House Democrats had strong agenda

By JEFF HARRIS

We expect our public servants to tell us what they stand for and to meet challenges head on. Before the 2006 legislative session, House Democrats laid out a bold vision with our Moving Missouri Forward plan. We didn't duck the tough issues. Looking to the future, we offered innovative ideas to improve public education, increase health-care access, create good jobs, protect consumers, restore integrity to government, strengthen families and secure our state.

Some of our ideas enjoyed bipartisan support, such as punishing child molesters, bolstering ethanol use to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and help our rural economy and enacting medical malpractice-insurance reform.

In other cases, we kept fiscally irresponsible proposals from becoming law, like Gov. Matt Blunt's ill-conceived 65 percent mandate to erode local control of public schools. Our 524 school districts have diverse needs that are best determined by folks at the local level. The one-size-fits-all plan would have been a poor fit for our children.

House Democrats also blocked a fiscally irresponsible voucher proposal that would have frozen funding for public universities and sent our taxpayer dollars to private colleges. It deserved to fail because an affordable college education is the ticket to opportunity in the 21st century.

Too often, however, Governor Blunt and the majority party let partisan politics override common sense. We gave Blunt and his legislative allies a way to undo the cuts they made to health care last year for senior citizens, persons with disabilities and children -- and a way to do it without a tax increase.

We could have used part of the $245 million over-collection Blunt said was in this year's budget. His own Division of Medical Services says it would cost $135 million to reverse the unnecessary damage inflicted by these cuts. We could have cracked down on Medicaid provider fraud to save taxpayers as much as $500 million per year. We could have -- as was promised -- restored health care for about 3,000 disabled workers who want to lead productive, independent lives.

None of that happened. Not one idea from the much ballyhooed Medicaid Reform Commission became law, even though Blunt and his allies voted to completely eliminate the program in 2007 -- taking away health care from another 1 million Missourians. With this looming health-care crisis, taxpayers deserve better. Our Missouri tax dollars should stay in Missouri and not be redistributed to the rest of the country under the federal Medicaid program.

In the end, the only thing Blunt and his allies did for folks who lost their health care was take away their right to vote by passing an unnecessary requirement that voters show photo ID at the polls. Most of the estimated 200,000 Missourians who lack photo ID are elderly, disabled or poor. Since these are the very people who lost their health care, it's no surprise the politicians in charge don't want them voting.

The right to vote is the beating heart of an accountable and ethical government. Even before the reported FBI investigation occurring in Jefferson City, House Democrats championed returning integrity to government. Yet the only measures the majority passed this year were self-serving. After allegations of questionable activities came to light -- including Republican House staffers moonlighting as political operatives, a Republican lawmaker on the payroll of a lobbying firm and the Blunt administration's political patronage practices -- we expected our tough legislation to clean up the whole system would pass.

Remarkably, the politicians in charge whiffed and passed a watered-down ethics bill distinguished mainly by one item -- the elimination of the caps on big-money campaign contributions voters imposed by a whopping 74 percent in 1994. When the circumstances -- and the voters -- demanded tough action to end the perception that government is for sale in Jefferson City, Republicans were timid. Maybe next year they'll step up to the plate.

Although partisan politics and election year timidity prevented Missourians' values from being represented and led to missed opportunities, challenges remain. House Democrats will continue to stand up for Missouri values and aggressively move our state forward. The people of Missouri deserve nothing less.

Jeff Harris of Columbia, Mo., represents the 23rd District and is minority leader of the Missouri House of Representatives.