Category: Mark Dayton

by Dave Mindeman

Luke Hellier over at Minnesota Democrats Exposed got himself into a lather over the divorce records of Mark Dayton. He went into post after post about releasing these "unsealed" documents -- Republican translation: He has something embarrassing in there and we want it. He even got to ask Dayton a question about it at a press conference -- God knows how he got a pass for that -- and a local journalist even asked a follow up question. It was yet another embarrassment for the local press.

And, as usual, Hellier tries to whip up his echo chamber to draw attention to his loosely researched story. He even got PowerLine to gleefully comment on this "mystery".

But Powerline puts an addendum on this post. It goes like this:

CORRECTION: Luke Hellier has corrected his MDE post to reflect that the affidavits were removed from the court file by the attorney for Dayton's wife, not by the attorney for Dayton. That seems to me to make it more likely that the affidavits raised issues personally sensitive to Dayton's wife rather than to Dayton. I regret the error.

I regret the error?

Unfortunately, the blogger/press that masquerades as media around here should be issuing a lot more "regrets" than that.

Item #1. Hellier on Minnesota Democrats Exposed continues to post about this issue...with no "regrets" listed.

Item #2. The usually reliable Doug Grow felt compelled to add this bizarre exchange to his story about Dayton getting the Police endorsement. At present, this story has no "regrets" listed.

Item #3. Pat Kessler was the reporter who asked the follow up on this out of the blue fishing expedition, which had no reliable information whatsoever. But, again, no "regrets" forthcoming.

I'm not sure I understand what journalism is today. Have the budgets become so arbitrarily small that reporters find it difficult to budget actual research of their own? Are they compelled to follow every slashing, Hail Mary charge that political parties throw out there?

Powerline is a blog that gets a lot of attention. But the general idea of the Dayton post is left intact.

Still, it does have those four words which are supposed to exonerate any wrongdoing.....

"I regret the error."

Category: Health Care

by Dave Mindeman

There is a fine line that elected officials have to walk. It's the line between (a) doing what's best for your constituents and (b) doing what is poltically beneficial for yourself.

Governor Pawlenty has thrown (a) out the window and now his only policy test is what will get him another few votes in Iowa.

Minnesota is in massive deficit and has health care issues. When it comes to health care, the state has three choices regarding how it can alleviate that. 1) Raise taxes, 2) Accept Federal Money when offered, or 3) throw people off the programs.

We are well aware of how Pawlenty utilizes option 1 -- he doesn't. Yesterday option 2 seems to have been eliminated as well. That leaves option 3, which has already been utilized more than we are comfortable with, but it is all we have left.

Tom Emmer concurs with it all, despite his "new direction".

Here's Pawlenty's reasoning:

Pawlenty is directing all executive branch departments and agencies to not apply for grants or other funding connected to the federal law unless approved by his office or required by law. His executive order described the federal law as "a dramatic attempt to assert federal command and control" of the country's health care system. He also wrote that the law "includes unprecedented intrusions into individual liberty."

Minnesota pays a lot in Federal taxes. Like it or not, some of those taxes are involved in Federal Health Care. Even if you think it is "too much Federal control", we still have needs to meet that are immediate. Some of those taxes are meant for Medical Assistance.....they are meant to help deal with recessionary pressures on our health care system.

By refusing money that has been offered (and that we have basically funded ourselves), Pawlenty is making a personal political statement at the expense of real needs of Minnesota citizens.

The GOP has been using an attack ad on Mark Dayton claiming that he would be "Minnesota's worst governor"...(all evidence to the contrary).

Well the ad is meaningless.

We already have the gold standard of "worst governor" sitting in the executive mansion right now.

Category: Economy

by Dave Mindeman

Yesterday, the USA Today had a front page story which I think everyone should examine. As the partisan debate over spending and deficits rages on, these statistics should give us pause:

--Anti-poverty programs now serve 1 in 6 Americans.

--50 million Americans are now on Medicaid.

--40 million Americans now get Food Stamps.

--10 million people get Unemployment Benefits. (4 times the number of 2007).

--4.4 million people are on welfare. (An 18% increase during this recession).

The question needs to be asked...What would be happening to all of these people without these programs?

I assume we have all seen the gruesome pictures of the 1930's. The soup lines. The lines at places of employment. The grim faces on trucks heading out to fields. The tent cities. The trucks loaded with a family's belongings driving to the unknown.

We put a lot of these programs into place so we wouldn't have to go through such an ordeal again. They are serving the very purpose for which they were intended.

Yet, Republicans look at these "handouts" as some kind of burden on the rest of us. They are causing a ballooning deficit. They are a "burden" to socieity.

Hard times in this country needs to be a shared burden. These numbers won't stay this high. People will get back to work. But they need help right now. They need to at least keep their dignity intact.

Pawlenty, and if he gets elected, Emmer have tried to eliminate such programs. Welfare is for the lazy. Welfare takes away "incentive".

Sorry, I have been there. When I was a kid, family health issues put us in a situation where we needed help. We survived it and we more than gave it back.

These people will too. Any of us could suddenly find ourselves in the same situation. A health crisis, bad market conditions, a poor investment, or a crop failure.

Life is tenuous at best. No matter the financial circumstances, we are all in this together and these programs are meant to allow us to share with those down on their luck...to get them through.

If money is more important than the well being of our fellow citizens, then we really have lost our sense of values.