Investing in our future through education, infrastructure and reliable public policy is not optional — it is what attracts business, grows resources, and builds community. These things cost us more when delivered too little and too late. Our current government has been burning through assets we won’t have tomorrow’s needs. Warming your house by burning the furniture is just not responsible governance. 

It's a myth that we have to choose between education and redevelopment; city decay or eminent domain; science or religious values. Good public policy makes it all work together and keeps our community healthy and whole, now and well into the future. Good schools keep us competitive as a community, and make our children competitive in a future vastly more challenging than the one we faced. Missouri deserves to rate  better than 48th or 49th in most quality of life issues. 90% of us have seen our standard of living improve less than 2% in the last 10 years — and the exit of good companies, educators and doctors continues.

This problem is not about a shortage of money, it’s a surplus of special interests, and lack of will. Job-Creating, tax paying, community building companies and institutions will come to Missouri when they see us governing with accountability and common sense again. People really do want authentic solutions.

I will fight to restore accountability to government, for solutions that move us from words to work, and for policies grounded in the common good, including:

• Economic investment that focuses on our strengths in medicine and science
• Better fiscal management of our assets and our growth opportunities
• Smart, Compassionate Health Care
• Fully funded, world-class schools that our communities and stakeholders deserve
• 21st century energy management and environmental stewardship
• A government accountable to voters again, not special interests.

ECONOMIC SECURITY
As a small businessman working with many small and medium-size businesses, I know all too well the importance of being competitive and encouraging companies to do business in Missouri. But job-creating, tax-paying, community-building companies and institutions will come to us only when they see us governing with accountability and commonsense again. Good schools and colleges produce a strong workforce and attract companies to Missouri.

Fiscal responsibility has to include a strategic plan, not juggling numbers for just this year and deferring the over-runs into the future. Taxing our grandchildren and calling it a day simply doesn’t work anymore. Fleecing the weakest and the youngest to reduce the load on the wealthiest 1% is irresponsible and unworkable in the long haul.

HEALTH CARE
It’s wrong that this administration has denied so many of our neighbors most in need and working poor access to care. There is widespread moral outrage on this issue as there should be; but where is the economic outrage? These people end up in emergency rooms and getting expensive care that basic preventative measures would have made unnecessary. Doing less simply costs us more, and the exorbitant cost is passed on to you and me. Medicaid has grown because the population demographic has shifted and we have more elderly each year. Breaking our promises, cutting the muscle out of health care, does not strengthen the system. Raising a cigarette tax to pay for Medicaid does, and keeping our word makes Missouri a reliable partner again.

EDUCATION
When communities like ours continually have to pass bonds to pay for the basic infrastructure repair of our schools, it’s because the state is shirking its responsibility to provide the kind of quality education many of us enjoyed. For 8 years, education funding has been moving in reverse. We must raise the level of all our schools, from preschool to our colleges, because we get paid back in spades — this is our most precious investment asset to be maintained.

REAL ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
The lobbyists have called the shots in Jefferson City far too long. From questionable short-sighted energy policies that cost us more at the pump, to the abuse of our precious non-renewable resources, it’s clear that we need new leaders working for our common interests, not special interests. Taking food off our tables to feed SUVs was never a good idea, and we are paying for that mistake now with increasing fuel demand and higher food costs

OTHER ISSUES
We can and should restore choices that acknowledge our common ground and best practices, not exploit how we are different. We can build on our strengths, not plunder the weakest links; we can act with compassion and maturity, not self-serving intolerance. We can move Missouri forward and make it a better place to live for all citizens, and a better place for business.

A decent minimum wage puts millions of dollars into the economy, and raises the standard of living for the whole community — this is a basic precept of a healthy free enterprise system — and it works.

Is pro-choice just a slogan or is it about providing real choices to women for education, prevention, health-care, family planning — all of which in fact reduce the demand for abortion, reduce disease, reduce teen pregnancy.

ACCOUNTABILITY
This is a complex issue with a couple of simple steps to insure success: Reform campaign finance so the influence of big money is eliminated. I reversed the trend to unlimited donations last year with a lawsuit, but we shouldn’t have to sue to keep our constitution in force.

Another law passed this past year that contributes to graft is that lobbyists no longer have to show the actual value of gifts to legislators — which of you asked for that one? These are Blunt initiatives that can only be reversed by changing the guard.