Archive for the ‘Kurt Daudt’ Category

Earlier this week, I wrote about Speaker Daudt’s stinging criticism of Gov. Dayton in this post. I’m not surprised that I’m not the only one lining up to take a shot at Gov. Dayton. This morning, I got my copy of Harold Hamilton’s weekly commentary. Harold didn’t pull punches in this week’s end-of-session summation.

At the top of Harold’s commentary is his “Quote of the Week” section. The first quote, from Speaker Daudt, said “I can’t answer why Governor Dayton wasn’t engaged during session. He’ll have to answer those questions. His parking spot sits empty almost every day – he doesn’t even come to the Capitol. He hasn’t been engaged at all in his job here.” If Gov. Dayton wasn’t willing to do the work, he should’ve resigned so someone else could do the things needed to help Minnesotans.

The second quote also came from Speaker Daudt:

This session wasn’t a failure. Our governor was a failure.

The final quote is from Sen. Roger Chamberlain:

The governor is behaving like a toddler – emotional, impulsive, and unreasonable. It is just another part of his legacy of chaos and failure.

Gov. Dayton was poorly equipped for the job. His leadership skills were nonexistent. His temperament was terrible. His ability to work with others was nonexistent, too. What part of that ‘skillset’ sounds like he’s equipped to be governor? That isn’t the only criticism of Gov. Dayton in Hamilton’s commentary. Here’s more:

Once again, Dayton demonstrated that he really isn’t up to the job of being chief executive of the state. Thus, he leaves a legacy of failure, a legacy of failing to lead and unite a divided state. Beyond that, he has no legacy. He has no signature achievements he or his liberal brethren can brag up.

He can’t brag about MNLARS. On that, he might get tarred and feathered. The nursing home abuse scandal is a dark stain on his ‘humanitarian’ record because the Office of Health Facility Complaints investigated “just 1% of nearly 21,000 cases … through on-site investigations when facilities self-reported incidents.”

People died but Gov. Dayton didn’t instruct the OHFC to investigate. That either means that Gov. Dayton is a totally heartless SOB or that he’d checked out or both. When people die and the governor doesn’t fix things or, at minimum, he doesn’t pay attention, then he vetoes a bill that would’ve established protections, then the fault sits exclusively with Gov. Dayton. Only the executive branch runs things. The legislative branch passes policy bills and funds government. They don’t run things. Here’s the harshest, most accurate part of Hamilton’s commentary:

Once again, Dayton demonstrated that he really isn’t up to the job of being chief executive of the state. Thus, he leaves a legacy of failure, a legacy of failing to lead and unite a divided state. Beyond that, he has no legacy. He has no signature achievements he or his liberal brethren can brag up.

He is really left with only the dubious claim that presided over a massive increase in the state income tax, a sort of Holy Grail for liberals that visits upon the successful the misery of bearing their “fair share” of income taxes, which really means somewhere around 70% of the total burden.

Much like President Obama, Gov. Dayton isn’t an executive. They’re both executives in name only. Also like President Obama, Gov. Dayton’s legacy stands a good chance of getting wiped out by his successor.

Minnesota desperately needs a true executive who keeps the trains running on time. If Dayton didn’t show up, much less on time, how can we keep the trains running on time? Finally, it’s worth noting that Speaker Daudt typically is known as Mr. Calm, Cool and Collected. For him to go Vesuvius like he did Sunday and Wednesday, something serious must’ve bothered him.

By vetoing the GOP tax conformity bill, Gov. Dayton has just given corporations a major tax increase. Gov. Dayton didn’t like the bill because, in his words, “the bill didn’t penalize companies who move foreign profits back to Minnesota harshly enough.”

This shows just how incompetent Gov. Dayton is and how little he understands economics. If you punish corporations for bringing their profits back to the USA, they’ll keep their profits in other countries. These corporations don’t have an incentive to repatriate their funds if Gov. Dayton’s policy is to punish them. Gov. Dayton’s shortsighted and ideology-driven policies have led him to veto the legislature’s tax conformity bill.

That’s foolish both economically and politically. Thanks to Gov. Dayton’s veto of the bill, lots of businesses will get hit with significant tax increases. Further, those businesses getting hit with significant tax increases now have a motive to vote for Republicans this fall. Thanks to Gov. Dayton’s veto of the tax conformity bill, entrepreneurs have additional incentives to vote against DFL legislators and the DFL gubernatorial candidate. Of course, Gov. Dayton had to make a foolish statement after vetoing the bill:

“They wanted a bill that was going to fail,” Dayton said at a morning news conference. He accused House Republicans of cozying up to “special interests.”

Take that statement with a block of salt. Forget about a grain of salt. You’d need one of these:

About 2:30 into this video, Speaker Daudt said something profound. When asked by Pat Kessler why they didn’t separate out the bills, Speaker Daudt said “You know, even when we did separate things out — I’ll bring your attention to the deputy registrar money — we sent that by itself. The Governor vetoed that and then put in his veto letter that he vetoed it because it wasn’t part of a bigger bill. I’m just — I don’t even have anything to say. I can’t answer for how illogical this governor has been the last 2 weeks — and beyond that.”

There’s no question that Gov. Dayton has been erratic the last 2+ weeks. There’s little question that he’s no longer mentally fit to serve as governor anymore. Just look at the things that’ve happened recently. MNLARS is a major administration failure that’s hurting deputy registrars. It’s putting some of them out of business. Others are losing their homes. Fox9 reported about massive amounts of fraud in the child care welfare system. Gov. Dayton’s response was that he found out about it via the station that broke the story. Earlier, it was reported that seniors living in elder care facilities had died because the people abused them or neglected them altogether.

Sen. Karin Housley put a bill together to insist on accountability. Naturally, Gov. Dayton vetoed that, too. Gov. Dayton accused Republicans of cozying up to “the special interests.” What does Gov. Dayton have to say about his protecting SEIU with his veto of the senior care accountability bill? Did he do that because it was the right thing? Did he do it because he’s protected his political allies all the while he’s been in office? (I suspect it’s the latter.)

Perhaps Speaker Daudt’s most stinging shot came when he said “I’ve worked with this governor as the leader of my caucus the last 6 years, the last 4 years as Speaker and every opportunity, this governor will choose politics over people every time.” In fact, throughout the 24+ minute video, Speaker Daudt cited example after example of Gov. Dayton not being engaged in negotiating bills.

In fact, it wasn’t just Speaker Daudt that criticized Gov. Dayton. Check out Roger Chamberlain’s statement on Gov. Dayton’s behavior:

The governor behaved like a toddler – emotional, impulsive, and unreasonable. Vetoing everything and bringing the session to a crashing halt because he couldn’t get exactly what he wanted is just another temper tantrum. It has become a recurring theme with this governor; it is a legacy of chaos and failure.

The truly sad thing is the governor’s selfishness will have a devastating impact on Minnesotans. His vetoes tell us he doesn’t care about protecting students from the next school shooting. That he doesn’t care about saving the next victims of opioid abuse. That he doesn’t care about people struggling with mental health emergencies. That he doesn’t care about victims of elder abuse. The list goes on and on and on. These people don’t care about the governor’s political games. They just want to live their lives and the governor turned his back on them today.

Senate Republicans cited specific reasons why Gov. Dayton shouldn’t have vetoed these bill. Here’s part of Sen. Karin Housley’s statement:

The governor’s veto of the supplemental budget is disappointing and irresponsible. The bill included new, needed protections for elderly and vulnerable Minnesotans, and his veto puts thousands at risk. Instead of standing with the people of our state, the governor chose to cement his legacy as a chief executive whose administration has been marred by scandal and obstruction.

The elder care provisions included in the bill represented a bipartisan compromise that would have allowed the use of electronic monitoring, strengthened resident protections, better prevented retaliation, prohibited deceptive marketing, and enhanced provider accountability.

Sen. Chamberlain is right. Gov. Dayton acted like a spoiled brat. I wrote about Gov. Dayton’s behavior many times during this session and the budget session. This isn’t something that wasn’t totally visible. It was there in plain sight the entire time. That being said, the Twin Cities media did their best to not cover it. Even in today’s press conference with Speaker Daudt, the questions were veiled attempts to defend Gov. Dayton. It didn’t work. Speaker Daudt was prepared and loaded with specifics.

Technorati: Mark Dayton, Temper Tantrums, Mental Instability, Vetoes, DFL, Kurt Daudt, Roger Chamberlain, Karin Housley, Elder Care Reforms, Tax Conformity, Deputy Registrars, MNGOP

After vetoing the GOP tax conformity bill, Gov. Dayton sent this veto letter to Speaker Kurt Daudt in which he theoretically explained why he vetoed the tax conformity bill. It isn’t as much a governing document as it is a political document.

For instance, early in the veto letter, Gov. Dayton wrote “Late last year, President Trump and Republicans in Congress enacted a federal tax law that overwhelmingly favored large corporations and the richest Americans. The federal tax law cut taxes by 40 percent for corporations, totaling 92 percent of the net total, or $1.35 trillion. Because of these federal tax changes, 300,000 Minnesotans will see a $59 million tax increase next year, if the Minnesota Legislature does nothing to respond.”

What Gov. Dayton didn’t include in his letter is why the federal tax cut was heavy on cutting corporate tax rates. Gov. Dayton didn’t mention that Obama-era tax increases in corporate tax rates had made U.S. companies uncompetitive with other nations’ companies. The likely reason why Gov. Dayton didn’t mention that is because his tax policies have made Minnesota companies uncompetitive.

Here’s Speaker Daudt’s response to Gov. Dayton’s veto:

This is an outright lie:

Unfortunately, this tax bill, like the Federal Tax Law passed last year, prioritizes tax cuts for corporations over real people. Rather than investing in our children’s educations, the GOP has decided that the foreign profits of large, multinational corporations are more important.

I can’t wait until Gov. Dayton is just a bad memory. He’s raised taxes, including on middle income families and the working poor. Now he’s about to raise taxes on the middle class again unless he gets exactly what he wants. He’s turned a blind eye towards vulnerable seniors in nursing homes. He’s dumped millions of dollars into a broken MNLARS system and that still doesn’t work. He’s protected his union allies while imposing harsh regulations on those that oppose the unions. (Think child care workers who voted against unionization.)

It’s accurate to say that he’s been the worst governor in recent Minnesota history. He’s supposedly forgotten important provisions in major bills that he’s negotiated. (Think sales tax on farm equipment repairs in the Tax bill of 2013 and the PSL provision in the Vikings stadium bill.) Now he’s insisting that he didn’t hear about the whistleblower report about the Somali child care fraud. This despite the fact that the whistleblower has repeatedly told reporters that he told people in Gov. Dayton’s inner circle about the fraud.

When he was in the Senate, Dayton was named the worst senator in DC. It isn’t a stretch to think that he’s now added worst governor in Minnesota to his ‘trophy case’.

One of the reasons why Republicans should write more letters to the editor is because editorial boards aren’t that bright. This Our View editorial is a perfect example of their bias.

It starts by saying “The Minnesota Supreme Court last week upheld the line-item veto of the state Legislature’s budget and told its warring co-equal branches to work out their problems themselves. The court is right on that. It remains to be seen if Gov. Mark Dayton and the leadership of the Legislature are willing to do that.”

Let’s be clear about this. While there’s a political component to this, it’s still a constitutional issue. By siding with Gov. Dayton, the 5 clowns in black robes gave future governors the upper hand in budget negotiations. All that’s required is for the governor to reach an agreement on a budget, the legislature passes that budget, the governor signs the agreed-upon budget before he line-item vetoes the legislature’s operating budget. At that point, the governor would have a stacked deck in demanding the opposition party renegotiate parts of the deal that the governor didn’t want to compromise on.

We are where we are: Dayton has his hand on the Legislature’s financial windpipe and appears quite willing to strangle it to get what he wants. The Legislature’s argument that the governor is effectively abolishing the legislative branch fell on deaf ears with the justices. And the relationship between the governor and the Legislature grows ever more toxic.

It’s wrong to call the black robe bandits justices. They’re DFL operatives first. They aren’t principled jurists who understand the concept of co-equal branches of government. Further, they’re cowards. They didn’t want to be criticized by the media, which is overwhelmingly liberal, so they ruled in the DFL’s favor.

It is well past time for Dayton and Daudt to rise above their mutual contempt. It is not enough for one to do so. It is incumbent on both to act in good faith. The poison pill provisions must stop; the veto should be the last option if a deal has been struck.

Again, this editorial board plays the ‘they’re both guilty’ card. That’s BS. Forgotten is the fact that Gov. Dayton agreed to the tax bill. If he didn’t agree with it, he shouldn’t have agreed to it before calling the special session.

When the legislature opens its session in February, the House should pass a bill funding the legislature, then send it to the Senate. After it’s passed by the House and Senate, they should send it to Gov. Dayton. If he vetoes the funding bill, the House should immediately schedule an override vote. If the DFL legislators want to kill their political careers for a lame duck governor, let them vote to sustain Gov. Dayton’s veto.

If they vote to override Gov. Dayton’s veto, Republicans should highlight the fact that every DFL legislator voted against the GOP tax relief bill in 2017. I’d love hearing them explain why they voted to not cut taxes but voted to override Gov. Dayton’s veto of the Republicans’ tax relief bill in 2017.

Liz Mair’s article strongly hints that the DFL would hold Sen. Franken’s seat if Sen. Franken resigned as a result of this ethics scandal. In her article, Mair wrote “It just so happens that Minnesota has a lot of Democratic women who could make for viable Franken replacements; at least six, depending on who you ask. One is Minnesota Lt. Gov. Tina Smith. Another is Attorney General Lori Swanson. A third is State Auditor Rebecca Otto. A fourth is state House Minority Leader Melissa Hortman. A fifth is Rep. Betty McCollum. And a sixth is former state House Majority Leader Erin Murphy.”

Mair isn’t wrong that each of these women would be viable candidates in the eyes of DFL activists. The thing that Ms. Mair is missing is the fact that these candidates have in common is that they’re from the Metro. In the eyes of rural Minnesota, especially the Iron Range, these women would be rejected like Hillary was rejected. In fact, I’d posit that they’d get rejected worse than Hillary was in 2016.

Trump won the Eighth District with 53.76% of the vote to Hillary’s 38.27%. None of these candidates would do that well on the Range. Further, most of these candidates favor single-payer health care.

Meanwhile, Republicans have 2 candidates that would be able to run well in the suburbs, the exurbs & rural Minnesota. If Stewart Mills or Kurt Daudt were to run, they’d be favored because they both support the Iron Range, they both support the construction unions and they’re both seen as sensible policymakers.

The DFL’s biggest problem is that they’re the urban party, which helped them win statewide races in the past. That’s coming to an end because farmers and unions are abandoning the DFL because of the DFL’s hostility towards building pipelines, approving mining projects and Gov. Dayton’s hostility towards farmers. The sad part for the DFL is that Gov. Dayton is sensible compared with the 6 ladies mentioned earlier.

If Sen. Franken resigns, which looks more possible each week, Gov. Dayton will have a difficult decision. It’ll take quite a bit to wash the bitter taste of Sen. Franken out of people’s mouth:

At the end of the day, I’d put the DFL’s chances of holding Sen. Franken’s seat as a toss-up.

According to this article, Sen. Dan Schoen and Rep. Tony Cornish will resign soon, with Sen. Schoen resigning Wednesday and Rep. Cornish leaving ” on or before Dec. 1.”

According to the article “House Speaker Kurt Daudt and Majority Leader Joyce Peppin say they asked Cornish to resign.” It then added a statement, saying “We asked Representative Tony Cornish to offer his resignation from the Minnesota House of Representatives. Over the last week, it has become increasingly clear his resignation is the most appropriate course of action for him, his constituents, and our institution. As House leaders, we will continue to take concrete steps to combat misconduct at the legislature and ensure a safe and respectful work environment for legislators, staff, lobbyists, and the public.”

Cornish released his own statement, saying “As a proud former peace officer and longtime champion for public safety, I am forced to face the reality that I have made some at the Capitol feel uncomfortable, and disrespected. To those individuals and specifically the unnamed lobbyist , I sincerely apologize for my unwelcome behavior. “I would also like to apologize to God, my family, my constituents, and friends for the mistakes I have made. After having conferred with family members, friends and advisors, it is with deep regret tonight that I am announcing my intention to resign from the Minnesota House of Representatives. I do so after reaching an agreement in principle with the unnamed lobbyist that has been mentioned. The agreement is basically that I offer the enclosed apology, and resign from my office, on or before December, 1st 2017 and that we both provide each other with a mutual release of any claims against each other now and in the future.”

After the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in Gov. Dayton’s favor, he tried spinning the situation as best he could, saying “It is time for us all to agree that this dispute has been concluded and resume working together for the best interests of Minnesota.” The legislature quickly said, essentially, ‘Thanks but no thanks.’ They said that because Gov. Dayton negotiated a budget settlement in bad faith. Gov. Dayton pushed this lawsuit in his attempt to intimidate the legislature into caving on tax relief. Thankfully, the legislature didn’t relent. Here’s something worth considering, Gov. Dayton. The legislature worked in the best interest of their constituents. They did their best to enact much-needed tax relief while reforming teacher licensure.

The first thing that the legislature will do when the next session convenes on Feb. 20, 2018 is pass a budget restoring their budget. It will sail through the House and pass the Senate. That’s when things get interesting. Will Gov. Dayton veto that funding, setting up a high-stakes showdown on an override vote? That’s a lose-lose situation for Gov. Dayton. If he vetoes the funding, it’s likely that he’ll get overridden.

That’s because I don’t think it’s likely that outstate DFL legislators will vote to end their political careers to sustain Gov. Dayton’s veto. If the DFL legislators vote to sustain Gov. Dayton’s veto, they can kiss their political careers goodbye. Republicans should portray each DFL legislator as representing Gov. Dayton first, their special interest allies second and their constituents somewhere down their list of priorities.

If Gov. Dayton signs the appropriation, he will have won a victory in court but lost the PR war. Pyrrhic victories don’t make for great legacies. Either way, Gov. Dayton’s victory will be short-lived.

Top legislative leaders are refusing to make key payments on a new Senate office building, an action that could hurt the state’s credit rating, and they won’t allow the executive branch to use nonpartisan staff to draft proposals. “I am not willing to bail the governor out,” Republican House Speaker Kurt Daudt said Thursday. “He needs to own that.”

This video perfectly explains what Gov. Dayton has done with his line-item veto:

Republicans need to not let Gov. Dayton off the hook. Gov. Dayton is a lame duck governor who must be thinking about what his legacy will be. At this point, a significant portion of his legacy will be shutting down government once and calling special sessions to finish the budget. Will he want to preside over a downgrading of Minnesota’s credit rating, too? That will be on him if he vetoes February’s appropriation funding the legislature.

Each time Republicans have stood up to him over the budget, Gov. Dayton has lost stature while losing the fight. There’s no reason to think he won’t lose this fight, too.

Finally, the Supreme Court disgraced themselves yesterday. They didn’t rule on whether Gov. Dayton’s line-item veto achieved an unconstitutional result, which is the central question. They didn’t rule on that question while pretending to exercise judicial restraint. They exercised judicial cowardice, not judicial restraint. They did that because they didn’t want to hand Gov. Dayton a political defeat.

That’s pathetic. Whatever it is, it isn’t justice.

Technorati: Mark Dayton, Minnesota Supreme Court, Line-Item Veto, Government Shutdown, Senate Office Building, DFL, Kurt Daudt, Office of Legislative Auditor, Revisor of Statutes, Republicans

To: Speaker Daudt, Sen. Gazelka
From: Gary Gross, Chief troublemaker, Uppity Peasants Brigade
Subject: Gov. Dayton standoff

Gentlemen, I’m proud of you for standing your ground in this fight against Gov. Dayton. Don’t renegotiate the tax bill that Gov. Dayton signed. Instead, tell Gov. Dayton that you’ll broadcast the fact that Gov. Dayton and the DFL didn’t put a high priority on serving their constituents.

Instead of renegotiating the tax bill, the House should immediately submit a clean funding bill that funds the legislature for the rest of the biennium. Pass it ASAP, then send it to the Senate. If Gov. Dayton vetoes the clean funding bill, I’d schedule an override vote immediately. If the House or Senate votes to sustain Gov. Dayton’s veto, tell each outstate DFL legislator that voted to sustain Gov. Dayton’s veto that they’d better prepare for the onslaught of advertising that’s heading their direction. Tell these DFL legislators that their constituents will hear that they voted against the GOP tax relief package for farmers, small businesses and the middle class. Tell these DFL legislators that their constituents will hear about their votes to keep the legislature shut down, too.

Let them know that voting with Gov. Dayton will come at a political price.

Gentlemen, tell the DFL that listening to their special interest allies will cost them bigtime this election cycle. Gov. Dayton told Tom Hauser that he wants to drag you back to the negotiating table because he’s worried that the government might run a deficit. Like you, I’ve paid attention to Gov. Dayton’s message from the start of his administration until his lame-duck year. Not once has Gov. Dayton or his DFL allies said a thing about being worried that families have enough to put a roof over their head, save for retirement or for their children’s college education or help meet their bills.

Thanks for standing tall. Thanks for not letting Gov. Dayton’s special interest allies bully you. Keep up the good work.

Earlier this week, I wrote about Paul Gazelka’s Strib op-ed in this post but I missed Speaker Daudt’s op-ed. I’m upset with myself that I did. That’s because Speaker Daudt’s op-ed opened my eyes to something that I hadn’t considered previously.

The first paragraph that caught my attention was when Speaker Daudt wrote “That’s why at the end of the last legislative session, I was so proud of the historically productive results we achieved. A Republican-led House and Senate worked with our Democratic governor and balanced the budget while investing a historic amount into roads and bridges; boosted funding to our schools; passed Real ID enabling Minnesotans to travel; lowered health insurance premiums; and reduced taxes for millions of Minnesotans. Most important, we did it together.”

Lots of people have written about the fact that this was a productive session. There’s no disputing that fact. The paragraph that got my undivided attention was where Speaker Daudt wrote “The Legislature didn’t get everything it wanted, and the governor didn’t get everything he wanted. But in working alongside one another, we brought the session to a productive conclusion. Then, perhaps after hearing complaints from members of his own party, Gov. Mark Dayton expressed second thoughts about the compromises he had negotiated. Despite personally having agreed to each and every one of the bills, including the amount and provisions within the tax relief bill, the governor tried to go back on his word. He line-item-vetoed funding for the Legislature in an attempt to force us back to the negotiating table.”

Think about that a split-second. Neither the governor nor the legislature got everything they wanted but they negotiated a deal that both supposedly could live with. After Gov. Dayton agreed to the size of the tax relief bill and the provisions in it, the legislature passed the bill and sent it to Gov. Dayton. Despite the agreement and the fact that Gov. Dayton got lots of the things he’d prioritized, Gov. Dayton line-item vetoed the funding for the legislature.

Gov. Dayton said he vetoed their funding to coerce the legislature into renegotiating the Tax Bill. I’m betting that isn’t why he vetoed it. I’m betting that his special interest allies told him that they were vehemently opposed to the tax bill for ideological reasons. In 2011, Gov. Dayton reneged on a budget agreement he’d negotiated with then-Speaker Zellers and then-Senate Majority Leader Koch. They reached an agreement. They returned to their caucuses to tell them they had a deal. When they returned to Gov. Dayton’s office, they learned that Rep. Thissen and Sen. Bakk talked Gov. Dayton into reneging on the deal that he’d agreed to and initialed.

There’s a significant part of Gov. Dayton that simply can’t sign a bill unless he’s certain he’s getting the better end of the agreement. He’s simply too rigid. That’s why 3 of the 4 budget sessions during Gov. Dayton’s time in office required a special session. What’s particularly upsetting is that Gov. Dayton won’t admit that he’s attempting to preserve his bargaining leverage when the legislature returns in February. Both sides know that the legislature has some reserve funds that they can use but they both know that it isn’t enough to fund the legislature for the rest of the biennium.

It’s also upsetting to hear Gov. Dayton accuse the legislature of lying to him and to the Supreme Court:

Gov. Dayton needs to quit with his my-way-or-the-highway shtick. It’s getting old.

When Gov. Dayton whined about being lied to about the House’s and Senate’s reserves being enough to allow them to operate until the 2018 session starts, he said that the legislature could then attempt to override his veto. That’s a rather duplicitous statement made during a speech when he accused Republicans of lying to him, “to Minnesotans and to the Supreme Court.” It’s duplicitous because he knows the chances of a single DFL legislator voting against him is virtually non-existent if not actually non-existent.

Further, Gov. Dayton knows that his line-item veto didn’t just zero out the legislature’s budget for 3 months or 6 months. Gov. Dayton’s line-item veto eliminated funding for the entire biennium. Saying that the legislature has the option of overriding his veto is duplicitous because, while technically available, the reality is that it isn’t a realistic option. It’s worth noting that legal theories don’t exist in a vacuum. It isn’t honest to say that the legislature can override his veto when everyone knows that the DFL won’t supply a single vote to override.

During his press conference, Gov. Dayton said that the “2017 Tax Bill will seriously jeopardize Minnesota government’s future and financial stability.” Notice that he didn’t say anything about the Tax Bill’s benefits to families, hard-working small businesses and farmers. That’s a pretty clear insight into Gov. Dayton’s governing philosophy. It’s the DFL’s governing philosophy, too.

By comparison, when Speaker Daudt spoke about the impasse, he said that “we consider ourselves to be in survival mode. The Governor has literally eliminated our funding. The Court has given us funding through October 1st. We do have some funds that we can use beyond that. We will look at any other option to make sure that people have a voice here at the Capitol in their elected representatives. We feel very strongly about upholding Minnesotans’ constitutional right to 3 branches of government.”

The difference in tone between Gov. Dayton and Speaker Daudt was sharp. Gov. Dayton sounded like a petulant child throwing a hissy fit. Speaker Daudt sounded like an adult.