March 5, 2008
Mar 05 01:28 This is How They're Selling the Bonding Bill? Mar 05 04:16 FISA Reform in Limbo Mar 05 11:16 Kitchen Sink Strategy Pays Off Mar 05 23:18 Why Obama Lost
This is How They're Selling the Bonding Bill?
I just finished reading Rep. Larry Haws' editorial on the bonding bill that's about to be debated. Here's the section that jumps off the page at me:
Rigorous maintenance priority schedules will help guide our choices as we make our way through this bonding year at the State Legislature with a shared commitment to make effective use of tax dollars and ensure safe state building and schools. With this in mind, I carried a number of asset preservation bills: roof repair of St Cloud National Armory, Saint Cloud University repair and replace boilers, roofs, chiller systems, and emergency power systems, and St. Cloud Technical College replace electrical components and roofs. Also, I carried the Department of Correction Asset Preservation Bill. As we drive by our granite wall prison we should note that the Saint Cloud Reformatory, built in 1889, is the oldest facility in the Department of Correction System.Saying that doing maintenance is something that will create jobs is laughable on its face. At best, they're something that will keep people employed. I'd bet the ranch that these projects won't create any long term jobs. In fact, I'd borrow money, then bet that money & the proverbial ranch that these maintenance jobs won't create any long term new jobs. Here's the other part of the editorial that doesn't make sense:
These projects often have a Rodney Dangerfield syndrome, "They get just no respect". But they need to be put high on the list for they will have, pay back in efficient, safety for citizens and employees, and jobs ready to go.
Overall, in 2008, every project considered for inclusion in the capital investment bill will be looked at in terms of the potential to create jobs as soon as possible. It's good Minnesota wisdom to fix the old before you build the new.Thinking that through will give a person mental whiplash. rep. Haws has just said that legislators' top priority in the bonding bill is to create jobs. Then he says that it's important to fix the old before building the new. I'd love hearing Rep. Haws explain which economic principles he used in arriving at his opinion that building maintenance creates new jobs.
NOTE TO LARRY: The private sector is the place where new jobs are created. Unleashing the entrepreneurial spirit is the way it's done. Putting together another public works bonding bill isn't the way to create long term, sustainable jobs.
I want to be fair so now I'll pick on Tarryl Clark a bit. Here's what she said in her e-letter:
On February 28, Minnesota's Finance Commissioner and the State EconomistI couldn't find out what the deficit figure was for 2002 but everyone who's followed Minnesota politics knows that Tim Pawlenty inherited a $4.5 billion deficit when he was sworn in. Even Patricia Lopez knows based on this article:
announced Minnesota's projected budget shortfall for the remainder of the 2008-09 budget cycle is a staggering gap of $935 million. That is $562 million more than the $372 million deficit forecast in November 2007 and comparable to the 2002 budget deficit that yielded major cuts to state services. When we left session last May, the state was in the black with a small positive balance.
No one expects Thursday's news to be as bad as the $4.5 billion deficit of 2003. But state officials also have noted that the impact of any cuts would be magnified because the state is well into its two-year budget period, which ends June 2009.There's something worth noting in Tarryl's e-letter. She said that they left the 2007 session with "a small positive balance." It isn't that I think she's wrong about that. It's that that doesn't fit with the DFL's mantra of figuring in inflation. If you figured in inflation, you'd certainly have left with a deficit. In fact, applying inflation to budget surpluses & deficits, you'd have to say that they left with a pretty significant deficit that's only gotten bigger. Here's the good news from Tarryl's perspective:
Since then, the state's projected revenue has declined over $1.2 billion. To the extent there is good news, it is that state spending is at budgeted levels.That's one of the most twisted statements I've ever heard. Of course spending is at budgeted levels. If it wasn't, then they'd be violating the budget signed into law. In & of itself, that isn't automatically good or bad. It just means that they're following the law.
Posted Wednesday, March 5, 2008 1:28 AM
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FISA Reform in Limbo
Yesterday, I wrote that Pelosi's Democrats were about to cave again . This evening, Eric Cantor posted this message on his blog:
Unfortunately, as of late Tuesday night, the word is that House Democrats still are not ready to come forward with a fix to the mess they've created regarding the Terrorist Surveillance Program. The safety and security of the United States or taking care of the trial lawyers - which will it be??? Americans await the Democrats' decision, as their self-imposed deadline nears.The longer this drags out, the more campaign contributions the Democrats will get from the trial attorney lobby but it's also true that the longer this goes on, the more people will notice that Democrats are perfectly willing to play politics with keeping America safe from terrorists. I don't think that that's the message they want to send.
It's time for cooler heads in the House Democratic Caucus, if any still remain, to tell Ms. Pelosi and minions that they'd better get this right because America's safety is too important to play games with.
At this point, I don't see that happening, though I've heard that some Blue Dog Democrats have tried stepping forward on this. This should also tell people across America that the House Democratic Party is run by fringers like John Conyers, Maxine Waters and the Out of Iraq Caucus. Letting that bunch stay in power should scare the daylights out of thinking people of all political stripes.
Posted Wednesday, March 5, 2008 4:17 AM
Comment 1 by J. Ewing at 05-Mar-08 08:43 AM
If there were enough "thinking people" to vote them out, they wouldn't be in, would they?
Kitchen Sink Strategy Pays Off
That's the opinion of this Chicago Times article on the strategy Hillary used in stopping Sen. Obama's momentum.
With no margin for mistake, she had to do what she had been unable to do previously: to make Barack Obama mortal.Yesterday, I wrote about a stunned Obama reeling from the tough questions they asked at his press conference. It's still too early to tell how Obama will adjust but the notion is getting floated that Obama has a glass jaw. If he doesn't regain his composure soon, he could let Hillary back into the race.
Before the critical primaries in Ohio and Texas on Tuesday, her campaign had vowed to throw the "kitchen sink" at Obama to derail the momentum that had led to wins in 11 straight contests.
She honored that vow. It paid off in Ohio, where she won a clear victory but probably not a huge number of additional delegates. It also paid off in Texas, where she won narrowly in the popular vote.
It's still too early to say that Hillary's back in it again but her victories Tuesday night stopped Obama's coronation momentum in its tracks. Hillary brought her total delegate deficit within 100 of Obama but it's difficult to picture how she makes up that big a deficit with only 600-something pledged delegates left to win via the primaries. In fact, Hillary still trails Obama by 130 in pledged delegates.
Here's what's gotta scare Howard Dean each time he thinks about the convention: What happens if Hillary enters the Convention with fewer pledged delegates than Obama, then wins on the strength of the superdelegates? Frankly, that'd split the Democratic Party so badly that it'd struggle to win another national election for a generation.
For all the talk about Hillary's kitchen sink strategy, it's still an uphill battle for her. Still, it isn't wise to write Hillary off until you see the wooden stake sticking out of her chest.
Posted Wednesday, March 5, 2008 11:18 AM
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Why Obama Lost
The Progressive has published a list of 10 things Obama did wrong or that affected yesterday's primaries. Here's the list:
- NAFTA Flap
- Rezko
- A Blunder in the Last Debate
- The Red Phone Ad
- No Effective Counterpunch to Clinton's "Fighter" Image
- A Weak Economic Message
- Too much time in Ohio
- An Improvident Trip to Rhode Island
- Failure to Bring Bill Richardson and John Edwards on Board
- SNL, Jon Stewart, Letterman
Most of all, though, he just isn't qualified for the job. (For that matter, neither is Hillary. He'd be the perfect Orator-In-Chief but I didn't see such a position in the Constitution the last time I read it. Obama and John Edwards bring essentially the same qualifications to the table. the most significant difference is that Edwards doesn't have Obama's speaking ability and Obama doesn't have Edwards' hair.
Don't take that to mean that Hillary's qualified for the position of Commander-In-Chief either. Her qualifications are that she's married to a former president. That isn't the same as saying that she's a good decisionmaker.
Neither Obama or Hillary has the gravitas to match John McCain in the decisionmaking department. It's that simple.
Posted Wednesday, March 5, 2008 11:19 PM
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