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President Biden blamed everyone but himself for his failures during his State of the Union Address on Tuesday.
He blamed struggling businesses for inflation. He blamed high gas prices on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He blamed the supply chain crisis on COVID.
In Missouri, we call that passing the buck and it doesn’t pass the smell test.
Life for forty-four million Ukrainians changed dramatically this week. They have been fighting Russian-backed separatists for control of two break-away territories in eastern Ukraine for eight years. Now, they're fighting for their freedom and the future of their entire country.
I'm the 6th generation in my family to farm. My son is the 7th generation. I hope one day my grandchildren will be the 8th, but, with each passing day, the dream of passing this way of life on to the next generation seems to get more and more difficult.
I was always taught you ought to leave something better than you found it. It seems some folks in Washington didn’t get the same lesson when it comes to the United States Postal Service.
Pretty much all of us depend on the Postal Service every single day—to deliver just about anything you can imagine under the sun. It’s an absolute lifeline for folks, and it’s been that way from day one.
On Tuesday, the New York Times released what they called an “opinion video” entitled “Meet the People Getting Paid to Kill Our Planet: American agriculture is ravaging the air, soil and water.” I pressed play—so you didn’t have to. What followed was 15 minutes of distortions, misrepresentations, and lies about farmers and American agriculture—about what you’d expect from such a liberal rag.
I don’t have enough room in this short email to bust every myth peddled in their propaganda, but I did want to take a second to address a few of the most dangerous and misleading lies.
When rising prices were cutting into Americans' paychecks, we were told inflation was "transitory." It wouldn't last. If we just ignored the problem, it would go away on its own. That didn't happen.
When gas prices shot through the roof, we were told selling off part of the strategic petroleum reserve would solve the problem. That didn't happen.
Then, when the supply chain crisis clogged our ports, delayed shipments, and drove prices even higher, we were told the President would solve the problem. That didn't happen.
Our rural hospitals are in a crisis. This isn't a new problem, but the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly made it worse.
For years, healthcare costs have gone up while Medicare reimbursement rates have gone down. That's turned the screws on hospitals everywhere. However, it's been a particular problem for rural America—where folks are much more likely to rely on Medicare.
You've probably noticed a few more road closures and detours over the last couple of years than usual. That's because the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) has been working through their Focus on Bridges program to repair and replace more than 250 bridges across Missouri. That program launched in 2019 after I helped secure an $81.2 million INFRA Grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to replace the I-70 Missouri River Bridge at Rocheport, unlocking additional state money for the program.