Several days ago, I read Missouri House Speaker Rod Jetton's impassioned plea in favor of the Medicaid cuts enacted by the Republican-led legislature in 2005.
The first paragraph of Jetton's column read, "There's a lot of talk about Medicaid these days. The changes that the Governor recently signed into law are on everyone's mind. Whether you believe those changes were good, or even if you don't, there’s one thing that was certain: Medicaid in Missouri was a flawed system that was on course to consume our entire state budget within ten years. Not only would we not have the money to educate our children, but also we wouldn't even have the money to help those who truly had nowhere else to turn."
Imagine my surprise today when I received the latest Capitol Report from Ron Richard, R-Joplin. The first paragraph of the column read, "There's a lot of talk about Medicaid these days. The changes that the Governor recently signed into law are on everyone's mind. Whether you believe those changes were good, or even if you don't, there’s one thing that was certain: Medicaid in Missouri was a flawed system that was on course to consume our entire state budget within ten years. Not only would we not have the money to educate our children, but also we wouldn't even have the money to help those who truly had nowhere else to turn."
And you know, I could almost swear I read those same words in another Joplin Republican's column recently.
Speaker Jetton's column and Richard's column are word for word the same, including the following passage:
"If you hear about a disabled or elderly person losing benefits, let me know. I will be happy to double-check their situation. I am also looking for any across-the-board, unintended consequences from last year’s bill. I am sure that if there are cases where the disabled or elderly who have nowhere else to turn are getting hurt, we will take steps to change the law and help them with their situation."
The only addition to Richard's column was the final paragraph, which reads, "As always, if you have any questions on this or any other issue, I can be reached at 573-751-2173 in my Jefferson City office, or at 417-623-0022 in my Joplin office, or through the mail at: Representative Ron Richard, State Capitol, Jefferson City, MO 65102. Also, you can reach me through e-mail at Ronald.Richard@house.mo.gov. This is the same ending, I might add, that Richard features on all of his columns.
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Not so coincidentally, a quick Google check also turned up nearly the exact same column, only this time the credit was given to Rep. Mike Parson, R-Bolivar. The first 11 paragraphs are virtually word-for-word the same. Parson then adds two paragraphs of localized content, returns to the Jetton column for a paragraph, then concludes with a paragraph of his own.
Plagiarizing is pretty sad. We've all heard of politicians "hitting the talking points", but to advance a document obviously written by a party leader as your personal thoughts is (to use the parlance of our times) "dishonest and reprehensible".
ReplyDeleteIt is worth pointing out that Democrats have had their own issue with "borrowing" other people's work. See: Joe Biden's presidential campaign in the 80's.
Robin...you are a touch myopic or maybe naive here. Both parties use talking points excessively. To deny that reality is a blatant sign of bias and an inability on your part to see past the political game played by both sides. You're smarter than that...or are you?
ReplyDeleteThe think that I admire about the democrats is that although they may have many of the same ideas and may on occasion copy each other, they still manage to be (by republican standards) disorganized and independent. To put it bluntly democrats are all over the place on any given topic. Republicans are the ones who worship speaking in unison above all.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the local media on this?
ReplyDeleteMaybe these politicians really are clones of one ideology &/or maybe we are being brain washed by hearing the same thing over & over until it sounds acceptable?
ReplyDelete