I should have driven to Springfield last Wednesday to hear John McCain speak, because then I might know whether to believe the Springfield News-Leader account about his stance on drilling in ANWR:

For years, McCain has opposed drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Refuge Area (ANWR).

But during today’s town hall meeting, McCain said he’d be willing to reconsider that stance.

“I would be more than happy to examine it again,” McCain said.

Or the   Post-Dispatch account:

McCain told audience members, some of them visibly stunned, that ANWAR was too valuable and pristine to be subject to oil drilling.

Come to think of it, going to Springfield wouldn’t have clarified a thing, because I’m not sure he knows what he thinks. He made the two contradictory statements at back-to-back events. At a one hour forum, he said he’d be willing to reconsider his years-long objections to drilling in ANWR, then he went to the Missouri State University campus and insisted that ANWR was too valuable a pristine wilderness for drilling.

If he had made the statements in the opposite order, I might think he was merely doing another pandering flip flop, like his change of attitude about offshore drilling. But as it is, either he’s got a loose grip on reality or I do. Maybe it’s me, because no one else, that I’ve seen, has commented on the disparity.

What’s not in doubt, though, is his support of nuclear power to break our dependence on oil. In a video of the on-campus event, he declared that he would fight to see 45 new reactors built by 2030 and 100 new ones eventually.

Whew! What a relief. Who can argue that we’d use less oil if we had 100 new nuclear reactors? And, like McCain, I leave it to the bean counters to figure out how much nuclear waste that would create. And where to put it.

McCain acknowledged that the nation will need to grapple with how to store and reprocess nuclear waste.

I wonder if he waved a dismissive hand when he conceded the difficulties. At least he restrained himself from calling them fiddle faddle.

You know, I’ve got one of those nuclear waste sites a couple of miles from my house, over on Latty Avenue. Nobody’s quite sure what to do about it, since it’s on the Missouri River floodplain and just 8.5 miles upstream from public drinking water intake pipes.  But I don’t worry. The radiation might give me an extra glow.

Still, his support of nuclear energy is puzzling. I mean, the toxic side effects of wind and solar power are, so those bean counters tell me … None whatsoever. Oh sure, building nuclear plants would create jobs, but so would building wind and solar infrastructure.

And yet last month, McCain and his good friend, Joe Lieberman, teamed up on an amendment to the energy bill that would have taken funds from clean energy sources and allotted them instead to nuclear energy. Somebody with more patience and knowhow than I have might ought to follow that money trail.

Oh, wash my mouth out with soap for allowing such cynicism to sneak in. McCain probably prefers nuclear energy merely because, as a former fighter pilot, he likes its elan. “Nuclear”–at least if you pronounce it correctly–sounds so much more manly than “windmills”.

Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan (D) speaking at the American Legion Boys State of Missouri on Thursday, June 19th.

Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan (D) addressed the assembled participants at Boys State. Her remarks:

Robin Carnahan is escorted by a delegation into Hendricks Hall and the Boys State General Assembly.

Thank you very much for that kind introduction. You know, I was thinking as I walked in here in the torrential rain tonight from the parking lot, if I can run a marathon in the rain, I can get to this speech. So, I am happy to be inside and dry.

Congratulations to all of you for your election. Congratulations to all of you who ran for office, but didn’t win. I will tell you that you might take a bit of solace in the fact that thirty years ago when I attended Girls State I ran for state treasurer and did not win. So, take solace in that – maybe you’ll be standing here one day after all….

…I know that everybody is anxious to get on with the program and get the swearing in over with, but as future leaders of our state, I thought this was an opportunity for me to pass on whatever couple of bits of wisdom I could come up with, since I’ve got a captive audience. So, I appreciate your bearing with me for a couple of minutes. You know, this is my third time to speak at Boys State. My father, as governor, came here each of his eight years as as governor and many years prior to that in other offices he served. My brothers, I have three of those, all came to Boys State. And so it is something that I know just a little bit about. And I know that it takes a lot of hard work and that you all have been at it. Among the folks in the American Legion, you deserve great thanks for continuing to put this together. You make a great impact on people’s lives. Let’s just give you one more round of applause. [applause]

You know, all of you were chosen to be here because of your potential for leadership. And I hope that after this week that more than a few of you will consider what you will do in your communities to become public servants and be involved. You know, public service takes a lot of different forms. It can mean running for office, but it can also mean being a coach of a little league baseball team. There are all kinds of things between those that you can do. One of the most important, of course, is just getting out to vote. It’s one of the easiest things you can do. [garbled]…you vote for president, for governor, for the Congress, for your state officials, or your county officials. And it’s something that every American has not only a right but a responsibility to do.

All of you are about to reach that age. Let me see a quick show of hands. How many of you are eighteen already? How many of you will be eighteen on Election Day? [voice: “Yeah.”] How many of you are registered to vote? Okay, here’s the law in Missouri. If you’re going to be eighteen by Election Day you can register to vote at age seventeen and a half. So that time has passed. You should all be registered. If you haven’t done that you can go to my web site. It’s http://www.sos.mo.gov or you can go to your local election officials and get yourself registered before this upcoming very historic election.

You know, a lot of people take for granted the right to vote. But there are people in countries,and they’re countries that I’ve been to and worked in, that didn’t enjoy those same rights. And mistakenly some, some of the folks in our, in our country sometimes say, “You know what? It doesn’t matter if I vote. It doesn’t matter, they’re all the same. How can one vote really make a difference?” I want you to go away today with a number. How many people are here at Boys State? Some body told me there were nine hundred or so. Is that right? [crosstalk] Nine hundred and ninety one? [audience: “Eighty one.”] Nine hundred and eighty one. Does anybody here know how many votes the 2000 election was decided by in the State of Florida? [crosstalk] Hah. That’s the Supreme Court number. The actual number in Florida was five hundred and thirty seven votes. [audience: “Oooh.”] Five hundred and thirty seven votes was the difference between George Bush and Al Gore becoming President of the United States. You have twice that many people at Missouri Boys State. Do not ever think that your vote doesn’t count.

You know, there’ a great story I like to tell about people and people, just one, making a difference. And it’s a story that goes back to World War II, maybe some of you veterans can remember this story. It happened in 1940. The German army was advancing across Europe….and they [the British] were at the edge of the sea, and they were in a small little fishing village called Dunkirk. And before them was the English Channel and twenty miles of sea, and on the other side, behind them was the German army advancing. There were about three hundred thousand troops there. And there was no real hope of getting them out. The war department met in Britain. They tried to figure out what they could do, because all the ports had been destroyed. And so they figured they could only really get about seventeen thousand of those men out alive. They were left, they say, between the devil and the deep blue sea. One morning they woke up early, they looked out, and they saw ships. And they saw boats. And there were fishing boats. And there were fire boats. And there were sail boats. And there were yachts. And there were ferries. And every boat of every size was out there. And those boats were captained by regular people. It wasn’t military, it was civilians. It was regular people that decided that one person could make a difference. And they got all those troops out of there. And it was a miraculous…recovery mission of all of these troops. And it made a difference. Because those people decided that one person could make a difference.

And so my point to you today in talking about that is that one vote or one boat can make a difference. In people’s lives and in your communities. In your state and in your country.

And I grew up in this family, if you’ve heard my bio, we did a lot in politics. But to us politics wasn’t about partisan bickering, all of that kind of stuff that we all hate. It was about making a difference in your community. And so when I was a kid we’d go door to door and try and get the bond issue passed for our local swimming pool. Because we needed a new swimming pool. Or we’d go around to try and raise money for the new church building in our town. And that was how we were involved in our community.

My father, when he was governor, he would go out and walk the country roads in Rolla where I grew up. And every morning when he’d go out to walk he took with him a plastic bag. And guess what that was for? [crosstalk] Trash. And here he is, the Governor of Missouri, walking down country roads in Rolla, no one knew he did this. he didn’t tell anybody he did this. He did it because it was his way of making a difference and improving the community where he lived.

So, think about that as you leave this place. I hope that you leave with anew sense of recognition about what you can achieve, both together, but also individually. And that you’ll look back at this time and think – this was the moment that sparked your interest in it was your responsibility to change our state, to change our nation, to change your communities.

You know there’s a great quote that I love from when martin Luther King spent time in that Birmingham city jail. He said this, he said, “Human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through tireless efforts, persistent work, of men willing to be coworkers with God. And without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively. And for
ever realize that the time is always right to do good.” The time is always right to do good.

Thank you all for the good that you’ve already done here. And what you will do for your communities going forward. The future of our state is in your hands. And I’m confident that you’ll do a great job. So thank you very much. [applause]

Will we see you tomorrow in St. Louis’ Tower Grove Park?

Have you called your US representative and senators?

What is on your mind?

Barack Obama’s first general election ad in Missouri:

Effective?

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]

Last Saturday morning, the Obama campaign launched 23 training sessions for organizers in 17 states. And you know how political campaigns are always begging for more volunteers? This program, the Organizing Fellowship Program, had the opposite problem: more applicants than they could take. Of the 10,000 applicants, only 2300 were accepted into a program where they’ll be given the privilege of working their buns off this summer, putting in long days and eating unhealthy diets–but worth it if they can change the country.

That’s what Buffy Wicks, Obama’s Field Director for Missouri (pictured below), told the group that was meeting in St. Louis. She explained how she herself had been originally galvanized politically. A friend of hers called needing a ride from the hospital. He had just been told he was HIV positive, and the hospital wouldn’t release him unless someone came to pick him up because of concerns they had in such cases about suicide. He told Buffy that he had no health insurance.

It would be interesting to hear the stories of what motivated the other people in that room, but whatever those stories are, the goal now is to get Obama elected. And the way these volunteers are going to go about it is to recruit more volunteers. The 100 plus workers in that room won’t be going door to door, doing voter ID. Their job is to build capacity: They’ll be recruiting more volunteers and supervising them as they in turn recruit still more.

First these Fellows will learn how to articulate quickly and clearly what motivates them. Then they’ll use the house meeting model of organizing to help identify new volunteers. That notion of finding new volunteers at house meetings, along with the phrase “exponential growth” (from volunteers who find more volunteers who find more volunteers) all sounded familiar. In fact, it sounded like the state party’s Neighborhood Leader program. So I began to wonder if these two programs were going to be fighting each other for volunteers who’ll be double canvassing the same neighborhoods. Are we reinventing two slightly different wheels that won’t fit on the same axle? And what about the new DNC software that’s going to roll out soon that will enable Democrats to just get on their computers, register, and be given a list of people in their neighborhood to ID? Is that another wheel–in another gauge?

Prepare yourself for a (pleasant) shock, because when it comes to campaign organizing, the new Democratic Party isn’t the herd of cats we’re used to. Kombiz Lavasany, in charge of blogger outreach at the DNC, assures me that all three programs are being coordinated.

The biggest difference I can see between the Obama Organizing Fellows and the other two organizing entities is, as Buffy pointed out, that many campaigns don’t allow volunteers to mentor or coach new volunteers. The Fellows trained in this three day workshop, though, will have that responsibility, and they’ll be working at it full time.

Generally speaking, the Fellows will be working in their own communities: the theory being that organizing built on personal relationships, especially with people you’ve known for awhile, produces the strongest results. In addition to finding new volunteers, the Fellows will oversee voter registration drives, all the while focusing on hard data.

We need the right numbers to win. So if a volunteer that a Fellow is mentoring mentions that she contacted 25 people last night and the computer readout indicates she only called five, then it’s going to be up to that mentor to call the volunteer on the disparity, in as tactful a way as possible, of course. “You know, 25 calls is not the number I’m seeing on the computer readout. You seem to be falling short of that. Is there anything I can do to help you reach that goal?”

It’ll be hard work done on a shoestring. Buffy, field director for the state, has no office yet. She’s working out of a local internet cafe except when she’s on conference calls. In that case, she has a very private office: her car.

Buffy’s office may not have the glitz of a Karl Rove operation, but she and the people in that meeting room intend to get the right numbers, the results that will put Obama in the White House.

Sarah Steelman at the American Legion Boys State of Missouri on June 17th.

Missouri State Treasurer (and republican gubernatorial candidate) Sarah Steelman addressed the participants attending Missouri Boys State in Hendricks Hall on the campus of the University of Central Missouri on Tuesday evening. Her prepared remarks took a little over twelve minutes. She then took questions from the audience for approximately a  half hour.

The question and answer session:

Question: …What are your plans involving green alternative energies?

Sarah Steelman: That’s a good question. We’ve got, there’s a lot of, of a, things we need to do. I’m working on a comprehensive energy strategy. I actually was talking to somebody today who produces, out of the, corn stalks and other fibrous plants. They make ’em into little pellets, cellulose pellets, that they can burn with coal and actually reduce the carbon footprint of coal, if you combine that in like a coal fired plant for electricity. So, I’m putting some things together on what I think our state should do, things like that, offering maybe tax credits for, for people, for companies who use that kind of, of a energy to reduce the carbon footprint. I think we need to encourage alternative fuels. I think we need to do that in a way that makes it competitive among alternative fuels so that we can try to get the right one, the one that’s the most effective, going in the right direction as far as the market goes. [applause]…

…Question: last night Congressman Hulshof expressed to my surprise that he would protect embryonic stem cell research in the State of Missouri. I was wondering if you become governor would you protect embryonic stem cell research or would you work to repeal what Amendement 2 put in place?

Sarah Steelman: I do not support embryonic stem cell research. [applause] [audience: shouts, booing] [garbled] I did not support Amendment 2 and I would work to repeal it, it’s, it’s not a good piece of legislation to have in our constitution and it prevents us from doing any kind of stem cell research because every time you get money you have to do both, embryonic and, and adult or other stem cell research that may not have anything to do with embryonic stem, stem cell research. [applause]

Question:…As school keeps going on, our high school dropouts increase, the rate is increasing. What are you going to do about that?

Sarah Steelman: How am I going to decrease the high school dropout rate? Is that what you? Question? [crosstalk]

Question: Yes, that’s my question.

Sarah Steelman: You know, I actually do have some ideas about that. I think, you know one of my responsibilities that I talked about in my speech was overseeing the college saving plan. And, you know, one day my youngest son actually said to me, because I talk about this plan all the time, about saving for college, he said, “Hey,” and he called me “mommy” then, it’s been a couple years ago, he’s now thirteen he doesn’t call me “mommy” anymore. [audience: “Ohh.”] He said, “Hey.” He said, “Will I have a college savings plan, did you make, did you have one for me?” And I said, “Well yes, of course.” And you know what was important to him? That I believed in him. That I would put any money whatsoever away, he didn’t care how much it was, but just knew that I believed in him. And I actually thought that the thing, that, that principle should apply to everybody out there. Because I think that every child in the state should have the opportunity to go to college. So what I’m gonna do is take that kind of idea, and particularly in areas that have high dropout rates, and this is a long term solution to this problem, but get families more involved in their kid’s education. Get ’em saving for their kid’s college education which is telling those kids, “Hey, I believe in you and I think you’re gonna stay in school and graduate from high school and can go to college.” In Chicago a philanthropist up there, and you all may have read about this at some time, but it’s been several years ago. He went into the inner city in Chicago and said, this, this was a school that had one of the worst dropout rates, and he said, “I will pay for your college education if you all stay in school, make, make, certain grades, and attend school. You know, you have to do these three things. And I’ll pay for your college education.” Well, he turned that school completely around, I mean they had dropout rates that were below fifty per cent. And made it, it was, it was horrible. He flipped it around [garbled] ninety per cent, rate of graduation and kids going on to college. because he believed they could do it. So that’s one thing. I also think we should eliminate the MAP test in high school. [applause] [cheers] I didn’t finish my sentence [garbled]. I think we eliminate the MAP test in the high school and replace it with the ACT [audience: “No.”] Because that’s the test. That’s the test that has meaning to you guys who are going on to college. Ah, if you increase your score you actually get more financial aid, so you’re gonna have a better chance of paying for college, so it’s a win win kind of situation [applause] [cheers]

Question:…Last night Kenny Hulshof was asked about his views on health care for Missourians. So, I don’t, I couldn’t really follow his answer and I don’t actually know what he felt about it. [laughter] My question for you is, will you pledge tonight, to all of us at Missouri Boys State, your commitment to getting quality affordable health care for everyone in Missouri? [applause]

Sarah Steelman: Yeah. I’ll pledge that. I want that. I want every Missourian to have quality health care. [applause]

Question: …In your introduction and in your speech you talked about the things that you’ve done to stop foreign investments from funding terrorism and I believe the program you’re involved with is called the divest terror program, correct? Is that correct?

Sarah Steelman: That’s what the action is taking.

Question: Okay. And I was just curious about, specifically, how that program works and what you’ve done to support it, and what exactly it does to stop our investments and money from going to support terrorism?

Sarah Steelman: Well, we do a couple of things in the Treasurer’s office. We created a terror free fund with a pool of money that actually is a part separate from general revenue, because general revenue can’t be invested in stocks. This, this was the different fund that I had that I’m responsible for. And we, what we do is we screen that fund to identify companies that have a financial relationship with governments that are state sponsors of terrorism by our government which includes North Korea, Iran, Sudan, and Syria. And so if that financial relationship exists between that government and let’s say [a foreign bank] then we know that that’s taxpayer money in that bank, so that’s, a, that stock never gets sent to the fund.  And then the other thing we did was in the pension fund. We actually screened the investments and identified, under that same kind of criteria, those companies and then they’d come up for a divestment vote on the board I sit on. And sometimes they’re removed and sometimes they’re not. I always, I always try to remove them. Those meetings are actually held in closed session against my objections because I think it should be done in public, but that’s the way that the screening mechanism works. Is, that’s the parameters we use. [applause]

Question: …I asked Attorney General Nixon this same question [shouts] It seemed to cause him  a little bit of irritation, so [laughter], I just [garbled] like to ask you the same question. I come from an average middle class family and my parents have shown and explained to me how we have prospered under the Bush and Blunt tax cuts compar
atively to the Clinton and Bob Holden tax cuts. My question is, would you support changing the current tax system or cuts the way they are now?

Sarah Steelman: Yes. here’s what I would support, because I have a proposal, to actually reduce taxes further. [applause] [cheers] My proposal. My proposal, I am proposing, one of the things I’m proposing is to increase the personal exemption and that, and the personal, of the child dependency, excuse me, that everybody pays so it’s across the board and it effects every Missouri family the same. Those exemptions haven’t been raised since 1999. So I’m proposing to raise both of those which means you’re gonna pay less in taxes. So actually I support the, the Blunt tax cuts, but I would go further in, in with my proposal because I think we need more tax relief. [applause]

Question: …What does separation of church and state mean to you? [audience: “Whoa.”] [applause}

Sarah Steelman: [crosstalk] What it means that, I believe that government can’t dictate what church you go to. [applause] [crosstalk]

Question:: Hey there.

Sarah Steelman: Hey there.

Question: …I have a different sort of question for you. [audience: “Whoa.”] Who is your favorite musical band or artist? [applause]…excluding the Beatles, Johnny Cash, and Tupac. [laughter]

Sarah Steelman: Dave Matthews. [applause] [laughter]

Question: …Since there are so many jobs going overseas right now what policies are you going to try to put into the House to try and bring those jobs back home [garbled] we can get more jobs, we can stop this, not, jobless sector that’s coming about?

Sarah Steelman: Well, that’s an economic development question, really in my view, for Missouri and I think some of our policies in Missouri, can be improved to really concentrate on, on small business and entrepreneurs who are just starting businesses and, you know, as, as you probably know that small businesses is really the engine that drives the economy. State economy and the American economy, the majority of businesses are small. But in order to keep that engine going we’ve got to have more entrepreneurial spirit, and and jobs created at that level. One of the problems that I hear over and over again when I’m, as State Treasurer and while I’m campaigning, is that they can’t, people, businesses have a, small business and new businesses have trouble getting the capital they need for their, for their business. And so I think the state can come in and do some tax credits for venture capital, for, for other kinds of capital that smaller businesses could access to get started, until they get to that point they’re make, they’re on their own and can go to a bank. This is like a gap financing [garbled]. Because when you get out you’ll find that is really hard to do that, to get going. But if we can get businesses over the hump then I think we’ll find that our economy is growing more, we’ll be creating more jobs here instead of shipping them abroad and. So that’s one way of addressing that issues. A lot of the policies that you’re, that really dictate what’s happening with that are at your federal level. But as governor I would certainly advocate for Missouri and keeping Missouri jobs here any way we can and when we have, you know Imbed [sp] about to buy Anheuser-Busch. And who knows what’s gonna happen… [booing]…with those jobs. You know they might shut it down and take ’em to Europe. I hope that doesn’t happen. I hope they don’t buy it, I hope they’re not successful in their buyout, but [applause] as governor we have to be a, you know, we have to, I have to advocate for that constantly making sure we keep Missouri jobs here, circumstances like that. [applause]

Question: …With the state of the economy today, the middle class size is shrinking in the State of Missouri, what I maen by that is the poor and lower class rsing at an unimaginable rate and the upper class is staying at its level and shrinking. What do you think could be done in the state to help the middle class recover and flourish?

Sarah Steelman: Well, first of all we could change the economic policies at the federal level, which I think have caused the entire economic crises that we’re having today. [voice: “Yeah.”] And what I’m talking about is the congressional spending habits, overspending, running up huge deficits until the value of the dollar goes down and the price of oil goes sky high, and then all the food prices go up and everything along with it that relies on oil. All of that is tied to the behavior of Congress and the Federal Reserve Board. And so those, those policies have not worked for our economy. We need the, we, the federal government needs to rein in the spending, for one thing [voice: “Yeah.”] because people can’t survive under these conditions. And we have four dollar a gallon gas that could be going to six dollars a gallon and rising food prices. Because that’s taking up more and more and more of that middle class income that you’re talking about. So’s education. So’s health care costs. But these are two costs that are directly driven by the spending habits, overspending habits, of Congress, so I don’t have control over that particular aspect of it, but that’s what, I mean I can recognize what goes on in the economy and that’s a big problem. So we need to figure out, and you guys as voters need to vote for people who are go…, who are not gonna overspend. who are gonna spend within their means, whether it’s at the federal level or the state level, that’s a very important part of government because it does effect entire economy which effects every working Missouri family. [applause]….