Allen Shirley, who was co-chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign for this district in 2004, obviously is happy with the way politics are going on the national, state, and district levels.
Thursday's Joplin Globe will feature a letter to the editor from Shirley regarding the Globe's recent story on how much money area legislators receive from lobbyists.
Seth Jackson wrote a letter to the editor recently in which he compared Rep. Steve Hunter's taking gifts from lobbyists while cutting Medicaid to the poor. Shirley says that is liking comparing apples or oranges, and reminds that all of the gifts from lobbyists are recorded and are legal and are being made with private money, whereas the Medicaid money comes from taxpayer dollars.
He is absolutely right.
Then again, there are a lot of things that are legal that should not be. Leaving the Medicaid argument out of it, I will repeat my contention that our senators and representatives do not need to be accepting any gifts from lobbyists. We pay them over $31,000 a year for five months in Jefferson City; actually about 75 to 80 days. We pay their mileage to and from Jefferson City, and we pay for their daily expenses. How many of their constituents would love to have a job that paid $31,000, even if they had to work 12 months, 365 days to get it? If legislators want to open their doors and listen to what lobbyists have to say, that's fine, but why in the world is there any need to allow legislators to accept gifts?
The attitude that if it's legal, it's o.k., is part of the problem we have with politics on every level.
3 comments:
Amen! Preach it, Brother Turner!
It's a shame that the Globe has decided to continuously use the Letters to the Editor section as a forum for a flame-war of a group of local kooks, including but not exclusively Allen Shirley, Leroy Laurie, Rita Crowley, etc. I guess it's easier and cheaper than covering real news.
Of course, the Medicaid arguement was the important part of Jackson's arguement.
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