“Jobs, Spending, Healthcare and Energy Taxes” big issues on Goodman’s “Listening for Solutions Tour”
(Mt. Vernon, Mo.) “I listened and our neighbors had plenty on their minds about what we need to do to fix what is broken with the federal government,” that was the way Republican 7th Congressional District candidate Jack Goodman summed up his 10 stop “Listening for Solutions Tour” that will be ongoing across the district during his grassroots campaign for Congress.
Goodman, a conservative state senator, stopped at Skaggs Hospital in Branson during the first two days of his tour designed to give local residents an opportunity to offer their suggestions and observations of what the federal government should and should not be doing -- or could do better.
“The people of this district clearly want to send to Congress a true conservative, a neighbor who gets it, who shares their anger, someone with a record of fixing what is broken. I am ready to serve the people of this district in that role as their next voice and vote in Congress,” said Goodman of Mt. Vernon.
Goodman said the three main issues mentioned by those attending the gatherings were out-of-control federal spending, opposition to a government take-over of health care that would cost us even more, put a bureaucrat between us and our doctors and cut Medicare for our seniors, and opposition to a new job-killing national energy tax known as Cap and Trade. There also was great frustration expressed that the federal government’s actions have actually slowed the recovery and the creation of sustainable private sector jobs.
Goodman said, “The people of southwest Missouri know our families are hurting. We need jobs now and the path to recovery begins by letting people keep more of what they earn. Spending is out-of-control. We need to pass a balanced budget amendment, enact the spending freeze and other fiscal responsibility reforms I have been advocating for months. On health care the people understand that real reform will lower health care costs. Real reform will expand coverage, not ration it. Real reform will not allow them to cut half-a-billion dollars from the Medicare program on which so many depend.”
In the state senate Goodman sponsored the Taxpayers Bill of Rights, the repeal of Missouri’s death tax, and helped win tax cuts for Missouri workers and seniors. He built a tough on crime record sponsoring and helping to pass Missouri’s Castle Doctrine, S.T.O.P. Meth Act, and a bill to allow for life sentences for those who sexually assault Missouri children. To make health care more affordable and available he won passage of the law allowing small businesses to come together to pool their buying power to lower insurance costs. He has been a staunch advocate for cutting waste, fraud and abuse in state government, protecting the unborn, making government more transparent and open to citizen inspection and supported balanced budgets that brought a billion new dollars to Missouri classrooms without a tax increase.
Goodman said, “I think it is far more important for me to listen to the people I serve—and seek to serve—than it is to be talking all the time. Our neighbors have great ideas. Now we need to implement that southwest Missouri common sense in Washington.”
The first part of Goodman’s “Listening for Solutions Tour” was held on March 9th and 10th while the Missouri General Assembly is on spring break.
