Action Jackson

Un-Fair Tax

2009-06-11T09:25:00.000-07:00

Conservatives, spurred on by a national campaign, will rally Saturday in Columbia for what supporters call the “Fair Tax”.

Introduced as House Joint Resolution 36 in Missouri last session, it would replace the current state income tax with a tax on all sales and services. Let me repeat that ALL sales and services.

At a time when Congress is talking about getting more people health care, our Missouri General Assembly is talking about taxing it. But that’s not all, every service you pay for from TV repair to your electric bill would be taxed.

Obviously, such a regressive tax would heavily effect the poorest Missourians, but a full 95% of Missourians would pay more in taxes under this plan according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. They also estimate that in order to make the tax revenue neutral – which they claim to want in the legislation – the tax would have to be 12.5%. Now imagine paying an additional 12.5% on every dollar you spend on any goods or services.

These types of proposals make it clear that conservatives have no qualms about raising taxes – they just want to raise them on middle and low income Americans and cut taxes for the wealthiest 5%.

Of Morons and Medicaid

2009-05-22T15:33:00.001-07:00

Toward the end of the Missouri Legislative Session, the House Republicans, who had already voted down a State Budget to expand Medicaid, took the further step of voting for their version of the Senate's Medicaid expansion proposal that wouldn't have expanded coverage to anyone. Oh, sure, they spoke about covering the “uninsurables” but the group they were talking about covering were already covered in the Senate plan and, under the House plan, were not funded for coverage under the Budget that the House Republicans had passed.

So, the House Republicans turned down nearly $100 million per year in Federal funds and over $50 million per year in new funds from Missouri's hospitals. Yet somehow, they have the audacity to say that their decisions were “fiscally responsible”.

At least one House Republican, Representative Bryan Pratt, knew better than to try to defend their actions, instead, he made baseless accusations of impropriety against the Governor and the groups that were advocating for the expansion. These accusations have yet to be backed up by any actual evidence, but Republican Representatives did put up signs in their offices reading “Governor Nixon, My Vote Is Not For Sale.” Of course, considering the source of the accusations, perhaps these Representatives should have put up “For Sale” signs with the tell tale “Sold” sticker across them since all of their votes were purchased long ago by Rex Sinqufield.

I cannot, however, group all House Republicans together. Evidently, there remains four Republican Representatives who are actually fiscally responsible: Jay Wasson, Ryan Silvey, Scott Largent, and Denny Hoskins. These are the only four Republican Representatives who voted against their caucus in support of a free healthcare expansion.

Is TABOR Lite Dead?

2009-04-14T07:39:00.000-07:00

House Joint Resolution 23, often called TABOR Lite by members of the Democratic Caucus, had a hearing in the Senate Ways and Means Committee last week. A surprise move since it is rumored that the chairman of the Committee is opposed to the legislation.

The House approved the measure by only one vote, and several moderate members have said that they were able to support the Budget Chairman’s legislation only because they knew that is was dead in the Senate.

Well, the Senate Committee meeting was certainly a downer. Chairman Vogel was the only member of the committee present during the proceedings – sitting alone for nearly an hour waiting for the sponsor of the bill, Representative Allen Icet, to appear.

When it became overly clear that the sponsor would be a no-show, the Chairman dropped the gavel and called the meeting adjourned. Rumor is that the main supporter of the bill, former Representative Carl Bearden, received an ear full from the Chairman and his Chief of Staff following the meeting.

Evidently, Icet and Bearden had misrepresented (read lied) some deals made with leadership in the Senate around the legislation. Lobbyists in the Capitol say that at best HJR 23 is on life support and at worst, this was the last nail in its coffin.

FBI Back in the Capitol

2009-03-30T06:56:00.000-07:00

The Missouri House Republicans have been working for years under pay-to-play rules.

Lobbyists used to joke that the House Rules Committee has been more like an auction than a hearing when controversial legislation was waiting for a hearing on the floor.

Well, it appears that the FBI is back in the Capitol to investigate some of these rumors.

Republicans Fight Healthcare with Racism

2009-03-26T08:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday during the House Budget Debate in the Missouri House of Representatives, Representative Robert Schaaf compared providing healthcare to lower income children with slavery. He defined slavery as when you “make someone else pay for something you receive.”

Now, I’m no historian, but I thought that slavery was about owning, mistreating and forcing other human beings to live their lives in servitude with no compensation.

Fortunately, after this misguided rant, Representative Shalonn Curls stood to be recognized to cheers from the Democratic side of the chamber. She pointed out to the racist from Buchanan that his argument was offensive to several members of the House. Representative Schaaf just shrugged and said, “So?”.

But that wasn’t enough for the Republican Caucus, evidently. The next Republican to stand up was Representative Bryan Stevenson, who earlier this session compared the “Freedom of Choice Act” to the “War of Northern Aggression”.

Evidently, now that the Republicans have elected a black man as their national chairman, they’re free to let their racism shine.

Missouri Senate Fights over Abortion for Huckabee’s Entertainment

2009-03-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

So the Missouri Senate debated late into the night yesterday on a bill that would make coercing a woman to have an abortion a crime. It’s funny that they would work this hard to pass a bill that has no chance of being signed into law by the current Governor. Never mind the idiocy of making it a crime to coerce a person to do a legal act.

So, why would the Missouri Senate fiddle away at abortion while the Missouri economy burns? Why, former presidential candidate and current False News talk show host Mike Huckabee was in town!

Who would want to be the elected official in the front row at a Huckabee event without being able to say, “Mike… Mike… I hate abortions too!”

So, Senators Jeff Smith and Jolie Justus discussed how many people follow their twitters (tweets?) and Minority Leader Callahan pointed out how foolish it was to be debating this meaningless bill while Missourians are losing jobs and struggling to keep their health care.

Oh No, They’re Going Back to Work

2009-03-23T08:56:00.000-07:00

In these tough economic times, you would think that everyone would be happy to see Missourians going back to work. The single exception to this would have to be the Missouri General Assembly, who after a week-long spring break will be returning today to the Capitol.

The same group that has ignorantly brought infrastructure projects to a screeching halt and worked to cut programs for seniors, children and the mentally ill will come back to a House Budget with over $1 billion in cuts ready to be amended on the House Floor.

House Minority Leader Paul LeVota has eloquently pointed out several times to the rest of the House that the Budget process under their rules is flawed. You see, the Budget Chairman, Representative Allen Icet, is given supreme authority in the House as to what the maximum spending will be. If you want to add funding to a program, you must decrease funding to another program – all without the federal funding that is supposed to carry Missouri through these tough economic times.

These arbitrary rules mixed with the Majority’s refusal to use stimulus funds has already forces Democrats and moderate Republicans to take funds from programs necessary to implement the line items they have restored funding to.

This is no simple oversight by the Budget Chairman. As sponsor of House Joint Resolution 23, often referred to as TABOR, he is trying to force the House to comply with his misguided Constitutional Amendment before the voters even have the chance to vote on it.

This kind of shortsighted budgeting will guarantee a quick downturn in essential state services, loss of even more jobs, and federal funds meant for Missouri traveling to California, Illinois, and Massachusetts.

My Apologizes to a Box of Rocks

2009-03-13T10:16:00.000-07:00

The other day, while watching the antics of the House Republicans, I looked over to my friend and said, “My god, these guys are as dumb as a box of rocks.” I think an apology may be in order.

You see, today at a press conference the Speaker of the House Ron Richard vowed not to use any stimulus money in the budget for ongoing activities. Then just a few moments later at the same press conference Budget Chairman Allen Icet admitted that the Republican-crafted budget currently under discussion does indeed include stimulus money for ongoing expenses. Woops!

But fear not, Ron Richard still considering a tax rebate as a way of using the stimulus money and Allen Icet was confident he and the senate could find a way to make even deeper cuts in the budget to carve out all of the stimulus money. You heard me right…these two rocket scientists have figured out that the best way to save the sinking ship that is the Missouri economy is to cut jobs, cut investment and not pay for services rendered by health care providers.

In a period of deleveraging, in a time of hemorrhaging unemployment and shrinking GDP, when the sole purpose of the stimulus funds are to artificially stimulate aggregate demand so as to end the death spiral of death spiral of deflation and reignite the virtuous spiral of investment and job growth, these two naybobs have decided that the best way help the economy is to cut jobs and not pay for service provided to foster kids, mentally retarded adults and the children of drug addicted parents. Poor old Professor Walter Johnson, the famous and funny MU professor of Econ 51, who served in the Nixon administration, must be spinning in his grave.

But what do you expect from people so whetted to an ideology that logic, reason, and science matters not.

At the national level more of the same, House Minority Leader John Boehner commented the other day that “It’s time for government to tighten their belts and show the American people that we ‘get’ it.” Huh? Even conservative economists know and proclaimed that in economic conditions like we have now, the government must be the “spender of last resort.”

Paul Krugman characterized Boehner’s comments thusly “Boehner’s idea of economics is completely insane.” But what does Krugman know? He only has a PhD in Economics and a Nobel Prize while John Boehner has a really fake tan.

So today I want to publicly apologize to any box of rocks that may have been offended by my comment. It is now apparent that the House Republican leadership is not as dumb as a box of rocks but in fact they are much, much dumber than a box of rocks.

Missouri House Poised to Give Kids the Shaft

2009-03-06T15:29:00.000-08:00

The House Budget Chairman, Allen Icet, has released the initial summary of the cuts he plans to make to the Departments of Social Services, Mental Health and Health and Senior Services.

Not surprisingly, the people who will get shafted are people with disabilities, the elderly, and children.

For the elderly, there are drastic cuts to their support systems, such as the Area Agencies on Aging, their in-home services, and funding for Alzheimer’s research and treatment.

For people with disabilities, in-home services are being cut and support and treatment for people with mental and physical disabilities (veterans anyone?).

Children get the shortest straw. Under this budget children will have less access to health care, be less likely to receive quality child care, and foster children will be less likely to get adequate clothing and diapers.

All of these cuts while they leave over $800 million in economic stimulus money in Washington, where it can be divvied out between the coastal states.

But I think I’ve figured this strategy by the Republicans out. They think that they’ve been losing seats in the House because they haven’t yet done enough damage to vulnerable Missourians. They think that the height of their popularity was after they made similar cuts in 2005, so they must do something equally drastic now.

Housing Trust Makes a Comeback

2009-03-05T07:07:00.000-08:00

Last fall, this blog carried a story on the Missouri Housing Trust. The issue is back this year with a vengeance. Senator Jolie Justus introduced a new compromise bill that will ensure that the funding from the real estate filing fee goes directly to preventing foreclosures and evictions.

The same groups are in favor of the bill as last year – Senior and Disability Groups, Social Welfare Organizations, Poverty Groups, and a whole host of faith-based groups including Catholic Charities and Salvation Army. A new addition was the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.

Former Senator Pat Dougherty now with Catholic Charities laid out the need for these funds throughout the state – even giving each member of the committee the requests that went unfunded from their districts and the community groups that would have benefited.

Each proponent made the case that and increase of $7 in the cost of purchasing property certainly wouldn’t prevent anyone from purchasing a house.

The same groups are opposed to the bill as last year as well – Realtors, Mortgage Brokers, Bankers, and Home Builders.

The members of the Senate Progress and Development Committee asked several pointed questions of the opponents to the bill about why they support massive tax credits for purchasing a home, but oppose a $7 increase in fees that would go towards protecting their bottom line. Senator Jason Crowell was particularly interested in why they supported another fee increase on real estate filings but opposed this one. The answer seemed to be that they would benefit more directly from the other fee increase.

The issue certainly received a friendly reception this year than it has in years past. Perhaps this year the General Assembly will finally take action to adequately fund this worthwhile program.

Missouri House Votes Down Children’s Health Care

2009-03-04T10:06:00.000-08:00

Today the Missouri House of Representatives voted down several amendments by the Democratic Caucus that would have restored the Governor’s request for increased funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

The first amendment by Representative Chris Kelly, ranking member of the House Budget Committee, would have slightly reduced the increase in provider reimbursement for this year to cover an additional 20,000 children in Missouri. Essentially, this amendment would have taken a little bit of money from doctors and given life-saving health care to children.

The second amendment by Representative Leonard “Jonas” Hughes would have taken money from a variety of sources including meals for prisoners to give health care to children. The amazing thing about this amendment was that prisoners – that’s right prisoners – from around the state wrote to the General Assembly asking them to support the amendment. These prisoners were willing to have lower quality food to make sure that more children in the state would have health coverage. This gave Representative James Morris the opportunity to point out that Missouri prisoners may be smarter than the Republican Representatives.

Finally, House Minority Leader Paul LeVota moved to suspend the rules so that the House could simply increase the funding without having to offer a decreasing amendment.

All three of these failed along party lines.

As the Capitol Turns

2009-02-28T10:16:00.000-08:00

Missouri State Capitol gossip that’s mostly true

Representative Cynthia Davis is still saying stupid things

This installment finds Sinthia pushing really, really crazy legislation that is dangerous for Missouri’s children. Sinthia has introduced HJR 16, a constitutional amendment that could, and likely would, effectively end enforcement of most of Missouri’s child protection, immunization and provision of education (as weak as they are) statutes.

HJR 16 reads: That parents and legal guardians have a natural and fundamental right to direct the care, education, and upbringing of their children, and that no government action shall burden, abridge, or hinder this natural, fundamental right unless it is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest and is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.

This piece of crap has been killed easily in the past. However, the Speaker of the House, in his infinite wisdom, assigned the bill to Sinthia’s very own Hate Women, Love Fetuses, Children are Chattel Committee. It’s coming out of committee, people. Just when we think it can’t get any worse—it does.

Direct quote by Sinthia, when questioned by a committee member on how her constitutional amendment might affect enforcement of current state statute, “I’ll repeat this again for those of you that are fuzzy. This is a constitutional amendment. It only affects the constitution. That has nothing to do with state statutes. The two are not the same, and do not affect each other at all. They have nothing to do with each other.” (Emphasis added.) WTF? I mean, could we make this shit up? I think not.

It’s now official

The Governor thinks so little of the Kansas City Metro that he is not opening a constituent office in Jackson County. We suppose that makes sense, because it would mostly be flooded with complaints about how his staff doesn’t return phones calls. How would the statewide democratic officeholders feel if, in the next election, we just withheld our love for a cycle?

BTW, that doesn’t include Treasurer Clint Zweifel, who has spent more time in Kansas City than our creepy mayor since the general election. We think Zweifel is dreamy….

Tinfoil hats attract unwanted attention

So, Representative Jim Guest’s Real ID bill, assigned to his very own Real ID Committee, was totally gutted this week. This committee has become a favorite of lobbyists and staffers alike, as it is kind of like watching Beverly Hillbillies meets Frasier.

On one hand you have these absolutely delusional, somewhat stinky people pouring out of the hills to talk about how the govmn’t (that’s how they say it) is going to track their every movement—I mean really, who gives a shit what they do as long as they limit their meth cooking to their personal family consumption—and on the other hand, you have committee members who have book learnin’, and even high school degrees, that are just sitting there going WTF? So the committee took all the “not(s)” out of the “shall not” portions of the bill.

The anti-Real ID bill is now the Real ID is not so bad bill, and it has been voted out of committee. The vice chair of the committee was one who voted to gut the bill. The bill the committee was named after. What fun!

Stay tuned, because next week, they are going to hear a bill about chips being implanted into people by the govmn’t. Can’t wait.

A guy got tasered by the guard shack

And no one knows why. It was during a rally with about 500 Medicaid restoration activists in the building, so of course before the smoke cleared (pun intended), it was rumored that a disabled guy got tasered by irate guards missing the drama of the former governor’s complicated personal life. Whatever. It was probably one of those Real ID geniuses trying to pack heat into the Capitol.

Let’s Make Those Courts More Partisan

2009-02-27T13:22:00.000-08:00

Representative Stanley Cox, of Photo Voter fame has introduced another Constitutional Amendment, House Joint Resolution 10, to weaken the Non-Partisan Court Plan (often called the Missouri Plan). Perhaps he hopes that Democrats are as mindlessly partisan as he is and that with a Democratic Governor he'll get more Democratic votes this year

Missouri was the first state to adopt the Non-Partisan Court Plan in 1940 due to the incredible influence that Tom Pendergast had over elections throughout our fair state. Our court plan has been so popular that 12 other states have now followed Missouri’s lead in adopting it.

Since the really corrupt party bosses are now all Republicans, they’re fighting to re-partisan the Missouri Courts.

Last session, Representative Beth Low fought the resolution in committee and it died a painful death early in the session in a bipartisan House vote. Hopefully it will suffer a similar demise this year.

Medicaid Makes Cents

2009-02-25T11:21:00.000-08:00

So on the same day that Allen Icet, Chairman of the House Budget Committee released his version of the Supplemental Budget with the Governor’s health care expansion and economic recovery funds stripped out, over 300 Missourians from with disabilities, nurses and state employees rallied in the Capitol Rotunda for restoration of Medicaid wearing t-shirts proudly stating "Medicaid Makes Cents".

The Governor, Representatives Kuessner, McClanahan, and Senator Wright-Jones were all there to push for restoration.

Even in the dungeon of the House Budget Committee, you couldn’t help but hear the cheers and chants from the floors above.

No doubt, the Republicans will have no trouble ignoring the calls for Medicaid expansion from their constituents, just like they did in 2005. But these brave Missourians are making themselves difficult to ignore.

Photo Voter Makes a Comeback

2009-02-25T07:55:00.000-08:00

Ah, it seems like only yesterday that two Democratic State Senators filibustered the village law bill (I still have no idea what that bill is about) while the hours clicked slowly toward the end of session. While they chatted with each other on the floor about progressively less relevant topics, thousands of phone calls from around the state were coming into the offices of the State Senators urging them to oppose a resolution to require a state-issued photo ID to vote.

There’s still disagreement over whether Victor and Chris were actually opposed to the repeal of the village law or whether they were trying to stall to prevent passage of Photo Voter, but it certainly gave voting rights advocates the time they needed to kill the resolution.

Well, no surprise, Photo Voter is back. Representative Stanley Cox presented the resolution in the House Elections Committee on Tuesday morning.

His star witness was the attorney for the Republican Party. You see, for Republicans, this is a partisan issue. They want to ensure that every Republican voter gets their vote counted but anyone who has felt the pain of their 2005 Medicaid cuts must be disenfranchised.

As the Capitol Turns

2009-02-20T13:51:00.000-08:00

Missouri State Capitol gossip that’s mostly true

Funky goes to Jefferson City

This week’s installment finds Mayor Funky of Kansas City wandering aimlessly around the Capitol late Wednesday afternoon. He is visiting (first time this legislative session—it is late February for anyone keeping track) because he is hosting, along with the Kansas City Council, a dinner with Kansas City legislators.

A couple of problems are immediately evident. It appears that only four council people actually showed up—Councilwomen Melba Curls and Jan Marcason and Councilmen Ed Ford and Bill Skaggs. They obviously lost the Rock, Paper, Scissors contest, and had to chaperone Funky. People are happy to see them, but run from the mayor.

Why, besides the obvious stench of political failure? Because he has in tow that Mark Seittman person, most recently homophobic blogger and hard core republican tracker in the employ of Jeff Roe, most hated failed political operative of Kansas City. Last time I checked, the majority of legislators representing Kansas City are Democrats. Damn this guy is clueless.

Word from the dinner describes misery all around. Gloria introduced herself with the elected officials, they both had steak and nobody talked to the Seittman guy. Only a handful of legislators even bothered to show up, and most escaped to other –in some cases fabricated—events before the meal. The mayor praised Senator Kit Bond (again, all attending are democrats) for railing against the stimulus package, voting against it and taking credit for bringing the money home. Wouldn’t surprise anyone I know that Funky admires another politician for being dishonest and deceitful.

Former Speaker Rod Jetton is getting a divorce

No shit. There’s a shocker. They just took down the sex swing in the former Capitol vault—Jetton’s unofficial office while in power.

Cynthia Davis said something stupid

Sinthia doesn’t think that men should be able to get her newly proposed “Stay at Home Mother Scholarships” because they can’t breastfeed and aren’t natural “nurturers.” My god, that woman is thick. She is a Saturday Night Live skit come to real life. Too bad she chairs the only committee focused on children and families, as Sinthia mostly focuses on fetuses and keeping women in their place.

TABOR

2009-02-19T06:43:00.000-08:00

The Tax Payers Bill of Rights, also known as TABOR, caused a fiscal crisis in the State of Colorado. This Constitutional Amendment limits state spending to the rate of inflation and population growth. While this sounds like a good idea, state spending isn’t like household spending. Programs like healthcare and higher education have costs that increase at a rate much greater than inflation.

In Colorado, this amendment has led to drastic cuts in higher education spending, Medicaid and road improvements.

Well, since this was such a shining success in Colorado, the Missouri House is considering passing a similar provision. Nothing is more satisfying to a Republican Majority than starving State Government.

The Missouri House is doing one better, though, than even Colorado. When Colorado passed TABOR, they had fairly high state spending per capita. Basing a TABOR on Missouri’s current General Revenue (because the amendment does not account for additional Federal funds) is complete lunacy.

The House Budget Committee passed TABOR, this year HJR 23, with a vote of 16-13. At least one Republican member, Representative Mark Bruns, seemed ashamed of his vote. He came in at the last minute and whispered his “aye” to the committee aide. No doubt it is difficult for the person who represents Jefferson City, and therefore many state employees to vote to pass a Constitutional Amendment that could destroy his constituents' livelihoods.

Is Anyone Talking About Medicaid Anymore?

2009-02-18T04:10:00.000-08:00

Congress has been nice enough to pass an economic recovery package that includes a significant increase in the federal Medicaid match.

For states that have reasonable eligibility levels for Medicaid – you know, like the poverty level – this will allow them to keep their eligibility at current levels instead of being forced to make cuts.

Missouri, however, with one of the lowest eligibility levels in the nation, is going to use those extra funds for other programs - or worse, not take the money at all.

Now, if the General Assembly actually was interested in stimulating the economy, they would invest in health care. Not just because health care spending hits main street faster than any other state spending, but because the Federal Government is willing to pay for more than 60% of the cost. So they can spend significantly less State Revenue than they would for any other program and still inject money into the Missouri economy.

I guess the real question is, why aren’t any of Missouri’s elected officials talking about restoring Medicaid? As I recall, quite a few of them ran for office on that exact platform.

The Missouri House Continues its Campaign Against LGBT Legislators

2009-02-12T07:14:00.000-08:00

This week, Missouri Speaker of the House Ron Richard removed another gay Representative from their committee appointment.

Representative Mike Colona was removed from the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) and replaced with Representative Theodore Hoskins who is known for his conservative views on education funding, taking campaign dollars from Republican donors, and generally voting with Republicans.

Insiders are unsure whether the Speaker is expanding his attack on LGBT Representatives or if he simply wanted another Republican vote on the Committee, but given his track record with Representative Jeanette Oxford, it may just be both.

Jane Cunningham is (gulp) right

2009-02-10T14:51:00.000-08:00

Sen ator Jane Cunningham is not known for her progressive ideals. She opposes reproductive choice to the point of lunacy and was criticized for kicking gay students out of her legislative office.

Senator Jolie Justus is known for her progressive ideals. She is an advocate for women’s rights (reproductive and otherwise) and is the first openly gay State Senator in Missouri.

Today, however, in the Senate Committee on Health, Mental Health, Seniors and Families, Senator Cunningham agreed passionately with Senator Jolie Justus. Let me say that again… they agreed. They agreed on the issue of expanding Missouri’s Child Care Subsidy.

The issue should be bipartisan. Women who can’t afford childcare can’t afford to go back to work and our income eligibility in this state is so insanely low that even if they can find a job that pays little enough, they are forced to refuse and sort of promotion.

So really, expanding the child care subsidy should be a jobs program, and one considerably more palatable than the “Quality Jobs Act” which just hands out tax credits to corporations that have already created the jobs. Those funds could be much better used on keeping the 1,300 state employees or giving more mothers a child care subsidy.

So I’m happy to admit it, Senator Cunningham is absolutely right on this issue – and I don’t mean conservative – she is correct.

CWIP Hearing Today

2009-02-10T06:28:00.000-08:00

Today the Senate Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, Energy and the Environment will hear Senate Bill 228, or CWIP (Construction Work In Progress). As I posted earlier, this bill will allow AmerenUE to raise their rates between 29% and 40% to cover the cost of building a (second) nuclear power plant in Calloway County.

Yes, I know that we all voted for clean (renewable?) energy in the last election, and evidently for the good people at AmerenUE that means nuke.

This bill will allow for power companies to charge upfront – something that hasn’t been allowed in Missouri since 1976 – for several different types of power plants, including coal.

The odds are stacked in favor of this legislation passing, but it would be a serious hit to lower income consumers.

Missouri GOP Still Refusing to Stimulate the Economy

2009-02-09T07:24:00.000-08:00

The Federal Economic Recovery Package is set to pass with a bipartisan vote this week, but Republicans in Missouri are saying that they don’t want it.

These funds are designed to make a direct infusion of cash into the national economy, but if states refuse to use the funds, the stimulus will lay unused in Washington.

The Republican leadership has discussed using the funds for tax cuts which would only stimulate the economy an average of 72¢ for every $1 handed out. They’ve talked about building more infrastructure – a shocking proposal while our current infrastructure crumbles. Several others are putting on the heirs of fiscal responsibility and proposing that we use the funds to pay down debt, which would be very responsible indeed if it did anything to stimulate our faltering economy. Others, like Appropriations Chairman Gary Nodler have stated publicly (on the floor of the Senate) that they believe the Recovery Package is a conspiracy by the federal government to take over our State Budget and force spending in the way Congress sees fit.

There are states that will make wise use of the Recovery Package. These states will reap the economic benefits of doing so and will recover from this recession (depression?) more quickly.
I don’t know that I want elected officials who are too stupid to take free money

Have hopes for Healthcare Reform been Daschled?

2009-02-03T21:35:00.000-08:00

The loss of Tom Daschle will hurt. No doubt about it. Health Care Reform has taken a body blow. Let us not kid ourselves health care reform is dirty business because it is big business. All the pious lefties who drew their knives and struck them into the back of the President’s pick for HHS director better wise up. This fight is going to be mean and all the pious phonies better stop polishing their tiny ivory towers and get ready for a fight. Tom Daschle knew this. He knew the players. Most importantly, he knew the end game. Why?? Because he played the game and he played it well. Nobody becomes Majority Leader in the Senate from South Dakota…nobody, unless you know better than most how to play the game. South Dakota doesn’t have big donors like New York, California and Texas. It doesn’t have big oil or big coal or big machine politics. But Tom won.

I guess Tom should have moved back to South Dakota and opened a Bed and Breakfast like George McGovern. Instead, he stayed in the town he lived in for 30 years and worked in the career arena where he devoted his life. Maybe, we should require all unemployed politicians to retrain as carpenters or grocery clerks or bloggers (God forbid). But he stayed and did the work he knew and got paid. The shame!

John Thain: American Sun King

2009-02-03T19:00:00.000-08:00

Louis XIV (1638–1715), by Charles LeBrun

On July 18, 1668 in the gardens of Versailles, Louis XIV threw quite a fête for himself to celebrate his military victories. "Le Grand Divertissement royal," it was called, and cost one-third the yearly budget of Versailles. Royal parties were expensive. So Louis raised taxes -- relying heavily on the peasants -- and forced prosperous towns to pay homage of huge sums.

The Sun King was well known for his opulent extravagance. This is best exemplified by the construction of his palace at Versailles, the infamous Hall of Mirrors and the over the top baroque furnishings. Louis' motivation was not based just on his eye for luxury, but it was also a way of controlling the nobility, reducing their power and keeping a sharp eye for any potential rivals. Louis was flattered by all as much as he was feared. He insisted on his particular daily rituals. The Levee and the Coucher. Around 8.30 am the king would hear: 'It is time, Sire'. The levee was a ceremonial rising especially for the king. Doctors, family and a few favored friends entered the King's Bedchamber where he is washed, combed, shaven and dressed. Then he slurped down a breakfast of broth with everyone standing around. Attendance was estimated at one hundred, all male. At 11.30 pm, The Couchee, was performed, is a reverse, shortened version of the levee to celebrate Louis retiring to bed.

Skip to nearly three-and-a-half centuries later in America: John Thain’s task was to oversee the sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America Corporation and take over the bank's wealth management and corporate and investment banking divisions. He had to cut thousands of jobs, reduce expenses and fix the security firm. In order to get his wits about him, he needed to spend $1.2 million of the bank's money to lavishly redecorate his Merrill Lynch office while the firm was going down in flames.

Thain hired Michael Smith for $800,000 to create an environment he could adequately think in. Smith procured two area rugs for a total of $131,000, two guest chairs for $87,000, a nineteenth-century sideboard for $68,000, four pairs of drapes at $28,000, Roman Shades for $11,000, a mahogany pedestal table at $25,000, a George IV Desk for $18,000, a sofa for $15,000; a custom coffee table for $16,000; Regency Chairs for $24,000 (I question if they were ‘in the style of’); 40 yards of fabric for wall panels for $5,000, six wall sconces for $2,700, and a parchment covered trash can for $1,400.

In his private dining room he got six chairs for $37,000; a mirror for $5,000; a chandelier for $13,000.
And lastly, a $35,000 "commode on legs." (does this mean toilet? Dresser?)
The documents also show that Thain signed off on the purchases personally. "Labor to relamp the six wall sconces" cost $3,000, and Thain authorized the payment of another $30,000 to pay the expenses Smith incurred in doing the work.
Michael Smith is being paid $100,000 to redecorate for the Obamas, which includes items from Target. (According to The Daily Beast.)

We live in a society where an outrageous level of compensation is a justifiable reward for executives. Apparently, this level of extravagance is standard operating behavior. And apparently, high-profile CEO’s have the power and magnitude of kings.

Are the rest of us mere peasants? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the national average salary is a little over $40,000, or in other words, approximately one thirtieth of Thain's expenses for the redecoration of his office.

Bank of America received $25 billion in bailout funds and then an additional $20 billion mid January.

Thain resigned at the end of last month after being found out. Perhaps now he can understand what it is like to be a regualr Amercan down on his luck. However, I suspect he squirreled away enough money from his exorbitant bonuses to live high on the hog for a bit.

Merrill Lynch lost $56 billion from sub prime loans and the credit crisis what’s another $1.2 million, eh John?

Guest written by Le Petite Grande Dame

MO Senators Say “No Thanks” to Stimulus Money

2009-01-30T09:11:00.000-08:00

Evidently, the fact that our country is in economic crisis hasn’t hit the Missouri General Assembly yet. Senators, on Wednesday, in the Senate Select Committee on Oversight of Federal Stimulus expressed the need to ignore or even send back the funds being offered to States by the U.S. Congress.

The arguments? Most said that this was “one time” money and should not be used for continuing projects. Evidently, many Missouri Senators plan on crashing our economy further into recession so that no further revenue will be collected even after the rest of the nation has begun recovery.

It makes sense really, Republicans have been so committed to destroying our economy for the past four years that they have stolen money from health providers and low-income Missourians and given it away in non-matched corporate welfare.

Never mind that the Federal Government is more than happy to match funds used for Medicaid 2-1.

What’s that sucking sound? California?…Massachusetts?