February 19-20, 2011
Feb 19 07:33 Almanac Notes Feb 19 11:51 Gov. Dayton, Alternative Licensure & Draconian Cuts Feb 20 22:11 Debunking Schultz's Theories Feb 20 00:23 Talking In Circles? Feb 20 02:09 Fighting the Photo ID Fight Feb 20 08:07 Doctors Making House Calls? Feb 20 13:16 Having Hope Would Be A Change
Prior Months: Jan
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Debunking Schultz's Theories
David Schultz's diagnosis of the GOP's budget difficulties isn't just screwed up. It's got key facts wrong. Here's the most glaring problem:
They want to be a majority party beyond 2012 and if they got tagged as the ones who threw grandma out of the nursing home and took books away from Suzie, they are dead.
The problem with Schultz's diagnosis is the fact that Gov. Dayton's budget includes a 4.5 percent cut in the reimbursement rate for long-term care facilities and a 2 percent cut in the reimbursement rate for nursing homes. What's worse from the DFL standpoint is that this has been reported on every major media outlet in the state.
It'll be more than a little difficult for Gov. Dayton and ABM to sell as fact the notion that the GOP are the villains "who threw grandma out of the nursing home."
Here's another key problem for Schultz:
The truth is they do not have a solution. Yes they will rant and rave about tax hurting the state economy (little evidence that is true), that there is waste and fraud (little evidence that is true), and that the budget is a job killer (even less evidence that is true). However, they do not have a solution and are afraid to offer one. Why? Two reasons.
It's lazy to say that there's "little evidence" of waste in the budget. MnSCU is filled with it. Why do we need 9 community colleges specializing in business and another 7 specializing in marketing? Are they genuinely needed? How about the community colleges who have extensive programs in Native American Studies?
That's just the tip of the higher ed iceberg waste. That's before talking about the waste in administration.
It's deceitful to say that the GOP doesn't have any solutions. Schultz should be ashamed of himself for propogating that myth. Steve Gottwalt's health care solution will save Minnesota's taxpayers $250,000,000 or more on MinnesotaCare.
That's before stripping away the myth that there's a $6.2 billion deficit. If I was cynical, I'd say that there's a $6.2 billion DFL wishlist. Some of the things are necessary. Many things aren't. The deficit forecast is based on the amount of revenue coming into the general fund checkbook minus the money listed as budget tails from the signed spending bills.
The notion that HHS is due a 37 percent increase in spending isn't just silly. It's downright irresponsible. Ditto with the thought that legislators should replace the stimulus money with tax increases.
That's before factoring in the fact that the DFL is totally disinterested in raising taxes. In 2009, when there were 46 DFL senators, they passed Sen. Bakk's tax increase bill by a 35-31 margin. Last year, Tarryl Clark had to be found to cast the 34th vote to raise taxes.
In 2009, there were 87 DFL members in the House. That year, they passed Rep. Lenczewski's tax increase legislation by a 68-66 margin. If the DFL wants to submit Gov. Dayton's tax increase bill in the House or Senate, they're more than welcome to do so, though I suspect there will be bipartisan support for rejecting Gov. Dayton's tax increases.
Thus the rock and hard place for the MN GOP: Be responsible, compromise, and accept some tax increases on the wealthy along with some spending cuts and risk alienating their base. Oppose tax increases and cut spending to popular programs and lose your majority in 2012. All Dayton and the DFL need to do is figure out how make this GOP dilemma work to their advantage.
What rock? What hard place? Let's get serious about this. Prof. Schultz must not have been paying attention during Gov. Dayton's SOS speech. Had he listened, he would've noticed that the DFL was as unmoved by Gov. Dayton's tax increases as the GOP was. There wasn't even polite applause from his side of the aisle.
Considering the fact that neither party is enthusiastic about raising taxes, why would this put only the GOP east of the rock and west of the hard place? Prof. Schultz's argument is more myth than reality.
Let's remember that alot of DFL legislators will be running in exurban districts after redistricting. I don't think that'll play well after voting for one of the biggest tax increases in Minnesota history. That's why I can't picture those legislators being enthusiastic to cast those votes.
Prof. Schultz should've left his partisan hat off before writing this drivel:
It has been about simply being dishonest about the reality of the budget crisis we are facing. It is about constantly postponing to the future the problems with the present budget and spending scenario. It is about them saying that we do not have a revenue problem but a spending problem. It is about them clinging to a faulty supply theory of economics that is no more than a gloss for tax the poor and give the rich a free lunch.
The states that have tried Gov. Dayton's plan (New York, New Jersey, California, Illinois and Michigan) are in dire straits. California might never recover. Why would sane-thinking people think Gov. Dayton's plan will work better than those states?
Prof. Schultz's statements can be traced back to his belief that there isn't any wasteful spending in government. Thoughtful Minnesotans know better than that. What's more is that they're demanding that public servants listen to them rather than them doing whatever the special interests and lobbyists tell them to do.
If the DFL insists on playing follow the lobbyist, they'll find fewer DFL legislators after the 2012 election.
What I find most objectionable is this paragraph:
Dayton's budget reflects compromises, yet I do not see the compromise coming from the GOP. I give Dayton a lot of credit. His budget is grounded in reality. He is saying to those who got the feast it is time for them to pay for the meal. It is telling those best positioned to bear the risk and costs to assume their burden. It is telling people that we need to ask the best advantaged to stop being so greedy and recognize they have a community duty to pay their debts and help others.
Is Prof. Schultz really THAT foolish? Dining at the public sector dining table has left him unable to see the risks employers take. He obviously doesn't appreciate that employers contribute to their employees' health care and retirement plans.
Shame on him for not appreciating those risks.
Perhaps that's why Prof. Schultz isn't able to appreciate conservatives' POV. He should be ashamed of himself. He doesn't appreciate the contributions Minnesota's job creators make. Likewise, he doesn't appreciate the fact that Minnesota's employers are what drive a healthy, thriving economy.
Posted Sunday, February 20, 2011 10:11 PM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 20-Feb-11 10:42 PM
Gary:
It sounds like we have a so called Professor who if he could be fired wouldn't be saying such stupid things.
I think we both can do a better job teaching the Professor's students (assuming he has any)any day of the week without any preparation.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Comment 2 by J. Ewing at 21-Feb-11 08:10 AM
I get tired of that old "compromise" canard as being the epitome of good government, somehow. Almost never is a compromise the right solution to a problem, only the best deal that can be politically struck. Far more often, like now, one side (let's call them the "right" side :-) is right and the other is wrong. So it is here.
Response 2.1 by Gary Gross at 21-Feb-11 08:50 AM
BINGO!!! You're EXACTLY RIGHT!!! The message sent last Nov. is that they want spending cut & they want things done right the first time. They couldn't care less about process.
Almanac Notes
The first thing I have to say is that I felt sorry for panelist Laura Brod. She battled Dee Long and Ember Reichgott-Junge the entire segment over the budget. Unfortunately, Long and Reichgott-Junge relied too much on their talking points to learn anything from Rep. Brod.
First things first: If there's anything I learned over the years about Rep. Brod, it's that she knows policy and budgeting better than almost anyone in the legislature. With things settled that Rep. Brod is a budget expert, the other thing that's emerging is the DFL's chanting points.
They're talking about how the Republicans' budget might force granny out of the nursing home and kick poor people off health care. That's a stupid tactic considering the fact that Gov. Dayton's budget calls for a) dropping 7,200 people from MinnesotaCare, b) reducing reimbursement rates to long-term care facilities by 4.5% and c) reducing reimbursement rates to nursing homes by 2 percent.
The DFL has started a whispering campaign. The DFL's whispering campaign hints that the GOP might do things that are in Gov. Dayton's budget. Meanwhile they're acting that the DFL wouldn't consider doing the things they're planning on doing. Shame on the DFL. That's worse than despicable.
Long and Reichgott-Junge insist that living within the state's means, where families and job providers come first, will drive up property taxes. It's apparent that they're like the rest of the DFL in thinking that local officials, like county commissioners and city council members, can set intelligent spending priorities while finding better ways of delivering important services.
Granted, some things can't be altered. A police chief's salary is the police chief's salary. That said, just because some budget items won't change doesn't mean that there aren't other places where savings might be realized.
Gov. Dayton, Long and Reichgott-Junge shouldn't treat local officials like they're potted plants, though it's tempting when dealing with mayors like St. Paul's Chris Coleman and Minneapolis' R.T. Rybak.
Long and Reichgott-Junge couldn't have watched Amy Koch's interview on WCCO last Sunday. Had they paid attention, they would've known that GOP legislators plan on working with local officials in reducing the number of unfunded mandates that local officials have to deal with at budget time.
While that won't replace LGA, it'll certainly give mayors like St. Cloud's Dave Kleis additional flexibility.
During their flyaround, Sen. Koch spoke about the possibility of changing the entire LGA system, letting cities keep the sales taxes they collect rather than sending the money to St. Paul, then hoping that they get the money back.
The point is that, with the GOP now controlling both houses of the legislature, reform ideas are getting presented in unprecedented numbers. The reason that's important in this context is because Reichgott-Junge and Long served during a time when reforms were the exception.
Because I've watched her so many times, it's difficult for me to think of Reichgott-Junge as a change agent. It's easy to think of her as the picture of the status quo.
The other highlight of the show was a debate between EdMinn's Tom Dooher and House Education Committee Chairman Pat Garofalo about alternative licensure. One thing Dooher said that caught my attention was that "math teachers teachers should teach math".
That seems pretty reasonable until you realize how often schools hire chemistry teachers to teach physics or biology teachers to teach earth science. They often are forced to do that because of teacher shortages.
Alternative licensure might be a useful tool in alleviating teacher shortages, which would certainly shrink class sizes while providing welcome expertise on important job skills.
Posted Saturday, February 19, 2011 7:33 AM
Comment 1 by J. Ewing at 19-Feb-11 10:15 AM
I take your point, but I still must quibble with your assessment of the education situation. Mr. Dooher doesn't oppose alternative licensure because it might put poor-performing alternative teachers in front of students, but because it might succeed at putting GOOD teachers, those who aren't beholden to the education cartel, in front of students.
We also shouldn't care about reducing class sizes, since class size is essentially irrelevant to learning (fact!) but it DOES matter if every added teacher makes the union and Mr. Dooher more powerful politically. What ACTUALLY matters to learning (fact!) is a competent teacher-- math teachers should teach math-- and since Mr. Dooher has no intention of permitting his union members to prove their qualifications for the subject they teach, or any qualifications at all for that matter, he's just blowing the usual liberal smoke.
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 19-Feb-11 11:33 PM
Sorry, Jerry, but I've seen credible studies showing that the 3 most important things in positive educational outcomes are 1) parental involvement, 2) quality teachers & 3) smaller class sizes. That's been well-documented. End of discussion.
Comment 2 by Rex Newman at 20-Feb-11 08:31 AM
Smaller class sizes are important to positive educational outcomes?! Well-documented in credible studies?! I've been asking to see even one such study other than original old Tennessee STAR Project whose results nobody else has been able to replicate. Tell me more! Tell me more!
Comment 3 by Rex Newman at 20-Feb-11 08:40 AM
Let's not forget that then House Speaker Dee Long was forced out. She tried to cover up a small embarrassment, allowing it to fester into a $90,000 phone bill for one of her members. Then she lied on camera about the helpful seminar she attended while footage of her on a nearby golf course proved otherwise.
But things like this never matter if you're a Democrat. She was soon re-elected and liberal media remain happy to use her as a "credible" pundit.
Gov. Dayton, Alternative Licensure & Draconian Cuts
It's difficult to take Gov. Dayton seriously after hearing the weasel answers from this article about his budget and this article about alternative licensure for teachers. First, here's what he said about his budget that's got me fuming:
Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton today (Tuesday, Feb. 15) presented his proposed 2012-13 state budget, one the governor himself isn't thrilled with, calling it a tough budget for hard times.
'I'm critical of my budget. It's not the budget I would have presented had I inherited a responsible financial situation from my predecessor, I did not,' said Dayton, referring to former Republican governor Tim Pawlenty.
'(But) I'm not willing to make barbaric cuts in the essential services that affect people's lives,' said Dayton.
It's BS hearing Gov. Dayton isn't proposing "barbaric cuts" in his budget. Included in Gov. Dayton's budget is a 4.5 percent cut in reimbursement rates for long-term care facilities and another 2 percent cut in the reimbursement rate for nursing homes.
Cutting people in long-term care facilities and nursing homes is pretty barbaric. The only thing worse than cutting these places' rates is saying that it isn't barbaric. That's utterly shameful.
Next, here's what Gov. Dayton said about the alternative licensure bill now working its way through the legislature:
A plan moving through the Legislature that would make it easier for new kinds of teachers to be licensed in Minnesota came in for criticism Thursday from Gov. Mark Dayton, who said it didn't do enough to guarantee those teachers would be well-qualified.
Dayton worried the bills wouldn't ensure that teachers licensed through the proposed alternative program would have the necessary "deep knowledge" in the subjects they taught.
"The simple fact is that teachers can't teach what they don't know," Dayton wrote in a letter to Sen. Gen Olson, R-Minnetrista, the Senate sponsor of the legislation.
People who've worked as an engineer or chemist or architect certainly could step into the classroom with a little training. The least of the school's worries would be whether the teacher they'd just hired would know the technical end of things. I'd think the biggest things for potential teachers to learn would be classroom maintenance, putting together lesson plans and other things unique to teaching.
I don't have any insider information but I'm betting that EdMinn and Gov. Dayton aren't really interested in alt. licensure and are looking for any excuse to dump this legislation.
Call me skeptical but that's what happens when EdMinn fights against alt. licensure for years but then, all of a sudden, they're willing to consider it when Republicans retake the majority.
Posted Saturday, February 19, 2011 11:51 AM
Comment 1 by J. Ewing at 19-Feb-11 06:32 PM
I would like to see Gov. Dayton's evidence that the teachers we have now know which end of a lamp to plug into the wall, much less physics, chemistry or advanced math. We don't test teachers for knowledge in their subject area, and we don't reward them for teaching ability, either. They just don't want anybody thinking teaching is easy. They want to keep it an "ivory tower" sort of profession that only a bunch of union drones are qualified to do.
Talking In Circles?
If there's anything that's apparent in this editorial , it's that the writer is good at writing in circles. Here's what I'm talking about:
We are a prosperous nation. Wealthy beyond anything previously known on earth. But we also are becoming selfish and insensitive to anyone in need. Unwilling to suggest any shared sacrifice or fairness, when it comes to recognizing human obligations. We are far from broke.
From municipality to township to county, state, and nation, all across America, there's enough wealth within our borders to provide decent support for the most vulnerable among us. Shame on the hypocrites who try to persuade us otherwise!
Gov. Dayton has addressed Minnesota's deficit with a balanced and fair budget, with spending reductions and revenue increases. Republicans dogmatically reject any revenue increase from the individual income tax and insist that only spending cuts to education, health and human services must cover the billions of dollars in deficits and overdue deficiency payments, that have accumulated over years to reach a crisis.
Which is it? Are we rich beyond anything in human history or are we in a debt crisis that threatens our way of life? The editorialist has written that we're both. That's impossible.
Predictably, there are some other errors in the editorial, starting with this myth:
Gov. Dayton has addressed Minnesota's deficit with a balanced and fair budget, with spending reductions and revenue increases.
That's nonsense. For every dollar of spending cut in Gov. Dayton's budget, there are $4 of tax increases. That's lopsided. That isn't balanced. If the DFL keeps trotting out that myth, I'll keep slapping it down with massive amounts of ridicule.
The editorial writer got this wrong, too:
From municipality to township to county, state, and nation, all across America, there's enough wealth within our borders to provide decent support for the most vulnerable among us.
If the editorialist wants to argue that we used to have great wealth or that following the right policies will restore our wealth, I'll agree. Thanks to the overspending in DC, we're no longer a wealthy nation. Nations that have debt that almost equals their GDP aren't wealthy.
There's a bigger question that must be addressed, namely whether people should tolerate governments that don't exercise the proper spending discipline.
Minnesota entered 2007 with a $2.2 billion surplus. That surplus included alot of one-time money. The DFL quickly passed spending bills that would've raised general fund spending by 17+ percent. The DFL also passed bills including $5+ billion in tax increases to 'pay for' those spending increases.
The DFL didn't attempt to exercise any spending discipline. I remember Tarryl Clark telling her special interest allies that there wasn't enough money to do many of the things on their wish list. Within a month, the DFL had passed a number of tax increases so they could pay for alot of things on these special interest' wish lists.
This money wasn't used to pay for a better Minnesota. This money wasn't targeted towards improving educational outcomes. It was directed at a whole host of special interests whose first priority was to keep their doors open.
This played out when the 2009 Misery Tour visited St. Cloud. A lady testifying that night identified herself as working for GRRL, aka the Great River Regional Libraries. She pleaded with the legislators attending the hearing to "have the courage to raise taxes" so that they wouldn't have to close the libraries on Saturday nights.
I recall turning to an activist friend at that moment and asking why this woman hadn't questioned whether traditional libraries needed to be open on Saturday nights.
The point is that there are too many organizations that are getting state funding that don't improve Minnesota, either from an economic or social standpoint. With more libraries getting digitized, isn't the more relevant question whether taxpayers wouldn't be better off investing in digitizing libraries?
The big point I'm making is that society needs to keep thinking about whether there's a better way to do things. Societies that stop that critical thinking get complacent, which leads to atrophy.
Consistently doing the right thing for the right reasons will lift a society. Right now, we're too complacent to examine what's best.
What's best is putting in place a tax code that lets workers and employers prosper. Putting in place a regulatory/permitting system that isn't based on an adversarial role is a must. That system will protect the things needing protecting while letting companies and their employees prosper.
In Gov. Dayton's thinking, government is the key to happiness. In the Republicans' thinking, prosperity is the key. The more prosperous a society is, the less reliant they are on government.
That's why Gov. Dayton's budget priorities must be stopped. They do nothing to make Minnesota prosperous again. The GOP's plan does.
Posted Sunday, February 20, 2011 12:23 AM
No comments.
Fighting the Photo ID Fight
This morning, the SCTimes published Ellen Mork's op-ed opposing Photo ID. Included in Ms. Mork's op-ed are some tidbits of misinformation. While I'm certain these weren't intentional misrepresentations, it's still important to correct the information. Here's one of the inaccuracies:
The voter education effort has proved to be expensive in Indiana. Some have estimated that the cost would run $20 million to $40 million in Minnesota, depending on the bill. An official cost is expected soon from the Office of Minnesota Management and Budget.
What voter education is needed for this? I'm beyond skeptical of this information because, in the past, legislators have said that it would cost the state $40,000,000 to create the Photo ID's :
'Spending $40 million for free photo IDs, expensive electronic roster machines, and creating new levels of bureaucracy to combat this voter fraud myth is just silly,' said Rep. Winkler. 'It's like building a multi-million dollar water barrier to stop the Loch Ness Monster from coming up the Mississippi.'
What's more is that Photo ID pays for itself rather quickly :
The city of Minnetonka used this kind of system in the 2010 election in a pilot program that was hailed as success.
'Election workers at all levels responded favorably. It truly made everyone's job easier and it resulted in improved voter satisfaction,' said David Maeda, city clerk for Minnetonka, at the time. 'This pilot proved to us that we can process voters easily and accurately on Election Day.'
Let's summarize things up till now:
The system isn't costly, made election workers' jobs easier while eliminating the possibility of felons voting. What's the argument against Photo ID again?
Then there's this inaccuracy:
There is no evidence of voter impersonation in Minnesota, ever. This is the only kind of ineligible voting that a photo ID might prevent.
That's a little shifty wording. It isn't that voter fraud hasn't been attempted in Minnesota. It has :
Election Day is upon us. You are confirmed to volunteer with ACT (America Coming Together - http://www.actforvictory.org/) on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov 2.
We will be creating name badges that include your Ward and Precinct information for each of the thousands of volunteers that day to make it easier to find a volunteer to vouch for a voter at the polls.
I am emailing you to request your street address, city and zipcode. We've already got your other contact information, but your record in our database does not include this information.
You can save us time on election day by replying today to this email with this information, or give us a call at [phone number with St. Paul area code].
In order to get your badge correct, please reply by Thursday.
Thank you for your help and cooperation. See you on Election Day!
Photo ID isn't just about detecting people impersonating eligible voters. Photo ID is about preventing ineligible and illegal voters from voting. Photo ID would prevent felons from voting because applying for a Photo ID would detect that. A Photo ID would eliminate the need for vouching, too.
Vouching, as we see in this email, is a system that's just ripe for fraud. Any voting system that includes vouching can't be taken seriously for this reason.
The cost to local units of government will be considerable, both in training current personnel, recruiting additional personnel and staffing free ID centers around the county.
No it wouldn't:
Kiffmeyer said there are few drawbacks to using an electronic system. She said it is a 'cost-neutral' system. While there is an upfront cost for the equipment, it is offset by money saved by counties in postal verification and data entry costs.
Rep. Kiffmeyer's statement, coupled with Mr. Maeda's statement, apparently says that Photo ID improves Election Day efficiency while creating long-term savings.
Photo ID's opponents haven't proved their case, much less proving it beyond a reasonable doubt. Meanwhile, Photo ID's proponents have shown, repeatedly, how Photo ID saves money long-term while restoring election integrity.
Posted Sunday, February 20, 2011 2:09 AM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 20-Feb-11 10:52 PM
Gary:
The state of Minnesota gets $13.50 for each ID card they sell. If five million people in the state of Minnesota are given ID cards that will cost just $65 million. Then no one will drive at all since we all will have ID cards instead of drivers licenses.
If just one million people are given free ID cards (a number which I think is about 999,999 too much) that will only be $13.50.
This person was obviously lying!
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis,MN
Doctors Making House Calls?
After watching the video at the start of this article , my first question is whether these people are real doctors. My next question is simple. If they are, shouldn't they have their licenses revoked? Here's why I ask that question:
On Saturday, a group of men and women in lab coats purporting to be doctors were handing out medical excuse notes, without examining the 'patients.'
'I asked this doctor what he was doing and he told me they were handing out excuses to people who were feeling sick due to emotional, mental or financial distress,' said Christian Hartsock. 'They never performed an exam-he asked me how I was feeling today and I said I'm from California and I'm not used to the cold, so he handed me a note.'
Another woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said they were handing out excuses like they were leaflets.
'I asked if they were handing out doctors' excuses and a guy said yes and asked me if I needed one,' she said. 'When I told them I needed one for February 16 and 17th, he wondered if I wanted to come back here for the protests next week.'
First off, I'm skeptical that these people are real doctors. If they are, then that skepticism will turn to outrage. Affirming in writing that a person is ill without examining them is totally unprofessional and utterly dishonest.
If they are certified doctors, then they're really political hacks in white robes.
On Saturday, a group of men and women in lab coats purporting to be doctors were handing out medical excuse notes, without examining the 'patients.'
'I asked if they were handing out doctors' excuses and a guy said yes and asked me if I needed one,' she said. 'When I told them I needed one for February 16 and 17th, he wondered if I wanted to come back here for the protests next week.'
What happened next?
'I said, 'sure,' and I received a doctor's note for the 16th through the 25th of February, without a medical exam.'
As awful as that is, it gets potentially worse:
Based on an examination of the signature and medical license number provided , one of the men handing out these notes was purporting to be James H Shropshire MD , a Clinical Associate Professor at the University Wisconsin Madison.
At this time, MacIver News Service is attempting to contact Dr. Shropshire to see if indeed he was the one handing out the notes on the Capitol Square.
It's important that we not jump to conclusions. Still, if the person signing James H. Schropshire's name to the doctor slip isn't James H. Shropshire, MD, they're potentially in a heap of trouble. The charge of forgery immediately leaps to mind. If James H. Shropshire, MD, really is writing out these doctor slips without examining people, I'd have to think that he's lying.
While I don't think lying is enough to get a doctor's license pulled, I'd have to think there's some type of penalty for it.
The longer this continues, the more likely it is that Democrats will face angry voters in 2012. Main Street Wisconsinites would love having the job security, the pensions and health care benefits that Gov. Walker is proposing.
While unions are saying that they're willing to accept some concessions, their credibility is under attack. People are questioning whether they see themselves as protected as a sacred cow in India. That won't play well with Main Street Wisconsin.
The Democrat legislators' strike can't last much longer. They have a budget to pass, a deficit to erase. The longer Democrat senators stay away, the less time they'll have to debate other parts of the budget.
If they want to be seen as the party that stood in the way of getting the deficit settled, Democrats are welcome to take that position into the 2012 election. Good luck selling that one to voters who've lost jobs or accepted pay cuts or freezes.
Posted Sunday, February 20, 2011 8:07 AM
No comments.
Having Hope Would Be A Change
This morning's must reading is Nolan Finley's latest column . Finley's column is mostly about how newly elected governors and freshmen in the House of Representatives are listening to people rather than looking for "plum assignments" on important committees:
The biggest surprise comes from Washington, where the GOP freshmen are setting the agenda. Most shocked by their cheeky demands are the Republican House leaders. They expected the newcomers who elevated them to the majority to come in and take seats in the back of the chamber.
That isn't happening. The freshmen are forcing Republicans to honor their campaign vow of $100 million in spending cuts. Last week, they sided with President Barack Obama to kill a porked-up jet engine program that their leaders supported.
These freshmen are more interested in keeping faith with voters than they are in defeating the president, or in currying favor with their leadership to land plum committee assignments. Maybe they learned something from the Democratic incumbents they defeated, most of whom were elected as moderates, but allowed themselves to be bullied and bribed into casting liberal votes.
This is incredibly positive news. Keeping faith with voters instead of accepting Beltway CW will pay big dividends both during this term and during their re-election campaigns.
One of the most-overlooked traits Bill Clinton had was that he was a great listener. Voters noticed that he seemed to know what was most important to them.
These freshmen legislators and newly-elected governors are listening to the people who elected them. Contrast that with what President Obama is doing in DC, what Gov. Dayton is doing from his hidden room here in Minnesota or what the unions are doing in Wisconsin. If there was something more stark than night-and-day, I'd use it to describe the difference.
This gives me reason for hope. I thought most of these people would stick with their promises to the TEA Parties. Still, I couldn't be 100% certain that they'd stay true to their word until I saw how they operated in DC or in their state capitols.
Those results are trickling in with mostly positive results. I suspect, and hope, that I'll keep hearing about positive results. This was probably the best recruited class in GOP history. I wouldn't be surprised if they live up to their billing and expectations.
The politicians who rode the tea party wave to the Capitol are a different breed. They aren't buying the warnings of Beltway prognosticators that voters may say they want cuts, but don't really mean it. Perhaps they remember that these same wise guys predicted with certainty that Republicans would pay a price for opposing Obamacare and stimulus spending.
Mostly, what Snyder, his fellow governors and the freshmen representatives have in common is they are listening to voters. That hasn't happened in a long time. If it catches on, we may finally get some of that hope and change stuff.
We can't continue travelling the path we're currently on. It's imperative that we really change directions ASAP. These TEA Party/conservative legislators and governors seem to understand that because they're acting accordingly.
If President Obama and the Democratic Party don't change their ways fast, they'll be thrown out in 2012. They simply can't keep travelling down the same trail.
Posted Sunday, February 20, 2011 1:16 PM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 20-Feb-11 10:46 PM
Gary:
Just think some of them don't like the thougt of settling down in Washington DC so they use their tax payer office for their temp homes. Their reward being attacked by a millionarie Senator who wants to spend trillions of dollars we don't have.
I think I'll side with those people who want to use their office for home.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
