West Newsmagazine 11-1-23

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6 I OPINION I November 1, 2023 WEST NEWSMAGAZINE @WESTNEWSMAG WESTNEWSMAGAZINE.COM all decked out Thursday, November 16 | 6 to 8 p.m. DoubleTree Hotel - Chesterfield Grab your besties and join St. Luke’s Spirit of Women for All Decked Out! KMOV’s Laura Hettiger will host an evening of food, drinks, health screenings and wellness information. Check off some of your gifting list (or treat yourself) while shopping with some great local businesses. Plus you could win a great attendance prize! Tickets: $30 Includes health screenings, swag bag, appetizers, 2 drink tickets and more! To register for this event, visit bit.ly/alldeckedout2023 Questions? Call 314-205-6706. EDITORIAL Do you speak Republican? After several weeks of chaos, the United States House of Representatives has a speaker. Rep. Mike Johnson, a little-known Louisiana Republican, won the job last week without losing a single Republican vote. Mr. Johnson speaks Republican and oozes conservatism. He is ardently pro-life. He was a key figure in attempts to overturn the 2020 election. He does not believe in human-caused climate change. He strongly opposes same-sex marriage. Out of 435 lawmakers, Johnson was ranked the 429th least bipartisan, according to an index by the Lugar Center and McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. A consensus builder he is not. A near month of public infighting has left the Republican brand bruised and battered. An ultra-conservative speaker who ends up on the unpopular side of a lot of issues will do little to repair that image. With that in mind, will Speaker Johnson be able to get anything done and does he even want to? There are some big items on the very near-term to-do list for Congress. They need to fund the government. They need to decide if we are going to continue to fund our allies in Ukraine and Israel. There are still funds needed for natural disasters in Hawaii, California and Vermont. The border crisis looms large. That is an awful lot to find on one’s plate, particularly when Matt Gaetz is off to the side, threatening to slap the plate out of your hands. Do Johnson’s conservative bona fides buy him some leeway with the far-right zealots like Gaetz? Maybe. Johnson is a fairly classic social conservative; Gaetz is more of a MAGA-come-lately conservative. They both speak Republican but with very different accents. All of this makes it very interesting that Johnson was able to unite the party in such a coherent fashion. His platform may look a lot like firebrand and failed speaker Jim Jordan, but his tactics are very different. He seems to have virtually no enemies within the party. There is a term used in football to describe quarterbacks who are good enough not to lose, but not good enough to create wins. They call them game managers. Mike Johnson seems like a game manager for the Republican party. Can he deliver large, generational wins not seen since the days of Newt Gingrich? Probably not. But he is also not likely to turn the ball over and create easy wins for Democrats, which is what lost Kevin McCarthy the job. The sad reality is that we have been without a Speaker of the House for nearly a month and, well, the house has stayed standing. We don’t really need a lot from the job. We don’t really need a lot from Congress. Those to-do items listed earlier aren’t just the priority items, they’re pretty much the only items that must get done. We used to be deathly afraid of gridlock. Gridlock seems like a decent outcome these days. The world is spinning faster and faster and faster, and if gridlock can slow it down for a bit, then sign us up. Do we believe that this was Matt Gaetz’s plan all along? No. Gaetz is playing checkers, not chess. This outcome is not horrible, however. In a perfect world, we would have ended up with a consensus-building, sensible center type of Speaker who could represent the agreement held by most of the country, both Republican and Democrat. We haven’t seen that perfect world for quite some time, however. Instead, we got a principled man who speaks Republican and is unlikely to get much done. That feels like a pretty good outcome, as well. Follow us on
FACEBOOK.COM/WESTNEWSMAGAZINE WESTNEWSMAGAZINE.COM November 1, 2023 WEST NEWSMAGAZINE I 7 CONGRESSWOMAN ANN WAGNER HERE TO SERVE MISSOURI’S 2ND DISTRICT DO YOU NEED… H Help with a Federal Agency If you are not getting the customer service you deserve from a federal agency, contact my office for assistance. We can help you: • Navigate Social Security, Medicare, and IRS matters • Resolve passport issues • Get information on VA claims and benefits • Acquire military records or replacement military medals • Understand SBA loan programs • Much more! H A Ceremonial American Flag The American flag is the fabric of our nation. Call my D.C. office at (202) 225-1621 if you would like to order a flag that has been flown over the U.S. Capitol. VISIONS OF HARMONY IN CONCERT WITH SPECIAL GUESTS TOFU CONCERN, SPITFIRE, FLEET STREET, & THE AMBASSADORS OF HARMONY AT THE FOUNDRY ART CENTRE WED • NOV 15 • 7PM GET TICKETS AT FOUNDRYARTCENTRE.ORG OR CALL 636.255.0270 Bethesda Meadow SALUTES ALL WHO HAVE SERVED! H A Special Commendation Do you know a first responder, teacher, or neighbor who has gone above and beyond for our community? How about a newly minted Eagle Scout? Let me know. I’d be honored to send a congressional commendation. OFFICE LOCATION 301 Sovereign Court Suite 201 Ballwin, MO 63011 wagner.house.gov Scan QR Code to Take My Congressional Issue Survey! We honor all veterans on this day. The sacrifice you made to make the lives of others better is not forgotten! 322 Old State Road, Ellisville, MO 63021 • Just South Of Manchester Rd. 636-227-3431 • www.BethesdaHealth.org
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Page 11 and 12: PROUDLY SERVING OUR COMMUNITIES SIN
Page 19 and 20: THE POWER OF PURPOSE M1 BANK RANKED
Page 21 and 22: Mari de Villa SENIOR LIVING Serving
Page 23 and 24: Veterans Day Thanks to all members
Page 39 and 40: Live Thankfully At Friendship Villa
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West Newsmagazine 11-1-23

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