Spotted yesterday on a teabaggermobile:

Because republican trickle down economics has always provided ponies, cotton candy, and chocolate sprinkles for all…

“…You know, who I am and, uh, the reasons I align myself with the Republican Party is a reflection of my background and experiences that I’ve had over the years…”

Hartzler Farm Subsidies — $774,489

Hartzler Farms Inc received payments totaling $774,489 from 1995 through 2009

Year Total USDA Subsidies

1995-2009

1995 $16,606, 1996 $28,070, 1997 $18,449, 1998 $32,765, 1999 $89,330, 2000 $89,261, 2001 $135,482, 2002 $24,517, 2003 $41,910, 2004 $61,708, 2005 $105,698, 2006 $38,598, 2007 $29,579, 2008 $39,878, 2009 $22,639

Total $774,489

“…my parents in January, would sit down and take several days, cash flowing the, uh, the year, projecting forward what they thought the yields on the crops were gonna be. The prices on the crops, looking at the expenses, the payments that we had, seeing if we’d be able to make it all work. And after a few years my mom and dad called my sister and I over and said, you need to sit here with us and learn this process…”

Those were evidently lessons learned well.

Yesterday, breathlessly, via Twitter:

@RepHartzler Rep. Vicky Hartzler

Check out my latest video from my speech about women in the economy http://tinyurl.com/3vrtqs9 19 Jul

Okay, we  will:

….Representative Vicky Hartzler (r): Thank you very much Mister Speaker and thank you, uh, my friend from, uh, Washington state. This is so exciting to get to be here tonight to get to visit with the American people about what it means to be a Republican woman.

And I am honored to represent Missouri’s fourth congressional district. And as I share with people about the great, uh, district that I get to represent, it’s a story of the heartland. Uh, the Missouri’s fourth district we are just made of small towns and farms and we work hard and we hunt on weekends and go to church on Sundays. And we just want the government to leave us alone.

And basically what we have seen over the years is Washington getting bigger and bigger and pushing out the private enterprise and, uh, threatening our basic freedoms. And so that’s what we have to push, uh, back against and restore America’s greatness.

You know, who I am and, uh, the reasons I align myself with the Republican Party is a reflection of my background and experiences that I’ve had over the years. I wanted to share just a few of those things with you.

I grew up on a farm near Archie, Missouri. And as my mom and my dad and my sister and I, we raised corn and soybeans and we had a lot of hogs and, uh, we had a cow calf operation. And one thing that strikes me very, uh, pivotable [sic] to my life is my parents in January, would sit down and take several days, cash flowing the, uh, the year, projecting forward what they thought the yields on the crops were gonna be. The prices on the crops, looking at the expenses, the payments that we had, seeing if we’d be able to make it all work. And after a few years my mom and dad called my sister and I over and said, you need to sit here with us and learn this process. Well, I can tell you, as a little kid, that wasn’t the most exciting way to spend our evenings. But, it was a wonderful experience because we learned how hard it was to make everything work, and to pay for everything, and to live within your means. And I learned that you have to, you can’t spend more than you take in. And I learned fiscal responsibility. That is so much a part of the Republican party and what we are here trying to do is to restore that. Because Washington keeps spending money that it doesn’t have. And we can’t do that at home. We don’t do it on our farms, we don’t do in our businesses. And, uh, it’s time that Washington learned some lessons from the heartland and from and from ordinary families like mine.

Something else I learned on the farm is that, uh, hard work pays off, usually. Course there’s a lot of things dealing with weather and other things you can’t control. But, but one thing you can’t control lately is the amount of government regulations that’s threatening agriculture….

“…Uh, the Missouri’s fourth district we are just made of small towns and farms and we work hard and we hunt on weekends and go to church on Sundays. And we just want the government to leave us alone…”

Cass County, Missouri Summary Information

$74.9 million in subsidies 1995-2010.

$43.5 million in commodity subsidies.

$12.6 million in crop insurance subsidies.

$12.4 million in conservation subsidies.

$6.30 million in disaster subsidies.

Ten percent collected 74 percent of all subsidies.

Amounting to $45.9 million over 16 years.

Top 10%: $12,961 average per year between 1995 and 2010.

Bottom 80%: $274 average per year between 1995 and 2010.

[emphasis added]

4th District Of Missouri (Rep. Vicky Hartzler) Summary Information

$1.16 billion in subsidies 1995-2010.

$837 million in commodity subsidies.

$ in crop insurance subsidies.

$220 million in conservation subsidies.

$107 million in disaster subsidies.

Ten percent collected 71 percent of all subsidies.

Amounting to $827 million over 16 years.

Top 10%: $16,878 average per year between 1995 and 2010.

Bottom 80%: $412 average per year between 1995 and 2010.

[emphasis added]

“…And I learned that you have to, you can’t spend more than you take in. And I learned fiscal responsibility. That is so much a part of the Republican party and what we are here trying to do is to restore that…”

Really?:

The consequences of the last republican administration.

“…That is so much a part of the Republican party and what we are here trying to do is to restore that…”

I hope not.

“…Because Washington keeps spending money that it doesn’t have. And we can’t do that at home…”

Unless your home gets $774,000.00 in agriculture subsidies from Washington.

“…And, uh, it’s time that Washington learned some lessons from the heartland and from and from ordinary families like mine…”

Crop Summary for Hartzler Farms Inc

Crop Payments 1995-2010

Corn Subsidies $278,407

Soybean Subsidies $212,424

Wheat Subsidies $168,044

Livestock Subsidies $13,188

Sorghum Subsidies $6,408

Barley Subsidies $273

Because all ordinary families in the heartland are worth somewhere between four and fifteen million dollars?

And coming in at number seven out of 2,364 for agriculture subsidies in Cass County, Missouri?:

Total USDA Subsidies in Cass County, Missouri, 1995-2010

Recipients of Total USDA Subsidies from farms in Cass
County, Missouri totaled $74,879,000 in from 1995-2010.

7 Hartzler Farms Inc Harrisonville, MO 64701 $797,377

[emphasis added]

“…And, uh, it’s time that Washington learned some lessons from the heartland and from and from ordinary families like mine…”

Indeed.

Missouri State Representative Cynthia “Are there no prisons? Are there no work houses?” Davis (r) continues to have a not so good, very bad month. Some of our previous coverage:

Missouri State Rep. Cynthia Davis (r – Pluto): There IS such a thing as a free lunch

Missouri State Representative Cynthia Davis (r): the Mozart of cluelessness

An unsigned lead editorial in the dead trees edition of today’s Warrensburg Daily Star-Journal takes Representative Davis to task for her views on the summer meals program:

Rep. Davis shows no understanding of poor

Rep. Cynthia Davis, R-O’Fallon, in a newsletter states “hunger can be a positive motivator” for getting people to find jobs.

Davis must never have heard of Abraham Maslow. In 1943, he wrote “A Theory of Human Motivation.” He articulated ideas that “oft were thought but ne’er so well expressed.” In making his point about why humans behave in basic ways, he produced what became known as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. At the base of his pyramid are a person’s most basic needs – to breathe, to drink, to eat… To be plain, to eat is to live. Food is for life, not for motivation.

Davis no doubt did not realize that motivation is best described as an award from peers, a bonus from the boss, a kiss from a spouse, a hug from a child. She must have missed Maslow’s lessons while living in her nice suburban St. Louis home, far from those low-income people in the big cities who so need her to provide proper motivation…

…May Davis never know hunger, but if ever she does, she can dine on that foot in her mouth.

Ouch. That’s gonna leave a mark. Go. Read the whole thing.

Now, the question for Representative Denny Hoskins (r – noun, verb, CPA) is, since your home town paper stated, “…for Davis to head the House Special Standing Committee on Children and Families seems about as useful to those children and families as putting Trick “Pass Me the Blunt and Let Me Roll It” Daddy in charge of the state’s drug prevention programs…”, should she continue in that House leadership role? We’d certainly like to know if you endorse her views and her chairmanship of that committee, Representative Hoskins.

Sarah Steelman (r), kind of not quite yet candidate for the open 2010 Missouri U.S. Senate seat, had this to say today via Twitter:

Wow just landed in dc counted 13 construction cranes around the capitol. No recession here – wonder why? about 2 hours ago from web

I had no idea that anecdotal counts of construction cranes were a leading economic indicator. Let’s see what the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics actually show:

…Table 3.  Civilian labor force and unemployment by state and selected area, seasonally adjusted

(Numbers in thousands)

District of Columbia

Civilian labor force

Jan. 2008 – 330.6

Nov. 2008 – 332.6

Dec. 2008 – 332.8

Jan. 2009 – 332.3

Unemployed – Number

Jan. 2008 – 19.6

Nov. 2008 – 26.6

Dec. 2008 – 27.4

Jan. 2009 – 30.8

Unemployed – Percent of labor force

Jan. 2008 – 5.9

Nov. 2008 – 8.0

Dec. 2008 – 8.2

Jan. 2009 – 9.3…

…Missouri

Civilian labor force

Jan. 2008 – 3,017.9

Nov. 2008 – 3,014.0

Dec. 2008 – 3,017.5

Jan. 2009 – 3,008.5

Unemployed – Number

Jan. 2008 – 165.0

Nov. 2008 – 204.9

Dec. 2008 – 213.0

Jan. 2009 – 241.3

Unemployed – Percent of labor force

Jan. 2008 – 5.5

Nov. 2008 – 6.8

Dec. 2008 – 7.1

Jan. 2009 – 8.0…

[emphasis added]

A question for Sarah Steelman: If you think a place with 9.3% unemployment (Washington, D.C.) isn’t in a recession do you think a place with 8.0% unemployment (Missouri) isn’t in a recession, too? Just asking. After all, you’re supposed to have a degree in economics:

Sarah Steelman was born and raised in Jefferson City, Missouri. She graduated from Jefferson City High School, and then earned the degrees of B.A. in History and Masters in Economics from the University of Missouri.

She then worked as an Economist for the Missouri Department of Revenue, Deputy Director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, adjunct professor of Economics at Lincoln University, Executive Director of Big Brothers and Big Sisters in Rolla, and an investment broker for AG Edwards….

[emphasis added]

Maybe she should ask Mizzou for her money back.

That republican Senate primary is going to be fun to watch. Between the two of them there isn’t enough coherent thought, if it was condensed into gasoline, to run a tiny mini bike around the inside of a generic doughnut shaped cereal product.