Weekly Wrap: The Good, Bad and Ugly

Good: Gov. Jay Nixon signed a new jobs bill into law.

• On Thursday, Nixon signed HB191 into law to to spur business growth and job creation.
• The bill increases funding for:
  • The Quality Jobs program, an initiative to expand high tech jobs
  • The BUILD program, to provide revenue for large scale business expansion
  • The New Markets Tax Credits for new businesses and
  • Career Center and community college re-training programs.

Bad: Republicans and conservative activists continue to be very concerned with Roy Blunt's lack of progress on health care reform.

• Blunt was appointed in February to be the House Republicans' point person on health care reform, but still hasn't put forward a plan as promised.
• A GOP aide says members are "very concerned" about the lack of an alternative to the President's and Senate's plan.
• A Heartland Institute health expert said Blunt and Republican colleagues have been “virtually useless" on health care reform.
• Yet Blunt still had the chutzpah to criticize Barack Obama for not providing sufficient details on health care reform.
• He does have a new one-page list of vapid talking points about what his plan will do, however. Yeah!

Ugly: The Springfield News-Leader praised Speaker Ron Richard for his resolve in providing autism insurance, ignoring the enormous fact that Richard personally shut down the autism insurance bill in April.

• Making heads spin across the state, a News-Leader editorial praised Speaker Ron Richard for his "resolve" in working for autism insurance coverage.
• Never mind the undisputed fact that Richard unilaterally killed a bill to provide autism insurance in April.
• Never mind that fellow Republican State Sen. Scott Rupp blamed Richard by name for killing the autism insurance bill, which had overwhelming bipartisan support in both chambers.
• Never mind that Richard didn't show the slightest bit of interest in autism insurance until he was publicly shamed by Rupp last week.

Other notes:

• Missouri has moved up to #1 in FiveThirtyEight.com Senate rankings.
• NPR's "Political Junkie" blog lists Bond's senate seat as an "expected GOP loss" in 2010.
• LG Peter Kinder's office doesn't like loans for small businesses, but they do like Twitter and web videos promoting Kinder's french-style bicycle race.
• Rep. Steve Tilley is blaming Ron Richard for the House's chaotic operations.
• Roy Blunt has been one of Congress' top recipients of oil and gas money.
• KY3: It's been tough for the GOP to churn out serious attacks on Nixon when the Republican Senate Majority Leader is referring to the Governor as pragmatic and patient.