We think we are sending to Washington DC our best and our brightest.  Yet, we may have moments of wondering how some of the other elected officials were able to get elected.

The US Supreme Court confirmation is not the same as holding an election among the Senators.  The Justices are nominated by the President of the United States.  The Senators are required to vote on the President’s nominee.  If the nominee exhibits “good behavior”, there is no reason to vote against a nominee.

Some senators are acting like the confirmation vote is a way for them to obstruct until the President nominates someone who fits a personal ideology.  It’s a given that the President will nominate a justice who is philosophically sympathetic to his party.  The Supreme Court is supposed to be non-partisan, but in all practicality, they reflect the President who nominated them.  

We’ve all heard plenty about Missouri’s passing a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program.  Our State is the only one left that hasn’t fallen for more big brother involvement in our prescription drugs.  So far, this bill has only passed the House and still has to clear the Senate.

The selling point behind it is that it will stop people from having easy access to prescription drugs because a database will send off alarms if someone gets too many prescriptions from too many different doctors.

Surprise!  The 49 states that already have prescription drug monitoring still have drug abuse!

It looks like nearly everyone is happy!  Now that the Obamacare replacement bill was removed from the House agenda, both sides of the political spectrum feel rescued from a bad bill.  Democrats thought it would diminish Obamacare. Republicans thought it was too much like Obamacare.  This is a classic example of how “governing from the middle” can be a total flop.

The fact that no vote was officially taken means the Republicans lacked the numbers for it to pass and they didn’t want to humiliate themselves.  However, we can still see how the members were likely to vote because The New York Times printed a whip list for us to examine.

If the government would get out of the healthcare industry, the prices would lower themselves.  The bill Paul Ryan promoted failed to incorporate the reforms necessary for healthcare costs to deflate.  It retained the main driver behind the price escalation—the insurance mandates.

After spending nearly nine years  as an elected official in O’Fallon, there are several pictures of me on the walls of the O’Fallon City Hall.  Some people think the Federal or State Governments are more important than local, but I can assure you that every level is important.  The most valuable lessons I learned about government came from my time serving on the Board of Aldermen in the City of O’Fallon.

In two weeks, Missouri will hold local elections.  People frequently ask me for advice on whom to support.  In general, if you find someone in favor of limited government, you will get someone who is more Constitutional.  Also, if you get someone who supports limited government, that person will stand on the side of the taxpayers and usually be Pro-Life.  

We don’t talk about it much, but most of you know my husband and I own a Christian bookstore and have been operating it in our community for over 28 years.  The largest chain of Christian retailers in the Country is going away and all that’s left are the independently owned or Denominational retailers.  So many of you have been asking questions, I’ll attempt to answer your concerns by offering my personal insider’s perspective.

Six reasons the Christian retail industry is struggling:

A good political dialogue is healthy, but we must abhor name-calling and hatefulness.

Donald Trump has turned into a pleasant surprise.  At the beginning of his campaign, he started out being an irreverent, worldly, inexperienced, crass, sharp-mouthed candidate.  By the time he won the election, many people were just happy he saved us from Hillary Clinton.  So far, he has turned out to be the most Pro-American, Christian, pro-free-market and honest president we’ve had in this Country since Ronald Reagan.

On top of that, when is the last time you heard the first lady lead thousands of people in praying “The Lord’s Prayer”?  Clearly, whether you like his personality or not, we can’t deny he has done more for our Country than most others who have occupied the White House.  With this act, she has earned more honor than most first ladies we have seen.

My mom called me to say she just watched BBC World News. She said it was so refreshing getting to watch something other than “Trump bashing” every night.

I don’t watch much TV, but I don’t have any appetite to watch more of the childish antics of sore losers.  Perhaps I’m too young to remember a time when we had more disunity in our Country, but it appears that we have hit a low point.

My mom is 86 years old. She’s read the newspaper nearly every day for her entire life (Boston Globe or St. Louis Post-Dispatch). She told me how refreshing it is to just hear the facts and not have the reporters tell her how she should think and feel about the facts. She wants to be free to make up her own mind—as we all should.

The Constitution is designed to protect our Country “to insure domestic tranquility and provide for the common defense“.  It is Constitutional for our government to define the rules on who comes here from other countries.

We need to show compassion and pity for our pastors, given the confusing times upon us.  For years they were told to stay out of politics because it would cost them their tax exempt status.  Most of them were quiet and offered no guidance about political issues.  That was a bad idea because their passivism eroded away our religious freedom.

Then the pendulum started swinging the other way.  Under the Obama administration, pastors felt the first signs of religious oppression and faced real loss of religious freedom because of their silence.  They were encouraged to try to guide their congregations on political matters.  Some did it well.  Others have been manipulated into serving the agenda of the left.