The Full Court Press - Part 3 in our How-To Guide
 Page Three from Speaker Richard's Playbook. |
To budget like a Republican, you've got to know how to play like a Republican. And that means pivots, rebounds, misdirections and flagrant fouls -- and doing it without shame. Here are the key plays so far:
- Play 1: Promise you're going to have a tough, conservative budget that doesn't use federal dollars for ongoing expenses (or use them at all).
- Play 2: Spend like crazy.
- Play 3: Distract and confuse your own players (and the public) with all sorts of tax policies!
In April we saw tax policies from House Republicans that were all of over the map -- sales tax increases, sales tax holidays, temporary income tax cuts, permanent income tax cuts, permanent income tax eliminations. There were revolts, refusals, belly-flops and back-flips. And all in the course of a few weeks.
| Step 3: Engage the chaos (tax) strategy |
April 14 | House passes constitutional amendment to eliminate individual and corporate income taxes altogether, replacing them with a higher sales tax. | |
| April 16 | House approves a sales tax holiday for entire month of July. Supporters called it an "Independence Day Sales Tax Holiday." Hours after voting to make sales taxes the primary source of revenue for the state, the House decides to cut a month's worth of said taxes. | ||
| April 23 |
Responding to internal revolt, GOP does "about-face" on stimulus, proposes 2-year income tax cut. Allen Icet introduces the HB22 on a Thursday afternoon, two weeks before the constitutional budget deadline. Richard says House GOP "is not willing to spend all of that money." "We ought to be returning this money to the people and not continue to perpetuate government," said Rep. Shane Schoeller, R-Willard. |
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| April 23 |
Senate budget leaders "have a cow" in response to new House plan. Nodler said early Thursday he hadn't been apprised of the House’s new game plan, and suggested communication between the chambers had been inadequate in recent weeks. Sen. Charlie Shields says a tax rebate would not likely stimulate Missouri's economy effectively because most of the state's population lives along the border and spend money in other states. |
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| April 24, approx. 3pm | Richard embarrasses himself on national TV, fabricating a threat from the feds that the new tax cut plan might be illegal. "We've got a message from the OMB, the vice president, they don't like it," Richard said on FOX News. "They say it's illegal and we're going anyway." | ||
| April 24, approx. 4pm | Richard admits that he lied on national TV. In a conversation with a reporter later in the afternoon, he said no one from Washington had contacted his office, a statement that has since been affirmed by staffers at the Capitol. | ||
| April 25 | Unaware that Richard has embarrassed himself, GOP sycophants publicly praise the Speaker. Mark Parkinson: "Great job on Fox News Speaker Richard... I'm behind you 100%." Scott Dieckhaus: "He sounded great!" | ||
| April 27 |
Speaker Richard assigns HB22 directly to Rules Committee, violating House rules requiring all appropriations bills to be considered by the Budget Committee. Democrats leave sham Rules Committee meeting in protest. Republican members of Rules Committee cut money for Ellis Fischel Cancer Center. |
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| April 29 |
House gives HB22 initial approval. It contained a myriad of projects throughout the state, such as $31 million for an expansion of the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center in Columbia. It outlined spending of nearly $400 million in federal money the first year and $158 million the second. It left enough money to provide a $1 billion tax cut, favored by House leadership. Metro funding restored. House approves amendment from Rachel Storch to restore METRO funding cut by Richard and Icet. |
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| April 30 | Ellis Fischel funding is restored on House floor. Republicans congratulate themselves on restoring money they just cut. | ||
| April 30 | House rejects HB22 as pork-barrel spending the state could not afford. Lawmakers vote it down in dramatic fashion, 68-82. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said the bill misused the federal money, which they said should be saved for potential budget troubles next year or spent on projects that truly stimulated the state economy. | ||
| May 1 | House leadership pushes through a permanent 1/2% income tax cut. Even some House Republicans voted against the permanent cut. "You've got to be reasonable, you've got to have some common sense," said Jay Wasson (R-Nixa) |
No matter how you come down on fiscal policy and what should be done to kick-start the economy with federal money, chances are, you agreed with House GOP at some point in the past couple of months.
