Missouri State Treasurer (and republican gubernatorial candidate) Sarah Steelman speaking at  Missouri Boys State in Warrensburg on June 17th.

Sarah Steelman at Missouri Boys State: Q and A, part 1

The second half of the question and answer session:

…Question: …Are you familiar with real ID? What’s going on for the real ID that the federal government’s gonna apply?

Sarah Steelman: Somewhat.

Question: Are you for or are you against that?

Sarah Steelman: I, I’m inclined to be against it because one, it’s a federal mandate and two, I don’t think the federal government should be tracking every movement. [applause] [crosstalk] I think they should focus on shutting the borders down and arr…, and imposing sanctions on emplyers who knowingly hire illegal workers. [applause] [crosstalk]…

 

…Question: …We’ve all heard of the Minnesota bridge collapse and MoDOT has went around the state, indeed many bridges in the state in need of repair or overall rehaul. How do you plan to set the funds aside to repair these bridges and things like that? [applause]

Sarah Steelman: Well it certainly is going to be a funding problem with MoDOT, with highways, bridges and transportation in Missouri because our bonding capacity is, we’ve used it up. And the federal government, the mon…, the money that comes  in from the federal government is declining. So we’re gonna have to look at new ways of, of doing things. One of the ways that I want to look at is these public and private partnerships, to possible repair bridges, to different construction on highways, you know, throughout Missouri. Indiana has done some of this, so there are other states that are looking at similar things and I think that’s a benefit to Missouri because they’ve, they, they’ve already done it, they, we can learn from their mistakes and their successes how to do it better here. But that’s a difficult problem and, and part of that, you know I’m from Rolla, where University of Missouri at Rolla is, and there’s all kinds of innovative new ways now to repair bridges with, with different new composite materials that are as strong or stronger than steel. And cheaper to use so that you don’t have to completely redo bridges, reconstruct ’em. So, there is, there is also ways like that that I think we need to be looking at, innovative new ways to do, fix the bridges, innovative new ways to finance ’em, public private partnerships. [applause]

Question: …I was wondering what some of the challenges that you have faced being a woman in politics were.

Sarah Steelman: Well, you know, when I ran for state senate people thought, it’s kind of funny, there are a lot of people who thought you’ll never get elected from a district like that ’cause those good ol’ boys down there aren’t gonna vote for yah. And you know what I found out? I found out that they would vote for me. And in fact I found out that there really wasn’t a gender bias from the voters. And so I didn’t really run in to, to that problem and, and you know the state has three women holding statewide office. When I was in the senate we had six women holding statewide office. So, you know, there’s, there. some people pick on what I wear and pick on my hair sometimes [shouts] [crosstalk]. And [garbled] true for men, too.

Question: …How do you respond to criticism that divest in terrorism cuts off potential for foreign investment that could have catalyzed regime change?

Sarah Steelman: That could have what?

Question: Catalyzed regime change.

Sarah Steelman: Capitalized?

Question: Catalyzed regime change.

Sarah Steelman: Re…regime change? I don’t believe that. I think, well, first of all, how man [garbled] would want their tax dollars going to help Iran, right now, when we know Iran, the government of Iran is, is helping the opposition forces in Iraq. [booing] Whether you’re for or against the war it’s not right for your tax dollars to be invested in companies that are helping Iran, Syria, Sudan, Darfur, or North Korea. I mean. [applause] [cheers] Re…regime chane can come about when you squeeze the economiesand get, force these tyrannical dictators into sitting down with you, and they’re not gonna come around because they feel good about it. You’ve got, you have to, you have to put their economy under stress, which is what the United States has been doing and what this kind of action does as well. In South Africa, when, the same kind of policy worked in South Africa because we cut off money going there and it, and it turned that, it turned them around. So I think it does work. And I, I just don’t, I don’t agree with the premise of your question. [applause]

Question: …with the rising price of corn due to ethanol what do you do to plan to help [garbled] livestock producers when many hog producers are losing twenty dollars a head of hogs and cow producers are losing a lot, too?

Sarah Steelman: Well that’s why I think we need to look at, at how these subsidies are administered to alternative fuels, to develop alternative fuels. I think there needs to be a more level playing field so that we’re not necessarily picking a particular subsidy, but that they’re all competing for those kind of tax credits and subsidies and then the most effective one would get the help to develop the market, you know. I’ll go back also to my previous economic argument. Part of the reason we have high food prices, corn prices, is because of the spending habits of Congress. In that that forces the price of oil up and that in turn has made the price, the price of food go up a swell, it’s not just solely corn prices. I think having mandates, you know I’m not, I think there’s been a lot of unintentional consequences from an ethanol mandate that are hurting our economy as well and that definitely is having an effect on the rising prices of corn, which of course hurts, part of this unintended consequences are that it hurts other parts of the agricultural sector. So, to, it seems we need to take a few steps backward and really look at the economic subsidies that we’re providing for our alternative fuels, take another look at the mandate, and just really from an economic point of view figure out what and why it’s doing, it’s having an effect on commodities that it is. And maybe have to undo some of those policies. [applause]

Question: …I was wondering what your stance was on the death penalty and why?

Sarah Steelman: I support the death penalty. [cheers] [applause] I think we need to have, to have penalties for certain crimes. Punishment. [applause]

Question: …How do you plan on improving public education and improving the affordability in the colleges and universities?

Sarah Steelman: Well I talked a little bit about our MAP idea. I think that’ll in, help improve. I also think we need to have more concentration on math, engineering, science and technology in, in the lower grades all the way through high school to train, because we’re having shortages of those kind of, people to fill those jobs. So we really need to improve those subject matters in, in elementary and secondary schools. In fact since, I believe 1993, we were, Missouri was scoring, fourth graders in Missouri were scoring higher on math and science then they are today. So we definitely have improvement to make there. Again, I think part, partially to blame is the MAP testing. I’m just not a big fan of it. I think, I think [applause] [crosstalk] help students, that can help teachers help students directly, and not just some test that some politician is gonna look at in Jefferson City and say, “Hey, look how good we’re doing.” It’s got to be effective for the teacher and the student and the parent to understand where that
, that student is. On affordability of college. You know I, that’s one of the things that’s been important to me as State Treasurer through the saving plan. Again I think the MAP testing to ACT testing will help provide more financial aid just by raising scores, exposing more kids to that. I also would have, have a proposal that I tried to get through the legislature but I was unsuccessful, so if I get elected governor I’m gonna try. It was setting aside a windfall of money that, that we had in unclaimed property and using the interest on that money set up matching grants, again for kids, for parents to start savings accounts for their kids. Again this is a long term view of this, but I think if you get saving for college early on it reduces that cost in the long run because you’re saving over time, your, the interest is tax free on these accounts, you’re really helping offset the, the cost of education. And, you know, I think we need to take a hard look at the administrative costs associated with a lot of our public schools and our colleges. And make sure we’re getting every dollar we can to making sure we get quality education for kids and for, for students in school and that we, there’s, there’s a way to reduce that and use that money to reduce tuition then we need to take a hard look at that. [applause]

Question: …One of our biggest problems today is credit cards because people will buy things on credit cards and pay just like the minimum balance and then the debt will mount and then you’ll in debt more than they can make. How do you, how could you be able to prevent this?

Sarah Steelman: Well again I think that’s a, a, you have to look at that as a long term problem that needs to be solved. part of that goes to educating people, kids, about savings and about how to balance their check book, and about economics and financial education really, in the, in the high school, at the high school level which now is a requirement. I don’t think you all had to do it but now it does become a requirement for graduation. So I think more education, so that you understand that, that you’re taught the consequences of credit, using credit, and running up credit cards, and understand better how to save and the importance of saving for our economy. Our savings rate in this country is negative. Which means that there’s a lot of people using credit cards. I, I, I, I think there could be probably more maybe, maybe understanding on when a person receives a credit card in plain language what you’re getting in to. ‘Cause there’s a lot of little stuff in, you know, in that language and you don’t real…, some people I don’t think realize how high the interest rate will be on that credit card. So there’s probably improvements that could be made that way. I’m just not sure how much the state government can actually effect that change, certainly can effect the educational change. [applause]

Question: …I was wondering how it feels to be speaking in front of so many potential voters who’ll be taking their opinions of you back to their families, possibly swaying their votes and some can vote themselves?

Sarah Steelman: How does it feel?

Question: Yeah.

Sarah Steelman: I love it. [cheers] [applause] [crosstalk] No, it’s you know, this is what’s fun about running for office is you get to, you guys have to sit there and listen to me talk about what I believe in. But better, I like to listen to you all and what’s on your minds because it really helps me out a lot about the future and, and what you all are thinking. And, so it’s, it’s fun, I like it. [applause] Well thank you all very much. I really enjoyed it. [applause]