Session Begins

This week the Second Regular Session of the 95th General Assembly was convened. This will be my last year to serve in the Missouri House of Representatives due to term limits and I look forward to representing the interests of our communities and our state in the coming months.

It is also with great regret that I inform you that the U.S. Congress has also convened this week to work tirelessly on their behalf, and their elections, as well.

Missouri's state budget will command the most attention from lawmakers and special interest groups this session. This is the second budget year in a row where general revenue collections are less than the previous year. At present, revenue collections are down considerably from last year with year to date collections off by 10.5%.

The Governor, House, and Senate budget leaders have agreed upon the revised consensus revenue estimate for the remainder of this fiscal year which ends on June 30, 2010 predicting that revenues will be 6.4% less than expected at $6.97 billion in general revenue. The fiscal year 2010 budget was passed based upon an overly optimistic revenue estimate of $7.76 billion.

They have also agreed upon the consensus revenue estimate for the next budget year which begins on July 1, 2010 suggesting a growth in state general revenue collections of 3.5% resulting in $7.223 billion of general revenue. This will be a difficult number to beat if unemployment remains high.

Speaking of unemployment, this year begins with a staggering 9.5% unemployment rate in Missouri and 10% unemployment nationwide. The shadow of the federal government continues to darken over the states and the federal overreach into the lives of Americans is frighteningly Orwellian.

A recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece suggested, "... a civilization becomes incompetent not only when it fails to learn the lessons of the past, but also when it becomes crippled by them." The world over is strewn with the debris of failed socialist governments, despots, and the wretched human condition of those struggling for hope and liberty at the hands of those promoting "the greater good".

Yet, in Washington, Congress continues to fritter away opportunity after opportunity to provide real leadership for America, to unleash the American mind and the entrepreneur by promoting Liberty. Instead, our elected Congress and executive branch ignore the virtue of our matchless Constitution, they ignore the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness endowed to us by our Creator as recognized by our Founders in the Declaration of Independence, and they buy each other off with our tax dollars to ingratiate themselves, buy votes for unpopular legislation, and then turn around and lecture us about who is watching out for our best interests.

This is the year where states will play defense. We will dust off the forgotten notion of federalism and we will remind Congress and the President that the U.S. Constitution begins with "We the People".

The Republican majority in the Missouri House recognizes that the bedrock of the economy, the bedrock of every community, is you and your family.

It is time for government to quit trying pick winners and losers, to stop trying to tell us what is good for us, to stop trying to be God. Instead, government should recognize that, as Frederic Bastiat observed in 1850:

God has given to men all that is necessary for them to accomplish their destinies... And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgement of faith in God and His works.

Where our federal government has failed to act, the Missouri House will remain committed to seeking solutions to the problems faced by Missourians from all walks of life.

Lessons Learned - Or Not?

“History in par, repeats itself”. I’m sure Mr. Kuhlman would be pleased to know that I was listening and learning in his World History class in high school. It is to our detriment that Congress and the old and new administrations have not learned the same.

In 1939, the Secretary of the Treasury under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Henry Morgenthau, acknowledged after 10 years of economic depression and slightly fewer than that of the New Deal, “We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work… After eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started . . . . And an enormous debt to boot!”

The numbers are enormous, so large that it is difficult comprehend their magnitude. An additional federal stimulus package that could top $1,000,000,000,000 – that’s a trillion – is now under consideration in Washington. The predominant thought is that government can spend us out of recession, but at what cost?

The Great Depression years, which were also the years of the New Deal, where not times of plenty. Unemployment remained stubbornly high ranging from 15% to 25%. Prices and wages were falling, not growing. The response was more government programs which crowded out private enterprise and elongated the pain.

The New Deal resulted in more government, higher taxes, and less Liberty. It hurt businesses, especially small businesses, stifled innovation, drove competition from the marketplace, dictated how to buy and sell chickens, and wreaked havoc with our monetary policy with global consequences.

History in par, repeats itself and today America looks at the black and white images of the Great Depression/New Deal Era and I have to ask – Why would we want to go back?

The New Deal Era saw the top marginal tax rates go from 25% to 79% with corporate income taxes increasing from 12% to 24% (today they are 35% - the highest in the world). There were also excess profits taxes – sound familiar? – and undistributed profits taxes, taxes on dividends and new payroll taxes, aka, Social Security.

The New Deal simply reallocated money from the private sector to the public sector. The New Deal sought to create “work”, instead of family supporting jobs that create “wealth”. It effectively took resources from one part of our economy to redistribute them to another leading to a planned economy – an economy where oligarchs rule and the citizenry suffers. America is a land of opportunity, not a land of subsistence.

As it stands today, the federal stimulus package has about $550 billion in new spending and $275 billion in tax relief. This spending includes $79 billion to bailout states that made bad decisions (Missouri was not one of them), $87 billion to states to pay for Medicaid – a program they can’t afford anyway, only $30 billion for highway infrastructure, and billions more for a cadre of government expansions.

We know what works. Broad based permanent tax relief works. Money should stay with the people who earn it. It inspires them to innovate further, take more business risks, creates more jobs which, in turn, creates more wealth.

Doesn’t the Preamble of our U.S. Constitution begin “We the People” and sets out to define why we “ordain”-ed and “establish”-ed the Constitution stating among those reasons that it was to “…secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity”? Or has Washington relegated you and me to become Sumner’s “Forgotten Man”?

Shouldn’t Congress, the Federal Reserve, and the Executive branch seek solutions to empower individual liberty, instead of dictating individual actions? Shouldn’t they leverage American’s ingenuity and rugged individualism to help solve our problems, instead of harnessing our insecurity to fundamentally alter each American’s relationship with the State?

As we move forward in 2009, we must be mindful that 1939 was not a pinnacle of successes for government “solutions”. No government program can replace, or replicate, the American will to succeed. Government does not innovate, people do, government does not create jobs, people do, unshackle them from repressive tax policies and burdensome regulations and we will succeed.

The resiliency of the U.S. Constitution and the American people who are hard working, honest, and devoted to their families and communities will ultimately bring us out of these economic times in spite of what takes place in Washington, DC. Where Washington has faith in itself, I have faith in the American people, in other words, the Forgotten Man lest we forget that, “…he works, he votes, generally he prays – but he always pays…”

Independence Forever

In our day the Fourth of July, or simply “the 4th”, has become a day of festive activities replete with barbeques, fireworks, parades, summer fun, and extended vacations all dressed in a patriotic red, white, and blue.

Since the early days of our Nation’s founding America has celebrated its birthday while the rest of the world watches – some jealously, some with disdain, and others with awe. The birth of America – the “Great Experiment” in self-government – is still a strange notion in many parts of the world.

For me, the Fourth of July is indeed a time of celebration, but it is also a time of remembrance and thanksgiving. It is more than just a date on a calendar, it is “Independence Day” – a day when a small group of men gathered on a hot, steamy day in a horsefly ridden room stood together and declared that they were free and were prepared to take up arms to defend that freedom against the mightiest military power of their day.

On July 2, 1776 the Second Continental Congress voted to approve the Declaration of Independence which called for a complete separation from Great Britain. It was two days later, on July 4 that the draft of the Declaration was signed by two individuals: John Hancock, the President of Congress, and Charles Thompson, Secretary of Congress.

Four days later, on July 8, the members of Congress read the Declaration of Independence from the steps of Independence Hall proclaiming it to the city of Philadelphia. Afterwards, the Liberty Bell was rung. I find it fitting that the inscription around the top of that bell reads, “Proclaim liberty throughout the land and to all the inhabitants thereof”.

On August 2, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed by the members of Congress. William Ellery of Rhode Island stood at the table to see the face of each delegate as he courageously put his name to the document. He witnessed some men sign quickly "but in no face was he able to discern real fear." He watched as Stephan Hopkins, also of Rhode Island and a man in his sixties, put his signature to the document with a shaking pen while declaring, “My hand trembles, but my heart does not."

The first shots of the American Revolution had been fired the year before at Lexington and Concord. News coming in from General Washington was not encouraging and British ships were at anchor in the New York harbor, but still our Founders put their names to a document - their death warrant - that ended with a firm resolve “…for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor”.

While we celebrate today, the solemnity of that day was recorded by Dr. Benjamin Rush in a letter to John Adams in 1781:

Do you recollect the pensive and awful silence which pervaded the House when we were called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress to subscribe to what was believed by many at that time to be our death warrants? The silence and gloom of the morning was interrupted, I well recollect, only for a moment by Colonel Harrison of Virginia who said to Mr. Gerry at the table: 'I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr. Gerry, when we are all hung for what we are now doing... From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead.' This speech procured a transient smile, but it was soon succeeded by the solemnity with which the whole business was conducted.

These men had a solemn understanding that freedom is not free.

For the first three years of the Revolution no country would give a loan to this fledgling nation to fight the British. Robert Morris of Pennsylvania was the financier of the war and used his personal fortune and his own credit to keep the Continental Army equipped and on the move. Even after foreign powers began providing financial assistance money remained in short supply.

In 1781, General Washington was planning the campaign against Cornwallis at Yorktown. He turned to Judge Peters of Pennsylvania and asked, “What can you do for me?”

“With money, everything, without it, nothing,” came the reply.

General Washington anxiously turned to Mr. Morris who replied, “Let me know the sum you desire.” It has been commented that the campaign of 1781 resulting in Cornwallis’ surrender and virtually ending the Revolutionary War (the peace treaty would not be signed until 1783) was possible wholly on the credit of one individual. In the end, the new government in America was unable to repay Mr. Morris and yet he never complained, because he had given his word.

The personal sacrifice of Robert Morris was not unusual for the signers. Of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence:

• Nine died of wounds and other hardships during the war.
• Five were captured, imprisoned, and brutally treated.
• Several of these men lost their wives, their sons, or their entire families. One, John Hart of New Jersey lost his wife and never saw his 13 children again.
• Twelve had their homes completely burned by the British.
• Seventeen lost all that they owned.

Freedom is not free; it is bought with blood and washed with tears.

John Adams commenting on the signing of the Declaration reflected:

You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Declaration… Yet through all of the gloom I can see rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is worth more than all of the means; that posterity will triumph in that day’s transaction, even though we may regret it, which I trust in God we shall not.

Our Founding Fathers have passed the torch to succeeding generations; let us not allow it to go out. This Independence Day remember the sacrifices of those who have gone before us in defense of, and to preserve, our Liberty. Give thanks to God and, like John Adams celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, raise your glass in a toast proclaiming, “Independence forever!”

May God bless our men and women in uniform on missions throughout the world serving on our behalf and may He comfort those whose loss runs deep.