After all that…nothing?

A bitch followed the 2009 Legislative Session in Missouri closely. I’m pretty damned disgusted that prevention legislation was ignored by the leadership even though my home city of St. Louis leads the nation in certain sexually transmitted infections…and I’m beyond disgusted that the legislature failed to address the thousands of Missourians, many of them children, without healthcare coverage…oh, and this bitch is also fired up that the autism insurance bill was treated like a curiosity rather than the serious policy that it is.

But session ended with one possible sorta-achievement – the extension of unemployment benefits for out of work Missourians.

Or so we thought.

It seems that legislators talked themselves out of qualifying for federal stimulus funds.

Well, actually they wrote themselves out of it.

Pause…sip coffee…continue.

To be accurate, they wrote out of work Missourians out of it.

The U.S. Department of Labor says that legislation passed on the final day of session contains wording that makes Missouri ineligible for federal stimulus funds…and as a result the extension of unemployment benefits ain’t gonna happen.

I know, I know…you’re thinking WTF?

After a session of missed opportunities and public displays of the wrong priorities, now we find out that one of the few sorta-accomplishments of this session was fubar before the ink was dry?

Yep.

The fuck-up centers on the leaderships obsession with not allowing those stimulus funds to stimulate lest it make the stimulus plan look good. Republicans in the legislature spent this session killing legislation that would require our state government to commit to funding policies on our own after next year. On the surface that seems logical…don’t make promises our checkbook might not be able to keep. But peel back the scab on that shit and it stinks to high heaven. The leadership and their minions took the intellectually lazy route…refused to even try to work the problem or get creative…and settled on leaving the masses fucked instead of identifying areas of waste and shifting funds where residents need them to go.

And don’t sleep…Missourians need funds to go toward healthcare coverage (prevention is cheaper that treating serious illness) and the extension of unemployment benefits (‘cause Lawd knows the leadership didn’t exactly step up to the plate regarding job creation).

Note – trollish knaves currently writing comments that assume a bitch is unemployed and uninsured should cease and return to their usual rant about black women not knowing anything. A bitch is employed (thank the gods) and has coverage (thank them again)…but only a fool ignores the impact others in crisis has on her community and I’m no fool. Okay, you can go back to being assholes now.

Toodles!

Where was I?

Oh yes!

The leadership added some language to the bill that would have the extension automatically expire once the federal stimulus funds were used up.

If only being broke automatically expired when unemployment benefits run out...sigh.

And that language is what the feds are saying makes Missouri ineligible for stimulus funds.

So, it looks like the leadership wrote Missourians out of that extension just when we need it most.

No healthcare coverage…in the midst of a flu outbreak that makes the point of why we need to cover everyone.

No ethics reform…even as rumors fly about the FBI getting their investigation on.

No prevention legislation…even though it would reduce STD infection rates and the number of unplanned pregnancies in the state.

And no extension of unemployment benefits…even though Missourians are still struggling to find work.

But hey, they did manage to ban beer bongs on the river.

Blink.