The West County Democrats hosted award winning journalist and author, Charles Jaco at our meeting today. Always informative and inspiring, Mr. Jaco spoke about the current state of our regional and national politics and the extreme importance of the upcoming election year.
“This is not a normal election. This is a national emergency.”
Mr. Jaco highlighted the truly awful, bigoted and anti-democratic policies of Republican politicians at the state and national level, and shared his belief that if our current president is re-elected in 2020, the United States will not recover from the damage he has caused.
Recommendations for what needs to be done now:
1. Brand the Republican party for what they are: Extremist, Elitist and Out of Touch. We fought a civil war and a world war to defend our country from extremist regimes like the Trump Republicans. At all levels, Republicans are ignoring the will of the people; and pushing policies to satisfy bigots who support them. This needs to be called out on social media and every public communication.
2. Get out the vote. In the 2016 election, 267,000 voters registered in St. Louis County didn’t vote. These voters need to be given a reason to vote, particularly suburban women. West St. Louis county is a border area between blue and red leaning communities with a diverse population. It’s also a bellwether for the mood of the region. Replacing the Trump sycophant, Ann Wagner, and making progress on State initiatives will depend on a strong showing in our area.
Mr. Jaco pulled no punches in sharing his opinions of the pernicious white nationalism (and pure meanness) of the modern Republican party and their supporters– and the importance of repeating this for all to know going into the 2020 elections.
West St. Louis County is the tip of the spear in this fight, and what we do now will impact the lives of our children and grandchildren perhaps forever.
summarized by Mark Toenjes, WCD member
Legislative Report
February 10, 2020
Federal Items:
Despite the money Donald Trump’s parents spent on private school education, he never learned the meaning of the words Forgive or Forget: the day after the U.S. Senate did not remove him from office Trump attacked the motives, legality and religious beliefs of his ‘enemies’ while at the National Prayer Breakfast. Donald watchers predict a scorched earth approach towards all Democrats, Republican Senator Mitt Romney, government employees who honored their oath to serve, and, the media.
The most damaging part of the impeachment might be how it will allow future presidents to ignore Congress and the courts:
Under the Dershowitz doctrine, acting to advance a personal political goal — such as re-election to public office — is in and of itself in the public interest. [Chicago Sun Times 2/5/20]
While the Dershowitz doctrine is not law nor a court opinion, count on it becoming part of every impeachment argument and a predicate for more unilateral enhancement of presidential privilege.
Meanwhile, the administration has signed trade deals – including a major yet obscure one with China – which undo most of the tariffs and restrictions Trump imposed over his first years in office.
During the State of The Union and in actions by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, the administration is moving away from support of public education. For example, the president wants a new $5 billion scholarship program to allow lower-income families to send their children to private and charter schools. And, the federal government proposes to evaluate private school performance with a different criterion than it applies to public school.
Once upon a time Republicans decried budget deficits. They now embrace annual deficits of better than $1,000,000,000,000 as far as the budgeteers can predict.
The Senate continues to ignore hundreds of pieces of legislation passed by the House. While a spending deal for the rest of the fiscal year is largely in place, progress on bread and butter issues is not expected.
State Items:
Accidental Missouri Governor Mike Parson is counting on Donald Trump for political support. Parson is also going to great pains to publicize his pro-life connections. Expect the governor to support new anti-abortion legislation this session.
The state Senate now has just eight Democrats. Governor Parson appointed Senators Curls and Holsman to $106k state jobs. The governor is not expected to call special elections, leaving a quarter million Missourians without Senate representation this session.
As happens every session – and more so in an election year – scores of really stupid bills have been filed in the House and Senate. Fortunately, most will die but it is possible that some really ugly stuff targeting health care (more Medicaid cuts and work requirements), guns, school choice/vouchers or prevailing wage will get to the finish line.
The Senate recently passed a major revision of CLEAN. This alternative actually makes the drawing of district lines more political than it had been pre-CLEAN! Efforts to restrict initiative petitions are also getting traction.
Major portions of the state’s Information Technology systems – especially in the Department of Revenue and Department of Social Services – use COBOL based programs. [Think Bush #1] The need to modernize these systems has been known for decades.
Again this budget cycle, alas, no substantial funds to improve the systems are sought. And, long-planned upgrades keep falling behind schedule. For example, the contract to modernize the program handling food stamps – touching one in ten Missourians – was planned to be done by 2013. State staff hope to have a contract for that work in place this year, with implementation probable for 2023 or 2024.
You see, for many in the Republican super majority the role of the legislature is to always slash spending so that taxes can repeatedly be reduced. The impact of reduced spending is not an issue, not even schools or roads or health suffer.
As a result, the budget proposed by Governor Parson is essentially static. The projected increase in revenue is very modest, caused not be economic growth but by inflation and higher taxes paid by minimum wage/low wage workers.
The budget does increase expenditures in a few areas. Corrections could get $44 million more, money to be used to retain employees with higher salaries, and, to cover overtime costs. Not included in the Corrections budget request is where Missouri will get the money to pay the $130 million settlement to a lawsuit won by employees over forced unpaid overtime.
Among the other items in the governor’s budget is what I call the “Teacher’s Pet Plan.” Mid-level supervisors could propose one-time ‘incentive’ payments to workers, up to $2,500 or 5% of salary, to encourage better job performance. The payments would be limited to the top 10% of employees as determined by their supervisors. (That phrasing is critical because state law forbids traditional bonuses to most workers.)
Even with the incentives Missouri state workers would remain the lowest paid staff in the nation.
A few good ideas may escape the legislature this year. A limit on the amount of sales tax which can be levied on feminine hygiene products is moving well. Clearer language on the August sales tax holiday (which would make it harder for counties and municipalities to opt out) seems to have traction too,
By the way, the legislature essentially closed down last Wednesday so that members could attend the Super Bowl victory celebration in Kansas City.
Glenn Koenen