Via Steve Benen at Political Animal:

Mitt Romney: Obama isn’t serious about America’s financial health

By MITT ROMNEY

….Barack Obama is facing a financial emergency on a grander scale. Yet his approach has been to engage in one of the biggest peacetime spending binges in American history….

Think about that for a second.

Tell it to the Marines.

Former President Bill Clinton (D) will be speaking at graduate commencement at the University of Central Missouri on May 6th. The university’s press release from earlier this month:

UCM Names President Bill Clinton Recipient of Honorary Doctorate

Photo – Ralph Alswang

WARRENSBURG, MO (April 4, 2011) –  Recognized not only for his service to the nation as 42nd President of the United States but also for his commitment to education and philanthropy, William J. Clinton has been named recipient of the honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters. Although more specific details about the award ceremony will be released at a later date, the honorary degree will be presented by the University of Central Missouri during 2011 Graduate Commencement exercises Friday, May 6.

The honorary doctorate is bestowed by the authority of the university’s Board of Governors upon individuals who have distinguished themselves through outstanding service and exemplary achievements within their fields of endeavor. By their actions they have been an inspiration to others.

William Jefferson Clinton was the first Democratic president in six decades to be elected twice – first in 1992 and then in 1996. Under his leadership, the country enjoyed the strongest economy in a generation and the longest economic expansion in U.S. history, including the creation of more than 22 million jobs.

After leaving the White House, President Clinton established the William J. Clinton Foundation with the mission to strengthen the capacity of people in the United States and throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence.  Today the Foundation has staff and volunteers around the world working to improve lives through several initiatives, including the Clinton Health Access Initiative (formerly the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative) which is helping 4 million people living with HIV/AIDS access lifesaving drugs. Other initiatives — including the Clinton Climate Initiative, the Clinton Development Initiative, and the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative — are applying a business-oriented approach worldwide to fight climate change and develop sustainable economic growth in Africa and Latin America. As a project of the Foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative brings together global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues. In the U.S., the Foundation is working to combat the alarming rise in childhood obesity through the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, and is helping individuals and families succeed and small businesses grow. In addition to his Foundation work, President Clinton has joined with former President George H.W. Bush three times – after the 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and Hurricane Ike in 2008 – to help raise money for recovery efforts and served as the U.N. Envoy for Tsunami Recovery.

Building on his longstanding commitment to Haiti as President and through his Foundation, President Clinton was named U.N. Special Envoy for Haiti in 2009 to assist the government and the people of Haiti as they “build back better” after a series of hurricanes battered the country in 2008. Following this year’s devastating earthquake, President Clinton dedicated Clinton Foundation resources to help with immediate and long-term relief and assistance, and at the request of President Obama, joined with President George W. Bush to establish the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, which supports highly effective organizations on the ground in long-term rebuilding efforts. Additionally, President Clinton serves as co-chair of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission with Prime Minister Bellerive.

In 2008, UCM first became aligned with the Clinton Climate Initiative through the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) which worked with CCI to develop and implement large-scale energy efficiency retrofit projects. CCI assisted UCM in designing the university’s $36.1 million energy management project with a goal to save the institution at least 31 percent of its annually energy costs while significantly reducing carbon dioxide emissions. As a result of such assistance, UCM undertook the largest energy retrofit project on a college or university campus.

# # #

This, of course, has set off folks suffering from Clinton Derangement Syndrome.

Bill Clinton is coming to town. Let’s see, we can expect event tickets, instructions about what cannot be

carried into the venue, and a self righteous pearl clutching letter to the editor. Check, check, and check.

A letter to the editor criticizing the selection of Bill Clinton as a commencement speaker was published in the April 21st edition of the Muleskinner, the student newspaper:  

Clinton doesn’t deserve honorary doctorate

….President Clinton’s service was no doubt tarnished by his actions as president – namely having sexual relations with an intern….

….Surely, as the nation’s highest executive leader, obligated under the Constitution to uphold the nation’s laws, his actions in the Oval Office would prevent him from receiving such an honor.

I am disappointed that the University has chosen to bestow this honor on a man who, for more than a year brought such disgrace to his office and our nation….

Well, yes, George W. Bush (r) has some answering to do. Oh, wait. Sorry. The letter writer isn’t concerned about crimes against humanity. He’s concerned about personal behavior between consenting adults. Well, yes, Newt Gingrich (r) has some answering to do. Oh, wait. Sorry. *IOKIYAR.

Oh, my, what will the children think?

Meanwhile, the campus community lines up for tickets.

Faculty and staff wait in line to pick up tickets for graduate commencement.

*it’s okay if you’re a republican.

Ever since Social Security became the law over 75 years ago, there have been conservatives who wanted to kill it, finding the very notion that elderly or disabled people should retain any dignity or independence after their productive years have passed anathema. If you’re no longer “useful” in their particular definition of the word, then you’ve got a lot of damned gall even thinking you should be able to stay out of poverty.

What the hell right does Grandma have to a flu shot and a living allowance? There are a lot of ways that money could be better spent, so far as they are concerned. It could be used to pay down the debt, or it could be invested on Wall Street. All Grandma does is spend it on rent and groceries and the like. She just pisses it away, staying out of poverty, the parasite.

As best I can tell — I sometimes have trouble translating “bloodless goon” into ordinary, American English — that is at least part of Robert Samuelson’s position in his latest post at Real Clear Politics. That, and making sure that the deficit problem that Bush and the GOP Congress created gets solved by making the people who have realized no benefit from the Bush tax cuts and can least afford it pick up the tab:

Suppose we increased the federal gasoline tax by 25 cents a gallon, from 18.4 cents to 43.4 cents. That would raise $291 billion over the decade from 2012 to 2021, estimates the CBO. Or we could advance the ages for early and full Social Security benefits; one suggestion is to raise them (now 62 and 66) by two months a year until reaching predetermined targets (say, 64 and 70). The CBO reckons the decade’s savings at about $264 billion. How about slowly moving Medicare’s eligibility age from 65 to 67. The savings: $125 billion.

Are we finished? Nowhere near. At most, these crowd pleasers would make noticeable dents. Recall that the deficits total almost $10 trillion over the next decade under President Obama’s original 2012 budget. That’s the point: even discounting the effects of the deep recession, prospective deficits are so large that they can’t be cured by tinkering. We should be asking basic questions:

— How big a government do we want? For four decades, federal spending has averaged 21 percent of gross domestic product. An aging population and high health costs mean that average spending, as a share of GDP, will rise by a third or more in the next 10 to 15 years if today’s programs simply continue.

— Who deserves government subsidies and how much? About 55 percent of spending goes to individuals, including the elderly, veterans, farmers, students, the disabled and the poor.

— How much, if at all, should social spending be allowed to squeeze national defense?

— If taxes rise, how much and on whom? What taxes would least hurt economic growth?

Perhaps Samuelson calls an increase in the gas tax a “crowd pleaser” because it would hit those at the bottom of the economic ladder the hardest, since simple economics dictates that the lower the rung one occupies the less likely they are to drive a newer, more fuel-efficient car — and cashiers and construction workers don’t have a telecommute option to exercise. But let’s not get distracted with the gas tax issue, because what he really wants to do is eviscerate the social safety net.

He is being disingenuous at best and deliberately dishonest at worst when he says “the deficits total almost $10 trillion over the next decade under President Obama’s original 2012 budget. That’s the point: even discounting the effects of the deep recession, prospective deficits are so large that they can’t be cured by tinkering.” That same CBO that he touts in his very first ‘graph also says that if nothing is done, other than simply letting the Bush tax cuts expire and tax rates return to the Clinton-era levels, the deficit disappears.

Now let’s answer some of those questions that he says no one is asking.

When he asks how big we want our government to be, he is starting from a faulty premise. It isn’t the size of government that matters, it is the quality. When he asserts that our “aging population and high health costs mean that average spending, as a share of GDP, will rise by a third or more in the next 10 to 15 years if today’s programs simply continue.”

What he is surely smart enough to know, but is betting that his target audience isn’t, is that he just made the perfect argument for single-payer healthcare, most easily achieved by expanding Medicare to cover everyone and then allowing Medicare to negotiate the price of medications and assignment schedules. Healthcare is the problem, and we are decades behind the rest of the developed world in coming to that realizations and moving away from the ridiculous “market based solutions” that conservatives are so fond of.

Then he asks just who, exactly, deserves to be subsidized by the government and how much subsidy they deserve. I answer that question with “children and the elderly” and I believe that human beings deserve more investment than the “defense” budget that currently eats up more than half of every dollar the government spends, either killing or preparing to kill other human beings.

When he asserts that currently, 55 cents of every dollar the government spends “goes to individuals” he is deliberately and dishonestly fudging his numbers. He is including Social Security in that number, but Social Security is not part of the general fund. It is a separate, self-funding entity. Workers pay in a few dollars from every paycheck on the first $106,800, and at retirement start receiving a monthly benefit. As it currently stands, the Social Security trust fund is perfectly solvent for at least 25 more years — if we do nothing. It would be solvent in perpetuity if the earnings cap was raised and high-earners paid in on all of their income.

His next question, though, really cuts to the heart of what really drives every conservative – how much should social programs “be allowed” to “squeeze” the spending on the military? What drives conservatives is fear. They are different from you and me. They are fearful and scared and will pay any price to feel “safe” in a world that is constantly changing and evolving and moving on without them. It is a sad and specious strawman argument. The United States currently accounts for 42.8% of all of the military spending in the world, but we only have 5% of the world’s population. Compare that to China, the most populace country in the world, which accounts for a mere 7.3% of global military expenditures.

It’s simple math – the biggest piece of the pie is the place to start cutting off slivers. The military budget is the biggest piece of the pie – and after a certain point, the amount of money we spend doesn’t make us more safe, but instead does just the opposite.  

When he asks how much taxes should rise, and on whom, and which ones would least hurt economic growth, we know his answer. He gave it to us at the start: He has no problem at all with taxes that disproportionately hit those who can least afford it. Conservatives like to pretend that taxing the rich would keep them from creating jobs. Yet during the Bush years — and he pushed through two rounds of tax cuts in his first term – American jobs disappeared, not to be replaced, every single year, we didn’t gain them.

Raising taxe
s on those at the bottom, on the other hand, hampers economic growth. The less money one has, the faster they spend it when it comes in. They buy groceries and clothes and gasoline, and they pay rent and utilities. Those are dollars that circulate through the economy locally and add a little stimulus at every stop along the way.

Samuelson concludes with the familiar palaver about means testing and raising the eligibility age for Social Security and Medicare – even though Social Security is not part of the general fund, and the cost of health care is the underlying problem that is causing our money woes.

If we actually did what he suggests and put off Medicare eligibility a couple more years, it would be a false economy. Imagine all the people who would be wiped out financially by medical bills between the ages of 65 and 67…assuring that many more seniors would pass his odious “means test” before accessing that which they paid into all their working lives.

*****

This post is part of a series I am writing as a blogging fellow for the Strengthen Social Security Campaign, a coalition of more than 270 national and state organizations dedicated to preserving and strengthening Social Security.

Missouri State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) filed his April quarterly campaign finance report with the Missouri Ethics Commission: on April 15th:

REPORT SUMMARY

CLINT ZWEIFEL FOR MISSOURI [pdf] 4/15/2011

2. All Monetary Contributions Received This Period $265,976.00

13. Total All expenditures made this period $47,359.42

27. Money On Hand at the close of this reporting period $361,219.20

[emphasis added]

That’s a respectable fundraising quarter for a State Treasurer reelection campaign.

Let’s take a look at some of the contributions:

CONTRIBUTIONS AND LOANS RECEIVED

CLINT ZWEIFEL FOR MISSOURI [pdf] 4/15/2011

13. TOTAL MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM PERSONS GIVING $100 OR LESS $850.00

CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED – SUPPLEMENTAL

Teamsters Local 610

11473 Schenk Drive

Maryland Heights MO 63043

12/17/2010

$1,000.00

Christine Guinther

PO Box 1195

Lake Sherwood MO 63357

Missouri National Education Association/Francis Ho —

President/Teacher

3/11/2011

$100.00

Deleta Williams

110 E. Hale Lake Road

Warrensburg MO 64093

None — Retired

3/23/2011

$100.00

Sandra Querry

1516 N Charlton Rd

Independence MO 64056-4106

None — Retired

12/18/2010

$250.00

Gracia and Mike Backer

2885 State Road TT

New Bloomfield MO 65063-1643

Division of Employment Security — Director

1/18/2011

$250.00

Glaziers Architectural Metal & Glassworkers Local

5916 Wilson Ave

Saint Louis MO 63110-2725

12/13/2010

$100.00

Hon. Teresa And Ken Hensley

PO Box 620

Raymore MO 64083

Cass County — Prosecuting Attorney

12/16/2010

$250.00

Teamsters Local Union #682 PAC

5730 Elizabeth Ave

Saint Louis MO 63110-2802

12/17/2010

$2,000.00

Teamsters 245 Political Action Fund

1850 E. Division St

Springfield MO 65803

12/17/2010

$3,000.00

Teamsters Joint Council 13 DRIVE Political Fund

9041 Riverview Drive

Saint Louis MO 63137

12/17/2010

$3,500.00

Teamsters Local 823 PAC

PO Box 1299

Joplin MO 64802

12/17/2010

$250.00

Teamsters Local 955 Political Action Fund

4501 Emanuel Cleaver II Blvd

Kansas City MO 64130

12/17/2010

$250.00

Teamsters Local 541 Political Action Fund

4501 Emanuel Cleaver II Blvd

Kansas City MO 64130-2368

12/17/2010

$1,500.00

Boilermakers Local 27

1547 S Broadway

Saint Louis MO 63104-3802

12/29/2010

$350.00

Gene Oakley

PO Box 249

Van Buren MO 63965

Carter County — Presiding Commissioner

2/2/2011

$250.00

Begonya Klumb

1208 West 62nd Street

Kansas City MO 64113

UMB

2/24/2011

$100.00

Asbestos Workers Local 27

400 S Main St

Independence MO 64050-3813

3/24/2011

$500.00

Luke Scavuzzo

PO Box 124

Harrisonville MO 64701-0124

Retired

3/27/2011

$100.00

Bobbie Lurie

2524 S Cedarbrook Ave

Springfield MO 65804-3412

None — Retired

12/3/2010

$500.00

Bill and Lois Cason

612 S 3rd St

Clinton MO 64735-2812

Cason Edgett Mahan & Lutjen — Attorney

12/13/2010

$100.00

Nancy Copenhaver

1512 Ridgeline Dr

Moberly MO 65270-3052

Randolph County — Part-time Deputy Clerk

12/13/2010

100.00

Kristi Kenney

221 S 2nd St

Clinton MO 64735-2103

Kristi L. Kenney and Associates — Attorney

12/18/2010

$100.00

Bricklayers’ Union No. 1 of Missouri Truth Committ

2000 Market St

Saint Louis MO 63103-2210

12/22/2010

$100.00

Laborers Union Local Number 42

3710 Enright Ave

Saint Louis MO 63108-3624

12/22/2010

$350.00

Gas Workers Local 5-6

7750 Olive Street Road

University City MO 63130

12/22/2010

$500.00

Jo Anna Dale

1315 W. Johns Blvd

Raymore MO 64083

Retired — Retired

3/16/2011

$50.00

Chastity Young

PO Box 227

East Lynne MO 64743-0227

Department of Labor and Industrial Relations

3/24/2011

$100.00

Committee to Elect Cathy Jolly

632 East 108th St

Kansas City MO 64131

3/24/2011

$100.00

Kanatzar For Prosecutor

1000 E. US Highway 24

Independence MO 64050

3/24/2011

$150.00

Justus For Missouri

PO Box 411464

Kansas City MO 64141

3/24/2011

$250.00

[emphasis added]

…Clint worked for Teamsters Local 688 in the St. Louis area before he was elected Treasurer…

Organized labor (working people!), attorneys, a few PACs here and there, some bank interests (after all, he is the State Treasurer), few business interests, and a significant number of current and former members of the General Assembly and current and former Democratic office holders. Those last groups say a lot.

Let’s take a look at some of the expenditures:

EXPENDITURES AND CONTRIBUTIONS MADE

CLINT ZWEIFEL FOR MISSOURI [pdf] 4/15/2011

A. Expenditures of $100 or Less by Category

Office Expenses $939.02

ITEMIZED EXPENDITURES OVER $100 SUPPLEMENTAL FORM

ITEMIZED EXPENDITURES ALL OVER $100

Enterprise Leasing Company

7226 Manchester Road

Saint Louis MO 63143

1/26/2011

Vehicle Rental

$49.16

AT&T Mobility

PO Box 650661

Dallas TX 75265-0661

3/7/2011

Wireless Service

$122.57

Actblue

PO Box 382110

Cambridge MA 02238

12/6/2010

Service Fee

$3.95

McCausland Auto

7003 Manchester

Saint Louis MO 63139

12/8/2010

Fuel

$10.00

Homewood Suites

8040 Clayton Road

Saint Louis MO 63117

11/15/2010

Lodging

121.46

MadCo Printing & Advertising

1715 S 11th St

Saint Louis MO 63104-3403

12/8/2010

Printing

$284.64

Almar Printing

7735 Wornall Rd

Kansas City MO 64114-1857

3/11/2011

Printing

$213.48

Hampton Inn

103 Cape West Parkway

Cape Girardeau MO 63701

12/3/2010

Lodging

$120.27

Hampton Inn

103 Cape West Parkway

Cape Girardeau MO 63701

12/3/2010

Lodging

$122.40

Hampton Inn

1751 NE Douglas St

Lees Summit MO 64086

12/6/2010

Lodging

$111.45

Hampton Inn

1751 NE Douglas St

Lees Summit MO 64086

12/6/2010

Lodging

$123.82

[emphasis added]

Fundraising expenses, a bit of travel, office expenses. That is a significantly low burn rate.

I don’t think anyone ran into the Lieutenant Governor in the lobby of the Hampton Inn, do you?

Via ThinkProgress’s Wonk Room:

Fifty senators – 46 Republicans and four Democrats – recently voted to deny the science of global warming and permanently ban limits on the carbon pollution that threatens the health of children and seniors. Not surprisingly, the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity group lent its voice in support of Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) dirty-energy amendment.

A ThinkProgress analysis finds that the senators voting for McConnell’s amendment raked in $1.8 million dollars from Koch Industries over the course of their careers. Not only did these senators ignore the will of 71 percent of voters who support the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to restrict emissions, but they put the 15 million people with asthma in their states at risk by voting to stop the EPA from limiting carbon pollution.

And guess which Missouri senator is prominent among those who make up what ThinkProgress calls the “Koch Head Caucus,” the “top ten recipients of Koch cash in the U.S. Senate”? If you guessed Senator Roy Blunt, you would be correct. Blunt has pulled in $96,700 in Koch subsidies – a sum that was evidently sufficient to tip the scales against the needs of the 511,717 Missourians who suffer from asthma. For some reason, Missouri voters saw fit to move Blunt from the House to the Senate, and now, apparently, it’s time for Daddy Blunt to resume doing business as usual in his new storefront.

Remember during the Senate campaign, when everything that might have disadvantaged Blunt’s corporate patrons was dubbed “job-killing” – no matter how tenuous the connection to jobs? I wonder how long we’ll have to wait to hear him express any concern about conditions that are potentially human-killing?  

Yesterday, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

CONTRIBUTION OF MORE THAN $5,000.00 RECEIVED BY ANY COMMITTEE FROM ANY SINGLE DONOR – TO BE FILED WITHIN 48 HOURS OF RECEIVING THE CONTRIBUTION

C001135 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI [pdf] [pdf] 4/21/2011

James Nutter Sr

1201 W. 66th St.

Kansas City, MO 64113

James B. Nutter & Co. Owner

4/20/2011

$25,000.00

[emphasis added]

That’s some vote of confidence in Governor Jay Nixon’s (D) reelection prospects, eh?

Our republican lieutenant governor and sort of gubernatorial candidate has hotel problems. Meanwhile, our Democratic governor keeps moving inexorably forward to 2012.

Here’s Rep. Todd Akin (R-2) wailing about the threat posed by the deficit:

It is imperative that we address the unsustainable growth in entitlement spending and debt service, which is now eating up the entirety of government revenue.  If we fail to address those facts we will be facing a total economic meltdown. …

Here’s Senator Roy Blunt doing his wooden imitation of someone wailing abut the threat posed by the deficit:

I believe we’re facing an historic crossroads in our nation’s long-term financial health. Voters sent a clear message last fall that they expect us to make the tough choices to rein in Washington’s out-of-control spending, and they expect us to do it now.

Keeping in mind that both of these gentlemen were members of Congress during the Bush years, take a careful look at the chart below (from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities) which outlines the individual drivers of the federal debt:

Let’s see – great big parts of the debt seem to be due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, although the Bush tax cuts are undoubtedly the biggest contributor. Both of these expensive exercises,  may I remind you, were heartily endorsed by Messrs. Akin and Blunt during their years in the GOP ascendancy. The other big piece of deficit pie seems to be the decline in revenue that resulted from the economy going smash. This event, as I am sure you remember, came about as a result of the mismanagement practiced by the regulation averse Bush administration, aided and abetted by a GOP congress heavily in hock to corporate interests that wanted to keep on playing without adult supervision. TARP and the stimulus (labeled “recovery measures” in the chart), favorite targets of GOPers like Akin and Blunt, were small potatoes in the deficit pantry.  

Tell me now, how do these folks who time and time again voted to raise the debt ceiling for Mr. Bush, justify sanctimonious little diatribes like those above? Or, envision putting all our economic welfare on the line in order to play politics with the debt ceiling when it’s the Democratic Mr. Obama in the White House? Of course, I already know the answer. As Jonathan Capehart said today in reference to the  graph above, memories are, lamentably, short, which, I would add, means that con artists like Akin, Blunt and their ilk seem to be able to get away with just about any made-up story they want to tell.  

Around the Midwest Missouri’s reputation appears to be close to that of Mississippi.

The photo. On the north side of the capitol in Jefferson City, Missouri on February 26, 2011.

Last night we received a communication from an editor at the Wisconsin State Journal asking for permission to use a photograph that appeared in one of our February pro-labor rally stories.

Rallies in Jefferson City, Saturday, Feb. 26th: organized labor or teabaggers – photos (February 26, 2011)

Voices of Organized Labor in Jefferson City on February 26, 2011 (February 27, 2011)

The request from the Wisconsin State Journal:

We are in the midst of a six-day series about the union/collective bargaining/budget bill going on at the state Capitol now.

Our story for Thursday is comparing Wisconsin to Missouri, and the differences in how state government and public employees are treated. I am writing to request permission to use one of the photos from your website from the Feb. 24th [26th] rally at your state Capitol…it’s the one of the woman with a shirt that reads: “Wisconsin teachers educated me…”

We responded that we would give them permission and sent them a higher resolution version of the image. The photo appeared along with the story this morning. They credited the photographer and Show Me Progress:

Labor’s last stand? Missouri a prototype for Walker’s policies

Labor’s last stand? Missouri a prototype for Walker’s policies [larger image]

Okay, you say, big deal, we got a photo credit with another news organization. That’s a story?

There’s more. Some of the comments accompanying the Wisconsin State Journal story are cringe inducing:

I live in WI for a reason, because it’s nice to live here. If I wanted to live in a dump like MO then I’d move to MO. I’m happy to pay for a nice state to live in.

Ouch.

I’ve known some people from Missouri and I dread the day we have an educational system like theirs.

Ouch.

Wow this state is turning into Missouri a.k.a the worst state in the area? I’m sure this makes the un-educated republicans very pleased to see education is being thrown on the back burner!! I swear that inbred fox valley area just keeps growing and growing like cancer!!!!!!

Hey! Two words. Joe McCarthy. Wisconsin had Joe McCarthy, Missouri has John Ashcroft. McCarthy didn’t sing, so we’ll call it a draw.

The point is ,we need to be more like Missouri- in fact we to out-Missouri Missouri. They have a lot a meth labs – we need more here! Poor education in Missouri ? I think with Scott Walker’s culling of our own LAZY, UNION THUG teachers we will be able to overtake them there too. Environment?, please. I’m thinking of changing my own oil over a storm drain today. Let it run in the lakes !! If we put our minds and hearts into it , we can do this. because in the end , our taxes will be lower , and that is truly what’s important.

And, our General Assembly just loves puppy mills.

I lived in Missouri for about a decade. It’s a fine state with mostly friendly people and has a lot going for it. I miss it in some ways. But there are reasons I moved back to Wisconsin eight years ago. One of them is the education system…

I think the teacher of the woman in the picture forgot to tell her you only capitalize the first word of each sentence. So much for the union teacher.

Uh, it’s a protest sign, not an essay. So much for critical thinking skills in Wisconsin. Score one for Missouri.

I prefer UW quality over U of Missouri. I prefer strong elementary and high school education and don’t care to lower our standards to Missouri. I prefer Wisconsin the way it is. I’m willing to pay for that. Walker please move to Missouri and implement your backward thinking ideological policies there.

We don’t want him. We’ve already have more than our share just like him here.

After the posturing is done reality will hit. Truth is we will be lucky to sink only to Missouri’s level…

That really hurts. We’re the low bar right before abandoning all hope?

…we can do better than Missouri- we want to be like Mississippi.

It’s nice to have standards.

She spelled all those words correctly? That’s surprising. I think a non-union teacher asked her to insert “of.”

Again, it’s a protest sign.

All that disdain hurts. After all, some of us live in Missouri.