Latest entries in Politics Watch
Political updates from Columbia, Jeff City and Washington by The Maneater's political reporters.
Feb. 8, 2010
Missouri's Republican voters ambivilent about Fair Tax, study finds
Republican voters aren’t throwing their weight behind a proposal to eliminate personal and corporate income taxes in Missouri — but they aren’t united against it either.
More than half of Republican voters had no opinion on the Fair Tax, according to a survey conducted by Missouri State University researchers in late January.
“The surprising finding regards the majority of state Republicans lacking an opinion on the proposal,” MSU political science professor Brian Calfano said in a statement. “Hence, there may be greater potential for the plan’s proponents and opponents to sway state Republicans on the 'Fair Tax' than conventional wisdom would assume.”
The Fair Tax would eliminate state income taxes on individuals and corporations, but would expand the state sales tax to apply to nearly all goods and services sold in the state.
Democrats were split evenly between supporting it, opposing it and having no opinion. The telephone survey interviewed 880 residents statewide.
The researchers said the survey did not ask about the actual constitutional amendment that has been proposed to enact the Fair Tax, but did ask whether respondents favored replacing the income taxes with sales tax.
HJR 71, the bill to amend the state’s constitution to enact the Fair Tax, was referred to the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday.
A similar bill, HJR 36, went to the Senate but never came up for a vote last year. Testimony from the bill's hearing in the Senate Ways and Means committee can be found on the Youtube channel for the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Feb. 6, 2010
Building Operators Certification program teaches energy efficency
In an effort to save money through energy efficiency, the Building Operators Certification program taught participants of the program how to cut the costs of their building’s lighting during a workshop on Friday.
The BOC program provides monthly classes from November to May. Other topics covered in the program are indoor air quality, preventative maintenance and operational practices for sustainable buildings.
Connie Kacprowicz is a utility services specialist at Columbia Water & Light, a supporter of the BOC program. She said college students could save money by watching their energy consumption as well.
“It can make a big difference,” Kacprowicz said. “Especially if you’re renting an older house that isn’t energy efficient.”
When a customer saves money, Kacprowicz said Columbia Water & Light also saves money.
“Any kilowatt that we don’t have to produce is saving money and the environment,” Kacprowicz said.
Feb. 5, 2010
Mayoral forum to be held on Feb. 11
Another forum for Columbia's mayoral candidates will be held on Feb. 11 from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, Executive Vice President Kristi Ray said.
All of Columbia's candidates have been invited, but Ray said they won't be able to confirm who is attending until next week.
Ray said the chamber hosts many forums for various city elections and holds one for mayor every year.
"We host forums every chance we get to keep our members informed," she said.
This forum comes after a few have already taken place. One of these was Wednesday night at Paquin Tower.
Feb. 2, 2010
Forsee pushes for higher education bond fund
During his State of the University address, Forsee said he wants the state to reconsider creating a bond fund for higher education improvements.
"A bond issue just scratches the surface of what our needs are," he said.
Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, sponsored a bond measure last year that received bipartisan support. This measure, which passed the House, stalled in the Senate.
Forsee said the UM system has identified $3 billion of renovations it considers necessary. Some of those projects, such as renovations to the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, were funded under former Gov. Matt Blunt's plan to sell assets of the state's student loan authority, MOHELA, but Gov. Jay Nixon halted that plan when MOHELA could not make its scheduled payments.
The full text of the speech is below and was copied from a release from Forsee's office:
2010 State of the University address
President Gary D. Forsee
Jan. 29, 2010
Thank you, Curator Haggard, and good morning. Thank you all for being here in person or via the Web! It is always a pleasure and honor for me to be with our faculty, staff and students as I am this week for the board of curators meeting on our UMKC campus.
I appreciate the opportunity today to present an “annual report” on the state of our University of Missouri.
Normally, communications should be two-way with a good balance of talking and listening. My apologies for skewing my remarks toward “one-way” in my limited time with you this morning.
I intend for my comments to be directed to the members of our board of curators who dedicate so much time to this university and whose passion (and patience) I have appreciated.
But my comments also are directed to all of our constituents and those we serve in this great state of Missouri.
There are so many individuals and groups to thank for their support and ongoing recognition of the role the University of Missouri plays in our state.
From our governor, Jay Nixon, to the General Assembly leadership—Sens. Shields, Mayer and Pearce and Reps. Richard, Icet and Kingery—as well as members of the delegations surrounding our campuses—thank you.
To our federal delegation, especially Sens. Bond and McCaskill, and to all of our campus supporters, alumni and friends of the university —thank you, as well!
To the lifeblood of what we are about—our faculty, staff and students—your continued commitment to excellence, integrity and social responsibility has been nothing short of extraordinary.
This morning, I will recap 2009. Our accomplishments and challenges were many!
I will talk about commitments, challenges and obligations as shared responsibilities.
Finally, I will look to this year and the future with a focus on our priorities and with optimism—tempered with the diligence we need to have in the context of the economic challenges our nation and state continue to face.
Our mission is clear, and it is historic in how we uniquely serve the citizens in our state.
Sometimes the awareness of this mission isn’t as uniform in all corners, but I am convinced that staying true to this charge, and doing it with quality and excellence, is the best way to achieve our objective to “Make a Difference.”
At each board of curators meeting, I have asked our four chancellors to spend just a few minutes to talk about their own “bragging rights” accomplishments.
It is tempting today, as we recap last year, to spend all of the time bragging on what was accomplished, but I will be brief instead and ask that all of us be mindful of the effort made by all involved in our state’s land-grant and research institution, our University of Missouri.
Yesterday we heard about a program here at UMKC that prepares our students to be teachers in the urban core. The Institute for Urban Education is just one of dozens of programs of outreach to further the teaching mission.
In our mission of teaching: • The university had record enrollment on all four campuses; 13,000 students have been added during the past decade, representing a 24 percent increase. • Our faculty received national and international recognition. One was elected to the National Academy of Science and another was honored with the prestigious Priestly Medal. Congratulations to Drs. Robert Ricklefs and Fred Hawthorne respectively. And just this week, Dr. Sandra Abell was named a Distinguished Fellow by the National Science Teachers Association. • Many of our departments also received national rankings.
In our mission of service, our leadership in the Caring for Missourians initiative among Missouri’s public higher education institutions will produce more than 220 new permanent and temporary student seats in the health care professions from the University of Missouri.
Extension services pitched in last year with added emphasis on small business support, including growing and protecting Missouri jobs.
There were also a multitude of service learning initiatives taken on by our students, such as Engineers Without Borders.
Our students also served the state with programs like our UMKC Dental School, which offered more than $9 million of in-kind support to the state last year to help the neediest and least able to pay among us.
In our mission of research, the spotlight is shining on all four campuses with federal grant applications and awards at record levels.
Disclosures are up 18 percent for intellectual property pursuits, and we achieved more than $300 million in externally sponsored research. Mizzou, with $205 million, ranked roughly in the top 10 percent of more than 600 institutions on this measure.
And last year, the university committed an additional $2 million toward staff and related technology commercialization activities, a clear “signal of intent” for the future.
In 2004 the fourth component of our mission was added, our role in economic development.
In this difficult time, the relevance of our economic development mission has never been more important.
We highlighted our capabilities in last year’s Energy Summit for all to see.
I’d like to thank George Paz at Express Scripts, Neal Patterson at Cerner, General Greg Martin at Ft. Leonard Wood and David Steward at WorldWide Technologies for their confidence in the University of Missouri and in our ability to be a good partner with these important Missouri-based enterprises.
Foundations like Kauffman and Reynolds continue to be supportive of our leading-edge initiatives at UMKC’s Bloch School and at Mizzou’s Journalism School, respectively.
The response of supporters in this toughest of economic times shouldn’t be surprising.
We surpassed in all cases our fundraising requirements and expectations, topped off by the $1 billion For All We Call Mizzou campaign celebration last April and Missouri S&T hitting its goal of $200 million five months ahead of schedule.
Our ongoing relevance to help businesses start in, or relocate to, Missouri is evidenced by this graphic showing 12 locations now supported in these endeavors by the University of Missouri.
We are advocates of Gov. Nixon’s jobs initiative, as well as the MOSIRA legislation, which focuses on creating jobs in the science and technology fields.
On top of these core mission achievements, we took many additional actions that will accrue benefit to our university and state. • We held tuition flat last year, and flat tuition is proposed again for this coming year. • We are leading the way, I believe nationally, with a performance management system, as well a comprehensive set of campus-specific accountability measures. • Our “brand” is enhanced by our student athletes on all four campuses. At Mizzou that was apparent with four Big 12 conference titles, an Elite 8 run in basketball and the football team’s fifth straight post-season bowl game. Our student-athletes led all BCS schools in the academic progress report standard.
But with all of that, we asked ourselves and our constituents if there was more we can do in these times. Can we be more relevant and help be part of the solution to challenges facing our state? So we took on myriad additional activities positioned to find answers to that question.
Two task forces – P-20 and Outside In – were aimed at the heart of our mission of teaching and learning.
We have set the stage for the future of health care technology and excellence in patient care with the Tiger Institute, which will support our MU Health System in partnership with Cerner Corporation.
We will take a proactive approach in each of our campus cities to seek new, innovative community/campus partnerships to accelerate the finding of creative solutions for our capital needs.
All of this, I believe, is a significant—perhaps unprecedented—profile of engagement and results, and it was done in the context of one of the most challenging backdrops I have seen in my working career.
The constant headlines of economic peril in our country and state had an impact on everything we did, as it did with every one of our internal and external constituents.
We needed to act, and we did. We did not always perfectly communicate or execute—but we had the mindset of staying ahead to keep our mission strong.
Thus, in fall 2008 we began: • Freezing positions and holding more than 600 of them open. • Reaching agreement on tuition and state support. • Making tough decisions on salaries and benefits.
The outcome thus far is perhaps not as draconian as the actions of others around the country, but I accept that that may be in the “eye of the beholder.”
At the same time, there became a very vocal national discussion about higher education juxtaposed against a combination of the rising costs of a degree and a job market for graduates that has crashed dramatically.
All of these issues are important for us to be engaged in, to have our own point of view established, and on many, to take action.
These are the issues at the national level, but the picture in Missouri is a mirror image.
As we move into the third year of this recession cycle, we will continue to be challenged to fulfill all aspects of our mission.
We have agreed again to hold in-state undergraduate tuition flat in exchange for a $24 million cut to our core budget.
We also will incur a $15.5 million cut, or roughly 30 percent, on our non-core category activities. These so-called “non-core” activities, however, include funding for University Hospital, telemedicine and the statewide education broadband network, MOREnet.
And we know that as we look ahead to 2012, absent a recovery in state revenues, another $24 million of federal stimulus money that is in our core budget today may be at risk.
This raises important planning questions as we move ahead: How do we prioritize our activities? How do we prepare for 2011 and 2012 in this context?
But with all this background, we remain confident; we remain investors! Our collective stewardship of the University of Missouri has never been stronger—and it gives us confidence to invest: • in our infrastructure. • in our $330 million bond initiative. • in our strategic initiatives. • and in our students by foregoing tuition increases that would have amounted to a cumulative $70 million over 5 years if we had adjusted tuition only by inflation.
To fully do our part and help build sustaining job and revenue growth, we are taking another investment step today.
We are announcing that we will provide up to $5 million during the next three years in the University of Missouri Enterprise Investment Initiative.
This program will support our researchers and faculty and those who may rely on university researchers to start up/stand up new companies in Missouri—to grow new jobs and create new revenue streams for the university and the state.
This kind of investment is just one of many obligations we take seriously in our “stewardship role.” It is the Missouri way of doing things!
Our obligations cut across all of what we should be about: • carrying out our mission with quality. • ensuring accountability to our stakeholders. • providing access and affordability for students as part of our land-grant mission. • respecting our faculty and staff as we engage with them to find solutions.
But there is also a set of obligations that we rely on for support by the state. In this context, it is NOT just the General Assembly or the governor, but recognition by all of us as citizens about the role education plays in our state’s past and future.
Do we value education and are we willing to make it a priority?
Do we collectively accept our obligation as stewards of public education and the investment—not just in dollars—required to keep that strong?
Whether it is partnering with state leaders to leverage Missouri’s balance sheet for accessing the capital market or partnering with the state and other institutions for federal research support, these opportunities require this notion of a shared obligation to make things work better.
In that regard, let me be very clear: higher education needs money and support in Missouri for capital projects.
The specifics are clear and well documented across this university and our four-year public colleagues: classroom space, antiquated labs, science and engineering, maintenance and repair—the full gamut of needs.
There will be no better time for the state to access the capital market via a bond initiative to address these capital needs than now. • We have a AAA credit rating. We should put it to use! • Rates are still at historic lows and there are incentives to move now. • We are rolling off the bond issue adopted 35 year ago and its debt service. Education needs to lay claim to that line item. There would be in essence no new debt or no new debt service! • Real jobs in construction will be created.
This window likely will close this year. What will Missouri do? What kind of stewards will we be for the next generation?
Of course, it is easy to look back and be critical, and in tough times maybe that’s not even fair. But the facts are that several years ago, public higher education accepted more state oversight of outcomes in exchange for: • Capital project funding. • Three years of increased financial support. • Recognition of needed equity adjustment to strike a balance among four-year public institutions. • A funding model that recognizes inflation support and enrollment growth. • Incremental funding for a scholarship program, Access Missouri. So far, we have received two years of that incremental funding, which did not get us back to 2001 funding levels on an absolute basis.
During that time, we also have encountered a 24 percent growth in enrollment with no new support.
And while a select group of lobbyists will tell you otherwise, my sampling of Missourians says we should be shocked that the Access Missouri Scholarship program implemented in that cycle now supports a student with $1,500 to go to public institution versus $3,150 to go to a private institution in our state.
Collectively, this is not the balance we had expected from Senate Bill 389.
While no one, including me, likes to talk about taxes, let’s put them in terms of state revenue, either foregone or diverted.
The facts are that since 1997, thanks to a series of a la carte tax policy changes, state revenues have been reduced by $800 million.
Last year alone, more than $500 million in tax credits were applied, diverting state revenues in many cases to worthy projects.
That’s a total of $1.3 billion in revenues “foregone or diverted.” So, back to commitments and obligations: • Could some of this revenue “leakage” have been used to fund or build a new state cancer hospital to replace the state’s 70-year-old Ellis Fischel Cancer Center?
• Could some be used to plug holes in our budget for programs like telemedicine, where we link Missouri’s underserved rural health care patients with the state’s best health care professionals?
• Could some money be used to keep the light burning on science, engineering, math and technology programs, which are being cut at our public elementary and secondary schools?
• Could some money be found to sustain Caring for Missourians by continuing to educate more health professionals, including programs like the joint pharmacy program between UMKC and Missouri State that leverages UMKC’s foundation?
There are no easy decisions here—only hard choices we must consider as Missourians—but we can’t not have this discussion.
This chart shows myriad data—from student growth to growth in tuition and state appropriations—and indicates that during the past decade there has been a 31 percent efficiency improvement at the University of Missouri.
It is a telling chart. It certainly harkens back to the questions we have been asked to address by the state, including how our mission will be affected in the next two years.
The record clearly shows we’ve been doing a lot more with less and have avoided—thus far—the slippery slope of doing less with less.
We will continue to look ahead and first challenge ourselves.
In October I suggested a number of areas be examined that represent part of the national discussion about the value of higher education.
We will need to test these paradigms with our best thinking and shared governance approaches.
As a result I have asked our campus and system leadership to shine a spotlight on these points in 2010 and give us their best thinking during the course of this year.
Two years ago, shortly after I began as president of the University of Missouri System, I had a chance to have lunch with a man who has been one of our state’s recent great philanthropists, entrepreneurs, supporters of education and benefactors to our university.
During that lunch, Des Lee, then 90 years old, looked across the table and asked me very directly (as I found out later was his M.O.!): • What’s your plan?! • What are you going to accomplish in your first year? • What’s your five-year plan? • How can I help? In our subsequent few times together, it was pretty clear that you better have some answers to Des’ questions!
Desmond Lee passed away a few weeks ago, and I shared with his son Gary my discussions with his father and my conclusions: • You better show up with passion. • You better take your stewardship seriously. • Hope is not a plan; what IS your plan? • You better be the loudest advocate for your mission.
Ladies and gentlemen…we DO have a plan.
It will require our collective passion, stewardship, engagement in anticipating the changes around us, and advocacy.
That advocacy will be supported by an unprecedented level of transparency and outcomes that we measure. There is no better way to “show ‘em’” what we’re getting done—and how good we are and aspire to be.
We are a very special interest group, and our advocacy and our collective voice must be heard. Our state depends on us.
Thank you.
Feb. 1, 2010
MSO members react to new flight guidelines
Security measures put in place by the Obama administration after the Christmas day bombing plot are seen as ineffective by some Muslim MU students.
The guidelines, which apply to 14 countries, mean any person flying into the U.S. from these countries, which are mostly located in the Middle East, will be required to undergo enhanced security screenings. Anyone who meets certain physical characteristics stereotypical to certain ethnicities will also be subject to additional screening.
Although Muslim Student Organization spokesperson Bushra Naz said she has never felt personally victimized or subject to profiling, she said after 9/11 many people went along with new security measures.
“The Muslim community accepts that security is just trying to keep everyone safe,” Naz said.
She said now that another incident has happened, it might be a sign that profiling is ineffective.
MSO President Malik al-Jarad said it is very hard to profile every Muslim because it is the physical appearance of a person that is typically stereotyped in this situation, and every Muslim does not portray the same stereotypical physical characteristics.
Thomas Anthony, U.S.C Aviation Safety and Security program director, said new ways to enhance security include several options.
He said a low-powered X-Ray technology used for full body scans and an electronic device that detects any traces of explosives are both additional types of security measures.
Anthony also said additional security measures should always be added and changed in order to create better security systems because terrorists are constantly monitor these measures.
In addition to these measures, he said profiling was necessary.
“You can’t really treat everyone the same all the time because we don’t have the resources,” Anthony said.
Third Ward councilman appointed to leadership training council
Columbia’s Third Ward Councilman Karl Skala was appointed to the National League of Cities 38-member Leadership Training Council last week.
“It’s something I’ve been looking at for quite some time,” Skala said.
The National League of Cities is an organization committed to strengthening the leadership skills of the country’s elected officials and has more than active 3,000 members.
Skala said the Leadership Training Council is constructed to design leadership-training programs for elected officials. He is the only member on the council from Missouri.
“It’s always a good idea to continue to work on your leadership credentials,” Skala said. “That’s a critical component to leadership and governing effectively.”
In addition to the appointment, Skala will receive a gold level award from the league. Skala achieved the silver level in 2007. He said the gold level is given out after achieving various requirements and accomplishments.
The league will meet in March in Washington.
Skala said he is happy with the honors but doesn’t want to miss too much time working on his re-election campaign for the Third Ward seat.
Obama takes YouTube questions on federal budget
President Barack Obama fielded questions submitted by Internet users across the country about the national budget for 2011 in an interview posted to YouTube Monday afternoon.
This marks the first time a president has fielded questions from constituents about the federal budget on the day of its release. In the video, Steve Grove, YouTube's news and political director, asks the president questions that were submitted and selected by YouTube users following Obama’s State of the Union address last week.
The president took questions on health care, small businesses, the bailout of large banks and also talked about some ideas for improving the country. In his State of the Union speech, Obama had put more emphasis on creating jobs to cut the country’s 10 percent unemployment rate.
The president said he wants the House and Senate to pass a health care within the year and emphasized the benefits of passing such a bill, such as medical cost reduction and coverage for patients with pre-existing conditions.
He said the government is expanding loans to small businesses through the Small Business Administration and offering tax breaks so small businesses can expand. He also came back to health care on this point and said bringing down insurance costs would help business owners.
As for improving the country, Obama supported suggestions to offer people incentives for living healthy lives and also converting government offices to run on solar energy to save money. He opposed privatizing struggling government agencies, such as the Postal Service, saying business would focus on providing only the services that are profitable and not those that are necessary.
City cannot raise MU game day shuttle fees
The cost of a bus ride to MU football games will not increase next year without all other city transit rates rising, according a report presented to the City Council on Monday night.
Catching a bus anywhere in the city costs $1, but City Council debated raising this fee to $2 for the game day shuttle in order to make it self-sustaining.
But, a 2008 federal law prohibits establishing a “premium fare” for transportation services that a grant-receiving entity, such as the city of Columbia, provides for an irregular event, such as a football game, according to the report written by Public Works Director John Glascock.
“We came up with that great idea only to discover it is a violation of the United States constitution,” Hindman said. “If that is designed to protect the private sector, which is showing no interest whatsoever in doing this, it just seems like there ought to be a way to anyways.”
These regulations were put in place, Glascock writes, to protect private business. He said in essence, the federal law prohibits entities that receive public money for transportation from using that equipment, and those bus drivers to compete head-to-head with private businesses, who do not get assistance from taxpayers.
“It keeps us from undercutting private businesses," Glascock said. "We have to charge the same as we do for all other fares."
Despite this regulation, the city is allowed to raise transit rates across the board, which happened during 2008, when rates went from 50 cents to $1. In 2009 that increase was applied halfway through the football season Glascock said.
Jan. 29, 2010
Mayoral forum to be held on Feb. 3
A forum about the upcoming election will be held for Columbia's mayoral candidates on Feb. 3. The Columbia non-profit organization CARE@Paquin will host the event.
CARE@Paquin stands for Columbia Accessible Recreation at Paquin Tower. The organization is located in a public housing unit for primarily disabled, low-income citizens.
The forum invites all candidates to participate. Paul Love, Bob McDavid, Sean O'Day, Sid Sullivan and Jerry Wade have already confirmed, according to the event's page on Facebook. Vicki Russel of the Columbia Daily Tribune will be the moderator.
“We chose to do this to give the community a reason to interact with Paquin Tower and to remind the community the residents of Paquin are involved and interested in the community,” said Chair of Paquin Tower Sean Spence.
The event is open to the public and will start at 5:30 p.m.
“My expectation is to have an excellent conversation about our city and who we want to lead it,” he said.
Jan. 27, 2010
McCaskill comes out against excess spending
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-MO, took to the floor of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday to introduce an amendment aimed at balancing the federal budget, which is currently running a deficit of $1.35 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
McCaskill introduced the amendment with two other Republican senators, John Kyl of Arizona and Jeff Sessions of Alabama. The amendment would cap defense and non-defense discretionary spending at 1 to 2 percent annually.
The increase in total federal spending was due to projects favored by small groups of constituents in certain states, McCaskill said, but she also said senators must balance support for local projects with fiscal responsibility.
"We're spending on things that make it even harder to say 'no'," she said. "But the time has come that we all have to feel the pain of saying 'no'. We all have to be willing to suffer the political consequences of saying 'no'."
The full text of the senator's floor remarks are below. The Maneater obtained this unofficial transcript from McCaskill's office. For video of the speech, visit McCaskill's youtube page.
-- I join my colleague in this attempt to restore some sanity in Congress on spending. I come from a state where there is a required balanced budget, and over the last few years I'm not sure how they would have done that without quite a bit of pain without the help that the federal government has sent them, the fact that we have to balance the budget in Washington has led to some very, very bad habits.
I was thinking about spending over the weekend as this week there were a number of provisions that we're going to be debating that I have sponsored or I am a big supporter of. The Fiscal Task Force which went down this morning by a narrow vote, this amendment and then obviously Pay-Go which I have been the lead Senate sponsor on over the last several months.
These are all things that are trying to fight something that you encounter all the time as a parent – how much easier it is to say yes than no. Now, my kids hate that when I give them that lecture because they are always wanting me to say yes, and I always say to them well, the easiest thing to do is to say yes. Yes, you can have that outfit. Yes, you can take my car. Yes, you can go to your friends even though I'm not sure you finished whatever chores that you had around the house. And it's always easier just to go along with it. It's a good cause.
That's what happens around here. It's not like we're spending on evil stuff. We’re spending on stuff we believe in. We’re spending education. We’re spending on highways. We’re spending on our parks. We’re spending on our military. We’re spending on things that make it even harder to say no.
But the time has come that we all have to feel the pain of saying no. We all have to be willing to suffer the political consequences of saying no. And that’s why this amendment is such important step in the right direction. Now I want to be really honest about this because we have a tendency around here to make things bigger than they are.
This isn’t going to make a dramatic change in the deficit or the debt, and I’m not sure how many Americans have really focused on the difference between the two, but they are two different things and it’s not going to make a huge difference.
People need to remember, that if we took out all discretionary spending, if we decided we’re not going to spend another time on education or highways or any of the things that we decide on spending every year, we’d still have a massive deficit problem. We don’t fix the deficit by passing this amendment. We don’t fix the deficit by saying we’re going to even do discretionary domestic spending anymore. So this not a fix all.
But you know what it does? It begins to get usual. It’s a little like earmarking. Is earmarking a huge problem? No. But it’s like the fever – it’s a symptom. It’s a symptom of the disease. And so this will help get us well.
This will be a step towards recovery if we can pass this amendment to freeze our discretionary spending. I’m so pleased the White House has called for a freeze. I think it’s a wonderful bi-partisan moment, and I think we’re all hankering for a good bipartisan moment right now. I hope we’re all hankering for a good bipartisan moment.
I got a little worried this morning on the vote on the Fiscal Task Force because it seemed to me there might have been some political games being played, but I don’t know about anybody else. But I’m hankering for a good bipartisan moment, and this ought to be one. This ought to be one where Republicans and Democrats set aside who looks good and who looks bad, who gets the credit and who gets blamed, and do something that we need to do.
We used to have a freeze, and we used to have Pay-Go. They were allowed to expire in 2002. I wasn’t here. I’m not sure why they were allowed to expire. Did Congress think we don’t need Pay-Go anymore and that we didn’t need limits on discretionary spending anymore because we were out of the woods when it comes to the deficit or the debt?
I’m not sure why that happened. I do know this. I bet most of the folks who let those things expire wish they could take it back. I bet most of the folks who did some voting for major entitlement programs without paying for them during that time, I bet they wish they could it back because now we’re in a mess. And the first and most important step, I think, for us getting out of this mess is to vote to control our spending.
So I am hopeful that this will be passed by a wide margin. Some of my friends on the left have said the last thing in the world we should do now is to limit spending. Government is the answer in this difficult recession. I voted for the stimulus, and I think the tax cuts in the stimulus which doesn’t get talked about enough, I think the help to the states that doesn’t get talked about enough and the jobs that are going to be created this year are all very important to the progress we have made in terms of climbing out of the economic hole that we found ourselves in a year ago.
But we will not get out of this recession on the back of government spending, and if we decide that it’s just about government spending during this recession, we are dealing a very, very bad hand to our grandchildren. So I hope that this amendment passes, and I hope that it is not even controversial.
I am so pleased the president is on board. I’m so please that so many members of the Republican Party are on board, and let’s take this important step and then let’s live up to it during the appropriations process. And let’s realize that pet projects at home that we know we can get an earmark, that maybe this is the year to say no. This is the year to push back from the table and say all those pet projects, all those earmarks are really not the right signal we need to send to the American people this year.