June 8-9, 2010
Jun 08 01:38 Democrats Experts at Wasting Money Jun 08 11:58 The Emotional Pitch, The Real Problem Jun 08 13:02 Straightforward Advice Jun 09 02:59 What Junk Polling Looks Like Jun 09 14:44 Raising Taxes Is In Tune With Minnesota Voters?
Prior Months: Jan Feb Mar Apr May
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009
Democrats Experts at Wasting Money
When I read that Democrats are unveiling a $125,000,000 spending campaign to defend their health care legislation , my first thought was that Democrats were professionals at wasting money. Here's what Politico is reporting:
Former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle and Victoria Kennedy, the late senator's wife, are expected to be named co-chairs this week of a $125 million campaign White House allies are rolling out to defend health reform amid growing signs the party is failing to get political traction on the issue.What a colossal waste of money. Politico is right in saying the there's "growing signs the party is failing to get political traction on the issue." Initially, each time President Obama spoke about the issue, popularity dropped significantly for the Democrats' health care legislation.
The extraordinary campaign, which could provide an unprecedented amount of cover for a White House in a policy debate, reflects urgency among Democrats to explain, defend and depoliticize health reform now that people are beginning to feel the new law's effects.
People are finding little missiles in the bill almost weekly, missiles that are hurting families, medical device manufacturers, even hurting the housing market. (I don't recall the Democrats touting the 3.8 percent sales tax on home sales as part of their health care plan.)
This information is a real shocker:
The Health Information Center will eventually have a Washington office and staff of 10 to 15 people. Anita Dunn, former White House communications director, is a consultant to the center, working daily with Grossman, who's president. The current board members are Grossman; Erik Smith, who heads Blue Engine Message and Media; and Sheila O'Connell, longtime political director for EMILY's List.Disgraced WH communications director Anita Dunn is still helping this administration; her office just isn't in the West Wing.
Here's another surprising tidbit of information:
The estimated budget is $25 million a year, for five years. Grossman has begun raising money from unions, foundations and corporations.That unions are kicking money into this campaign is predictable. They stand to benefit greatly from the passage of this bill. I don't have the names of the foundations involved in this campaign but I'm betting the Kaiser Foundation and the Tides Foundation are included in this coalition. In fact, I'd bet the proverbial ranch on it.
Democrats and the White House will hold more than 100 simultaneous events nationwide as President Obama plunges back into health reform, selling the historic plan all over again as its provisions kick in. More than 10,000 people will be on the phone with the president as he holds a "national tele-town hall" meeting, 22 minutes from the White House at the Holiday Park Multipurpose Senior Center in Wheaton, Md.This is the embodiment of Einstein's definition of insanity :
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Albert EinsteinPresident Obama has given 30 speeches on health care. When the bill was introduced, the bills got less popular each time he spoke. Now that it's a law and we know that there are tons of taxes in the bill and that it drives budget costs up , why would Democrats think that spending another $125,000,000 touting it would make it more popular?
Let's be serious about something because it's obvious that the Democrats haven't figured this out yet: Reality trumps words all the time. All $670,000,000,000 worth of the tax increases is reality now. Promises of covering everyone is fiction. Speaker Pelosi's promise that the health care bill would create 400,000 jobs "almost immediately" is an outright lie.
The bottom line is this: the American people have made up their minds on this. Couple that with the things that they're finding out about the bill and there's no reason to think that the Democrats' PR blitz will even be slightly effective.
Frankly, it's a desperation move made in the hopes of salvaging another failed Obama policy. Within 5 years, possibly less than that, people of all political stripes other than the most devoted Obama apologists will admit that the Democrats' health care bill hurts families and that it has ruined our health care system.
This November, voters will remember that Democrats didn't fix the economy but did ruin our health care system. When that first Tuesday in November is history, I'm confident that this pathetic Democratic majority will be history.
Posted Tuesday, June 8, 2010 1:45 AM
Comment 1 by eric z at 08-Jun-10 10:03 AM
In Ramsey, Anoka County, where I live, it is the Republicans in office, wasting money.
There is the failed Ramsey Town Center, aka The Same Rathole.
It's history runs from the early years of the millennium, even earlier, when Met Council, Natalie Steffen, James Norman then the city administrator, land speculators owning land the thing would occupy (land to be sold at obscene profit levels), and a Town Center Task Force, in effect a pom-pom squad, led by Dave Elvig.
They got it barely airborne, and lots of shared-wall housing injected into a community where that was a rarity; then it went SPLAT, big time.
Changes on council, professed fiscal conservatives touting the market and public sector free enterprise got onto the council, and bought the mess for millions - more than any private sector takers, there being none for years of the thing in foreclosure with sales set and postponed multiple times to where it became a joke.
So, millions for the distressed weed patch; and then $175,000+ already to a consultancy with Mike Jungbauer on board as some kind of wastewater expert; and that consultancy, "Landform" now being on contract to take down $15,000 per month and all I have seen are a few poster board renderings for the money.
REPUBLICANS, Gary.
So don't tell me about Democrats wasting cash. Politics is local.
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 08-Jun-10 10:15 AM
Eric, Democrats have made wasting money a science. Over the weekend, President Obama's commission on fixing the deficits & the debt announced that they didn't have enough staffing, that they're running out of money & that they likely wouldn't finish their project by Dec. 1.
This am, I'm writing about George Miller & David Obey pitching the idea for spending an additional $23,000,000,000 on education to keep teachers teaching. That's a $23,000,000,000 increase over & above the annual education budget. That's a budget that's almost doubled since President Obama's inauguration.
And you want to argue that Democrats aren't experts at wasting money? Good luck selling that.
Comment 2 by Chuck at 09-Jun-10 03:14 AM
The more exposure Health Care does get, you're right, the further it falls in popularity. Another example of wasteful spending. For me to fly Omaha to Philadelphia in June is $336 roundtrip. On Dematrak (sadly it was an R that brought it to be) it would cost me $580 and take 2 days instead of 2 hrs.
The Emotional Pitch, The Real Problem
This op-ed , co-written by George Miller and David Obey, says that the federal government needs to appropriate $23,000,000,000 more for education to keep teachers teaching:
The Recovery Act helped mitigate deep budget cuts for this school year. But although the economy is improving, the crisis for state and local governments is just reaching its peak. Without immediate action, as many as 300,000 school employees are in danger of losing their jobs. The nation has two choices: We can sit, frozen in the ice of our own indifference, as Franklin Roosevelt said; or we can take action to save these jobs.As long as the federal government keeps printing money and giving states this 'money from nowhere', the reality is that states won't have an incentive to actually reprioritize their spending. They won't take this opportunity to look at their overall budgets and determine whether they're wasting money on duplicative departments or on sops to special interest groups.
It's times like these that states usually rethink their spending priorities. Reps. Miller and Obey and President Obama don't want states cutting spending or rethinking priorities because it's damaging to their special interest allies.
They should be more worried about solving problems than appeasing their special interest allies. Miller, Obey and Obama seem oblivious to the fact that people are noticing how unresponsive Democrats are to solving problems, with the Gulf oil spill being prime example A and the drug cartel violence in Arizona being prime example B.
Their unresponsiveness to genuine crises is causing people to reject this president and this congress. Politically speaking, their unresponsiveness and their utter lack of interest in solving problems are undermining their re-election chances. Yes, George Miller will likely be re-elected but Obey retired rather than facing a humiliating defeat and President Obama is looking more and more like a 1-term president with each passing day.
The Obama administration's bailout du jour mentality has people frustrated and worried because the American people understand that you can't just keep firing up the printing presses to throw money at a negative situation. They know that, at some point, there needs to be a change in policies that affects a negative situation and provides a solution.
As the chairmen of the House committees responsible for the federal policy and funding that helps support our nation's schools, we've heard from parents, students, advocates and economists imploring us to take action. The alternative is overcrowded classrooms, lost school days, closed libraries and the absence of educational services that occur when thousands of school employees are laid off. This is an urgent need that deserves immediate attention. It's an emergency.It's obvious that Mssrs. Miller and Obey haven't considered the possibility that states might need to set better priorities. They apparently believe that only by continuing down the same path can this problem be solved. It's time these fossils understood that people living in the heartland want government to propose solid policies, then get out of the way.
It's worth noting that the 2008 Education budget was $62,600,000,000 . It's now $98,238,000,000. That's before adding in the $23,000,000,000, which would bring total education funding for FY2010 to $121,238,000,000. That's an increase in spending of $58,638,000,000. That's a 93.7 percent increase in 2 years.
Do these fossilized legislators to just agree with their doubling education spending in 2 years? If they think that's ok, then they've got another guess coming.
Another thing that these fossilized legislators haven't noticed is that heartland voters want the solutions to come from the states, not from K Street, Washington. People are still figuring it out but they're figuring it out that Washington isn't responsive to their needs and that their influence with local politicians is greater. They're noticing that it's easier to hold local politicians accountable, too.
America, it's time we stopped trusting in Washington's one-size-fits-all 'solutions' and we started crafting local solutions that are responsive to local needs. That's the only true solution to what's holding us back.
Posted Tuesday, June 8, 2010 12:04 PM
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Straightforward Advice
House Minority Leader John Boehner has some great advice for President Obama in this statement :
"Out-of-touch Washington Democrats' problem isn't the sales pitch for ObamaCare; the problem is ObamaCare itself. No glitzy PR campaign can hide the new health care law's higher costs, higher taxes, Medicare cuts, and payoffs to Washington special interests. The fact that President Obama is promoting Medicare rebate checks that more than nine out of 10 Medicare beneficiaries will never receive is an indication of just how desperate the White House has become.It's painfully obvious that Obamacare is a losing issue for Democrats. If it wasn't, they wouldn't need a high-priced spin campaign to sell it after it's become law.
"A steady stream of inconvenient truths has tripped up the sales pitch for President Obama's government takeover of health care since it became law. Analyses by both the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office and the Obama Administration's own Medicare actuary have confirmed that the new health care law will raise health care costs, not lower them as promised. In recognition of the new law's crushing impact on job creation, the nation's leading small business organization, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), has joined with 20 states in a lawsuit against the Obama Administration. Millions of seniors are set to be forced off their current Medicare coverage. Employers bracing for the new law's higher costs are already signaling that they will have to cut hours, eliminate jobs, or drop employee coverage altogether.
"The sooner President Obama can accept the fact that Americans have rejected his health care law, the sooner we can repeal it and replace it with common-sense reforms that lower costs and protect American jobs."
It's one thing to put a campaign together to get historic legislation passed. If it's thoughtful, intelligent legislation, it'll sell itself. It shouldn't need a 5 year, $125,000,000,000 commitment to sell the legislation after it's signed into law.
Here in Minnesota, Rep. Paul Thissen wrote an op-ed in yesterday's St. Cloud Times in an attempt to defend Obamacare. Here's where Rep. Thissen's argument goes south:
This month, Minnesota has the chance to move those individuals to Medicaid. Taking the Medicaid option would match our billion-plus with a billion-plus in federal dollars. (We'd also cover about 10,000 more people, but for every additional dollar we'd spend, the state would get back $7.45, a strong return on investment.)By admitting that these extra 10,000 people would be absorbed by Medicaid, Rep. Thissen is admitting that they're getting dumped into a program that doesn't control costs. We know this thanks to this post on the Heritage Foundation's blog:
How fiscally shaky is Medicaid today? Well, last year Congress used the stimulus bill to give states $87 billion to help them cover rising Medicaid costs. And that doesn't seem to be enough.Why would Rep. Thissen think that putting people in a program whose costs are spiraling out of control is smart policy? That's before talking about the fact that the $24,000,000,000 isn't just in addition to the $87,000,000,000. It's in addition to the $87,000,000,000 appropriation in 2009 plus the $87,000,000,000 added to the Medicaid baseline budget in FY2010.
A recent letter from House Democrats encourages their colleagues to give states another $24 billion to help them cover Medicaid costs for another six months. "Without this funding," the letter says, "our states will be forced to make severe cuts to Medicaid providers and benefits, and the ensuing budget shortfall would have grave consequences for school funding and other essential state programs."
This information is particularly helpful in deciding whether expanding Medicaid is a good deal for states:
Please recall that the federal taxpayer is required to foot the entire bill for the big expansion that starts in 2014. But after 2016, states will be on the hook to pay their share of a massively larger program.I wrote frequently and extensively about how Medicaid expansion would hurt states' budgets. The Democrats' own letter verifies my worries. It wasn't the Republicans' letter that said not throwing money at Medicaid "would have grave consequences for school funding and other essential state programs."
If Rep. Thissen wants to argue with that assessment, I'm sure he can contact the Democrats that offered that appraisal. If Democrats didn't think of Medicaid as sacrosanct, beyond review, they might've found a sustainable solution to this nation's health care problems. Because they were chained to the past 'solutions' that are now failing, Democrats were chained to the same-old-same-old.
That isn't a solution. It's just a tired exercise in ancient ideology.
Posted Tuesday, June 8, 2010 1:10 PM
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What Junk Polling Looks Like
The DRL poll showing IP gubernatorial candidate Tom Horner gaining 18 percent of the vote is what junk polling looks like. First, let's look at the methodology.
According to the Pi-Press's article , 800 adults were polled between May 28-June 2. Polling that doesn't screen for likely voters in a midterm election are essentially worthless in predicting the outcome. Polling that doesn't screen for likely voters and that's conducted over a holiday weekend won't show accurate readings for Republicans.
Among the three main DFL gubernatorial candidates, former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton has the biggest lead over Emmer, 40 percent to 28 percent.That last paragraph is the important paragraph because it's the tipoff that this poll isn't on the up and up. Let's start with the fact that Tom Horner's name recognition hasn't hit double digits yet and might never hit double digits. This poll would have me believe that people who've never heard of Tom Horner would vote for him.
House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, the DFL-endorsed candidate, led the GOP candidate, 38 percent to 28 percent.
Former House DFL Minority Leader Matt Entenza also topped Emmer, 34 percent to 27 percent.
Tom Horner, the Independence Party's endorsed candidate for governor, finished third in all three trial heats, receiving 17 percent to 19 percent of the vote.
Let's rephrase that more accurately. According to this poll, Tom Horner is getting twice as many votes as there are people who know him. That's intellectually insulting.
Let's look at Sen. Dayton's numbers, too. Roughly 32-35 percent of Minnesota's registered voters are Democrats. This poll would have me believe that Dayton's message of taxing the rich is helping him get every liberal plus a healthy portion of independents but that Tom Emmer's message of cutting spending, creating a great business climate and restructuring government isn't playing well with Republicans or independents.
With all due respect, I might've been born at night but it wasn't last night. That part of the results are intellectually insulting, too. This line is worth thinking about, too:
By 53 percent to 42 percent, a majority said they are starting to believe "the problem is not with one political party, but it is with all incumbents." Based on those responses, Morris said, "People are fed up with partisan gridlock, and they're looking for alternatives."What a startling coincidence. DRL President Bill Morris just happens to be supporting a gubernatorial candidate who's trying to portray himself as an alternative to the major party candidates. If I didn't know better, I'd almost think that poll questions were written in such a way as to elicit a certain type of response.
Alas, I'll never know because Morris hasn't published the poll questions. Frankly, this 'polling' isn't worth the bandwidth it's printed on.
Posted Wednesday, June 9, 2010 2:59 AM
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Raising Taxes Is In Tune With Minnesota Voters?
According to a statement issued by Stephen Imholte, raising taxes is what Minnesotans want from their next governor . You'll forgive me if I'm just a little skeptical of Stephen Imholte's opinion.
The Minnesota Republican Party is in full desperation mode. Their candidate is sinking, and instead of acknowledging their blunder in selecting an extremist candidate, they choose to go on the attack.If raising taxes is so popular, which is Tom Horner's prescription to the budget deficit, why didn't the DFL get their way in budget negotiations this year? After all, their prescription is strikingly similar to Horner's prescription.
Minnesotans want more from their candidates this year. They want candidates who are addressing the issues of jobs, education and Minnesota's budget deficit. The survey is available to the Minnesota Republican Party. Perhaps they should use it to understand their candidate's shortcomings in the eyes of Minnesotans.
MEMO TO HORNER, DFL CAMPAIGNS: Minnesotans are tired of worrying if their taxes will get raised. They're tired of government not setting priorities in tune with their priorities.
Capital is leaving Minnesota for other states because Minnesota's government is hostile to businesses , whether it's in the form of overregulation, overtaxation or just simply making it difficult to start a business. The obstructionists in the DFL , especially those in the Senate, have prevented many GOP initiatives that would've improved government by restructuring government .
As for who's listening to the people, I'd just remind people of the DFL's cherrypicked testimony tour and the Horner campaign's touting an outlier poll as proof that their agenda is Minnesota's agenda. It doesn't sound like the Horner campaign or the DFL is listening to everyone. It sounds more like they're doing selective listening, which is why their agendas are similar in that they're both out of touch.
Here's more proof that Horner isn't about listening to people :
By 53 percent to 42 percent, a majority said they are starting to believe "the problem is not with one political party, but it is with all incumbents." Based on those responses, Morris said, "People are fed up with partisan gridlock, and they're looking for alternatives."Tom Horner isn't an alternative to the DFL. He's just another Arne Carlson liberal who masqueraded as a Republican while it suited him. Morris saying that people are looking for alternatives is partially right in that people are looking for an alternative to the DFL's agenda of endless tax increases.
In that respect, Horner doesn't represent an alternative. For all practical purposes, there isn't much of a difference between Horner and the DFL trio.
As for Tom Emmer and his supposed drop in the polls, I'd suggest that this poll isn't proof of anything because it didn't screen for likely voters. The only polls that screened for likely voters show Tom leading.
Meanwhile, an obscure polling company that I've never heard of (that's saying alot because I read tons of polls) says that on obscure politician is getting 17-19 percent of the vote and only trails the GOP-endorsed candidate by 8 points.
Mr. Morris' polling says, in essence, that the great show of unity at the Republican convention is a mirage, that the Republican Party of Minnesota is hopelessly fractured and that a significant number of Republicans have abandoned Tom Emmer for Tom Horner.
Mr. Morris' polling would also have me forget the great unifying gesture by Marty Seifert , that Marty's gesture hasn't had an effect, that the great displays of unity I've seen at other events, like the St. Cloud flyaround visit , were mirages, too.
Sorry, Mr. Morris, but I'll trust my lying eyes over your polling any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
Posted Wednesday, June 9, 2010 2:44 PM
Comment 1 by Mike at 09-Jun-10 04:58 PM
I assume Emmer will be releasing his internals soon?
Comment 2 by Gary Gross at 09-Jun-10 06:21 PM
From what?
Comment 3 by walter hanson at 10-Jun-10 06:02 AM
Gary:
I wonder if a real polling firm will ever ask a question like this,
"The state of California has raised their income tax rate to over 10% and has regulated businesses to death. The result being that they have a $26 billion dollar budget deficit and unemployment of 13%. Do you want to vote for a politican who embraces those policies?"
Than lets see if people support so called tax increases and no spending cuts.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
