© 2024 University of Missouri - KBIA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Politically Speaking: St. Charles County's 2 state senators praise special session

Sens. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, and Bob Onder, R-Lake Saint Louis, talk with St. Louis Public Radio's Jason Rosenbaum and Jo Mannies at Picasso's coffeehouse in St. Charles.
Carolina Hidalgo | St. Louis Public Radio
Sens. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, and Bob Onder, R-Lake Saint Louis, talk with St. Louis Public Radio's Jason Rosenbaum and Jo Mannies at Picasso's coffeehouse in St. Charles.

St. Louis Public Radio’s Politically Speaking podcast team of Jason Rosenbaum and Jo Mannies were on the road again Wednesday, this time to Picasso’s coffeehouse in the historic downtown of St. Charles. The two welcomed state Sens. Bob Onder and Bill Eigel, Republicans who represent much of St. Charles County.

Onder, of Lake St. Louis, and Eigel, of Weldon Spring, focused on a variety issues and fielded a number of tough questions from the audience. Each praised Gov. Eric Greitens for calling a special legislative session, now underway, to deal with the abortion issue. Both are outspoken opponents of abortion.

“It’s always a good time to meet to defend the lives of the unborn,’’ Eigel said.

Sens. Bill Eigel and Bob Onder join the Politically Speaking podcast, which was recorded at Picasso's Coffee House in St. Charles.

Onder said he expects the final version of the legislation will achieve two objectives: protect the pregnancy-resource centers operated by abortion opponents, and block St. Louis’ provision that bars employers and landlords from discriminating against women who have had abortions, use birth control or are pregnant.

The Senate originally crafted a bill, which was dramatically changed by the House and now heads back to the Senate.  Onder said he's optimistic about its passage. "I would summarize that the House bill covers everything in the governor's call," the senator said. "And I think the amended bill will meet a good reception in the Senate."

Audience members listen Wednesday to a live taping of Politically Speaking at Picasso's coffeehouse in St. Charles.
Credit Carolina Hidalgo I St. Louis Public Radio
Audience members listen Wednesday to a live taping of Politically Speaking at Picasso's coffeehouse in St. Charles.

  • Both said the state needs to address ways to curb spending in the Medicaid program, which provides health care coverage for the poor and the disabled. The federal government provides the bulk of the program’s money, with the state providing the rest. Eigel said 40 percent of the state’s overall budget, including the federal aid, goes toward Medicaid.

  • Both reinforced their opposition to the federal Affordable Care Act, despite criticisms from some in the audience. The two senators had opposed the Act’s recommendation for Medicaid expansion, and contended that the ACA had helped drive up insurance costs.

  • Both predicted that the General Assembly will soon address the state’s growing tax credit program, which costs the state about $600 million a year. Eigel said the program — which offers tax breaks for low-income housing, historic preservation and various economic projects — has unfairly picked “winners and losers.”

  • Both said the General Assembly needs to tackle the state’s transportation needs, which include rebuilding much of Interstate 70 and other substandard roads and bridges.

An audience member, who declined to give her full name, holds up a sign as Onder and Eigel spoke during the Politically Speaking podcast.
Credit Carolina Hidalgo I St. Louis Public Radio
An audience member, who declined to give her full name, holds up a sign as Onder and Eigel spoke during the Politically Speaking podcast.

Follow Jason Rosenbaum on Twitter: @jrosenbaum

Follow Jo Mannies on Twitter: @jmannies

Follow Bob Onder on Twitter:@BobOnderMO

Follow Bill Eigel on Twitter: @BillEigel

Music: "Solider's Grin" by Wolf Parade

Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio.

Jo Mannies has been covering Missouri politics and government for almost four decades, much of that time as a reporter and columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She was the first woman to cover St. Louis City Hall, was the newspaper’s second woman sportswriter in its history, and spent four years in the Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau. She joined the St. Louis Beacon in 2009. She has won several local, regional and national awards, and has covered every president since Jimmy Carter. She scared fellow first-graders in the late 1950s when she showed them how close Alaska was to Russia and met Richard M. Nixon when she was in high school. She graduated from Valparaiso University in northwest Indiana, and was the daughter of a high school basketball coach. She is married and has two grown children, both lawyers. She’s a history and movie buff, cultivates a massive flower garden, and bakes banana bread regularly for her colleagues.
Since entering the world of professional journalism in 2006, Jason Rosenbaum dove head first into the world of politics, policy and even rock and roll music. A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Rosenbaum spent more than four years in the Missouri State Capitol writing for the Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri Lawyers Media and the St. Louis Beacon.