The bottom line? Republican legislators want smaller government at all costs. If families get whacked by opioid abuse or teachers don’t get pay raises for years, well, that’s acceptable so that state government can shrink – and taxes lowered.
Perhaps the best fight against DIRTY is with a common sense proposal on the 2020 ballot: dramatically reduce the number of seats in the Missouri House of Representatives.
Hunger exists. It’s an irrefutable fact. Miller lays out the numbers: In Missouri, 826,000 people—14% of the state’s population—live below the Federal Poverty Level (FPL); in St. Louis County 90,000 people—nine percent of the area’s population—live below the FPL.
Changing minds, like changing the size of parking spaces, won’t happen quickly. Those of us wanting a better, more humane Missouri have to think – and act – over the long haul, over years and maybe a decade or two. The trick is to work at change every day.
…to keep support for food stamps and Medicaid and other programs we need good people to stand before cameras and share their lives. It’s easy to see why this is so hard.
The wheel is turning in Missouri and, while the divide still seems great, progress was made in the 2018 midterms. We tend to be late adopters of trends that start at the coast and move inland, but change is coming if we stay strong.