Here is the theme song for the special session of 2011 and all the business proposals that flew around the Missouri General Assembly:

“If you’ve got the money I’ve got the time
We’ll go honky tonkin’ and we’ll have a time
Bring along your Cadillac leave my old wreck behind
If you’ve got the money honey I’ve got the time…

Yes we’ll go honky tonkin’ and we’ll be pleasure bent
I’ll look like a million, but I won’t have a cent
But if you run short of money I’ll run short of time
Cause you with no more money honey I’ve no more time…”

The China Hub was a package of legislative proposals to do some tax incentives, but some uncomfortable questions need to be answered over whether government must make deals in order to grow our economy.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 10, 2011

O’Fallon, MO – November 10, 2011 – The decision by House Speaker Steve Tilley to drop out of the race for Lieutenant Governor leaves former State Representative Cynthia Davis as the conservative favorite for that office.  Tilley’s unexpected departure was attributed by his campaign to his divorce, but Davis, who has been making appearances at conservative events throughout the State was mounting a serious challenge to Tilley from the right, criticizing his position on cloning and handling of the failed Special Session of the Missouri General Assembly.  A former long-time Republican, Davis had been organizing a third-party challenge to Tilley for November 2012.

The special session is now over and the taxpayers got hit with a tab of over 280,000 dollars just for the added expenses of bringing the legislators back to Jefferson City (food, gas, lodging and extra staff.)  If anyone says the state is running out of money, we have just observed that the state has plenty of money for whatever the legislators deem worthy of funding. In this case, the legislators showed up in Jefferson City, authorized tax credits, fought among themselves, dug in their heels in a standoff over budgetary and philosophical issues, then adjourned.

One of the purposes of the special session was to deal with an intriguing party nomination question.  In many respects, a political party is similar to a labor union. While any qualified candidate can run for any office, the power comes from the solidarity of the team effort which in many cases can become an unbeatable force by any opposition. Each political party is expected to nominate one person for each position.

For years I have been telling legislators we are not school board members, yet some still don’t appear to understand.  It is not unusual for a state legislator to start in a local office before going to the state house, but we must always be mindful of the responsibilities that accompany the respective jurisdictions.  Through the years I have seen many disappointing bills emerge from the Republican majority having the effect of curtailing our first amendment rights, but the one that passed this year is especially problematic.

Do you want your government to control who can be friends on Facebook?  The bill passed would make it illegal to communicate if you are a teacher, a student or a former student wanting to send messages to each other.  This was based on a presumption that the teachers might be tempted to molest their students.

One of the actions of the legislature during this special session was the passage of SB7, also known as MOSIRA.  The Acronym stands for Missouri Science and Innovation Reinvestment Act.  In short, it allows the taxpayers to subsidize science experiments.  The selling point is that some businesses pay high wages and having a tax credit would help to incentivize these types of companies to stay in Missouri.

This is wrong on two levels:  First, it allows for an involuntary redistribution of the wealth.   In a socialistic government this would be normal.  In a free market economy, this does not allow the businesses to stand or fall on the value of their contributions to society.  Some of the greatest inventions known to mankind were not subsidized by the taxpayers.  They were the fruit of human ingenuity using their God given skill, effort, imagination and wisdom.

Along with other bad ideas passed during the special session, the House of Representatives passed a resolution to “support high production and full funding of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.”

This raised some eyebrows because the F-35 is made in Texas and is in competition with the Hornet, which is made by Boeing here in Missouri.

A St. Louis Post Dispatch article appearing this week made these remarks:

“This is what the Republican-led Missouri House did Thursday when it was supposed to be debating a jobs bill in the now five-week old Missouri Legislature’s special session:

Announcement Speech

Today we launch an effort to take the second highest office in the State of Missouri. I am running for Lieutenant Governor because it is time to put principles ahead of politics.

Government is broken.

It no longer works for the people, but only for the big money special interests. And the problem isn’t just in Washington D.C., it is in Jefferson City as well.

For three weeks we have witnessed a circus in Jefferson City that has cost taxpayers over $175,000. All because some people think it would be a good idea for taxpayers to subsidize a so-called China Hub. Never mind that China is an unfair trading partner or that dumping more cheap goods on the market will only hasten the loss of American manufacturing jobs. Never mind that it is not the role of government to subsidize one business at the expense of another. The moneyed special interests want it, and the Speaker of the House and others, are doing everything in their power to appease their political benefactors.