There’s no such thing as bad publicity — T. Barnum
Sorry P.T.: you never imagined Missouri’s state government in 2023.
A few examples…
- At least 455,000 Missourians – that’s about one in 14 citizens – would have their student loan balances reduced or eliminated by Biden administration action: the former and current Attorney Generals launched legal action against the plan.
- Despite a myriad of pressing issues, the Missouri House of Representatives spent a day enacting a new rule requiring women legislators to wear blazers or heavy sweaters so that their bare arms stay covered.
- The Missouri Senate stands posed to debate and thence ban Critical Race Theory in Missouri grade school and high school classrooms – where there is no evidence CRT is being taught.
- Two Missouri legislators fear that Drag Queens and their shows are grooming children to become homosexuals and pedophiles, requiring a state ban on Drag shows.
- Despite every automakers from Audi to Chevrolet to Ford to Kia to Mercedes to Toyota rolling out electric vehicles, the legislature wants to protect the public from ubiquitous car charging stations: to be as tourist here you must burn unleaded.
- In the wake of a deadly school shooting in St. Louis, the governor promises the state will never have a “red flag law” to prevent unstable people from having guns, even though that school shooter’s mom wanted his guns taken away.
- The Missouri legislature favors “local control” of schools – except when it comes to books on library shelves, which version of history is taught, what teachers are paid, and, if the district wants to follow public health advice on vaccines, social distancing, masks and other sickness prevention efforts.
You get the idea. The proposal to censure the post office from shipping legal pharmaceutical products to Missouri residents and a whole loot of other dumb ideas can wait till later.
Now, the national and international media know they can count on Missouri for absurdist stories on a regular basis. We’ve become reliably quirky. Most of the state’s publicity is bad and many notice that. Does the bad influence corporate decisions or where young people want to live and work? Undoubtedly.
In their defense, Missouri’s officials and legislators don’t see their actions and ideas as crazy.
You see, they spend their time looking at mirrors instead of the reality most of us inhabit. That Republican control of all state elected positions and the super-majorities in both sides of the Capitol reassures them of their correctness. They live in a world where any idea from a Democrat is woke – which means “wrong” – and where urban areas spawn evil. Greater St. Louis and metro Kansas City exist merely to pay for schools, roads and other services for the good people in rural (withering) Missouri.
Sad to say, most Missourians don’t pay much attention to state activities. They believe the hype about taxes always being too high and Republicans saving them from Hell.
That’s The Missouri Way. Don’t expect it to change.
A Quick Look At Missouri’s Benefit Programs December 2022 Numbers…
The Monthly Management Report for the Family Support Division and MO HealthNet Division in the Missouri Department of Social Services for December 2022 has hit the internet. [ www.mo.gov.dss/re ]
No surprises…
- The number of kids and parents on Temporary Assistance keeps dropping and this December’s average benefit of $7.31 per day was less than December 2019’s inadequate $7.38 per day;
- About 20,000 more Missourians got food stamps (SNAP) this December than a year ago but the total still tracks way below what it ought to be based on Missouri’s low median household income and experience in similar states; and,
- Thanks to Medicaid Expansion, the number covered by MO HealthNet grew by 261,000 in 12 months: don’t applaud, a significant part of that total came from transferring already covered pregnant women into the expansion column. At best, six of ten working adults who qualify for Medicaid thanks to expansion have been enrolled.
At end of February the January 2023 report will give a better overview of Missouri’s benefit programs.
Glenn Koenen
Title photo is from the U.S. Library of Congress, Carol Highsmith collection.