Previously:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): Clinton town hall – April 5, 2012 – part 1 (April 5, 2012)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): Clinton town hall – April 5, 2012 – part 2 (April 6, 2012)

Public Priorities: Deficit Rising, Terrorism Slipping

….the federal budget deficit stands out as the fastest growing policy priority for Americans, largely because of growing Republican concerns about the issue. In the national survey, conducted Jan. 11-16 among 1,502 adults, 69% rate reducing the budget deficit as a top priority – the most in any of the Pew Research Center’s annual policy priority updates going back to 1994.

The number of Republicans rating the budget deficit as a top priority has spiked to 84% from 68% a year ago and just 42% five years ago. Meanwhile Republicans are placing far less emphasis on terrorism, which was their top priority in every year between 2002 and 2008….

That republican concern must depend on who occupies the White House.

EPA Power Plant Rule Drives a Stake Through the Heart of Big Coal

….The new rules are the culmination of the hotly contested Bush-era Supreme Court ruling that carbon dioxide is indeed a pollutant as defined by the Clean Air Act and that, consequently, the EPA has the authority and duty to regulate it….

….The Supreme Court decision essentially forced the EPA to issue these rules; it was just a question of when.  And rising coal prices and the plummeting cost of abundant natural gas prices meant that new coal plants were pretty much dead already….

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) speaking with constituents before the start of her town hall in Clinton, Missouri on April 5, 2012.

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) has scheduled town halls and “meet and greet” events across the 4th Congressional District. The event in Clinton, Missouri on Thursday was advertised as a “meet and greet” as opposed to the town halls in some of the other locations. This event was effectively a scaled down town hall meeting.

The transcript of Representative Hartzler’s (r) remarks before the question and answer portion of the event:

Eric Bohl, Chief of Staff, Representative Hartzler: All right. Thank you everyone for coming today. Um, I’m Eric Bohl. I’m Vicky’s Chief of Staff….Um, Vicky’s, uh, just wanted to say a few words to you, tell you some of the things she’s been working on, but most importantly, listen to you and see what you guys are interested in, worried about, and upset about, concerned about. So, uh, Vicky’s going to tell you a few things and then feel free to ask any questions you’d like….

….Representative Vicky Hartzler (r): ….Who brought all the cookies? Raise your hand if you brought cookies.

Voice: I don’t think they’re here. [laugh, laughter]

Representative Hartzler (r): Nobody’s here. They brought their cookies and they left. Well. [laugh] Well. [crosstalk]

Voice: They’re working.

Representative Hartzler (r): [inaudible] Huh.

Voice: They’re working.

Representative Hartzler (r): They’re, yeah. Well, let’s thank [xxxx] for helping organize. [applause] I want you to know we’re doing eighteen of these town halls the next week and a half. And we’re gonna be getting out and about. And I think you’re the only county that has goodies and treats here, so. [laughter] You ought to feel very special and thank [xxxx] for that, ’cause most other counties don’t go this far to make everybody feel welcome, so. This is great….

[….]

And this is what it’s all about. Um, it’s why I feel so passionately about serving you, working hard. It’s not only to help our current generation but to help our future generations. And to make sure that our children and grandchildren have the future as bright as we had. And have the amount of opportunity we had.

So, um, I’ve been very honored to be there working for you now, little over a year. And, uh, thought I’d just give you a little update and then listen like, like Eric [Bohl] said. Well these are just as much, uh, for me to listen to you as for me to talk to you, so. But just a little update, some things we’ve been working on.

Uh, we’re trying to address some of the main concerns that people have. And one of them is our national debt. Course we have over fifteen trillion dollars in debt. Uh, and that’s because we’re spending more money than we have. Uh, it’s not, not good. We can’t do that at home. We don’t do it in our businesses. And Washington’s been doing it for a long time. And it’s a non-partisan problem, I mean, there, uh, many presidents now, Republican and Democrat, and Congresses have been spending more money than we have. And so, we’re trying to, uh, reverse that. We’re trying to get us back to a balanced budget. Isn’t that a novel concept? [laugh, laughter] Yeah. So we do that at home, we do it at our farms, our businesses, and, uh, Washington needs to as well. In Missouri we have a balanced budget amendment in our Constitution. And that forces our state reps and state senators to have to balance every year. And it, and that makes, they have to make some tough choices sometimes. But, because of that Missouri is in the black, uh, we have a very good credit rating here, we’re doing very well. Uh, not so much in, in [laugh] D.C. I mean, do you remember what happened to our credit rating last year? We got downgraded. And, rightly so, really, because we owe way too much money. And, uh, so we, we’re trying to reverse that. A couple things we’re doing, I cosponsored a balanced budget amendment and we are trying to get that changed. Forty-nine states have some form of a balanced budget amendment, Washington doesn’t. Uh, and, order to change the Constitution you have to have two thirds vote in both the House and the Senate, pass it, and then it goes out to the states, you remember from your social studies classes years ago, and then three fourths of the state legislatures would have to ratify it. We came about five votes short, uh, of passing, getting the two thirds that we needed in the House. So, unfortunately we weren’t able to pass that, but we’re gonna keep trying to do that ’cause I think that makes sense. Uh, some say, well, we don’t need a balanced budget amendment, you know, Washington can live within its means. Yet, I think, clearly, the proof’s in the pudding and you can see it’s not. So, we need it.

But, in the mean time we’ve been, uh, kind of promoting a budget that actually balances and gets to balance. Novel concept. Uh, we voted last week for a, a budget in the House that gets us to a balanced budget in about the year twenty fifty. ‘Course this problem hasn’t just come about overnight, uh, I don’t think we’re gonna solve it overnight. But we gonna start moving in the right direction. Uh, I also supported a, a budget that would have balanced in five years. A little more aggressive but it’s doable and I think the sooner the better myself. We didn’t get enough votes to pass that, but we did get the one that balances in a, a twenty, twenty forty-nine somewhere again.

Uh, the problem is, have you heard about the Senate, what they’re doing with the budget? Been over three years since they’ve passed a budget. And Harry Reid just says we’re not gonna vote on it. We’re not gonna do it. Which, that has been, to be honest, very frustrating, uh, for me. You know, I thought people are supposed to
abide by the Constitution. But, that’s not happening, I don’t believe. Uh, and so that forces us to have to do continuing resolutions just to, you know, fund the government for a short amount of time at the end of the year. Uh, at the end of fiscal year is in to September. So, I’m afraid you might have to see that again. We passed our budget last week. You know, keep watching and see if the Senate does anything. Or, if you have an opinion, please call Senator Blunt, Senator McCaskill and let ’em know. Okay, we want you to pass the budget. That will be very helpful. [laugh]

But, anyway, so we’re trying balance the budget by, by cutting the amount of spending, stopping the runaway spending, but at the same time, increasing the income. There’s two ways to balance the budget, right. The other piece is to get our economy growing again. We’ve got almost, uh, we’ve had thirty-six months know of over eight percent unemployment. And, so, when you have, you know, what, full employment is around four percent they say, so if you have that many people out of work, obviously, that’s a problem. Uh, not only is it just hard at, a lot of hurting people, lot of hurting families, uh, but it hurts the economy because people are using more government services during that time, more unemployment, more Medicaid, other services. And they’re, they’re not paying taxes. So, if we can get more people back to work then, you know, there’s gonna be less expenses, but also there are gonna be, uh, paying taxes again. And it’s just better for everybody.

So we passed over thirty bills in the House to try to get our economy going again, mainly with the idea of removing the barriers that’s keeping small businesses from hiring people. I go out and spend a lot of time visiting with the businesses in the fourth district and I say, how come you’re not hiring, what do we need to do. And it basically is pretty sad, they say a lot of it is because of what’s been going on in Washington. Such as, the over regulations, there’s just one story after another, various onerous regulations that are hurting, uh, the businesses. Over taxation, uh, too much litigation, they don’t know what their health care costs are gonna be, they don’t know what their taxes are gonna be, they don’t know what the fuel costs are gonna be, their energy costs, and so they say, because of this uncertainty we’re just gonna hold on to our money and, you know, see what happens. And, we’re not gonna expand or grow our business until we know more what, uh, what the rules are gonna be. So, our bills have pushed back on some of the regulations, uh, tried to lower the corporate tax rate. Now we’re the largest, at the largest tax rate in the country, in the world now, uh, as of a, as of Sunday. We were number two, uh, but Japan lowered their corporate tax rate so now, you know, not a very good distinction, but we have the highest corporate tax rate in the world. And I think that needs to be lower so we can be competitive. We want companies to come back here to America. And, so we’re trying to do everything we can to make a business friendly environment here in our country.

So, anyway, and lastly we’ve been working on, uh, trying to reduce the energy costs and the gas prices. Uh, because it’s unbelievable how they doubled, uh, since just the last three year, since President Obama came into office. I think, uh, one way we can do that is to increase our energy independence here at home. And to use those resources our country’s been blessed with. You talk to, uh, my Representative new friend from North Dakota and you hear what’s going on there it’s unbelievable. It’s like the gold rush days. They tell stories about how they’re building homes and, and towns as fast as they can and they’re shipping in workers. Because they’re, they’re tapping into the Bakken, uh, oil reserves there and [inaudible] previously had shale and it was hard to get to. Now they know how to extract that oil. They are pumping all kinds of oil out there.

We’ve got other places in the country like that and we need to get them permits so they can start drilling there as well. So let’s use the gas, natural gas we have, let’s use the petroleum we have here, let’s use the coal. We’re, eighty-five percent of Missouri’s, uh, electricity comes from coal. And yet the EPA last week issued a ruling that says, uh, that you can, new, new coal place, based plower plants, say that four times. [laughter] Anyway, they can’t, uh, basically be built anymore in this country because they would have to do this carbon sequestration which is very expensive. It’s still almost experimental technology, it’s not cost effective and because of that there basically will be no new coal powered plants in America. And the ones that are here are being subjected to all kinds of new regulations they have to do. So, doesn’t make sense to me. We’ve got lots of coal, let’s use it. We can do it clean, we can do it efficiently, we can do it economically.

Uh, so we’re trying to free up the amount of energy used here in America, think that’ll, that’ll reduce our, our costs and help hopefully drive down our gas prices. But, that’s very, very important.

[….]

Previously: Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): Clinton town hall – April 5, 2012 – part 1 (April 5, 2012)

The estate tax doesn’t tax the dead, just wealthy socialites

….dead people are not being taxed via the estate tax. When someone dies and passes on millions to their heirs, they’re not being taxed because, well, they’re dead.

However, when an American inherits millions of dollars from a recently departed loved one, they are being taxed under the estate tax. Why? Because this is income that they “earn” simply by being born lucky, and we do tax income in this country.

Should middle-class Americans pay taxes on every dollar they earn by working for a living while wealthy socialites who simply inherit their income get a pass?…

Fox’s Henneberg uncritically quoted dubious claims that estate tax would harm family farms and small businesses

….an October 2008 report by the Tax Policy Center (TPC) estimated that in 2008, only 15,500 estates — or 0.6 percent of all that year’s decedents — will owe any estate tax and stated that “relatively few estates [that contain small businesses or family-owned farms] owe any estate tax….”

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) during the question and answer portion of her town hall in Clinton, Missouri on April 5, 2012.

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) has scheduled town halls and “meet and greet” events across the 4th Congressional District. The event in Clinton, Missouri yesterday was advertised as a “meet and greet” as opposed to the town halls in some of the other locations. This event was effectively a scaled down town hall meeting.

The transcript of the question and answer session:

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r): ….Uh, so, I think we had a question earlier, then I’m just gonna open it up. Hi there, how are you? [laugh] Uh, she had a question about [inaudible] the estate tax and I wanted to make sure and, and touch on that.

There are a lot of tax increases that are expected to take place January one unless we stop them. And one of ’em is the estate tax, is gonna revert back to its former status, which is only exempting one million dollars worth of assets. And then anything beyond that would be taxed at fifty-five percent. Now, if you’re a farmer or a small business owner this is absolutely devastating. There is no way you could pass on your farm to your kids with a tax like that. ‘Cause if you know anything about farming, there’s not a lot of cash sitting around, but that asset is the land. And so if the children inherit the farm, the farm from their parents or their grandparents and their half, they only exempt a million dollars worth and the rest they have to pay fifty-five percent tax on to Uncle Sam they’re gonna have to sell the farm. And, it’s just wrong. I think it’s, you know, almost highway robbery because that farm family has paid taxes their whole life, they paid property taxes, they paid income taxes, and then the notion that just because you die the government is owed over half per, half of the value of your assets. What, that doesn’t make sense at all. So I have cosponsored a bill to, to stop, do away with, some people call it the estate tax, I call it the death tax. Uh, to do away with it, ’cause I just think it’s wrong…

…And we’re gonna have quite a battle end of the year trying to take care of that, not only that, but the other tax in, increases such as the child tax credit. Right now there’s a thousand dollar per, uh, child, uh, tax credit. That goes down to five hundred dollars. Uh, there’s right now, the adoption tax credit that goes way down after the first of the year. And also increases on capital gains and dividends and, and, uh, investment income that, uh, seniors, uh, rely on. So, we’re gonna, we’re gonna be fighting that battle. But, that’s kind of the update. Does that answer your question, or?

Question: Yes, would you say again what it goes down to?

Representative Hartzler (r): It goes down to, for what, the estate tax?

Question: Yes.

Representative Hartzler (r): Yeah, only exempting one million dollars per person worth of assets and then the value of everything else will be fifty-five percent you have to pay tax. So, if your farm is worth three million dollars or whatever the, uh, one million be exempt, but then your kids would have to pay fifty-five percent of the value of two million dollars. So, over a million dollars worth of taxes they’d have to pay in to the government. And, so, it’s awful, I mean, nobody has that type of cash around. But, anyway.

Hi there.

Voice: Hi.

Representative Hartzler (r): So what else is on your mind? I’m here to, to listen more than, uh, than to talk. So, do you have any questions, comments? Yes.

Question: It’s a two part question.

Representative Hartzler (r): All right. And speak up or I’ll repeat it.

Question: There was a law passed just recently that makes it a federal crime, a felony, to protest against anybody that has Secret Service protection.  Okay, that means you can’t protest against the President.

Representative Hartzler (r): Um, hmm.

Question: And I understand, I don’t, did you vote for it and why?

Representative Hartzler (r): Sure. There, I’m glad you brought that up. We are getting all kinds of emails, phone calls about that. There is a lot of misinformation about that bill. And part of it is fueled by the ACLU, is, uh, putting that out and it is, it is not true. If that were true obviously I would support stop it, or freedom of speech or anything like that. All the bill did was it closed a loophole. I think like three people voted against it in the House, it was almost a, uh, you know, a consent bill. It was, uh, to make sure that the President had the same amount of protection when he’s in the White House as when he’s in a hotel. Uh, because right now it’s illegal if the President is staying in a hotel traveling and Secret Service has closed it off. If someone breaks in the can be arrested. But the law said only temporary residence. And they realized a permanent residence, the White House, didn’t have the same protection as when he was in the, the, uh, at a hotel traveling. So, it just changed it so that permanent, you can’t, it’s illegal to break into the White House or jump over the fence.

Uh, that’s what, uh, everybody I talked to, uh, you know, has said before the vote. And then afterwards we had a lot of, you know, people have been saying this ’cause it’s been going around the Internet that it takes away your free speech rights, but I double checked with attorneys and, and legal experts and they tell me that’s not the case. Uh, like I said, there’s a lot of misinformation. But, trust me, if, if it turns out there is a problem with that, I mean, I’ll be the first to vote against. I did support it at the time. It was, like I said, not controversial. Nobody called. I mean, it was, everybody said, oh, it was a simple bill, fix a, a, oversight in the statutes, so. But, keep, keep, uh, keep me apprised. If you hear anything different, if there comes problems in the, if, you know, somebody gets arrested for protesting, using a free speech, let me know. ‘Cause we’ll, we’ll vote to try and change it if we need to. You bet. Thanks for bringing that up.

What’s number one on your mind? If you, if, are you con, if you wake up in the morning, you’re concerned about the federal government, what is it? Is it the debt, is it gas prices, is it, I don’t know, whatever it is, x, y, z? Yeah.

Question: I have a, a friend that worked at a company for over seven years, moved
out of the locality to another state thinking that this person would have a job. To make a long story short, the job didn’t go through. The person lost all the health benefits. Everything.  [Representative Hartzler: “Oh, no.”]  And the only job that this person could have, find in this new locality was a part time grocery store job. Which, due to, uh, circumstances, um, this person wasn’t able to physically do it for over twenty hours a week. So, anyway, this person couldn’t get any health insurance. My question is, why is there such red tape for, to get insurance and, and this person can’t afford to go to the doctor. So, the doctor is telling this person to file with the state and the state is coming back and saying that unless you earn x amount of dollars you can’t have a, a small life insurance policy, they have to, uh, do away with any savings that they have, like an annuity, which is under, like, five thousand dollars.

Why is there so much red tape to get a few dollars, and more or less be penniless and not have, be able to even find a, a job that they’re interested in. Because, and then, Washington gives millions, wastes millions of dollars with this GSA conference that was in Las Vegas. [Representative Hartzler: “Hmm.”] All that waste. They don’t have to go through all the red tape. What is the fairness in that?

Why are they out to get the poor? Every chance, if programs are eliminated, state or local, it’s always, they take it away from the poor, the women, the children. And why are they giving free contraceptives to women that afford, that can afford to go to these prestigious four year colleges?

Representative Hartzler (r): Yeah. Lot of, lot of important points, uh, you made there. Lot of important questions. Uh, I think, first of all, I heard about this conference, somebody, uh, yesterday was telling me about that. That’s ridiculous. [inaudible] We have too much waste, clearly, in the federal government. That’s why we’re trying to stop the waste. It’s ridiculous. Our tax dollars shouldn’t be going to pay for some conferences and parties and stuff. I mean, that’s, that is just terrible. So, I disagree with that. I’m gonna continue to try to advocate in Washington that we don’t waste money on, on lavish things like that. We shouldn’t be doing that.

Uh, but secondly, as far as access to health care, and it is very hard. It’s a very, uh, a tricky subject. Of course, the President came forward with his plan a couple of years ago to address that. I, I disagree with that, the, the solution he came up with because I think it’s a government takeover of it, but I think some of the concerns were, were real. People are having trouble access health care, it’s not affordable. Uh, I prefer a more, a private sector approach. And cosponsoring bills that would help bring down the cost, make it more affordable by increasing competition, uh, across state lines, uh, [inaudible] some medical my, malpractice insurance reforms, so doctors don’t feel obligated to do so much defensive medicine which drives up the cost. But, uh, the bottom, one of the, some of the, some of those things will be helpful but I think what you, bottom line what your friend need is, uh, a good job. Again. And that goes back to our issues I was raising a, a minute ago about how our unemployment is too high in this country. And we need to make a, help our economy grow, make a environment friendly so business owners feel confident hiring and expanding and keeping more people back to work. And then they can, will have the health care benefits and the other programs. So, it, I know it’s, it’s a tough time right now and that’s why were working hard to try to keep people jobs and get them back to work. So, I certainly empathize with your friend and hope that they’re able to find a good job again soon. So, that’s, that’s really tough time.

Voice: Congresswoman, I appreciate her question, but I, I didn’t hear the answer. What is she supposed to do until she gets a good job? Isn’t that your question?

Question: And, and this person, this friend, is retirement age. [Voice: “Right.”] [Voice: “Yeah.”] She, this person is over sixty years old.

Voice: She has no health insurance.

Question: She has no health insurance. She can’t, she can’t afford to go out and get it.

Representative Hartzler (r): Yeah. Some of the, the plans that, uh, I support, uh, look at, looking at making more statewide pools and expanding that, uh, so people could pay into it and access, uh, health care. So that’s one idea out there so that everybody could get health care, uh, and pay into it. There’s association health plans that are very, uh, another idea that people have so that you join, belong to AARP, you know, they could pool together and offer their own health insurance. And, you know, that makes sense. So, there’s a lot of ideas out there, I think, so that everybody can access health insurance. I think we need to go that direction because health insurance is very important, uh, very, very much so, so.

What other questions do you have? [pause] Everybody bashful now, now?

Question: Congresswoman, I, I came today with an agenda item. I received your flyer and I see this young man over here. Who paid for this flyer?

Voice: We did. [Voices: “We did.” “We did.”]

Question: Taxpayers. [Voice: “We did.”]

Representative Hartzler (r): Yeah [inaudible].

Voice: We did.

Question: Yeah. [Voice: “We did.”] How much did we pay for mailing privileges since January, July one of two, twenty eleven? Do you know?

Representative Hartzler (r): I don’t know, but I bet you do.

Question: Over two hundred thousand dollars [crosstalk] to send stuff.

Representative Hartzler (r): I knew you would know. I could tell. [laugh]

Question: It, it’s in the Congressional Record.

Representative Hartzler (r): I know. I know, it’s open record. Anybody can get it.

Question: And I’ve asked to take my name off the list ’cause we’re gonna save thirty point oh three six cents next time this mailer comes out.  [Representative Hartzler ( r): “Okay.”] If we did that with every member of Congress how much money would we save? I didn’t do that math. But if we’re gonna look for cuts why don’t we cut this type of stuff. I’m sorry, this is a political mailer. You could send me a little postcard and ask for the same information you get here.

Representative Hartzler (r): I, I hear you. And, um, we’ll certainly consider that, you know. The budget, though, we don’t have a, a slide up here, but I wanted to show, the budget is so out of whack, not that we can’t save money with that, but we could totally shut down all of, uh, the departments in Washington, including Congress as well as the national defense and we still wouldn’t have a balanced budget. So, it’s that serious and, uh, you know, we did take a five percent, I took a five percent cut in my office budget when I first took office. This year we cut seven percent. So, we have taken steps to cut, uh, cut our own budgets and we felt like, I felt like we need to lead by example. If we’re gonna ask other ar, uh, departments to cut then we need to be the first to do that.  And, and so we did. So we do our spending less money than before, but I think it’s important to communicate with the, the people, uh, of the district and to let them know where their offices are. You’ll see on that flyer we have our phone numbers for the offices are. We have our, uh, email address, the web site, and we get between five hundred and a thousand emails and phone calls a week from people this, on, district. And that’s because that’s what we’re here to do. We’re here to serve you, work for you. And so we try to help people get their VA benefits or whatever it is. So, uh, I think there’s some value for the taxpayer knowing where these phone numbers are, how they can access us, and so that’s part of it. But, I hear what you’re saying.

Question: I was wrong, it was a hundred and sixty-seven or so thousand doll
ars.

Representative Hartzler (r): Yeah. All right. Thank you. Yes, sir.

Question: I need to leave, but I need to make a comment, if you don’t mind. Okay?

Representative Hartzler (r): Sure.

Question: How much did Obama’s flyover on New York City when it called out all the red [inaudible]. How much did, uh, [crosstalk]…

Voice: Let’s find the ways to cut it out. [crosstalk]

Question: …Harry Reid take to the, uh, the wind plant out in, in Nevada which is Pelosi’s brother in law?

Voice: Let’s find the ways to cut it out. [crosstalk]

Question: Three hundred and forty-seven billion dollars. Point made.

Representative Hartzler (r): Okay. Thank [crosstalk] you.

Question: Your neck, you are more interested in pennies, we’re talking about dollars, folks.

Voice: But we start with pennies, do we not, Conngresswoman?

Question: Uh, you look at dollars, too, fella. My god. [inaudible voices, crosstalk]

Representative Hartzler (r): Okay. Thank you, thank you.

Staffer: Congresswoman.

Representative Hartzler (r): Yes.

Staffer: We’re at the end of our time.

Representative Hartzler (r): Oh kay. Okay, one more. Yes. Yes.

Question: I just wanted to compliment your local office….

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) has scheduled eighteen town halls and “meet and greet” events across the 4th Congressional District over the first week and a half of April. The event I attended in Clinton, Missouri today was advertised as a “meet and greet” as opposed to the town halls in some of the other locations. This event was effectively a scaled down town hall meeting, but since the attendance was so sparse, if you had a question you were going to have an opportunity to ask it.

Representative Hartzler worked the room (that didn’t take very long), then spoke for approximately twelve minutes, then took questions for another eighteen or so minutes.

Before Representative Hartzler arrived a few individuals spoke with staff, including everyone within earshot, about some of their concerns.

Among the first to arrive was an older couple. The gentleman stated, “One thing I’m concerned about is military absentee ballots. The Democrats did all they could to keep these folks from voting.”

I kid you not.

Later, a woman accompanied by her teenage son, said, “Gas prices. The price is too high. The government is hoarding gas. Is that true? Schools are cutting back sports. They can’t afford to get teams to places.”

Apparently, insufficient tax revenue for the school district (either due to the economic downturn, or an inability to get people to vote for tax increases, or both) has nothing to do with those cuts.

We’re doomed.

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) speaking with a constituent before the start of her town hall in Clinton, Missouri on April 5, 2012.

Some of the twenty or so individuals attending Representative Vicky Hartzler’s (r) Clinton, Missouri town hall.

Today Herschel Young (take a guess which political party) filed again to run in the 4th Congressional District. From the Missouri Secretary of State:

U.S. Representative – District 4

Democrat

Teresa Hensley PO BOX 620

RAYMORE MO 64083 3/14/2012

2:58 p.m.

Republican

Vicky Hartzler 30218 S. PLEASANT RIDGE RD.

HARRISONVILLE MO 64701 3/2/2012

2:18 p.m.

Libertarian

Herschel L. Young 17100 E STATE ROUTE 2

HARRISONVILLE MO 64701 3/26/2012

10:30 a.m.

[emphasis added]

That would be three different political parties in two years.

Previously:

New Cass County Presiding Commisioner Herschel Young (r) removed from office by court order (January 4, 2011)

Cass County: whether you vote or don’t even bother to try you get the government you deserve (February 3, 2011)

11CA-CV00001 State of Mo Ex Inf T Hensley v. Herschel L Young (February 4, 2011)

“…Respondent is ousted from the office of Presiding Commissioner, Cass County, Missouri.” (February 18, 2011)

Gov. Jay Nixon (D) appoints Luke Scavuzzo (D) to the Cass County Commission (January 11, 2012)

Herschel Young (r) or (D), choose which axe to grind (February 28, 2012)

Another in a long list of reasons why politics in Missouri is always so interesting (March 6, 2012)

Herschel Young (r) listed as a disqualified candidate in the 4th Congressional District (March 8, 2012)

Herschel Young (r): a letter from the Missouri Democratic Party (March 11, 2012)

I buzzed over to Belton for a classy well attended event for Teresa Henley for Congress.  

From a town hall in Warrensburg, Missouri, August 10, 2011:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town hall in Warrensburg, part 1 (August 11, 2011)

….Representative Hartzler: Okay, let me [crosstalk]…

Voice: You all were supposed to [inaudible] [crosstalk]on jobs when you came in office. [voice: “Yeah.”]

Representative Hartzler: Wait, wait, wait [crosstalk] just a minute.

Voice: Jobs!

Voice: That’s what you said.

Voice: You said you were jobs, you didn’t [crosstalk] say anything about fighting the President.

Representative Hartzler: All right [crosstalk]. Listen, listen [crosstalk]…

Voice: When, when you ran your campaign [crosstalk] the only thing we heard was jobs, jobs, jobs [crosttalk], jobs, jobs. [crosstalk] You get into office and the only thing we hear out of you now is abortion [inaudible].

Voice: We were gonna fix it, that’s what you said.

Voice: You said you were a teabagger and that you were gonna fight the President. Why?

Voice: Quiet down and listen.

Voice: [crosstalk] …farm subsidies….

Yesterday, via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏ @RepHartzler

Press Conf. with fellow members today on Obama Admin decision to include abortion funding w/ new healthcare exchanges. [….] 2:46 PM – 21 Mar 12

Representative Hartzler’s (r) Twitter picture of the event.

There’s shouldn’t be surprise about priorities anymore.

Teresa Hensley (D) filed for the 4th Congressional District on Wednesday. The retail campaigning will go nonstop until November.

You can bet on it.

Teresa Hensley (D) campaigning at yesterday’s Belton, Missouri St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Filing for office last Wednesday.

Today, at the Missouri Secretary of State:

UNOFFICIAL Candidate Filing List

Primary

U.S. Representative – District 4

Democrat

Teresa Hensley PO BOX 620

RAYMORE MO 64083 3/14/2012

2:58 p.m.

Republican

Vicky Hartzler 30218 S. PLEASANT RIDGE RD.

HARRISONVILLE MO 64701 3/2/2012

2:18 p.m.

[emphasis added]

Via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏ @RepHartzler

If you didn’t have school or work today, what would you like to do today?! Golf? Work in yard? Go for walk? 9:01 AM – 14 Mar 12

Hmm, that’s a tough one. How about “file to run for public office?”  

At the Missouri Secretary of State:

Removed Candidates Office

Candidate Reason Removal Date

U.S. Representative – District 4 Ana Zorikova (Constitution)

ENCINO CA 91316 Withdrawn 3/8/2012

2:55 PM

U.S. Representative – District 4 Herschel L. Young (Democrat)

HARRISONVILLE MO 64701 Disqualified 3/8/2012

2:50 PM

It’ll be interesting to find out why.

An Anatol Zorikova filed today as a candidate for the Constitution Party in the 2nd Congressional District.

Previously:

New Cass County Presiding Commisioner Herschel Young (r) removed from office by court order (January 4, 2011)

Cass County: whether you vote or don’t even bother to try you get the government you deserve (February 3, 2011)

11CA-CV00001 State of Mo Ex Inf T Hensley v. Herschel L Young (February 4, 2011)

“…Respondent is ousted from the office of Presiding Commissioner, Cass County, Missouri.” (February 18, 2011)

Gov. Jay Nixon (D) appoints Luke Scavuzzo (D) to the Cass County Commission (January 11, 2012)

Herschel Young (r) or (D), choose which axe to grind (February 28, 2012)

Another in a long list of reasons why politics in Missouri is always so interesting (March 6, 2012)

Today, at the Missouri Supreme Court:

SC91632 State of Missouri ex inf. Teresa Hensley, Prosecuting Attorney, Respondent, vs. Herschel L. Young, Appellant. [pdf]

AFFIRMED. All concur.

Yes, the Missouri Supreme Court affirmed the removal of Herschel Young (r) as Cass County Presiding Commissioner. The case was brought quo warranto by Cass County Prosecuting Attorney Teresa Hensley (D).

The Supreme Court opinion includes the following:

….Young has no vested right in the election qualification laws remaining unchanged. Id. He also has no vested right to be free from further collateral consequences from his prior guilty plea. Id…..

….Further, this Court recognized a slippery slope wherein “it could be well claimed that no statute could be enacted imposing new duties upon or giving new privileges or rights to a person already born…[or] to a corporation already created….”

….Young’s argument attempts to go down this slippery slope. Section 115.350 does not impose any new obligation or duty on Young because he has no affirmative obligation to take any action whatsoever to comply with section 115.350….

….The declaration of candidacy requirements apply to all candidates, not only those who have a felony conviction. Young’s obligation to prepare the declaration only arises because of his desire to run for office, not his 1995 conviction. Young filed his written declaration of candidacy and averred he was qualified to be elected as presiding commissioner….

….Young asserts this means section 115.350 was required to list each specific felony under Missouri law in order to apprise the reader sufficiently of the specific conduct that carries with it the consequences of legal disqualification or disability. Young’s reading of section 561.016.1(3) defies logic and practicality. Section 115.350 provides sufficient notice of the conduct that will result in a legal disability or disqualification….

….The State has a legitimate interest in maintaining the public’s confidence in the honesty and integrity of their elected officials. This interest is promoted by disqualifying those individuals who have demonstrated an inability to follow the laws of this state….

….Section 115.350 is constitutional as applied to Young and does not violate the constitutional guarantees of equal protection. The circuit court’s judgment is affirmed….

Teresa Hensley (D) (who has as yet to file as a candidate) and Herschel Young (r) will face each other in the Democratic primary for the 4th Congressional District seat. From the Missouri Secretary of State‘s office:

UNOFFICIAL Candidate Filing List

Primary

Ballot Placement: First day filers (2/28/2012) selected a number by random drawing to determine their placement on the primary ballot. After the first day, all candidates are placed on the ballot in order of their filing.

All Candidates and parties are listed in ballot order.

(Name, Mailing Address and Date/Time Filed as of 3/6/2012 3:57 p.m.)

U.S. Representative – District 4

Democrat

Herschel L. Young 17100 E STATE ROUTE 2

HARRISONVILLE MO 64701 372 2/28/2012

12:49 p.m.

Republican

Vicky Hartzler 30218 S. PLEASANT RIDGE RD.

HARRISONVILLE MO 64701 3/2/2012

2:18 p.m.

Constitution Name

Ana Zorikova 5325 NEWCASTLE AVE APT 224

ENCINO CA 91316 3/5/2012

3:44 p.m.

Teresa Hensley (D) to challenge Vicky Hartzler (r) in the 4th Congressional District (January 19, 2012)

Teresa Hensley (D) – 4th Congressional District: the paperwork is in, and it’s on (January 30, 2012)

Teresa Hensley (D): at the 4th Congressional District Democratic Committee (February 12, 2012)

Teresa Hensley and Jason Kander at the 4th Congressional District Democratic Committee (February 14, 2012)

Does Herschel Young (r) think republican voters are going to crossover to the Democratic primary in August to vote for him over Teresa Hensley? That’s another in a long list of reasons why politics in Missouri is always so interesting.

Previously:

New Cass County Presiding Commisioner Herschel Young (r) removed from office by court order (January 4, 2011)

Cass County: whether you vote or don’t even bother to try you get the government you deserve (February 3, 2011)

11CA-CV00001 State of Mo Ex Inf T Hensley v. Herschel L Young (February 4, 2011)

“…Respondent is ousted from the office of Presiding Commissioner, Cass County, Missouri.” (February 18, 2011)

Gov. Jay Nixon (D) appoints Luke Scavuzzo (D) to the Cass County Commission (January 11, 2012)

Herschel Young (r) or (D), choose which axe to grind (February 28, 2012)