TheChat: Time to tear down those barriers that hold back women

Good morning.

▪ “It is imperative that our state removes unnecessary regulatory barriers to allow women to succeed.” — Missouri House Speaker Todd Richardson who was in Kansas City recently to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Women’s Foundation that advocates equality for women.

Richardson said he would push for paid family leave during the upcoming session. (link via johncombest.com).

▪ “You can’t give up. The people still need us to fight for them.” — Stephen Webber, the new Missouri Democratic Party chairman, after his election last weekend.

Webber pointed to two priorities: increasing the rural vote for Democrats and ensuring that the Democratic Party continues to be a voice for progressive issues.

▪ “I swore an oath as part of being a presidential elector to vote for the person that carried the state, and Donald Trump carried the state.” — Hector Maldonado of Sullivan, Missouri, who will be voting on Dec. 19 for the next president as part of the Electoral College.

Maldonado has received dozens of letters urging him to vote for anyone but Trump. But he’s not budging.

▪ “4.7 percent.” — the forecast for the 2018 Kansas unemployment rate, which would be higher than the forecasted 4.5 percent national jobless rate that year.

Gov. Sam Brownback has cited his state’s relatively low jobless rate as evidence that his tax-cut policies have worked. But the state’s lower-than-the-national-average rate appears to be evaporating.