U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Missouri) took part in a phone interview with the Republic-Monitor last week, answering several questions on a variety of topics Jan. 18.
Blunt was scheduled to appear in Perryville Monday, Jan. 17, with plans to appear at Stonie’s as well as at the funeral service of Rex Rust in Cape Girardeau.
He was in Missouri Jan. 15 but had to return to Washington, D.C.
Perry County is one of 20 counties he hasn’t make a second visit to during this term, and he plans to made it back to this area later this year.
Blunt announced in early 2021 that he would not be seeking re-election in 2022. He has served in the U.S .Senate since January 2011 and is a ranking member of the Senate Rules Committee.
Federal election takeover attempts…what is this really all about? Filibuster…what’s this all about?
It’s a 792 page bill, Blunt noted.
“The real question is, ‘What’s wrong with the constitutional decision that state governments would be responsible for elections in their state.
“I was a local election official and the chief election of this state for 20 years and I think that responsibility should be at the state and local level, not at the federal level. Different states have different kinds of considerations that don’t fit very well in a one-size fits all election strategy.”
“Even President Obama said in 2016 the diversity of our election system actually makes it difficult for outsiders to interfere with our system in ways that they might be to otherwise if every state and every county did elections exactly the same way.”
The Democrats with virtually no majority at all, in a 50-50 Senate, couldn’t be any closer than that, want to be able to do whatever it is they want to do, whether it’s D.C. statehood or federalizing elections or a whole bunch of new government programs that will become entitlement programs. They’re inconvenienced by the fact that the Senate is designed in a way where it’s specifically not the House, there are protections for the minority in the Senate and frankly the Senate requires the country to some extent to think about something for a while before you make dramatic changes.
Bipartisan majorities are pretty easy to achieve of 60 if you’re making changes that everybody knows need to be made and only when you’re on the edge of making changes that when the other side gets in control they would change back you have a hard time with the Senate rules. The problem is not in the Senate rules, the problem is with Senators who don’t want to find ways to work together and when you can’t work together, maybe that’s a good indication that this is something that the country and voters need to think about a little longer.”
“If you’re been watching the national situation as you have for the last several years, Democrats get control of the (U.S.) House (of Representatives) and they pass a lot of bills that never become law because they come to the Senate and the change is too dramatic and then the next time Republicans are in control…they repeal all of those laws, or don’t pass those laws, and they come up with things that the country is often not ready for yet.
“The Senate serves a purpose and the rules of the Senate matter. It’s not the rules that are a problem, it’s the senators that are a problem, who can’t figure out the importance of finding a solution that involves people from both sides.”
What policies, if any, are needed to ensure that inflation doesn’t continue to keep increasing?
Inflation hasn’t been this high since 1982, seven percent. A portion of the inflation uptick is “driven dramatically” by items in our state that aren’t controllable, Blunt said.
“The price of gasoline and heating costs. Those are two areas that are way above seven percent. Groceries are up.
“It has impact on everybody, but people that work at lower paying jobs or have the big families it has the biggest impact. The first thing you’d need to do if you’re going to slow down inflation is stop putting a whole lot of government money into the economy. The Democrats, in a totally partisan way, in March of last year passed the so-called ‘American Rescue Act’ to try to rescue an economy that was clearly already well along the way of recovery. You just can’t dump $1.9 trillion into the economic and that not have inflationary impact. The bigger package that they were trying to pass, that had long term entitlement programs would have had a similar impact so that the first thing you need to do is stop making the problem worse by continuing to double down on one of the causes for the problem and that is way too much government spending on programs that don’t grow the economy but create a lot of competition for what’s out there.
Governor Parson declared “state of emergency” over Dec. 31? How would you assess the state’s response to COVID-19?
“I generally believe that states and communities are better positioned to respond than some big federal solution so I’m supportive of states having that authority, and frankly I’ve supporting of other political subdivisions in states also making decisions like local school boards deciding what’s the best thing for their school district rather than somebody in either Washington, D.C. or Jefferson City but the federal job there would not be to do what the state needs to do but to be sure the state has the ability to have the flexibility to do what they need to do and the governor is in a better place to monitor whether Dec. 31 is the last day that those special efforts need to be in place or if it needs to be some other date.”
What accomplishment are you most proud of during your time as a U.S. Senator?
“I’m going to continue to add to that list of accomplishments over the next 12 months and look forward to that. In the Senate, I’d say most of the things that I’d look at that my prescence here has made a real difference are health care related. I’ve chaired the committee and am now (serve as) the top Republican on the committee that funds the health agencies, including the National Institute(s) of health. When I started chairing that committee, there hadn’t been an increase in the funding for health research for a decade. In the next six years, we eliminated programs that weren’t working and did other things that allowed to increase the research part of what happens in health and education and labor by 43 percent. What’s happening in health care is moving pretty quickly, but being able to be out there help people find ways to have an individualized response for the challenges they face is really important. When I came to Congress in 1997, we had very few federally qualified health centers in our state, that’s a much bigger program than it was then. I founded the federal (qualified) health center caucus as well as the law enforcement caucus. I think both of those groups of senators coming together have made a difference in law enforcement but on the health side in terms of more people having access to help through the federal qualified health centers.
Mental health is another area where (I’ve been) working with Sen. Stabenow (D-Michigan) and passed legislation that treats mental health differently than we had before. Basically, our goal is to treat mental health like all other health and also to find out what you save on the other health care costs by treating mental health in the right way.
“Ag research has been a big part of what I’ve been able to work on and some of that very much in the southeast Missouri ag research center. The Danforth plant science center for the University of Missouri system and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
The NGA headquarters in St. Louis ($1.5 billion), (is) an investment that keeps those jobs and that important part of our defense and security and intelligence network in our state.
Will you be endorsing a candidate ahead of the primary later this year? 17 total candidates have filed, including eight Republicans.
I prefer not to. We’ll see how that campaign develops. I expect to be working for the Republican nominee. We’ll see how the race develops.
