West County Democrats hosted Tony West, an Emmy award winning film maker, who discussed his documentary, The Safe Side of the Fence. His video reveals the processing and improper disposal of nuclear waste in the St. Louis area which has impacted generations of workers, and continues to hazard families who live near these toxic sites. The video of our meeting and Tony’s presentation may be viewed here:
Legislative Report Glenn Koenen, January 10, 2022
Federal Items:
How desperate are Democrats to get Senator Joe Manchin (D – WC) to vote with his party on Biden’s two big priorities? They sent Oprah top talk to him…
While the Biden administration has actually had a decent first year, Manchin’s forgetfulness about what Democrats can do to make life better for working families (especially working poor families) is adding the perception of partisan gridlock in Washington. As a result, press coverage omits the details of voting rights legislation and what the ‘social infrastructure’ plan could do to focus on Manchin and Senator Krysten Sinema (D [?] AZ) and their reluctance to support the party agenda.
Of course, fighting Covid remains the biggest job for government at all levels. Bowing to pressure, the Biden team no longer supports lockdowns and is moving away from vaccination mandates. The administration’s position could be further derailed by the Supreme Court, with robe watchers expecting the conservative majority to go along with Republican lead efforts to ban mandates.
Working against Democrats in Congress is a feeling among Republicans that they will make significant gains in the House and Senate this November. All they have to do is wait. For example, a recent analysis of Congressional redistricting across the county estimates that 13 more House seats will lean towards being “strong Trump districts” while 15 “competitive” districts have been drawn out of existence.
Plus, Republican rewriting of what happened on January 6, 2021 appears to be working in many places.
On a positive note, the drudgery of Congressional action continues, bringing sanity back to major parts of the federal government. While it will take years to undo the damage caused by Trump appointees, that repair effort gains momentum every day.
Bureaucrats will be tested by the big bump of inflation tripping up the economy. Even though much of the damage traces back to Covid and how the prior administration handled the outbreak, it is the current administration which gets the blame for higher prices. (Not getting as much press is the terrific rise in employment and corporate value on Joe Biden’s watch.)
State Items:
Perhaps the signs on the highway ought to read, Welcome To Missouri, The Failed State…
As press coverage has noted, the legislature essentially now has three parties: Democrats, Parson Republicans, and, Conservative Caucus Republicans. Relations between the last two groups keep deteriorating. Not long ago Senate Republicans held a caucus meeting – an event Conservative Caucus members were not invited to attend.
Of course, leave it to Governor Mike Parson to add to his party’s problems.
At the beginning of the session last year Republicans had 114 House seats, better than the 109 veto-override and super majority number. Surprise! Republicans now have just 108 House members.
While one member died and two more abandoned their positions, well, Parson’s dedication to appointing House members to senior state bureaucratic positions dropped the GOP below supermajority status.
Why is that important? Parson never called a special session to handle Congressional redistricting. The House and Senate leadership (a Parson-friendly crowd) need that supermajority to enact the new lines via an Emergency Clause so that the districts can be legal for candidate filing season, and, be in effect for the early August primary. Without the clause, the new lines cannot take effect until the regular legislation activation date, August 28, 2022.
The map being shopped about continues the recent history of six Republican Congressional seats and two Democrat seats. The Conservative Caucus, meanwhile, demands seven GOP seats. And, voting trends make a case for three Democrat seats.
The Republican leadership faces an uphill battle to get any plan approved. They can only get a map in place by filing season with Democratic support.
This being Missouri. A lot of painful legislation has been proposed by Republicans. Some of the worst areas of interest…
- Education GOP legislators want to exert heavy control of what is taught, fearful of Critical Race Theory and other buzzwords. They also want more public money to go to charter schools, and, for parents to have the ‘right’ to sit in any class – and object to the teacher’s teaching.
- Elections Despite finding no fraud in Missouri, Republicans want to make it harder to vote and even give the Secretary Of State broad powers to challenge ‘questionable’ election results. There are also proposals to make it harder for initiative petitions to get on the ballot, and, requiring a 60% positive vote to make a change to the state constitution.
- RE-DOS Conservative Caucus members have proposed legislation to repeal last year’s fuel tax increase and end voter-approved Medicaid Expansion. Legislation is also expected to make it impossible for voters in the future to enact a minimum wage higher than the federal amount.
It is widely expected that January 12th will become Rush Limbaugh Day in Missouri. There is also a strong possibility that college students with Concealed Carry Permits will be able to take their guns to class. If either the Texas or Mississippi abortion laws are upheld expect Missouri to outlaw the procedure.
Like Missouri, Oklahoma had Medicaid Expansion forced on the state by voters. In Oklahoma better than 100,000 eligible adults joined the roles in the first month. In Missouri just 14,000 were signed up in the first month after registration was belatedly allowed. By December 31st only 51,000 Missourians had been added to the rolls, out of a projected 275,000 eligible.
Part of the problem is that the Department of Social Services is severely understaffed and technologically incompetent. For example, in November the average wait time for callers to DSS was better than three hours, with some waits over six hours well documented.
Even if Republican lawmakers enact the governor’s requested 5.5% pay raise for state workers, Missouri will remain just above the bottom in state worker pay. And, that level of wage increase won’t be enough to make state jobs attractive. Missouri has thousands of jobs openings they cannot fill.