Star and Post-Dispatch Endorse Carnahan Over Blunt
Blunt, the father of a former governor and son of a Missouri legislator, talks about a commitment to small government regarding health care and No Child Left Behind. However, his record shows he often backs big, and sometimes unfunded, government.
He admits Republicans did a pretty poor job controlling spending when they were last in charge in Washington, hardly a good reason to believe they would be frugal this time. Blunt has close ties to special interests and is one of the largest House recipients of special interest donations, so his political independence is clearly suspect.
Carnahan, in contrast, proposes to end the revolving door from Congress to lobbying firms, and she strongly supports more disclosure on campaign finance donations. She opposes earmarks, a growing budget concern, and offers a fresh, honest approach to government.
Ms. Carnahan understands both the human and economic imperatives of reforming health care. She understands the need to bring even more reform to the financial sector. She understands that the social contract — work hard and get ahead — is threatened by special interests and record income inequality.
Mr. Blunt does not appear to see the problem, perhaps because he played a key role in creating it. His 21-page “jobs program” boils down to standard Republican mantras of cutting taxes and government spending and unleashing the forces of the marketplace.
Since 1980, those ideas have worked fine for the “haves” and “have mores” in America, but they’ve left the working poor desperate and the middle class struggling.
On a personal level, Mr. Blunt, 60, is charming and thoroughly professional, but in the House he was all too willing to go along with every excess of the Bush administration and has been all too willing to play ball with lobbyists and special interests. To think that would change if he moves across the Rotunda to the Senate is a pipe dream.
The next six years will be difficult for America and for Missouri. We have no illusions that Ms. Carnahan’s election to the Senate will get us where we need to be. But she is far more likely than Mr. Blunt to support policies and programs that will get us started.
