Family Recovery Plan
by Missouri Rep. Ed Emery (R-126 including the counties of
Barton, Dade, Jasper and Polk)

"The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together."--Erma Bombeck

The proper task of government in our Republic is to secure a cultural and political environment that protects personal liberty and encourages individual success. Just days into the 2009 legislative session, the Republican majority in the Missouri House of Representatives is coalescing around the right direction for Missouri's future. What is best for Missouri families will set that direction.

We have labeled our initiative The Family Recovery Plan. As our most fundamental institution the family is the key to overcoming Missouri's current financial and cultural woes and advancing into the future. The longer I serve you in Jefferson

City, the more thoroughly I am convinced that the rebuilding and strengthening of the family unit is the most important ingredient in conquering each challenge.

Here are the key areas of the Family Recovery Plan:

• PROPERTY TAX REFORM-Property tax is the main vehicle used to fund schools and local governments. I believe there are more just methods of taxation, but while we search for that revenue source, elected officials must step up and stand up for the taxpayer. We need to make reassessments fair, properly apply market values, and always remember that whatever reforms we apply, the government should serve the people and be absolutely constrained by the constitution.

• HEALTH CARE-America has the finest medical care in the world. People from all over the world come to our country when they need the best health care available. However, the third-party-pay system has devolved to an "unlimited entitlement mentality" which results in unlimited demand in a limited supply world. The market place would still eventually regulate itself in favor of the most efficient health care delivery system except that well-meaning but nave officials have injected mandates creating economic chaos and further diminishing supply. Families are priced out of the market by employers and small business owners who spend huge amounts of money to see that their employees have health insurance. Then, these businesses are often forced to close or cut benefits due to the financial burden they incur. Even as America spends more and more on health care, it seems like fewer and fewer are served. The current model is self-condemning and unsustainable and must be reformed.

• ENERGY-The recent period of high gas prices had a devastating effect on family budgets and is likely to return. Diesel fuel prices have driven operating costs for Missouri farmers and grocers sky-high. Rather than continuing to ship U.S. dollars overseas for our energy needs, we must employ American ingenuity and workers to conserve and develop our own energy resources. Missouri has dozens of rivers and streams that could support hydroelectric power generation; nuclear energy has a long, safe and successful history in Missouri, and where wind, biomass, or even solar are economical, they will be part of the solution. Missouri can enjoy reliable and economical energy supplies if we insist that technology and economics drive energy solutions rather than politics or "political correctness." In energy matters, science and technology are the consumer's protection from the waste and mismanagement of hysteria.

• JOBS-Jobs sustain families, businesses, communities, states, and nations. A productive job is the only cure for an ailing economy, and productive jobs are created by business not government. The lower the cost of government (taxes), the less of our economic potential is siphoned away from business growth and into bureaucracies. Government jobs, even when they are needed, do not add to the economy because government only moves your dollars around; it doesn't create new dollars (value). I will continue to work for meaningful tax reform and will introduce a bill soon to eliminate Missouri income taxes and replace them with a Fair Tax model.

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