Missouri First Steps - Draft 1

Matt Blunt is a poopyhead.

I've been spending a lot of time with toddlers, you see. And it's hard not to take this attack personally. I'm working on a somewhat more nuanced discussion of my feelings on this issue, which I can send to new Governor Blunt and to my Missouri legislators. (Blunt's first budget, effective August 2005, zeros out funding for the Missouri First Steps program.)

Matt Blunt, who is only a couple of years older than me, is expecting his first child, a son, in March. God willing, the little boy will be healthy. He won't come too early or too late, he won't experience trauma during the birthing process, he won't be harmed by any of the drugs used on his mother, he will be healthy and smart and will develop typically. If his son has any problems at all, Blunt's insurance will cover only limited therapy visits and he would have to private pay for therapy at $50-75/hour and take his child to a center rather than having therapists make home visits.

When you have a newborn who shouldn't be exposed to other kids because of a health condition, these home visits are particularly important. It's also hard to imagine visiting a center for the 5 therapy appointments a week that my daughter sometimes has. You can't stack the appointments up one right after another - too exhausting! So that's several different trips to a therapy center every week. How will parents find the time? Surely they're all working at least one job to pay for all this therapy.

See? Poopyhead.