Tonight, Rpeublican majority whip Roy Blunt was met head on by three intelligent people who are running against him, and it was aired live on KSMU radio and KOZK public television.It was a pretty good forum... not in front of a live audience, but it people were able to email and phone in questions.
Jim Newberry did a good job of making his case that we need to bring people together, and that the current congress' policies of partisanship are not helping America move forward into the 21st century. The Libertarian and Constitutional party candidates made it interesting.
I'll post more on this tomorrow with links news articles that are written on it.
Also, there was a great letter in the Joplin Globe today that criticized Roy Blunt and the GOP for betraying veterans... you can read this in the extended entry:
http://joplinglobe.com/story.php?story_id=134064&PHPSESSID=f946baf533e8cfe94193b872972799c1
The recent political advertisements regarding veterans by Roy Blunt and other GOP politicians fail to bring certain other items to light. After reviewing a local web site, it was noted that the GOP-dominated House of Representatives voted to cut mandatory veterans benefits by $14 billion over a 10-year period. At the same time, in the middle of the night in March, the House voted to cut an additional $14 billion from veteran's health care and other discretionary veteran's programs. Presumably sleep deprived, the GOP-dominated House, of which Mr. Blunt is the majority whip, proposed to charge a $250 "enrollment fee" for veterans to get "free" health care, and proposed raising a veteran's prescription co-pay a second time.
Not to be outdone by the Congress, the Veterans Administration issued a directive to all regional health care networks to cease all efforts to enroll new members, and the budget proposed by the GOP for the Department of Veterans Affairs falls $1.3 billion short of what is required to maintain current service. With friends like this, our veterans sure don't need enemies.
Another item worth mentioning is Mr. Blunt's statement that he would like to see a debt-free Iraq. This sounds rather strange after this country has spent $200 billion in that region, and we are looking at a $430 billion budget deficit for the current fiscal year. Our elected politicians should get their priorities straight.
Finally, I urge everyone to enter Roy Blunt's amendment to the Department of Homeland Security Bill in your search engine. The reading is very enlightening. I would strongly recommend the articles by the Kansas City Star or the Washington Post as part of your reading.
Jim Hight
Neosho