media and government.

The proof for this lies in the people who are funding the party. Most of the funding comes from corporate donors and conservative political action committees (PAC’s). It’s the source of the money that speaks for the party- not the fife and drum.

So when you’re watching television and see people dressed up so garishly, acting like true patriots, it’s all for show and pure foolishness.

[Reggie Marselus is a retired IBEW Local 124 electrician. He lives in Lenexa, KS]

Dear Friends,
In Missouri, we have to add and keep good jobs. Across the state, every legislator knows that adding jobs in their region is important. That shouldn’t have anything to do with politics. It’s just about representing the people back home.

After just a few minutes of watching cable news, you can’t miss the fact that every issue is presented as partisan in nature. Jefferson City often feels the same way. There are certainly times when bipartisanship prevails, but on issues where significant disagreement exists, too often partisanship is to blame.

I started a debate in the House today that divided not on political lines, but almost exclusively on geographic lines. It’s not exactly an instance of bipartisanship, more a case of a lack of partisanship.

This afternoon, we debated a bill to expand the ability of the legislature to exercise oversight over the Missouri Housing Development Commission (MHDC). The debate over this oversight is an important one with well-intentioned people on each side. One part of the bill, however, would move all employees of the MHDC to Jefferson City. Currently, the MHDC has 80 employees in Kansas City and 40
in St. Louis. This isn’t the most important provision in the bill, but it clearly would have a large effect upon Kansas City and St. Louis.

One of my responsibilities to Kansas City is to fight to keep every single job we have. In economic times like these, we can’t afford to just let 80 jobs go without putting up a fight. So I introduced an amendment to the bill that would have allowed the jobs to remain in Kansas City and St. Louis. I left the
remainder of the bill untouched.

Representatives from the Kansas City and St. Louis areas – from both political parties – jumped in to support the amendment. Meanwhile, Democrats and Republicans from mid-Missouri rose to oppose it.

After about an hour of lively debate, we adjourned for the day without taking a vote on the amendment. We will likely come back to it in the coming days and I expect further debate along geographic, not partisan lines.

I thought I’d relay this story just to let you know that not everything here devolves into a partisan fight. Sometimes it devolves into a totally different fight. In the words of Speaker Tip O’Neill, “All politics is local.”

Sincerely,
Jason

Dear Friends,

April Fool’s Day isn’t for another week, but the Republicans of the Missouri House of
Representatives have been playing dirty tricks on the hard working families of Missouri this entire legislative session.

With almost 10% of Missouri workers unemployed, the Democrats in the Missouri House of Representatives are serious about creating, attracting and maintaining high-quality jobs for Missouri workers. Unfortunately, the Republican majority has done nothing this session for job growth; in fact, they have hurt Missouri’s working families.

Help us protect Missouri’s working families – Donate Now!

While paying lip service to wanting to help Missouri’s working families, Republicans voted to lower the minimum wage in Missouri, despite voters approving an increase in the minimum wage. Republicans have consistently opposed unemployment benefits. They have worked to do away with laws protecting Missouri workers from discrimination in the workplace. Republicans even went so far as to author legislation to do away with child labor laws in Missouri.

This is why we need your help today. We can’t stand up for Missouri working families if you don’t stand up with us. A donation today of $10, $50, $100 or even $500 will help us win back seats in the Missouri House of Representatives.

Donate now to help us work hard for hard working Missouri families!

It is clear that with Republicans in the majority in the Missouri House of Representatives, the working families of Missouri will be without a champion in the Legislature. With your help today, we can win back seats and stand up for the working class in Missouri.

MISSOURI DEMOCRATIC PARTY ANNOUNCES NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

From the Missouri Record

March 7, 2011 07:30 AM

The most recent census data shows that Missouri has gained far less population than many other states, and that it has grown and contracted unevenly. These facts have several repercussions: we will certainly lose some of our share of Federal funding for things like transportation and community policing; we will definitely lose a Missouri vote in the US House of Representatives; and some of us will be represented by new faces in the Missouri General Assembly as those district lines are redrawn to reflect the shifts.

The process of redrawing the lines of representation, both at the federal and state level, is called redistricting. It is a tedious process whereby people with sophisticated mapping software draw lines in an attempt to make each of the districts across Missouri have an equal number of constituents. It becomes even more complicated due to certain areas of the state having a population shift, such as people moving to the suburbs or even further out of metropolitan areas to create new suburbs. 

I am struck by how different the redistricting process is approached for representation in the federal government and the state government. Missouri failed to grow as fast as states like Texas, Florida, and Georgia, so we will lose a representative in Congress. Yet, while our Congressional delegation loses a member, our state government will still have the same number of representatives. 

Off the top of my head, the Missouri House of Representatives has 163 members, the fourth largest number in the country. By comparison, the Michigan House, a legislative body of a much more populous state, has only 110 members. The House in neighboring Kansas has 125 members. The Illinois House has 118 members. The Kentucky House has 100 members. The California Assembly, the equivalent of our House, makes do with only 80 members for a population 7 times larger than ours.

The 2010 census data showed Texas, which has a lower House with 150 members, had a large gain in population during past decade and will be awarded four additional Congressional seats, yet this did not spark a movement in Texas to create a larger legislature.  I believe that the disappointing Census numbers and the consequent loss of a federal House seat should suggest a question to Missouri: why must we have such a big state government?

Politicians spend a great deal of time talking about reducing the size of government. A true reduction in the size of government should begin with a reduction of the number of politicians. Currently, a petition has been filed to place a proposed amendment to the Constitution of the State of Missouri on the ballot in November of 2012, reducing the size of the Missouri House of Representatives from 163 members to 103 members.

Reducing the size of the Missouri House will not only make Missouri’s government more efficient, it will save millions of dollars every year. Members of the Missouri House are currently paid $30,000 per year, plus a daily per diem when in Jefferson City and travel expenses. Here is the arithmetic: reducing the number of representatives by 60 will result in an immediate savings of over $1.8 million dollars. A reduction in the number of representatives will also result in a reduction of staff members and benefit obligations. Taxpayers could see a savings between $3 to $5 million dollars per year. The Republican State Auditor, Thomas Schweich, estimates the savings to be at least $4.7 million annually. Mr. Schweich’s numbers will be reflected on the ballot should voters have the opportunity to have their voices heard on this important issue.

The ballot initiative to reduce the size of the Missouri House really isn’t a partisan issue. I confidently expect howls from incumbents of all political stripes and cheers from most everybody else. To some, this will be about their jobs. To me, this is a matter of having a more affordable state government. If you agree, I urge you to sign the petition to have this important change in our state government presented to voters in November of 2012.

Susan Montee serves as chairwoman of the Missouri Democratic Party. She is formerly the Missouri State Auditor.

You can always count on the Republicans, in an election year, to remind the people of what the Republican Party really stands for. You can always count on them to make it perfectly clear before the campaign is over that the Republican Party is the party of big business, and that they would like to turn the country back to the big corporations and the big bankers in New York to run it as they see fit. They are just not going to do it.

Just leave them alone, and the Republicans will manage to scare the daylights out of the farmer and the wage earner and the average American citizen. They always do that….

This year they are at it again. The Republicans think they have been so successful with their campaign of smears and character assassination that they have the Democrats on the run. And they just can’t restrain themselves enough to hide their true colors until after the election. They are too impatient. First one way and then another they are giving themselves away….

The main body of the Republican leaders are doing just what they do every election year. They are making it good and plain to the American people that so far as domestic policies are concerned, the Republican Party is the party of reaction and the party of special privilege….

Now, we can always rely on the Republicans to help us in an election year, but we can’t count on them to do the whole job for us. We have got to go out and do some of it ourselves, if we expect to win.  The first rule in my book is that we have to stick by the liberal principles of the Democratic Party. We are not going to get anywhere by trimming or appeasing. And we don’t need to try it.

The record the Democratic Party has made in the last 20 years is the greatest political asset any party ever had in the history of the world. We would be foolish to throw it away. There is nothing our enemies would like better and nothing that would do more to help them win an election.

I’ve seen it happen time after time. When the Democratic candidate allows himself to be put on the defensive and starts apologizing for the New Deal and the fair Deal, and says he really doesn’t believe in them, he is sure to lose. The people don’t want a phony Democrat. If it’s a choice between a genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic clothing, the people will choose the genuine article, every time; that is, they will take a Republican before they will a phony Democrat, and I don’t want any phony Democratic candidates in this campaign.  But when a Democratic candidate goes out and explains what the New Deal and fair Deal really are — when he stands up like a man and puts the issues before the people — then Democrats can win, even in places where they have never won before. It has been proven time and again.

We are getting a lot of suggestions to the effect that we ought to water down our platform and abandon parts of our program. These, my friends, are Trojan horse suggestions. I have been in politics for over 30 years, and I know what I am talking about, and I believe I know something about the business. One thing I am sure of: never, never throw away a winning program. This is so elementary that I suspect the people handing out this advice are not really well-wishers of the Democratic Party.

More than that, I don’t believe they have the best interests of the American people at heart. There is something more important involved in our program than simply the success of a political party. The rights and the welfare of millions of Americans are involved in the pledges made in the Democratic platform…. And those rights and interests must not be betrayed.

These are some of the principles for which the Democratic Party stands…. We stand for better education, better health, greater opportunities for all. We stand for fair play and decency, for freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and the cherished principle that a man is innocent until he is proven guilty. Taken together, these principles are the articles of the liberal faith. I am sure that the liberal faith is the political faith of the great majority of Americans. It sometimes happens that circumstances of time and place combine to deny its expression. But the faith is there, and the reactionaries can never hope to have any but temporary advantage in this country.

2011 Legislative Session Brings Challenges and Opportunities

By State Rep. Mike Talboy

The 2011 legislative session presents the Missouri General Assembly with many challenges, requiring lawmakers to come together to forge solutions and work towards a common goal. The first priority of both parties this year must be to preserve and create jobs to help restore our state’s economy. However, in our efforts to make Missouri more “business friendly,” we must avoid being anti-worker.

While it is often said that businesses create jobs, it is really consumers who create jobs, because they are the ones who buy the goods and services that make it possible for businesses to exist. Policies that purport to help businesses by reducing wages ultimately hurt businesses, because it means hard-working Missourians have less money in their pockets to spend. The only way to end Missouri’s fiscal crisis is through job creation and economic growth.

Public investments in education have been – and will continue to be – invaluable in job creation.
Education is the foundation for success and economic growth in our state. We MUST take steps to make sure we do not decimate our education system to ensure we have the educated workforce to fill the jobs we create. Investment in education is critical in attracting new businesses and the expansion and retention of existing businesses in Missouri. We must continue to guarantee that higher education is both accessible and affordable, because it serves as a gateway to even greater opportunities.

With globalization the job market has become even more competitive. Education through workforce development allows workers to both gain and retool their skills for the new economy. And it is not just for workers to succeed, if businesses are going to grow, especially those in emerging, cutting-edge industries, they need qualified workers with reoriented skills to do the job.

Tough budgetary decisions will be made this session. We need to approach the budget balancing process thoughtfully, responsibly, and compassionately without resorting to cuts in important investments and services. It is imperative that we do not carve deeper into core services that serve the most vulnerable in our state. We do need to find savings by identifying and implementing better and smarter ways to deliver these necessary services. The same economic forces that have created the decline in state revenues have created skyrocketing demands for these vital services.

We need to strike a responsible balance that protects essential safety net services and continues to invest in our children in order to allow us to recover stronger, healthier, and quicker. We will do our best to work together to find solutions for these challenging times facing Missourians. House Democrats will offer concrete and realistic ideas to put Missourians back to work and create new jobs in our state. We stand ready to move Missouri forward and we are ready to go to work.

Mike Talboy is the state representative for the 37th District and serves as the House Minority Leader.