Category: GOP Politics

by Dave Mindeman

I classify myself as an ardent pro-choice advocate. I hope that we always keep the number of abortions as few as possible. And I hope we can build a society that will support any woman who chooses to have a baby.

But there are just too many complications involved with rape, incest and the like....as well as issues involving fetal development and genetics that are just way beyond my pay grade.

I strongly feel that a woman and her doctor are the only ones who should be making any decision of that nature.

But, let me digress a second and tell you that this is NOT a post about abortion. Rather it is a somewhat related post about life already experienced and lived. Life that is not at its beginning, but struggling to maintain its own meager existence.

This is about GAMC.

As negotiations continue, there is a dichotomy of thought that seems to run through all of this. Republicans just don't seem to get the correlation. If you say you are FOR life in its absolute, then be consistently for it. People that depend on GAMC have not been blessed with the most desirable circumstances in life. Some of it is their own fault, some of it is not. But they have got to be more than a statistical dollar sign on an unallotment chopping block. They still live. They were once a baby...they once had a family. They still live.

They are living, breathing people...who depend on us. They depend on all of us. And by all that is holy in heaven, we are failing them.

They aren't parts of a balance sheet. They'll never appear at one of Pawlenty's high brow fundraisers. Some of them merely exist. They live day to day....never quite sure if this particular day won't be there last.

I watched the override vote in the House. There was a lot of silence in the room. I assume that the NO votes in the chamber were well aware of what they were doing. This shouldn't have been just another partisan issue. And the same individuals who have such a passion about eliminating abortion should have been on the same side of this vote for life.

Because in all reality, it still is a vote about life. More real than the mysteries of birth, these are people for whom life is not a certainty. It is a day to day struggle to exist.

This bill was carefully crafted and it had as much of a bipartisan nature to it as any bill brought before the legislature. It wasn't a perfect bill...nothing is perfect. But it met a need that most everyone outside of Presidential politics could agree upon.

I am not sure what happens next. I hope that some kind of fix can be worked out.

But one thing I did learn from those NO votes on the House floor. The support for life in that part of the chamber seems to have confusing limitations.... the definitions of which completely escape me for now.

Category: Tim Pawlenty

by Dave Mindeman

Watch this video exchange between Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington and Rep. Tom Rukavina, D-Refreshingly Honest.....



Points from Pat Garofalo....

-- Renters are overpaid in reimbursement
-- All "choices" are bad

Rep. Garofalo must truly believe that the talking points that come from his caucus are the ONLY options out there. Sure, those options are bad. Trouble is, it's like asking the one armed man over for dinner and then ask him which hand will he choose to pick up his fork. We have been tapping into those same "bad" "one-armed" options over and over again by this Governor and his House Lemmings.

We do have other options. We always have. They have just been dumped off the table by a one armed Governor. This legislature had a balanced budget on the Governor's desk at the end of last session. It spread the pain....it had tax increases in it.

I am still waiting for an explanation from any GOP representative that will explain a priority system that says, we have to cut the entire subsistence of a GAMC recipient but can't possible touch the 1 to 1 &1/2 percent of discretionary income from our wealthiest citizens.

Yes, GAMC recipients are dependent on government help, but they will be regardless. They either get a stipend to keep them alive and functioning or they end up on the street, in prison, or in unpaid emergency room visits. Everybody else still pays.

And now, Rep. Garofalo thinks that renters are overpaid in their reimbursement regarding property taxes. We have a Governor who dumps LGA and forces property tax increases on every property owner in this state. And yet, he wants to cut the renters rebate because he thinks they are overcompensated. Wow.

Renters get no benefit from the property other than occupying it. They get no appreciation of value (well, if there was any); and they do not get any actual ownership. Yet, property taxes affect their rent. The formula that reimburses them is certainly complicated, but guess what Rep. Garofalo, there is a simpler solution. Stop burdening the property tax payer with these incessant LGA cuts.

Points from Rukavina:

-- Honest approach to budget last year with taxes
-- New revenue seems to be off the table for GOP

We keep coming back to choices. The choices Rep. Garofalo keeps telling us we don't have. The choices that could be part of the solution if we didn't have a one-armed governor.

We cannot deal honestly with the budget issues in front of us if we don't take advantage of every possible solution. Modest tax increases can help. More modest cutting can continue. Mostly we need to get jobs out there (but the Governor doesn't want that either, so he vetoes the bonding bill).

Yes, any two bit clown can criticize what's going on with Minnesota's budget. And Jesus may have been a socialist, but He's waiting for us to figure this out on our own.

Our situation requires us to fix this reasonably. Governor Pawlenty has two healthy arms that can be used for this problem -- he simply chooses to ignore one of them.

Category: Tim Pawlenty

by Dave Mindeman

In the words of Tom Stinson, state economist:

"The billions in federal stimulus dollars pouring into the state have helped resuscitate the economy, Stinson said. Without the stimulus, "this recession probably would have been extended another year, at least," he said. "Looking at it as a whole, it was a necessary thing that had to be done to make sure the economy didn't stumble into an even deeper trough."

Hmmmm...

As our Governor travels around the country, claiming that Obama was irresponsible in pushing the stimulus package through, one has to come to the inescapable conclusion....

he doesn't know what the heck he is talking about.

Where would Minnesota be without the stimulus funds bailing out some of our construction and supplementing health and human services? Where would our arrogant Governor's budget be without he, himself, including nearly $400 million in stimulus funds to balance HIS budget?

The stimulus funding is turning this economy. It is turning Minnesota's economy. It is an inescapable fact. Stinson doesn't shy away from it...to him, it is a simple truth. He doesn't need to spin it...it just is.

So, when the opportunity arises for our Governor to do the right thing and sign on to the bonding bill that passed the legislature, the state version of stimulus funding, what does Pawlenty do?

He vetoes it. Which means he vetoes jobs. He vetoes growth.

You know, Pawlenty is just bad for Minnesota.