By Gretchen Garrity
Sen. Bill Eigel visited Christian County on Monday and spoke to a
group of citizens at a local Nixa coffee house, The Baked Bean.
Eigel, who is running for Missouri governor has been putting the
miles on his truck (41,000 so far in the last ten months).
Eigel got right to business involving the audience in his talk. He thanked the group for "being a part of the political discussion" in Missouri and the nation as a whole. Then he asked them what got them involved in politics.
Some said the 2020 election fraud, someone mentioned the attack on children by leftists, others said Obamacare, the open border, the Covid craziness.
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Candidate for Governor, Bill Eigel with future voters
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"You know what all these things have in common?" Sen. Eigel asked. "They're all examples of what's wrong with politics today...People don't get involved in politics because they think things are going great...People get involved in politics because of what's wrong. Children are getting their hands on materials that are inappropriate for kids. The election was stolen in 2020. The tax burden is greater than its ever been in government. It's far more expansive in scope than it's ever been before. Missouri is stagnating because of it. Our children are being taught--and even though we don't allow them to choose their bedtime--that they can choose their gender."
Eigel went on to say that the Covid environment was the moment when people really started getting involved. After get involved in politics, Eigel said he soon realized that things are much worse than he envisioned. "What was really frustrating for me is that I thought going in to this that Missouri was electing these super majorities of Republicans to protect us from this insanity that seems to be taking place in our state and national capitols."
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"I've seen firsthand
that a grift has been created in our state capitol. A grift--that's what
it is. It's a $51 billion state budget that's a grift that benefits the
most powerful in this state at the expense of everybody else."
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As he's been traveling around the state talking to citizens in Missouri, Eigel said whether they are rural or suburban or urban they all say the same thing, that they are furious.
"They're angry, they're disappointed, they're frustrated. These super majorities of Republicans that said they were gonna make government smaller, that said they were gonna protect your rights, that they were gonna protect your families, that they were gonna cut your taxes--almost every one of those we have failed to deliver on all of the campaign promises. Not because our principles are wrong but because our politicians are weak."
The crowd agreed.
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State Sen. Bill Eigel
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Sen. Eigel continued. "I've seen firsthand that a grift has been created in our state capitol. A grift--that's what it is. It's a $51 billion state budget that's a grift that benefits the most powerful in this state at the expense of everybody else. And because we're so busy trying to cater to the powerful few in our capitol we struggle to take time to protect our children. We struggle to take time to cut our tax burden...""At the end of all that, I'm running for office and I'm running to be the next governor of the state, and you know what? I'm angry, too. And I'm frustrated, and you heard that I'm a husband and a father. I've got two kids--they're 17 and 19 years old--and I want them to find opportunity in this state, because we know where opportunity is happening in this country right now, right? Which states are people moving to?
The audience answered Texas, Florida, Tennessee.
"The same ones you hear over and over. Big red states in other places doing big red things, and yet we're not doing them here even though we actually elect more Republicans to our state capitol than any of those states. And every two years the people of this state demand those kinds of reforms of broken government--protecting our elections, cutting our taxes, protecting our kids--that Republicans in Jefferson City compromise on or fail to accomplish altogether. And so they're furious."
"So I come along and I've been the guy down there for the past seven years, that's already been rubbing against the grain. I've been very candid and folks understand that I'm gonna call it the way I see it. And what I see is a grift that needs to be knocked over."
Sen. Eigel said he is incredibly unpopular in the halls of power in Jefferson City. "There's nothing that the swamp hates more than someone from the real world willing to call out all their lies and all their BS. Well, that's what I've been doing for seven years, and I've been attacked for it, almost constantly for seven years."
And I'm here to tell ya, when I become the next governor of this state, with your help, I'm gonna take the slings and arrows and attacks on behalf of every single one of the six million people that live in the state. Because I believe we are desperate for leadership. We're desperate for a bold, conservative Missouri that we only hear about in campaign season."
Eigel said that one of the first things he'll do as governor is to get rid of the DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) "trash in our schools." He got a big hand for that.
"Believe it or not, the governor can defund those positions in state government. He doesn't actually need to wait for the legislature because he is the chief executive. The question is not 'Can we do it?' The question is 'Why haven't we done it already?' Why don't we have someone that is defending our kids from this stuff?"
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The question is not
'Can we do it?' The question is 'Why haven't we done it already?' Why
don't we have someone that is defending our kids from this stuff?"
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He said both Democrats and Republicans in Jefferson City are afraid to stand up and be bold about it. He asked the audience where DEI and the transgender ideology is coming from? While he got a variety of answers, he said it was the federal government sending dollars and restrictions down to the state level, where it is digested and sent out by DESE (the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education).
He said, "Here's an idea. Let's get rid of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education." Wild applause and hollers followed.
He said DESE used to be a department of six people whose only job was to write checks to local school districts. Today it is a department of over 2,000 individuals who disseminate DEI, CRT and transgender ideology down to local school districts.
"When I'm the governor of the state we're going to stop that." More applause.
The issue moved to election integrity.
"I've got a question for you," Sen. Eigel said, "How many of you trust the machines?" Loud boos. "I'm the only candidate for governor on either side of either party that is going to commit to you right now that I will work and get rid of every single machine in every county." Loud clapping.
Then he asked if anyone felt as if they weren't being taxed enough? Derisive laughter. "Everyone in this room is sending more of their money to government in one form or another--adjusted for inflation--than you ever have before. You've never sent more. How many of you feel like you're getting more for that record amount of sacrifice?"
Eigel went on to discuss some of the taxes Missourians suffer under, such as paying "rent on your car." He said he would get rid of the personal property tax if he were governor. Loud whoops and applause.
"Let's have an honest conversation," he continued. Then he said there are a lot of people, including politicians who ask him where the money is going to come from to make up for eliminating some taxes.
"Guys, I'm a Republican. I won't replace it with anything. We're gonna cut that tax burden and government is gonna do with a little bit less tomorrow than they are today. How about that? To those concerned about the boldness of that answer, how about this: Last year the state revenues in Jefferson City grew by more than $2 billion. Two billion dollars, and that was just the growth in our state revenues. Well, the value of every personal property tax bill in the state...is $1.7 billion. That means we could've gotten rid of every personal property tax bill on every person in this state, refunded the difference on just the growth we see in Jefferson City and still had $300 million left over."
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Sen. Bill Eigel
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"But is that what we did? No. We wasted that money. Gov. Parson came out with the largest budget the state has ever seen. $10 billion in new decision items and pork barrel spending. I refer to the budget we passed as 'Making Earmarks Great Again.' What did we get for all that? Can anybody tell me?....""You're getting a meat laboratory that will produce fake meat for $30 million. You're getting a concrete walking path built over the top of I-70 in downtown Kansas City--taxpayers are gonna spend $200 million on that.We're spending tens of millions of dollars on private stadiums. The women's soccer team in Kansas City got a parking lot for $2 million. Good for them, right? Bad for you."
"We're missing the opportunity to make Missouri the economic leader that other states like Tennessee and Texas and Florida are becoming...while our state becomes stagnant. And that's a darn shame."
"It's no surprise then as I go around and I say that the only thing stopping us from that better version of Missouri that I'm talking about is a Jefferson City that can't imagine that this state ever might have a governor like me that's raised up by a bunch of patriots like you."
"You know how you tell when somebody's from Jefferson City...or just government? Because whenever you have a crazy idea like 'Let's get rid of the personal property tax', you know what they'll say? They'll say 'We can't do that.' Well, let's get rid of the machines. 'We can't do that. We don't know how to count.' And there is such a 'We can't do that' attitude in Jefferson City. In spite of all the sacrifice that every one of y'all are making right now...but I think we need to do a heck of a lot better in our state."
Sen. Eigel also shared, "You know when I had this announcement [for governor], you know the first thing that Jefferson City said--first response from all the swamp creatures down in Jefferson City was 'Eigel can't do that. He can't win. He doesn't have the proper last name, right? He doesn't have enough name ID.'
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"Every time the swamp
tells you you can't do something or every time the Missouri public is
told that something can't be done we always come through. You know the
heritage of America is that of an underdog overcoming the odds. And
we've been told for 200 years that we couldn't do things or we couldn't
go places and yet every single time the fact that we weren't willing to
stop in the face of that message is why we became the greatest nation on
earth."
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He then related the story that when he ran for state senator, he ran against a well-known candidate whose name was so popular in his district that his own wife's maiden name was the same. He said he had no name ID.
"Even though everyone was saying I didn't have enough name ID, we won that race."
He said the naysayers are also saying he doesn't have enough money to win...that the lieutenant governor's put together millions of dollars from all these powerful special interests--millions of dollars. But he told the story of an incumbent state senator in southwest Missouri who outspent his primary challenger seven-to-one, but still lost because his voting record and message was bad.
"Every time the swamp tells you you can't do something or every time the Missouri public is told that something can't be done we always come through. You know the heritage of America is that of an underdog overcoming the odds. And we've been told for 200 years that we couldn't do things or we couldn't go places and yet every single time the fact that we weren't willing to stop in the face of that message is why we became the greatest nation on earth."
"So here we are today, and all I'm asking is for you to consider that this Missouri that I'm talking about, where we're gonna boldly push back--on whether it's the next Covid environment, the next election scam, the next tax increase proposed by the swamp--that it's worth fighting for and believing that we can get to that better place so that one day Ron DeSantis, or Gregg Abbott and all these governors from other red states wake up and turn their TVs on and they say to themselves 'Look at all the great things Missouri's doing. What do we need to do to be more like them?'"
"So, my campaign slogan is, 'Let's go Missouri!' We are in a time and a place where more individuals are coming together and engaging in the political discussion for the first time in their lives--parents who are angry about the schools, business owners who are angry about taxes and the Covid environment. Patriots that are angry about what happened to our election."
"And by the way, how about all those patriots who are working on our elections who get ridiculed and called names by the media even though all they're trying to do is help every single one of us by making our elections a little more transparent and work a bit better..."
"I'll leave you with the idea, 'Don't be afraid'. Don't be afraid of the media and the powerful in Jefferson City who say that we can't accomplish something great. Don't be afraid of whatever crisis is gonna come out of Washington, D.C. We're gonna face that together and we're gonna face it with a bold, conservative version of Missouri that is as good and as conservative as the people of this great state."
Sen. Eigel then spent over 45-minutes answering questions and talking with citizens. Part Two will cover that.
