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The Candidate’s Position On The Issues
Missouri’s Economy
As Senator I will work with both parties to get new jobs for Missourians and encourage potential business’ to consider the 33rd district for their corporate headquarters or manufacturing plants. This is a bipartisan issue, it requires the co-operation of lawmakers, business leaders and the counties themselves. Together we can bring good paying jobs here to Missouri.
Education
It is painfully obvious that the, “No child left behind” initiatives have been a dismal failure. The program should be scrapped and as Senator I will work to create a new, fully funded program which sets realistic goals and then holds educators responsible for its success. I believe that Missouri must pay higher wages to teachers if we hope to attract the best educators for our children. Finally, I believe every child in Missouri is entitled to a clean, safe and modern school in which to learn. I will work tirelessly to make this dream a reality for our children and our grandchildren.
Healthcare
The Missouri Health Net program is some of the most disappointing legislation to come down the pike in years. The plan only addresses 25% of Missouri’s insurance crisis, poor people don’t qualify and our hospitals are already seeing an increase in as much as 60% in uninsured folks flooding their emergency rooms since the plan leaves them no alternatives. As your Senator I will push for a new insurance program which includes all of the state’s estimated 719,000 uninsured folks. I will also convince my fellow lawmakers to reinstate Medicaid and get back the 1.1 billion dollars Missouri has lost in federal money. We are the, “Show me state” and we can show the rest of the country that affordable or free healthcare is possible through the buying power of the state. This is ambitious but necessary, Missourians should not be forced to choose between buying food or paying for their life sustaining medications.
Supporting Missouri’s Troops
There has been much talk about, “Supporting our troops” and much of it has been just that, talk. As Senator I will propose that all returning veterans, Missouri National Guard, mustered out active duty and Missouri Reserves be given a place at the front of the line if they apply for state jobs. Provide tax credits to companies that hire these returning men and women. Those companies wishing to do business with the state will be given special consideration if they have a certain percentage of employees whom are returning gulf war veterans. This in my opinion would be truly supporting our troops. These few advantages would allow us to recognize their service to their country and help express our gratitude to Missouri’s home grown heroes.
Prison System and Capitol Punishment
It costs Missouri on average $40,000 for each prisoner kept behind bars per year. I believe that many non-violent criminals could serve their time at home with the new GPS satellite tracking devices. This would ease the burden of over crowding, the offender would pay for his/her own food, pay for her/his own living expenses thus alleviating a large part of the financial costs in incarcerating the non-violent offender. If the prisoner fails to follow the house arrest policies to the letter, then we can put them behind bars to serve out the remainder of their sentence. I am pro-death penalty and I believe some crimes are so heinous that only the ultimate punishment will do.
Church and State
Some things should remain as they are, the pledge of allegiance including the phrase, “Under God.” and the celebration of Christmas should be allowed in schools. I also don’t see anything wrong with school kids of like religious beliefs meeting before or after school. For me it is a freedom of speech issue and nothing more. I believe, “political correctness” is sometimes taken too far.
Domestic Violence
The scourge of domestic violence perpetrated on innocent women and children is a problem rarely addressed by politicians in Jefferson City. This issue is close to my heart and it will be a primary target of mine as Senator. I will attempt to convince the Missouri house and senate that a Missouri constitutional amendment needs to be passed to combat this disgraceful stain on our society. In 1865, a law was passed to prevent any type of fines levied by the state to be used for specific offenses. I believe that anyone convicted of domestic violence should be fined an additional $500 which would then be given to the closest domestic violence shelter to where the offense occurred. This would be rare legislation which would cost the state nothing and would make the offenders pay for the very shelters they themselves create. I will do everything required, knock on every politician's door, shout it from the rooftops, and never quit until I have the votes to pass this landmark legislation into law.
Tort Reform and Judgement Caps
Insurance companies have run a very successful scare campaign here in Missouri resulting in state mandated caps on some types of liability and/or damages awarded in lawsuits. The insurance companies have coined phrases like, "Frivolous lawsuits and excessive judgments/awards." I am opposed to states interfering in the judicial process and virtually dictating what juries can award in damages to plaintiffs. The only way to make big corporations or insurance companies change their behavior is by hitting them in their pocket books. Juries must have the authority to award damages and decide appropriate liability based on what they feel is warranted by the facts presented to them in individual cases they hear.
ABOUT MY OPPONENT
Republican Senator Chuck Purgason has spent eight years as a Representative and now four years as a state Senator. Chuck "Purgatory" Purgason, simply put, has been hell on Missourians. He has supported every ill-conceived, bad idea to come down the pike in Jefferson City. He led the drive to kick nearly 200,000 poor folks off of Medicaid here in Missouri. He has wasted years developing the Insure Missouri and Missouri Health net program designed to replace Medicaid. Now Governor Blunt and the Republicans have decided not to proceed with their insurance programs because they simply will not work. In the meantime Missouri has lost an estimated 1.1 billion dollars in Federal funds now going to improve healthcare in other states instead of here in Missouri.
During Purgason's time in office he and the Republicans have made nearly thirty changes to the Workman's Compensation Laws so that working people making legitimate claims for injuries they have suffered on the job are virtually road blocked from doing so. At the same time his party has the audacity to say that, "Missourians are lazy and illegal immigrants make better workers!"
Time and time again Chuck Purgason has shown he doesn't care about the people he was elected to represent. He voted to give retirement homes longer than twelve months to install life-saving sprinklers and fire alarms, putting seniors at risk so that big business wouldn't be inconvenienced (this after a devastating fire which killed several seniors in a totally preventable retirement home fire here in Missouri) . When an elected official puts making money above protecting lives, he needs to be sent packing. Missouri can do better and Camden, Howell, Laclede, Oregon, Shannon, Texas, Wright counties deserve better from their elected State Senator.
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