his time as County Commissioner, Jetton worked with other commissioners to eliminate the county's $350,000 debt within his first term. Speaker of the House In 2000, Jetton was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives where he served until 2009, when term limits required that he leave the legislature. In his second term, he was chosen Speaker pro Tempore of the Missouri House. On January 5, 2005, he was sworn in as the 70th Speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives. He served on the Agriculture, Judicial, Banking, and Natural Resources committees. In 2002, Jetton led political efforts for the minority Republican caucus. He assisted in re-drawing House legislative districts and developing plans to recruit and train Republican candidates. These efforts contributed to the Republicans picking up fourteen new seats and establishing a majority for the first time in 48 years. As speaker, he proposed and passed rules changes giving the minority equal debate time and establishing other policies that more evenly distributed power between the House minority and majority. These changes were opposed by some elements of his own party. In Jetton's first term as speaker he launched Common Sense Conservative Consulting which advised some people who were seeking legislation in the state. The Missouri State Ethics Commission said it was a legal but questionable practice. In 2007, he unintentionally voted for a rider to repeal Missouri's law banning gay sex. The rider was attached to a Jessica's Law bill. Jetton said he did not know about the rider. While Jetton acknowledged the ban was unenforceable because of the Supreme Court's Lawrence v. Texas ruling, he said, "Thanks to that deletion, it is now legal to engage in deviate sexual intercourse with someone of the same sex here in Missouri." In response, Jetton removed state representative Scott A. Lipke of Jackson, Missouri, as chair of the Committee on Crime Prevention and Public Safety because he thought Lipke should have told lawmakers about the rider. In 2007, Jetton proposed and passed one of Missouri's largest tax cuts. The cut eliminated taxes on Social Security benefits. During his tenure he helped to convert a $600 million deficit into a $500 million surplus. Jetton also increased nutrition program funding during his time in the House and was an advocate for Missouri's ethanol fuel mandate and the development of Missouri ethanol plants. 2009 assault arrest On December 7, 2009, Jetton was charged with