No, we’re not making this stuff up. Via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

Optimism is low and has declined among #SmallBusiness. Let’s #StopTheTaxHike and give businesses the esteem they need. [….] 8:33 AM – 27 Jul 12

Because all our problems would be solved if corporations liked themselves better.

Teresa Hensley, Cass County Prosecutor and the Democratic party candidate in the 4th Congressional District, has her first television ad out today:

[Ron Eads, father of Ruth Eads]

Ronald Eads: My daughter was with her boyfriend. He decided that he wanted to party a little bit and he, uh, wrecked the car, killed her.

[Ruth Eads (1988-2007)]

When it’s time to be firm Teresa wasn’t afraid of that high falutin’ lawyer. She’s always about getting things done.

[Teresa Hensley, Prosecutor, Cass County, MO]

Teresa Hensley: As Prosecutor you don’t get to choose your battles. I know how to take on a tough fight and win. I do it every day.

We need that in Washington, taking on tough fights and getting results for Missouri families.

I’m Teresa Hensley and I approve this message.

There is a big difference.

Previously: Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): comparing apples to navel oranges (February 16, 2012)

Via twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

RT “@RepTomPrice: ICYMI! @politico: Don’t sequester the common defense – w/@RepHartzler. http://politi.co/LHjMeE  #savedefense” 6:33 AM – 23 Jul 12

So we followed the link and found the recurrence of this little gem:

Don’t sequester the common defense

By REP. TOM PRICE and REP. VICKY HARTZLER | 7/22/12 9:16 PM EDT

….the smallest Navy since 1915….

An apt comparison because, as we all know, the world and the role and capabilities of the U.S. Navy hasn’t changed in almost a century.

If we could just build the Navy back up to thirty-nine battleships, seven coastal monitors, and three hundred fifty patrol craft we should be okay.

Yesterday, via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

Did you hear our Olympic uniforms are made in China?! It’s a travesty! Let a U.S. company make them. We need a new design-these look dorky!

Collapse 1:21 PM – 14 Jul 12

Now this comes up? Uh, it’s two weeks to the event. It’s not like the U.S. Government contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to bail out… Oh, wait, that was 2002.

Really, spending time and energy on a fashion review?

You’ve got to wonder if anyone is addressing more pressing issues. Uh, yep:

Hensley: Congress needs to quit living in past

July 13, 2012 6:01 PM

….we should be searching for new ideas and new solutions – addressing the challenges that are affecting families now – not re-fighting the issue long after it’s over. Congress’s partisan fighting does nothing to help Missouri families and the Washington politicians just don’t get it.

Members of Congress should take their cue from common-sense Missourians who know that you can’t move forward if you keep looking backwards.

Go. Read the whole thing.

There’s a definite difference.  

Previously:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): And what will happen to the children? (July 11, 2012)

Well, Vicky? (January 6, 2011)

Uh, would that include bringing a hot meal to everyone without health insurance when they get ill? (November 28, 2010)

A health care story (September 3, 2009)

This week Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) voted again to repeal the Affordable Care Act:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

The House has repealed ‪#ObamaCare‬! We must repeal this bill that’s increasing health care costs & making it harder for businesses to hire. 12:57 PM – 11 Jul 12

In 2009 we interviewed Randy Huggins, a resident of Leeton, Missouri – in the 4th Congressional District, about one of his personal experiences with the health care reform dialog. With the republican House of Representative voting, yet again, to repeal the Affordable Care Act we sought out Randy Huggins to ask him how the implementation of health care reform has affected him and his family in the interim, and how repeal would impact them:  

The transcript:

Show Me Progress: I’m Michael Bersin with Show Me Progress and I’m speaking with Randy Huggins from Leeton, Missouri. Randy, could you tell us about your grandson’s quote preexisting condition and the impact of not having insurance?

Randy Huggins: Uh, yes. Uh, my grandson was born in December of two thousand and four. And, uh, all of the prenatal care was taken care of under my daughter’s health care insurance. And then when they determined that he had a congenital heart defects the insurance company denied coverage saying that his policy didn’t start until he was born and so this was a preexisting condition.

Show Me Progress: And so, what happened, uh, from that point, uh, with his, uh, care for his heart condition?

Randy Huggins: Um, he was, uh, seen at Children’s Mercy Hospital [Kansas City, Missouri] and was treated at Children’s Mercy Hospital, um, and charities paid for it, for the most part.

Show Me Progress: In two thousand nine, uh, you attended a town hall by then candidate Vicky Hartzler and you, uh, related your health care story. What was her response?

Randy Huggins: Uh, her basic response was, uh, that someone in the community should bring our family a hot meal. I think that’s a kind of a slap in the face that, uh, she would suggest that the church bring somebody a family, somebody’s family a hot meal. Uh, it’s usually something that’s saved for a funeral.

Show Me Progress: How has the Affordable Care Act changed things for your grandson?

Randy Huggins: Uh, my grandson had a second open heart surgery in March of this year and because of the Affordable Care Act it was covered under his mother’s health insurance.

Show Me Progress: What does repeal of the Affordable Care Act and Representative Vicky Hartzler’s vote to repeal it mean to you and your family?

Randy Huggins: Uh, it means financial insecurity for all of us. Uh, without having health insurance you know you’re going to have something come up. So, basically we would have to set everything aside and save for any health issues that would, would come up in the future.

Show Me Progress: Uh, but at the same time, uh, would saving cover everything?

Randy Huggins: I seriously doubt that we’d be able to save that much.

Show Me Progress: Uh, and, and how would that affect your, uh, grandson’s future?

Randy Huggins: Well. He would never be able to get any health insurance, um, because of the preexisting condition with his heart even if, when he is eighteen, to buy his own policy, he wouldn’t be able to get a policy. Uh, he would never have any kind of financial security.

Show Me Progress: And so the, uh, the Affordable Care Act, um, means that your grandson has a possibility of a future.

Randy Huggins: He, he has a possibility of, of a piece of the American dream, yeah.

Show Me Progress: Well, thank you very much for your time.

Randy Huggins: You’re welcome.

There is a profound human cost to repeal of the Affordable Care Act. A profound human cost.

…and the poor, and seniors, and the uninsured?

Today, via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

The House has repealed ‪#ObamaCare‬! We must repeal this bill that’s increasing health care costs & making it harder for businesses to hire. 12:57 PM – 11 Jul 12

First of all, Representative Hartzler (r) [and the republican controlled House] didn’t repeal the Affordable Care Act. That would take the concurrence of the Senate. She [and they] voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

And if repeal came to pass, what would that mean?

Preexisting conditions? Lifetime limits on coverage? Wellness visits? Children on their parent’s insurance until age twenty-six? Limits on insurance company overhead?

From Cass County Prosecutor and 4th Congressional District Democratic Party candidate Teresa Hensley’s campaign:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 11, 2012

[….]

CONGRESS, HARTZLER STUCK IN THE PAST WHILE MISSOURI FAMILIES WONDER ABOUT THE FUTURE

Raymore, MO – Today, despite a recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that appeared to settle the issue, Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler and the rest of the House of Representatives voted for the 31st time in the last 18 months to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“The Supreme Court decided that the Affordable Care Act should stand,” said Cass County Prosecutor and congressional candidate Teresa Hensley.  “Whether you believe that’s a good decision or a bad one, the Supreme Court has ruled. Now it’s time to move forward.  The fact that Congresswoman Hartzler and the rest of Congress continue to argue and debate a topic that’s been settled by the highest court in the land is just another example of how broken things are in Washington. Instead of the bickering, Congress needs to start tackling some of the big issues Missouri families are facing.”

According to NPR, since the first attempt on January 19, 2011, “the House has taken 30 floor votes to try to repeal, defund or dismantle the health care law.”  [NPR, 7/9/12]  Today’s vote marks the 31st attempt.  Congress has repeatedly sought to repeal the act, but has yet to offer an alternative policy.

As a Member of Congress, Hensley would prioritize:

Job Creation.  Provide incentives to small businesses for hiring.  End the outsourcing of American jobs.  Make strategic investments to repair Missouri’s crumbling infrastructure.

Responsible Budgeting.  Cutting wasteful spending like big tax giveaways to oil companies that don’t need them – not programs seniors and the middle class rely on.

Support for Military and Veterans.  Prevent cuts to bases – like those in the 4th district – that provide good local jobs for the communities in which they are a part of.  Make sure our military has the resources it needs.  Provide veterans with top-notch health care services and access to job opportunities when they return home.

# # #

Thirty-one attempts to do away with health care reform by the republican right wingnuts in the U.S. House of Representatives. And still no action on jobs.  

Via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

Voting to hold Eric Holder in contempt for lying to congress and impeding the investigation of the death of Brian Terry over Fast & Furious. 1:34 PM – 28 Jun 12

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

Democrats are staging a publicity stunt by walking out trying to portray this as about race and not justice. Sad they side with obstruction. 1:36 PM – 28 Jun 12

The best take on this, from a comment at Doghouse Riley’s place:

….because right-wing bile and unicorn farts are the proper business of the US Congress, natch….

From U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP):

CBP’s 2011 Fiscal Year in Review

(Monday, December 12, 2011)

….U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions-a key indicator of illegal immigration-decreased to 340,252 in FY 2011, down 53 percent since FY 2008 and one fifth of what they were at their peak in FY 2000….

….CBP officers and agents seized nearly five million pounds of narcotics, a 20 percent increase from FY 2010 and more than $126 million in undeclared currency…..

….CBP has more than doubled the size of the Border Patrol since 2004. In FY 2011, CBP increased the number of Border Patrol agents to 21,444, an increase of 886 agents from FY 2010, making our borders better staffed today than ever before. In addition, CBP employed 20,500 CBP officers in FY 2011 with additional officers expected to be on board by the end of the Calendar Year….

[emphasis added]

The actual statistics:

United States Border Patrol

Total Illegal Alien Apprehensions By Fiscal Year [pdf]

1999 1,579,010

2000 1,676,438

2001 1,266,214

2002 955,310

2003 931,557

2004 1,160,395

2005 1,189,075

2006 1,089,092

2007 876,704

2008 723,825

2009 556,041

2010 463,382

2011 340,252

Apprehensions are down because there are fewer illegal immigrants trying to get in, for one reason or another.

Today, via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

Following the #SCOTUS decision on #AZ immigration, we realize more that our government must enforce immigration laws and protect our borders 2:12 PM – 26 Jun 12

Yep, late to the parade. And, as Yael Abouhalkah wrote almost two years ago, still vacuous.

“….And so, for me, it is about working for the middle class. And as I look around I know the folks in this room, whether they are part of a union, whether they are part of a small business, we know what that means to have a small middle class. And so, for us, this year, we say this every year, this is a critical year. But for us this year this is a critical year….”

Yesterday evening Teresa Hensley’s (D) campaign held an open house celebrating the opening of her campaign headquarters in Harrisonville. Over one hundred people attended the event. Teresa Hensley spoke about the consequences of this election for the middle class.

Cass County Prosecutor Teresa Hensley (D), the Democratic Party candidate in the 4th Congressional District,

speaking to the crowd at the opening of her campaign headquarters in Harrisonville on Tuesday evening, June 19, 2012.

Show Me Progress: So, as, as a constituent in the Fourth Congressional District what does this election mean to you?

Don Long: This election is huge. It, it gives us the opportunity to take the Fourth District back for the working class people. Uh, right now our representation in Washington is dead set on cutting Medicare, Social Security, programs the middle class depend upon….

Volunteers signed up.

Show Me Progress: Uh, what, what does the Fourth Congressional District race mean to you?

Chris Benjamin: Well, I think it’s a very important race for the people of this state and, frankly, for the people of this country. I think there’s a lot of people here in the Fourth District that have buyer’s remorse after being served so well by Congressman Ike Skelton [D] and after he lost they’ve seen over the last two years that we have a representative [Vicky Hartzler] that just hasn’t been representing the working people of this district. Or, frankly, any of the families of this district. She just kind of goes and, and, uh, does what she’s told, uh, by her party bosses in D.C.

And I personally know Teresa Hensley, she’s a good friend, and I think she’s going to work very, well, she’s obviously working very hard in this campaign. I’ve never seen anybody work harder than she has. Uh, but she’s a very, she’s very independent, she’s a fighter, she’s gonna fight for the working families down in D.C., so, I think it’s very important, particularly, uh, in a year where the Republicans,  they believe that they have a stranglehold in the State of Missouri, I don’t know why they believe that, we got a democrat governor that’s gonna win reelection by large margins, we got a Democrat attorney general, Democrat treasurer that’s gonna win by large margins. And we got a lot of independent minded, a lot of people that are upset that Vicky Hartzler [r], you know, hasn’t been representing the last two years in the Fourth District, so I believe that it’s a, I think that it’s prime, uh, area for us, uh, to pick up. And I think Teresa’s the candidate to do it….

Show Me Progress: What does the Fourth Congressional, Congressional District race mean to you?

Luke Scavuzzo: Well, it’s very important, uh, that we get somebody in there that actually will represent the people that live in this district. Uh, right now I think the representative that we have, uh, is a little bit, I don’t want to say self-centered, but, uh, seems to have a certain ideology and thought pattern of, of how she wants to do things and it doesn’t, it doesn’t, uh, work for all the people in this district. We really need somebody that will be out there and, and, uh, work hard for the people of, of the Fourth Congressional District….

Teresa Hensley’s remarks to those in attendance:

Teresa Hensley (D): ….I am really thrilled at the turnout here. You guys are just so unbelievably wonderful. I have had the best support during this campaign and I can’t thank all of you enough….

….There’s so many of you here that have played such an important role in what we do every day. Um, as I look around I see folks, uh, that actually every day are calling saying we can do this or we’re gonna get that done. I really, I don’t know how to thank all of you, uh, for what we’ve done already.

You know, we have a long fight still. November will get here before we know it. And, in fact, this quarter has gone really quickly. Uh, June thirtieth is right around the quarter and we have, you know, obviously, the end of the second quarter deadline. So, I, if you don’t see me for another week it’s because these folks have me working really hard. [laughter] And it’s something that we have to do.

We have been really fortunate, I don’t know if any of you saw, I know we’ve had it on the web page and we e-mail you guys all the time, some of you are probably getting tired of the e-mails, in fact, I hope I still have friends by the time this is done because we bother you so much. [laughter] But, a few weeks ago, Washington Post did an article about the top ten races to be watching around the country and we were number five on that list. So, to have the Washington Post and those folks in D.C. paying attention to what we’re doing is a bog thing. I mean, this race matters. And it matters significantly, not only in Missouri, but it matters around the country. And so, to have the folks in D.C. paying attention to what we’re doing really happened because of all of you.

In the first quarter we were able to raise two hundred fifty thousand dollars. And we raised that in February and March because I really didn’t get started until near the end of January. That happened because of all of you. Fifty-five percent of that two hundred fifty thousand dollars came from folks who gave me two hundred dollars or less. And so, when I’m on the phone the next week, those fifty dollars, a hundred dollars, and two hundred dollars are actually what gets us to that goal of two hundred fifty thousand dollars for the second quarter. And so, your contributions matter and everyone in this room has played a significant part in this campaign. So to have you come out today and see our campaign headquarters and be a part of it, um, is, is very touching to me. It’s very meaningful to see the faces that I see that are just friends. And you’ve been friends for a long time. Uh, and I can’t thank you enough.

Uh, this campaign is, you know, about having to raise two point one million dollars in order to do the media. But it’s more than doing the media. It is about getting out to every county….and every county knows what we stand for and what we intend to accomplish. And so, this is about hard work, it’s gonna be about hard work until November. And we intend to do that very, very hard work.

Um, for me, as most of you know, where’s my Ironworker buddies, over here in the corner [inaudible], I have a brother who’s an Ironworker. Uh, my dad was a union plumber, My brother, in nine, in two thousand and twelve makes the same pay that my bro, my dad did in nineteen seventy-four. In thirty-eight years there’s been no increase in that income. But yet there’s been a huge increase in the cost of living as all of you know. So while my dad could build a house in nineteen seventy for nineteen thousand dollars we know now that a house costs a hundred and eighty-five thousand, a hundred ninety, two hundred thousand dollars. My dad could put gas in a car at fifty cents a gallon, my brother’s putting gas at three fifty a gallon.

And those folks are worried about whether
they have enough gas sometimes to get to work the next day, deciding whether or not they can make their mortgage payment if their wife has medical bills, or trying to send their child, uh, to the doctor or put food on the table that night. We’re losing our middle class and our middle class is dwindling so badly that it’s also affecting our small businesses. So, when we have a jewelry store in town or we have the dentist in town and they are complaining that business isn’t good, well, you know, it’s not billionaires and millionaires are coming to their business, it’s all of us. And it’s all of the folks who are the Ironworkers and the carpenters and the roofers. And so if the carpenter on his way home wants to buy a necklace for his wife for her birthday that night and he can’t afford to stop in that jewelry store that jeweler isn’t gonna make any money. And so it is about not only our middle class, but our small businesses. So when we hear the other side talk about what they want to do for small businesses, what they can do for small businesses is make sure that folks can afford to buy their goods and services. [voice: “Hear, hear.” voice: “That’s right.”] And that comes from having a strong middle class. And we know what that means, drastically. And we know that it means having a good salary. We know that it means having a job that they can rely on.

You know, as a child, with my dad as a plumber, we had this wonderful, uh, I had a wonderful childhood, we had this wonderful standard of living. My dad made a really good wage. And so as I was growing up I didn’t worry about whether my dad was gonna be able to pay his mortgage, whether he was gonna lose his job and not be able to find another one. And children know those things, children hear those things. So those very children today hear when their parents are worried about losing their house, they’re worried about putting gas in their car. So our children have this really unstable ground under them. They know that things are not good as well as their parents. And it’s unconscionable what we have done to the middle class.

And so, for me, it is about working for the middle class. And as I look around I know the folks in this room, whether they are part of a union, whether they are part of a small business, we know what that means to have a small middle class. And so, for us, this year, we say this every year, this is a critical year. But for us this year this is a critical year. It is a year that we have to work hard.

We have to remind folks, really, what we stand for. And we do stand for making sure that Medicare and Social Security are strong, that Pell Grants are available for our students to go to college. You know, when the [Republican, House Budget Committee Chair] Paul Ryan budget wants to cut food stamps, when it cuts food stamps it’s cutting not only children who are affected by that, but it also affects our farmers in the Fourth District. And so the Paul Ryan budget is just a mean spirited budget when it wants to do away with Medicare as we know it and Social Security and Pell Grants. Those are things that we rely on as middle class families and so very important to us.

So, this year, it is about us telling our friends and our families, it is about telling our uncle, uh, who just isn’t thinking right, what we all stand for. [laughter]  I know you all have those uncles. [laughter]  And so it is about making sure that folks are listening this year, about what it is is important to the pe, the very people we know, to our families. And it’s the reason I’m running, because again, I have parents who are seventy-six years old. Medicare and Social Security matter. I have an eighteen year old nephew. Pell Grants matter.

You know, in Harrisonville alone, uh, as part of the Rotary, they do a packing the back pack on the weekends for the school, for the kids to have food. In Harrisonville alone, we’re in the middle of the country, in a rural community, and we have a hundred and eighty-five kids every week that take home back packs. That’s unconscionable. It’s not right that we have children that are going without food in this country. We’re too prosperous and wonderful a country to have what’s happening to the middle class continue to happen.

So, I’ve kept you too long ’cause it’s really hot in here and I apologize for talking so long. Thank you very much for coming. Really, all of you mean so very much to me. I, I can’t thank you enough. [voice: “Thank you.”][applause]

There was a parade in Belton, Missouri this morning. Along with the usual community groups and school band(s), this being an election year, there were a significant number of candidates and their supporters participating in the mile long parade.

For the candidates it’s an opportunity to do a bit of retail politics in front of a conveniently concentrated and amiable crowd.

The parade started at 10:00 a.m. (the staging area started filling up over an hour before the start time) with the Democrats toward the front of the parade and the republicans further back.

Cass County Prosecutor Teresa Hensley, the Democratic Party candidate in the 4th Congressional District, at the start of the parade.

Teresa Hensley, working the crowd on the parade route.

Patty Johnson (D), the Democratic Party candidate in the 56th Legislative District, handing a palm card to a voter along the parade route.

Jim White (D), the Democratic Party candidate in the 55th Legislative District.

Yes, Vicky Hartzler (r) was there, too, here conversing with a small group of individuals at the staging site before the parade.

Previously:

Ed Martin (r): We were sitting around trying to think of a metaphor for the campaign… (June 16, 2012)

Dave Spence (r): nothing exceeds like excess (June 16, 2012)

The 27 percent: no matter where you go, there they are (June 16, 2012)