Reports from Your Government

"I think the currency of leadership is transparency. You've got to be truthful. I don't think you should be vulnerable every day, but there are moments where you've got to share your soul and conscience with people and show them who you are, and not be afraid of it." - Howard  Shultz

Last week included three reports from branches of the state and federal governments. The President’s State of the Union address from Washington D.C.; the State of the State Address from Missouri’s governor; and the State of the Judiciary address from Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Mary R. Russell. Both of the State addresses are presented annually to a joint session of the Missouri Legislature. As you know, the two chief executives are elected while the Supreme Court Justices are appointed. It was interesting that only one of the three reports mentioned came anywhere close to Mr. Shultz’s description of leadership. Out of the three addresses, the sole example of leadership was from Chief Justice Mary R. Russell.

Does it surprise you as much as it did me that the branch of state government that showed genuine leadership was the one that Federalist 78 describes as the weakest of the three because it had, as Alexander Hamilton put it, "no influence over either the sword or the purse, ...It may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment." That is why the judiciary properly issues opinions rather than rulings.

Judge Russell and I may sometimes disagree over judicial opinions, but her lucidity, sincerity, and personal integrity are never in question. As Missouri’s top judicial officer, Judge Russell has already done much to assess and improve access to the courts across Missouri. Her remarks expressed an ongoing, personal commitment to justice and a determination to make the courts more accessible and easier to navigate - even from your home computer. Judge Russell’s candor and straightforward presentation of her vision for Missouri courts was a refreshing contrast to the two executive branch reports offered earlier in the week.

After the governor’s speech the night of Jan. 21, a legislative colleague remarked how similar it was to the State of the Union Address the night before. Their observation was of countless platitudes and promises of government handouts without detail about the path or payee. There were also frequent rebukes to the majority party, who had been heavily preferred in the November election, for their policies on things like Medicaid expansion. I like the governor, personally, but had to agree.

I was disappointed in the vague generalities of panacea, amply distributed but without direction for their achievement. The governor’s budget proposal for 2014 has been off by approximately $800,000,000, and I fear the 2015 budget proposal may be worse. The governor’s description of Medicaid funding was a glaring violation of Mr. Schultz’s principles of leadership quoted above.

The governor has either been seriously misinformed, or he deliberately misinformed his constituents. He suggested that millions of Missouri’s taxpayer dollars would be lost to other states. Medicaid is, in fact, a need-based program which means that Missouri’s decline of Federal debt (there are no more federal dollars) will not go to another state but simply will not be spent and therefore will not be laid at the feet of your children.  The most positive part of the governor’s speech was his commitment to work more closely with the Legislature. We have already seen evidence of that as we deal with education issues, so I hope it continues.

Finally, regarding the State of the Union Address on the night of Jan. 20, that address sounded more like a community organizer than a president. Faced with the most Republican Congress of his presidency and a glaring rejection of his policies in the November election, the president’s remarks sounded ideologically resolute. It was what I expected, but not what I had hoped for. The speech was consistent with his pseudo title of the “imperial president.”