Bob Onder is our congressman for the House of Representatives. He represents the 3rd District and is our voice in Congress. However, he does not seem to understand Crawford County nor most of the rural areas he is obligated to support. Of the 23,000 residents living in Crawford County, 80 percent supported Mr. Onder in the last election. For this kind of support, we deserve his attention.
Representative Onder voted for the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” or OBBBA. While one might say this is good because it provides low income Missourians with a tax cut, take a closer look and see if the OBBBA actually does help us.
It may seem like the OBBBA is good for our pocketbook. But notice that most of those benefits expire in less than three years. For example, expiring in 2028 is the no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, increase in child tax credit, the standard tax deduction, deduction for seniors, no tax on car loans, charitable deduction by low income earners, the $1,000 child credit and others. If these benefits are so good for the economy and for us, why are they all temporary?
In Crawford County more than 3,000 residents receive SNAP (formerly food stamps), almost 15 percent have severe housing issues, 14 percent live in poverty (including 23 percent of our children), 19 percent are on Medicaid and 17 percent are on Medicare. We need economic investment, support for better education and higher education, better housing, higher paying jobs and more. Lower taxes are always good—but when you make minimum wage, or you can’t afford to purchase a house, or you can’t afford health insurance, or you need Medicaid or Medicare, or you can’t afford to buy a car, then you need a Congressman that listens to you and fights for your needs.
Mr. Onder sent out an email saying the OBBBA provides lower taxes to Missourians. But he failed to tell you how other aspects of our lives will cost more. The OBBBA will trigger about $500 billion in automatic cuts to Medicare, 8.6 million people are expected to lose Medicaid coverage, it includes major reductions in SNAP benefits, and it lowers veteran benefits. But the worst aspect of the OBBBA is that earners in the top 10 percent will receive about 65 percent of the total value of the legislation!
If Mr. Onder is representing Crawford County, why is he supporting legislation that hurts Crawford County?
For those on his email list, you may have noticed Mr. Onder is overly focused on “chemical castration”, or books being read to 3 year olds, or naming geographic sites. But when it comes to hearing and supporting our voices, he fails miserably. Even when he does—finally—set up a Town Hall meeting to let us tell him of our concerns, he does not show up in person. Instead, you have to call in by phone. Is he afraid to meet with us? But to top this off, he sends out the invite 18 minutes before it starts. That way he can say he holds Town Hall meetings but does not have to actually hear what his constituents need or have to say.
Mr. Onder has already missed over nine percent (12 of 131) of roll call votes (the average is two percent for all other House Reps). But he did not miss voting yes on the OBBBA. If Mr. Onder truly represents Crawford County, he would have voted no on the OBBBA or pushed for changes that help our citizens. The least he could do is to not let the good provisions of the OBBBA disappear in less than three years.
We need a Representatives that works for Crawford County. Not one that pays lip services to our needs.
Kim Gardner
Crawford County
