JEFFERSON CITY - In a thinly disguised campaign commercial aimed at promoting his political fortunes rather than dealing with the challenges facing Missourians, Candidate Jay Nixon lied to Missourians about the state of the state and chose to politically attack Gov. Matt Blunt rather than offer solutions to the important issues facing our state.

In what should be dubbed Nixon’s first official campaign commercial, he never once mentioned bipartisanship. Instead, the 10-minute political diatribe was filled with false claims about Missouri’s economy, health care system and schools. Instead of talking about legislative solutions that he has absolutely no role in, Nixon launched political attacks against Gov. Matt Blunt by name a dozen times.

“Candidate Nixon’s political commercial was filled with pessimistic finger pointing fueled by a series of lies about Missouri’s economy, our health care system and our schools. Not once during his campaign commercial did Nixon offer solutions to the challenges facing hard-working Missourians,” said Paul Sloca, communications director for the Missouri Republican Party. “And in the cruelest twist of all for Missourians, Nixon sought political cover by attacking the same utility that provided him with backdoor political contributions while he was investigating them. He later returned the money. Not only is Nixon lying to Missourians but he’s also a hypocrite.”

NIXON’S FICTION

Fiction: “Gov. Blunt has cut or reduced health insurance for more than 400,000 Missouri citizens.”

Facts: A recent Kaiser Foundation report disclosed that 16 percent of U.S. citizens are uninsured. After Missouri’s Medicaid reforms, Missouri continues to best the national average by at least 2 percent.

Prior to 2005 Medicaid reforms, the Kaiser Foundation reported that Missouri had roughly 700,000 uninsured residents, which amounted to about 12 percent of the population. At the time, Missouri ranked 16th in the nation in terms of having the lowest percentage of uninsured residents. Medicaid reform came with an estimate that about 100,000 people would be removed from state rolls. If every single one of those people fell into “uninsured” limbo, that would amount to 800,000 uninsured residents or about 14 percent of the population. If that was the case, and that is a worst case scenario, it would mean Missouri still falls somewhere in the middle-of-the-pack (ranked 23rd-25th) between Illinois, Virginia and Maryland in terms of percentage of uninsured. Texas has the highest uninsured population at 25 percent. Nixon’s wild assertion is unsubstantiated.

Fiction: “Under his watch, the number of citizens without health insurance has increased by 17 percent.”

Fact: The most recent numbers from Kaiser and the Census Bureau indicate that Missouri had 699,960 uninsured residents as of 2005 Census estimates. To make matters worse for Nixon, his friends in higher education at the St. Louis University School of Public Health recently admitted that the 699,960 figured predated SB 539—no dice, just guess work for Jay. It is likely that Nixon, once again, got to 17 percent by assuming the estimated 100,000 removed from Medicaid rolls were relegated to “uninsured” limbo. Lots of estimation and assumptions go into getting the 17 percent cited by Nixon.

Fiction: “The result is fewer students in four year colleges today than there were twenty five years ago.”

Fact: From the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education—FY 2006 Annual Report Changes in Enrollment and Programs Since fall 2001, enrollment has continued to increase at both public and independent institutions in Missouri. A breakdown of total headcount enrollment, full-time equivalent (FTE), and first-time, full-time freshmen at both public and independent institutions for fall 2001, 2004, and 2005 is found below.

Fiction: “It now costs nearly half of a working family’s annual income to send a child to college.”

Fact: Census data indicates that average Missouri median household income hovers in the $40,000 to $45,000 range. According to a June 2006 Columbia Daily Tribune story, the average annual undergrad fees for a Missouri resident at the University of Missouri amounts to $7,308 or about 5 percent to 16 percent of a median household income in Missouri.

Fiction: “Missouri currently ranks 46th in the nation at creating jobs. And wages have stalled. Missouri paychecks grew by less than all but two states.”

Fact: Jay Nixon should look closely at the starting point of the three charts below—that’s where the state was when Bob Holden handed things over to Gov. Blunt. Now, look at the end point of each chart. That’s where Republican economic policies have taken Missouri.

A look at growth in Missouri’s economic climate since Gov. Blunt took over in January 2005.

Personal income refutation: http://www.bls.gov/ro7/qcewmo.htm

Aggregate labor force growth since Jan-05: 55,770

Aggregate employment growth since Jan-05: 83,337

Aggregate unemployment rate drop since Jan-05: 1% from 5.9%

QUESTIONS FOR JAY NIXON

1. Who paid for the commercial?
2. Was it filmed on state time?
3. How many state employees were used to produce it? Who were they?
4. Where’s the Democrat budget proposal?
5. Where’s the cohesive Democrat plan for improving the lives of Missourians?
6. Where did Jay Nixon get the statistics that helped him lie to Missourians?