In today's edition of Republicans being unhindered by the need for facts or proof, we meet Peter Kinder, Lieutenant Governor of the state of Missouri:
Citing "rumors" and "third-hand reports," Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder this afternoon suggested Gov. Jay Nixon may be extorting universities to fund a top-priority health-care initiative.
What Kinder is referencing is a program called "Caring for Missourians", which is intended to boost enrollment for healthcare programs in Missouri universities. An additional $40 million dollars has been allocated by the state legislature for the state universities, although those funds are not specifically designated for this program, and that money was part of the state's federal stimulus funds, which obviously can't be relied on past this year, as Kinder points out. Okay, fair point, this could be an issue if the economy doesn't improve. However, here is the important point:
In a conference call with reporters on Monday, Kinder, a Republican, said he believed Nixon, a Democrat, may be forcing universities to spend the money on Caring for Missourians, despite the fact similar appropriations may not be available in 2011 or beyond.
That could be troublesome for the universities, he said, because of the continued downturn in the economy and the possibility of budget cuts in coming years.
"I'm raising the concern that it is possible someone could be bludgeoned into doing it when they don’t have financial resources to do it," he said.
Now, being that he is lieutenant governor, that seems to be a pretty harsh charge, that he is going to force the schools to fund this, whether they can afford to or not. Surely he has back up for this, right?
Kinder freely admitted, however, that he had no evidence of such threats from Nixon.
"I said I had concerns that it might be happening..." Kinder said. "I have no proof of that or first-hand knowledge."
So, surely, he has at least contacted someone about it?
He went on to say he hadn't contacted any university administrators about the issue and didn't believe it was part of his "due diligence" to check with them.
"I'm not going to make 15 calls to university presidents," Kinder said. "It seems to me reporters city-by-city can do that."
So, let's see, we can go in public as lieutenant governor and make baseless, unfounded accusations about our governor and not see a problem with it. IOKIYAR.
This has been today's edition of Fact Don't Matter if You are Republican.