The lone holdout
After an emotional two-hour debate, House members voted 146-1 to reject a $300 million tax increase intended to put Democrats on the spot on the 2005 Medicaid cuts.
Offered by Rep. Steve Hunter, R-Joplin, the proposal would have increased the income tax rate by half a percent on everyone making more than $50,000 a year.
“I voted for those cuts and I feel bad,” he said. “I think we need to restore them.”
Hunter is critic of the progressive income tax system and favors a consumption tax. Earlier in the debate, he characterized his proposal as, “This is about all of the pages I could tear out of Das Kapital.”
Democrats smelled sarcasm.
“You’re telling me that Mr. Anti-Tax’s conscience is clear in proposing a $300 million tax increase?” said Rep. Jeff Roorda, D-Barnhart.
Hunter, who is term-limited, was the only legislator to vote for the measure.
Rep. Gina Walsh, D- Bellefontaine Neighbors, also said the proposal was disingenuous.
“It is simply an attempt to catch members on both sides of the aisle making a bad vote,” she said. “I’m not going to sit in this chamber and listen to this.”
Republicans said they were giving Democrats a chance to vote for restoring the cuts.
“Everybody that has made those comments (in support of restoring the cuts) has the opportunity to do what they say is the right thing,” said Rep. Shannon Cooper, R-Clinton.
Rep. Jeanette Mott Oxford, D-St. Louis has a bill that would increase taxes on those with higher incomes while lowering taxes for people who make less. In an emotional speech, she said the debate was offensive.
“Rather than having a strong discussion about restoring health care for our friends and neighbors, we are playing a trick,” she said.
Much of the afternoon’s debate was focused on the Medicaid cuts. While House members rejected that amendment, they easily approved a one-time exemption to the state gas tax during the summer months. They also gave initial approval, 104-37, to repeal the state income tax for corporations.
The cost of those two measures is $120 million and $400 million, respectively.
The bill still needs another vote in the House before it would be sent to the Senate. There is just more than two weeks left in the session.
Oh I see, Democrats only want tax increases to provide healthcare if they propose but restoring healthcare isn’t important enough to vote to restore it if a Republican offers it.
Roorda is right, something does stink and it is the hypocrisy of the democrats. Mott-Oxford is offended, indeed! She is offended because she and her party aren’t getting the “benefit” of being the knights on white horses.
Just goes to show that democrats are all talk and no walk.