July 6-8, 2014
Jul 06 06:11 Dayton's disaster, Part I Jul 06 11:16 Dayton's disaster, Part II Jul 06 04:31 Scenes from St. Cloud's fantastic fireworks Jul 06 19:51 America's greatest scofflaw president Jul 07 00:04 AFSCME's statement on Harris v. Quinn Jul 07 09:27 Coborn's Plaza doublespeak, Part I Jul 07 22:50 Coborn's Plaza doublespeak, Part II Jul 08 11:26 President Obama's moment of truth Jul 08 14:15 The DFL's true feelings
Prior Months: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Dayton's disaster, Part I
It's hard to take Mark Dayton seriously anymore. With the list of crises that he's created, with the help of a DFL legislature, growing seemingly exponentially, it's hard to view him as competent. The latest crisis is the MinnesotaCare/MNsure crisis, which everyone is reporting on. Here's the Pioneer Press's article explaining the latest crisis:
At least 16,000 low-income Minnesotans never received letters telling them that the state needed more information on their MNsure applications for health insurance, and many possibly are still uninsured.
State officials disclosed the mistake on Wednesday and blamed the problem on human error.
The notices were supposed to tell the applicants to provide more information to qualify for the state's Medical Assistance program, but the notices were never sent. The applicants applied through MNsure, the state's new health insurance exchange, but their eligibility for the low-income assistance couldn't be automatically verified.
Reaction to this mistake was harsh, with Rep. Greg Davids' letter setting the tone:
Here's the key part of Rep. Davids' letter:
Minnesotans have always gone above and beyond to provide an affordable safety net for neighbors in need. Now, not only do these people not have any means for paying medical expenses, many have been accruing significant debt to pay for medical care out of pocket and likely face federal penalties for not having health insurance through no fault of their own.
Moreove, your disinterest in addressing any of these issues beyond the most superficial treatment has exposed taxpayers to unimaginable financial liability. Last week, the first lawsuit was filed against the state because of MNsure. A Cottage Grove man believes he was wrongly denied MinnesotaCare coverage because of flaws in HHS and MNsure. He is seeking reimbursement for over $2,100 spent on medical care while waiting in limbo for your administration to fix the systemic failures at HHS ad MNsure.
This administration's history of incompetence is the lengthiest in recent Minnesota history. This information won't reassure anyone that the Dayto administration is learning from its mistakes:
Future notices will be generated automatically by the information technology system. But the functionality for this isn't yet available from the exchange. So, earlier this year the state Department of Human Services adopted a workaround process that broke down in February.
"The result of folks not getting this notice is that they've been in this pending status for some number of months, as many as six, waiting for some indication," Johnson said.
Saying that the workaround process didn't work is understatement. If this had happened during the first year of the Dayton administration, people might've given the Dayton administration the benefit of the doubt. They'll be less forgiving because it happened 3 years into Gov. Dayton's term. At some point, somebody needs to ask Gov. Dayton what the late Earl Weaver would ask umpires :
Time was, the Baltimore Orioles' manager was Earl Weaver, a short, irascible, Napoleonic figure who, when cranky, as he frequently was, would shout at an umpire, "Are you going to get any better or is this it?"
With Gov. Dayton, I suspect the answer isn't (a). Gov. Dayton won't be getting any better. The disasters that we've seen, the crises that've happened on Gov. Dayton's watch, are what we should expect from him.
Gov. Dayton's name ID is off the charts. His incompetence is well-known. Let's remember that Time Magazine picked him as one of the worst senators at the time. Here's a reason why:
Dayton has passed few bills partly because some are too liberal for the Republican-controlled body, including one that would have created a Department of Peace and Nonviolence.
Minnesotans foolishly elected Dayton in 2010. Hopefully, they'll recover from that act of irrationality and elect someone competent this time.
Posted Sunday, July 6, 2014 6:11 AM
Comment 1 by ams at 09-Oct-14 07:50 AM
it will be a disaster if Jeff Johnson gets elected. he thinks that anyone can become a millionaire. Also, the republicans voted for the new senate building TOO!!!!!!!
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 09-Oct-14 10:23 AM
Excuse me but you're full of shit. The Senate Office Building funding was in the Tax Bill. Dave Senjem voted for that bill but only because it contained funding for the Destination Medical Center, which is in his district. That's the only Republican vote for the Senate Office Building.
Also, you said that Jeff Johnson "thinks that anyone can become a millionaire." You mean like Bill Gates did? Like Michael Dell did? Or Fred Smith of FedEx did? That's what capitalism does. It's the only economic system that's consistently lifted people out of grinding poverty. Nothing else compares with it in terms of lifting people out of grinding poverty and into the middle class or lifting people in the middle class into being millionaires.
In the past, that's what people called the American Dream.
Why is it a disaster if a family works hard and is rewarded by improving their financial security? That's just stunning. Frightening, really.
Comment 2 by Chad Q at 10-Oct-14 05:22 PM
And people like AMS get a vote in the next election. No wonder this state and country are in the crapper with uninformed people like this voting.
Used to be the American Dream was to become wealthy and now it is a disaster. Problem is that there are a lot of people like AMS who feel the same way and the democrat machine keeps pounding that same message home.
Dayton's disaster, Part II
Heather Carlson's and Brianna Jett's reporting is damning to the Dayton administration. According to their reporting, Lucinda Jesson, the Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services, was notified that people weren't getting notified that the state needed more information to process their applications for MinnesotaCare:
The recent revelation that the state failed to send out letters to 16,000 low-income Minnesotans seeking medical assistance to let them know their applications had not been processed and they were not covered does not surprise Olmsted County Community Services Director Paul Fleissner.
"Every county has been screaming that we didn't think notices were going out, and the state kept saying yes, yes, yes, people are just forgetting this . We had a really strong sense that they weren't and finally it's been confirmed that they weren't going to our people," Fleissner said.
Gov. Dayton and Commissioner Jesson were either incompetent or disinterested in making sure the workarounds actually worked. Either way, the Dayton administration let 16,000 applicants down because they didn't do what they were supposed to do.
Some of these 16,000 applicants have been without health insurance for 6 months. Some have accumulated significant personal debt through no fault of their own.
The process to send out the letters was supposed to be fully automated, but it still requires manual workarounds. The lack of letters sent was a known issue in January, but late last week the problem was not resolved and many people still did not know that their applications were incomplete. Often, more information was needed such as verification of income, citizenship or tribal membership.
Gov. Dayton's and Commissioner Jesson's inaction and inattentiveness is unacceptable. Why did't DHS verify that these letters would be sent before the end of January? It's disgusting that nobody verified that important step.
Fleissner said the failure of the state to send out the letters is just the latest in a string of software problems related to the state's healthcare exchange.
"It's incredibly frustrating," Fleissner said. "It's wearing (county employees) out, to be honest with you. It's been disheartening just because any time you are in a job you want to have the right tools to do the job, and we don't have the tools right now."
Gov. Dayton pushed hard to create MNsure. Unfortunately, he's been as disinterested in verifying that MNsure was working as he was excited in pushing for its creation. Governing isn't just signing bills. That's just the first step. Governing requires people actually verifying that the things required by those laws are being followed. If nobody is interested in verifying that these things are happening, then government collapses.
This should end any possibility that single payer should be considered. Single payer requires the government to do everything, including paying the customers' bills. Based on what we've seen in both St. Paul and DC, does anyone think that government is capable of handling that responsibility?
Posted Sunday, July 6, 2014 11:16 AM
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Scenes from St. Cloud's fantastic fireworks
Friday turned out to be a fantastic celebration in St. Cloud, thanks in part to the fantastic fireworks display. Thanks to Brad Veenstra's excellent photography, LFR is able to share some of the best fireworks. First, there's this picture:
This was one of my favorites:
Brad, Thanks for sharing these photos with LFR. They're a job well done.
Posted Sunday, July 6, 2014 4:31 AM
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America's greatest scofflaw president
Those of us old enough to recall Richard Nixon's time in office know that he didn't respect the Constitution, especially the Fourth Amendment. That wasn't the only way he broke the law but it's certainly the most famous. That being said, this president is the greatest scofflaw-in-chief in American history because he just doesn't care about the Constitution or the Supreme Court.
Even liberal constitutional law professors like Jonathan Turley are noticing :
The unanimous decision of the Supreme Court late last month that President Obama violated the separation of powers in appointing officials is the type of decision that usually concentrates the mind of a chief executive. Obama, however, appeared to double down on his strategy - stating in a Rose Garden speech on Tuesday that he intended to expand, not reduce, his use of unilateral actions to circumvent Congress. Summing up his position, the President threw down the gauntlet at Congress: 'So sue me.'
This is just the latest proof that this president doesn't give a damn about the rule of law or the Constitution. Apparently, he thinks he's America's king. Institutions like the Supreme Court and the Constitution don't mean much to him.
Those things don't mean much to Eric Holder, his Attorney General:
On June 26, in National Labor Relations Board v. Canning, all nine Justices ruled that President Obama's 'recess' appointments to the NLRB violated the Constitution.
Not only did Obama's own judicial appointees vote against him (including his former solicitor general), but the majority opinion was written by Stephen Breyer, a liberal stalwart of the Court.
The Administration also lost United State v. Wurie, in which the Holder Justice Department claimed that the police and federal authorities did not need a search warrant to seize all of the information stored in the cellphone of someone who had been arrested.
Putting this in more schoolyard terms, the Obama administration and Eric Holder have gotten their butts kicked when facing the Supreme Court. The number of unanimous decisions that've gone against President Obama's administration is the highest in history.
Let's summarize these cases. In NLRB v. Noel Canning, President Obama, the CEO of the executive branch, argued that he, not the Senate Majority Leader, should determine when the Senate was in session. In US v. Wurie, Holder argued that the Fourth Amendment didn't apply to cell phones. (That rationale escapes me entirely.) In both cases, the Supreme Court justices voted unanimously that "the constitutional scholar in the Oval Office" and his attorney general were wrong.
In fact, there have been 20 such cases during this administration - and even more if you include cases in which the administration filed an amicus brief, such as in McCullen v. Coakley, the free-speech case that was handed down the same day as the recess appointments case.
The Obama administration filed an amicus brief in that case supporting the Massachusetts law in question and helped argue the case before the Supreme Court.
But all nine justices found the Massachusetts law, which created a 35-foot 'buffer' zone around abortion clinics, violated the First Amendment by restricting speech in public areas 'that have historically been open to the public for speech activities.'
Here's Dictionary.com's definition of scofflaw :
a person who flouts the law, especially one who fails to pay fines owed.
a person who flouts rules, conventions, or accepted practices.
That definition fits President Obama perfectly. The constitutional law professor at George Washington University disagreed with the "constitutional scholar in the Oval Office":
In our system, there is no license to go it alone. Rather, the Republic's democratic architecture requires compromise. The process is designed to moderate legislation and create a broader consensus in support of these laws.
Nor is congressional refusal to act on a particular prescription of how to fix the economy or repair immigration laws an excuse. Sometimes the country (and by extension Congress) is divided.
When that happens, less gets done. The Framers understood such times. They lived in such a time.
Moderation isn't this president's hallmark. Apparently, ignoring the Constitution this president's hallmark.
Posted Sunday, July 6, 2014 7:51 PM
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AFSCME's statement on Harris v. Quinn
AFSCME'S statement on the Supreme Court's ruling in Harris v. Quinn is exceptionally defensive sounding:
'No court case can stand in the way of millions of women who help us raise our children and care for our aging parents,' said Eliot Seide, director of AFSCME Council 5. 'Child care providers and home care workers will continue to have a strong voice for good jobs and quality care for their consumers. This decision doesn't stop them from organizing and collectively bargaining with states.'
AFSCME and the SEIU can bargain with state governments all they want. They just can't collect dues from people who don't want to be part of the union. The ruling did nothing to prevent collective bargaining. It just said that people who aren't directly employed by the government aren't government employees.
'This attack on worker rights is bankrolled by billionaires and big corporations to enrich themselves at the expense of hardworking Americans,' added Seide. The Harris case was brought by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, an extreme anti-worker group funded by the Koch brothers and the Walton family.
I'd love hearing Seide explain how "billionaires and big corporations" get rich because of this ruling. I think Seide's making this stuff up for political consumption to excite his base. If union workers don't turn out in massive numbers for the DFL this fall, the DFL will take a bigtime hit.
'We won't let right-wing extremists rob us of our rights,' said Clarissa Johnston, a pro-union child care provider from Mounds View. 'Justice won't be served until child care providers can vote on whether we want a union. When providers choose to join a union, we gain a voice on the job. We pay our dues to make our union strong. That gives us the power to get the fair compensation we deserve. We close the income gap and we lift our families out of poverty.'
Actually, unions pay dues to get Democrats elected. The notion that these union leaders are great altruists is silly.
'We unite to lift up our profession and prepare Minnesota's poorest children for school and success in life,' said Marline Blake, a pro-union child care provider from Minneapolis. 'Our union has helped to secure pre-school scholarships that make child care affordable for working parents. We provide training in first aid and CPR, child nutrition and safe infant sleep practices. Any court case that tries to stop our union is hurting the families who depend on us to keep their kids healthy, learning and safe.'
Consider this the unions' best qualifications argument. It isn't persuasive, though it's dripping with chutzpah. Insisting that unionized child care providers are the only child care providers providing quality care is insulting the high quality non-unionized child care providers doing a fantastic job.
'We won't rest until every worker has a voice on the job,' said Seide. 'It's the only proven way for caregivers to improve their lives and the lives of the families in their care.'
The women who run these in-home child care facilities are part entrepreneur, part teacher and part supervisor. That's before mentioning a lengthy list of other qualifications these ladies bring to the table.
I'd triple dog dare Seide to tell these anti-union child care providers to their face that unionized child care providers are the only qualified providers.
Posted Monday, July 7, 2014 12:04 AM
Comment 1 by walter hanson at 07-Jul-14 04:42 PM
Gary:
Keep in mind AFSCME Council 5 has money problems. One of their hopes for long term survial is to increase the number of AFSCME members paying dues. Yes it's amazing that their definition of public employee is that if a person gets a check from the government (in the case of the home care workers they are trying to organize a check written to help a poor person have their kid in child care). does that mean for example that if a person takes their food stamp card somewhere that organization is now a public employee?
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Coborn's Plaza doublespeak, Part I
If there's anything that's certain, it's that there's lots of doublespeak from the administration at SCSU when talking budget. Kari Petrie's article is proof of that. Here's some spin from Tammy McGee:
St. Cloud State Vice President for Finance and Administration Tammy McGee said while the occupancy rate is important, how much money is being raised through rent is even more important. The university does not need 100 percent occupancy to cover its costs.
She's right. SCSU doesn't need 100% occupancy to break even. That doesn't come close to covering their costs :
At the April 30, 2013 meeting of the Budget Advisory Committee, Patrick Jacobson-Schulte, Associate Vice President for Financial Management and Budget, informed the committee that, even under the best scenario of 100% occupancy, Coborn's Plaza would lose between $50,000 and $150,000 annually.
Jacobson-Schulte is, by all accounts, an honest guy. His reputation prior to leaving SCSU was solid.
According to this press release , Tammy McGee started just before Thanksgiving, which means she's just getting started. It isn't likely that she's been on the job long enough to determine what the break-even point is for the Coborn's Plaza apartments.
What's known, though, is that the apartments have lost a ton of money thus far:
That's right. SCSU has lost $6,400,000 on those apartments during the last 4 years. Further, it's silly to think those apartments will ever hit 100% occupancy without the University offering sweetheart deals. The only other way to break even would be for President Potter to renegotiate the lease. Based on President Potter's past statements, there's a better chance that a blizzard will hit Death Valley this year than him renegotiating the Wedum contract.
This is spin, too:
The university continues to have conversations with the Wedum Foundation about making Coborn's Plaza successful. McGee said the economic stability of the complex is important to both organizations.
Cutting the bleeding is important for St. Cloud State. It's difficult to see why it's a priority for Wedum except from a positive PR standpoint. That isn't unimportant in the overall scheme of things but it isn't something that has to happen, either.
The other thing that can't be emphasized enough is how these million dollar losses affect other programs. This isn't happening in a vacuum. SCSU's enrollment is down 17.9% over the last 4 years, which has cost SCSU millions in revenue. That's a reason why St. Cloud State announced that it'll cut its operating budget by $3,600,000 for FY2015, which started less than a week ago.
At roughly the same time that St. Cloud State announced its budget cuts, it announced that the dorms will be more than 1,000 students short of capacity for this upcoming school year. That's millions of dollar of lost revenue.
While there won't be retrenchments for the 2014-15 school year, there's no guarantee against retrenchment for the 2015-16 school year.
I pity Tammy McGee because she's dealing with a terrible financial situation and a boss who's allergic to bad news. That's why most of President Potter's kitchen cabinet say yes, then salute. When enrollment is down, it isn't a negative thing. It's proof that Earl's rightsizing plan is working. When dorms are emptying, it's spun as students prefering to live in expensive upscale apartments.
There's virtually nothing proactive about President Potter. He's the ultimate picture in being reactive. That's why this article should be treated as spin.
Posted Monday, July 7, 2014 9:27 AM
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Coborn's Plaza doublespeak, Part II
When President Potter insisted that students want to live in upscale apartments, he implied that government was the right instrument to 'fix' this 'problem'. That theory isn't difficult to debunk.
First, let's question whether students want expensive upscale apartments. It's plausible that students don't want to live in dorms built before they were born. That doesn't mean, however, that they're interested in paying the high rent that Wedum is charging.
It's highly possible that President Potter misinterpreted what students wanted. It's quite possible they just wanted apartments with a) high-speed internet and b) private bathrooms.
Next, let's question whether government is the right instrument to fix this perceived problem. Government a) isn't proficient at determining markets, b) doesn't spend money wisely and c) isn't responsive to people's needs. Ask yourself whether those attributes apply to the private sector, where people are motivated by making profits.
Simply put, that isn't a fair fight. Government is inert. For-profit capitalism is energetic. They're always looking for their next money-making opportunity. A healthy argument could be made for privatizing on-campus living quarters. The students would benefit because entrepreneurs would have to provide the things students want. Universities would benefit because they could focus on educating students. Additionally, they could establish a scholarship fund when they sold the property where the dormitories currently exist. The cities where universities are located in would benefit because they'd get a big boost in property tax revenues when that public property is turned into private property.
Which brings us back to the Wedum Foundation. They're a 501(c)3, which means that St. Cloud isn't collecting a penny in property taxes on a piece of prime real estate. Thanks to that, one of 3 things must happen to make up for that lost property tax revenue. The first possibility is property owners getting hit with high property taxes. Another possibility is that the city puts off some of the things it's supposed to do, like filling potholes and repairing roads. The other possibility is that the city might raise the local sales tax.
Those options are terrible compared with a flourishing university surrounded by private property with newly constructed apartments and single family dwellings. The 'Wedum Option' is a drain on the city. The 'Private Property Option' would be a boost to St. Cloud's coffers. A SCSU would boost St. Cloud's economy, too.
The only things missing to make this happen are political pressure from would-be entrepreneurs and civic leaders and the leadership from President Potter.
This won't happen because President Potter a) isn't a visionary and b) won't admit that Wedum is a mistake. That's the biggest reason why SCSU is worse off now than when he started.
Posted Monday, July 7, 2014 10:50 PM
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President Obama's moment of truth
There's no questioning President Obama's campaigning skills. He definitely knows how to hold a crowd' attention. What's at question is whether he can govern. At this late point in his administration, it's difficult to point to an instance where he intervened and solved a problem..
Most people paying attention to what's happening on the Mexican border call it a humanitarian crisis. While there's no denying the fact that real people are suffering, what's really happening is President Obama's moment of truth. This is his last opportunity to tell activists in his party that the good of the nation is more important than their campaign contributions.
This video bears that opinion out:
It's mild news when Joe Scarborough criticizes President Obama. It's definitely news when Mika Brzezinski joins Scarborough in criticizing President Obama. When Mark Halperin joins in by saying that President Obama's schedule will change while he's headlining a pair of Democratic fundraiserss, that's a shot across President Obama's bow.
What got this started was Gov. Perry's refusal to meet President Obama on the tarmac for the obligatory photo op. Rather than getting caught up in that gamesmanship, Gov. Perry sent this letter to President Obama:
'I appreciate the offer to greet you at Austin-Bergstrom Airport, but a quick handshake on the tarmac will not allow for a thoughtful discussion regarding the humanitarian and national security crises enveloping the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas,' Mr. Perry wrote in a letter to the president Monday. 'I would instead offer to meet with you at any time during your visit to Texas for a substantive meeting to discuss this critical issue.'
Gov. Perry was respectful, which is important. What he didn't do was roll over. Instead, he essentially told President Obama that photo ops weren't important, that solving problems is what executives like governors and presidents are expected to do.
If President Obama just attends the fundraisers, people will see that he isn't interested in governing. People will knkow that he isn't capable of rising above petty partisan politics.
If President Obama doesn't produce a truly bipartisan solution to this crisis, he'll be exposed as a politician who isn't interested in solving problems. That would dry up what's left of President Obama's political capital.
At this point, Rick Perry looks like the solutions-oriented statesman. President Obama looks like another Washington politician. That's why this really is President Obama's moment of truth.
Posted Tuesday, July 8, 2014 11:26 AM
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The DFL's true feelings
Michael Kinsley famously said that a political gaffe is when someone accidentally tells the truth. If that's true, and I believe it is, then Bill Usher, the chairbeing of CD6 Democrats , committed a gaffe when he published this tweet:
Bill Usher's tweet is almost as egregious as Ryan Winkler's racist tweet last year:
It's appalling that the chair of a major DFL organization called small businesspeople parasites. First, I don't think he's right when he said that postal workers don't have to pay union dues while getting "the good wages and benefits" that the United Postal Workers negotiates. I'm not a union expert so I'm willing to be proven wrong on this. At minimum, I'd think they'd be required to pay fair share fees.
That being said, calling child care providers parasites is disgusting. It's apparent what he thinks about people who aren't unionized. I'm confident he isn't alone in the DFL in thinking this. The DFL, especially the Metrocrat wing of the DFL, is run by the public employee unions. Right now, that's the dominant wing of the DFL.
In a related case, the SEIU announced that they're filing notice with the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services that they intend to organize home health care workers :
At a 1 p.m. Tuesday news conference outside the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services in St. Paul, home care workers will talk about having enough signed cards to trigger what they call the largest union election in Minnesota history. Supporters and disabled people who receive home health care will also be present.
The Strib article says SEIU faces an uphill fight. I agree with the Strib on this.
Posted Tuesday, July 8, 2014 2:15 PM
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