Archive for September, 2013

John Nolte’s article explains why President Obama and Harry Reid won’t negotiate with Republicans:

Now we also know why Obama felt so secure golfing during this weekend’s shutdown crisis, instead of rolling up his sleeves like a leader to make a deal. Why not? He knows he the media won’t blame him for anything, including shutting down the government.

It’s one thing to philosophically oppose the Republicans’ CR. It’s another to run interference for President Obama, Sen. Reid or Nancy Pelosi.

The DC media elites didn’t report that President Obama went golfing Saturday rather than negotiating with Republicans:

As the House moved Saturday toward passing legislation that will likely result in a government shutdown, President Obama excused himself to play his customary Saturday golf, a round that set a record for most golf outings in a year since he became president.

Time Magazine’s Mark Halperin let the cat out of the bag why President Obama isn’t worried:

Halperin explained that, “The White House does not have much incentive. They think the trends are going to go in their direction at the end of the week, or early next week at the latest; because again, the press is largely sympathetic to their arguments on this.”

The Sunday morning talk show hosts didn’t mention that Harry Reid didn’t call the Senate into session Sunday. Instead, they questioned Sen. Cruz, though he outsmarted them at each turn:

SENATOR TED CRUZ: Oh, look. The American people overwhelming reject Obamacare. They understand it’s not working. The only people who aren’t listening to the argument are the career politicians in Washington. It’s Harry Reid, who wants to use brute political force.

“Right now, we have a system where the rich and powerful, those with connections to the Obama administration, they get spared some of the burdens of Obamacare. But those who are struggling: single moms and young people and people who are just trying to make it, they don’t get

While the David Gregorys of the world ask DC insider baseball questions, Sen. Cruz kept returning to the irrefutable fact that this administration has implemented a two-tiered set of rules on the Affordable Care Act, aka the ACA. One set of rules applies to big corporations and politicians. That’s the generous set of rules. The harshest rules, however, apply to those who don’t write the laws or have lobbyists protecting them.

I’ll be appearing on Ox in the Afternoon at 2:20 on KNSI. That’s AM 1450 or 103.3 FM. We’ll be talking shutdown developments.

Harry Reid is the ultimate spoiled brat. He’s refused to negotiate with House Republicans throughout the budget process. Now he’s prepared to take the final step and shut the federal government down:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will double down on Monday afternoon and again dismiss the House’s attempts to chip away at Obamacare as part of a government funding bill.

The Senate will come in session at 2 p.m. and shortly thereafter vote to table the funding bill passed by the House over the weekend that repeals a 2.3 percent levy on medical devices and delay Obamacare by a year. The Senate will send back a bill funding the government through Nov. 15, leaving the House a handful of hours to respond ahead of a midnight shutdown deadline.

The Democrats that vote for tabling the House’s continuing resolution will be voting to shut government down. There’s no justification for not repealing the medical device tax. There’s no justification for telling corporations that they get a special break from complying with the Affordable Care Act while forcing families to buy a product they’ve decided not to buy.

With its actions, the Democratic Party has identified itself as the Special Interest Party. Likewise, they’ve identified themselves as the party that doesn’t listen to the American people. Finally, the Democratic Party has identified themselves as the party that owns this sluggish economy.

By tabling this bill, Democrats voting for tabling will be saying that their policies will put America on the right path. That’s arrogant. Their policies have led to robust part-time job growth. The Democrats’ poliicies have led to the creation of Part-Time Nation, where company after company is cutting their employees’ hours to avoid the ACA’s penalties.

Elimination of the medical device tax has broad bipartisan support in Congress and a nonbinding vote earlier this year on repealing the tax drew the support of 79 senators. But senators will not vote specifically on the tax Monday, because the upper chamber is expected to take a single vote to dismiss all the House’s changes.

God forbid that Sen. Reid let the Senate vote to repeal a tax that they’ve voted to repeal before. There’s no polite way of putting this so I’ll just say it. Sen. Reid is a tyrant. He’s the picture of spoiled brat government. He’s refused to negotiate a continuing resolution that puts the American people first. He’s refused to budge from the Democrats’ initial position.

The only thing that approaches Sen. Reid’s arrogant behavior is the Capitol Hill press corps indifference to reporting on the CR from the perspective of the American people. They’ve slanted their stories so that they’ve just paid attention to Washington inside baseball. Instead of asking who’s got momentum or talking about conventional wisdom, shouldn’t the Capitol Hill press corps ask both parties how their CR benefits the American people? That’s before them talking about how Sen. Reid’s obstinant behavior is pushing the federal government into a shutdown.

Technorati: Harry Reid, Continuing Resolution, Government Shutdown, Media Bias, Democratic Party

When the going got tough, Harry Reid took the day off:

“I’m glad now to invite to the microphone our distinguished majority leader in the Senate,” said Rep. Bill Johnson of Ohio, gesturing to an empty microphone as House members guffawed. “I’m sorry, Harry’s not here today. Maybe he’ll show up later.”

The conventional wisdom has been that Republicans will get blamed if there’s a protacted government shutdown. I’ve agreed with that conventional wisdom until now. It’s too early to tell whether that’s still the case.

Still, the Democrats’ unwillingness to negotiate on anything has created an opportunity for Republicans to exploit. That’s precisely what Republicans are doing. This morning on Fox News Sunday, Rep. Kevin McCarthy got in a shot against Sen. Reid and President Obama in the same sentence, saying that “We are not shutting the government down. While the president was out playing golf [Saturday], we were here until 1 a.m. We will pass a bill that reflects this House. … I think they’ll be additions that Democrats can support.”

Cathy McMorris-Rodgers added this during a press conference on the steps in front of the abandoned Senate building:

“Today we see where the Senate doors are shut,” said conference Chairwoman and Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers. “Harry Reid says that a shutdown is inevitable.”

‘Where’s Harry’ is justified. He’s taken a my-way-or-the-highway approach to funding the government. Whether you’re liberal, conservative or somewhere in between, it isn’t reasonable to think that the Democrats don’t have to negotiate with the GOP. For the better part of a month, President Obama and Sen. Reid have taken the approach that they’ll dictate the terms of the continuing resolution. They’ve said that Republicans are anarchists and racists for attempting to kill a bill that’s hurting families and businesses. Here’s a partial transcript of Chris Wallace’s interview with Rep. Kevin McCarthy, (R-Calif.):

WALLACE: OK, assume for the sake of this discussion —

MCCARTHY: Yes.

WALLACE: — that they reject it. As they say they’re going to reject.

What will the House do then?

MCCARTHY: I think the House will get back together and in enough time send another provision not to shut the government down, but to fund it, and it will have a few other options in there for the Senate to look at it again.

Look, when you look at what has transpired since ObamaCare has moved forward, we’ve created more than 840,000 jobs in this country — more than 90 percent of them have been part-time because of ObamaCare. That creates a part-time economy, part-time opportunities. And in the end, it creates a part-time America.

That is why you find that we will fund the government and still ask for delaying the movement of ObamaCare.

The DC media is failing the American people. They’re speculating whether there will be a government shutdown. With the exception of Fox, nobody’s talked about whether the Affordable Care Act, aka the PPACA, is turning the U.S. into Part-Time Nation.

Hint: It has. In fact, it’s indisputable. The statistics don’t lie, though, admittedly, the administration has told Americans that this doesn’t have anything to do with their policies. The facts speak for themselves. The Democrats’ policies have directly contributed to the creation of tens of thousands of part-time jobs.

Sen. Reid’s insistence on not negotiating with Republicans implies that the Democrats’ spending, taxing and regulatory policies are contributing to a prospering economy. With GDP at 2.5% and real unemployment in double digits, the American people emphatically disagree. They know the economy isn’t heading in the right direction.

The Democrats’ insistence on not negotiating means that they own the economic trainwreck, the high unemployment and the disaster known as the Affordable Care Act, aka the PPACA. By taking Sunday off with a shutdown looming, Democrats have earned the blame for a government shutdown if it happens.

Technorati: Harry Reid, President Obama, Government Shutdown, Budget Negotiations, Democrats, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Kevin McCarthy, Individual Mandate, GOP

Conservation Minnesota says their priorities are your priorities. They’ve put this survey together, theoretically to record Minnesotans’ opinions. I highly recommend you do that. Here’s a sampling of their questions:

Protecting lakes and rivers from sulfide mining pollution.
Replacing dirty coal with clean, renewable energy.
Investing in energy saving transit and transportation systems.

I don’t believe that Conservation Minnesota is that interested in hearing from all Minnesotans. Rather, I think they only want to hear from Minnesotans that agree with them.

Conservation Minnesota hasn’t hesitated in lying about the ‘dangers’ of precious metal mining. Here’s one of their lies:

Sulfide mines have a long record of polluting surrounding lakes, rivers, streams and groundwater with mercury, acid mine drainage, and toxic metals. Mines proposed in Minnesota would pose risks to some of our most important water resources like Lake Superior and the Boundary Waters.

That’s BS. Conservation Minnesota knows it’s BS. PolyMet and Twin Metals are south of the continental divide in northern Minnesota. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, aka the BWCAW, is north of the continental divide in northern Minnesota.

Waters on the south side of the continental divide flow south. Waters on the north side flow north. That means it’s imposssible for the water from the PolyMet and Twin Metals mines to ever flow into the BWCAW.

The dirty little secret (actually, it isn’t that secret anymore) is that the DFL can’t survive without organizations like Conservation Minnesota writing lots of checks to their campaigns. Gov. Dayton is, in fact, in a difficult position because he wants to keep the greenies on his side without pissing the miners off too much.

Conservation Minnesota’s impact, along with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, aka MCEA, and the Minnesota Environmental Partnership, aka the MEP, isn’t just in writing checks. They’re part of the DFL’s GOTV operation during the election and their lobbyists when the legislature is in session. Without their muscle, Gov. Dayton and the DFL would be in a difficult position electorally.

If conservatives don’t take the time to fill out this survey, they’ll be giving the DFL’s special interest allies a huge political advantage. The survey only has 12 questions so it isn’t a major time investment.

Technorati: Conservation Minnesota, Minnesota Environmental Partnership, Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Twin Metals, PolyMet, Continental Divide, Mark Dayton, Campaigns, DFL

Rep. Jim Newberger’s op-ed in this morning’s St. Cloud Times highlights how out-of-state special interests, with allies within Minnesota, want to make electricity more expensive and less abundant. Rep. Newberger’s op-ed highlights the lies the Sierra Club is willing to tell to get their way:

First, the Sherco power plant is not “dirty,” nor does it produce “slime” as recent Times submissions have opined. I have lived 1 mile downwind from the Sherco plant since 1998. Every morning, I look out my window and see the plant. I have never seen plumes of black smoke coming out of four smoke stacks, as portrayed in some of the environmentalists’ propaganda.

The truth is Sherco has two stacks and the color of the “smoke” is clear white. And I have yet to find “slime” in my yard,or on my car or home.

Second, Sherco meets the strict federal standards for clean air and will be spending millions to make its operation even cleaner.

The Sierra Clubs’ lies aren’t surprising considering the Sierra Club’s agenda:

Our goals include:

• Retiring one-third of the nation’s more than 500 coal plants by 2020
• Replacing the majority of retired coal plants with clean energy solutions such as wind, solar, and geothermal
• Keeping coal in the ground in places like Appalachia and Wyoming’s Powder River Basin

In short, the Sierra Club’s goal is to take America back to the stone ages. Wind, solar and geothermal aren’t capable of replacing coal. What’s worse is that that’s just the tip of the Sierra Club’s anti-civilization agenda:

“No state has adequate protections in place. Even where there are rules, they are poorly monitored and enforced. Thanks to the multiple federal exemptions, we can’t even count on the federal government to keep us safe! Together, though, we can change that! No industry, no matter how wealthy or powerful, can withstand the righteous passion of the American people. The out-of-control rush to drill has put oil and gas industry profits ahead of our health, our families, our property, our communities, and our futures. If drillers can’t extract natural gas without destroying landscapes and endangering the health of families, then we should not drill for natural gas.”
—Allison Chin, Sierra Club president, July 28, 2012, at the Stop the Frack Attack rally

These nutjobs think that natural gas isn’t clean enough? That’s insane. Let’s remember that the Sierra Club passionately opposed the building of the Alaskan Pipeline in the 60’s and 70’s. Back then, the Sierra Club’s president wrote an op-ed in Outdoor Life. In his op-ed, the Sierra Club president predicted doom and gloom for the Barrows Caribou, stating the Pipeline would forever disrupt the Barrows Caribou’s migration routes. “And for what?”, the Sierra Club president asked. “For a few years worth of oil?”

These environutters’ predictions have consistently missed their mark. In fact, they’ve missed to such an extent that it’s impossible to take them seriously. The Sierra Club’s latest campaigns are just the latest campaign against modernity.

Finally, what’s worst is that they can’t prove their accusations. The people making the accusations aren’t scientists. The vast majority of the executive board for the North Star Chapter of the Sierra Club are nothing more than activists. John Hottinger used to be the Senate Majority Leader. Several executive committee members are from the Blue Green Alliance. Javier Morillo-Alicea is the president of SEIU Local 26.

In other words, the Sierra Club’s executive committee is filled with progressive activists. Their expertise on the environment is nonexistant. If reporters did their jobs, these activists/faux experts wouldn’t have any credibility.

What they’re experts at, though, is organizing campaigns. That’s their specialty. It’s foolish to let these faux experts set environmental policy. I’m confident that, if questioned by a real expert, like Mike Beard, these Sierra Club Executive Committee members probably couldn’t speak beyond their chanting points.

The best thing for conservatives to do is a) expose these political activists for the frauds they are, b) write frequently about these activists’ anti-jobs, anti-middle class agenda and c) get politically active by commenting on regulations when regulatory agencies open themselves for comments.

Just complaining about these environmental extremists isn’t sufficient. Defeating them is the only acceptable response. If conservatives do their due diligence, they’ll defeat these anti-jobs activists. If conservatives leave the battlefield unattended, they’ll lose. Worst of all, families will lose. The DFL, the Sierra Club and their allies want high energy prices.

It’s time to win this fight.

Technorati: Sierra Club, Sherco Power Plant, Community Organizers, Javier Morillo-Alicea, SEIU, EPA, Natural Gas, Fracking, Coal, Regulations, John Hottinger, DFL

Despite the Democrats’ spin otherwise, the looming government shutdown will be their fault. Tonight, Republicans voted to keep the government open while attaching a provision that would delay the start of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. Here’s the White House’s response:

The White House on Saturday said President Obama would veto the House GOP’s latest stopgap spending measure.

It said Obama would veto the bill because of the inclusion of language delaying ObamaCare and eliminating a medical device tax, while faulting the House for not moving a simple funding measure approved by the Senate on Friday.

“Rather than taking up that legislation, the House proposes amendments that advance a narrow ideological agenda and threaten the nation’s economy,” the White House budget office said in a statement. “By including extraneous measures that have no place in a government funding bill and that the president and Senate already made clear are unacceptable, House Republicans are pushing the government toward shutdown,” it said. “If the president was presented with H.J. Res 59, as amended by these amendments, he would veto the bill.”

Putting things into a bill at the last minute has been happening for decades. In most instances, however, the changes are additional pork used to buy votes that ensure passage of the bill. This time, the change to the Senate bill would delay the negative impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka the PPACA.

The administration immediately attempted to paint Republicans as extremists:

Before the veto threat, White House press secretary Jay Carney called the GOP measure “reckless and irresponsible.” Any Republican who votes for the bill is “voting for a shutdown,” he said in a statement.

It isn’t amazing that the administration is attempting to portray Republicans as extremists. What’s amazing, though, is the fact that the media isn’t questioning the White House. They aren’t even pretending to be mildly interested in reporting facts.

Unlike the formerly mainstream media, I’ll put forward some verifiable facts. If Senate Democrats defeat the bill passed tonight by the House of Representatives:

• they will have voted to not fund the government’s operation.
• they will have voted for giving corporations a huge break while forcing families to suffer the consequences of the PPACA
• they will have voted for hurting families while getting an exception for themselves and their staff.

It’s impossible to take Jay Carney seriously, especially considering his repeated indefensible statements. Here’s his latest spin:

In his statement, Carney criticized Republicans for repeatedly trying to attack the healthcare law, noting they have held more than 40 votes to defund, delay or repeal it.

“The president has shown that he is willing to improve the health care law and meet Republicans more than halfway to deal with our fiscal challenges, but he will not do so under threats of a government shutdown that will hurt our economy,” he said.

That’s BS. If President Obama was “willing to improve the health care law”, he’d push for something that didn’t use the government to force families into buying something they don’t want to buy. If President Obama truly was willing to meet Republicans half way on health care reform, he wouldn’t have shoved the PPACA down families’ throats. If President Obama was truly willing to meet Republcans half way, he wouldn’t have ignored the American people’s vociferous cries to stop the insanity of passing the ACA.

There’s no polite way of putting this so I’ll just say it. Mr. Carney is a liar. Mr. Carney insists that President Obama “has shown that he’s willing to improve the health care law.” I’m calling Mr. Carney’s bluff. I won’t believe him until he cites examples of President Obama did that. What specific provisions has he used that the Republicans proposed? We know that Republicans proposed tons of alternatives during the Health Summit. Here’s one of their proposals:

10:07– Sen. Coburn is now talking about lawsuit abuse reform and defensive medicine costs. Eliminating lawsuit abuse and defensive medicine costs would save almost $850,000,000,000 annually.

That went in one of President Obama’s ears and out the other. Nothing in the ACA addresses reducing defensive medicine costs.

10:42– Paul Ryan is responding to Rob Andrews on the issue of federal regulations. Andrews says that the federal government needs to regulate health care mandates. Ryan nailed Andrews, saying that organizations like NFIB will do a good job of negotiating health care policies for their members. Ryan then says that governors will do a good job regulating health insurance, too.

When I wrote this post, I cited Lamar Alexander’s statement:

Today, a 27-year-old man in Memphis can buy a plan for as low as $41 a month. On the exchange, the lowest state average is $119 a month, a 190 percent increase. Today, a 27-year-old woman in Nashville can also buy a plan for as low as $58 a month. On the exchange, the lowest-priced plan in Nashville is $114 a month, a 97 percent increase. Even with a tax subsidy, that plan is $104 a month, almost twice what she could pay today.
Today, women in Nashville can choose from 30 insurance plans that cost less than the administration says insurance plans on the exchange will cost, even with the new tax subsidy. In Nashville, 105 insurance plans offered today will not be available in the exchange.

When the federal government dictates what health insurance policies have to cover, families’ affordable choices shrink.

Again, President Obama is about getting everything his way. Mr. Carney’s lies aren’t persuasive.

When Democrats vote to defeat the House CR, they’ll have their fingerprints all over the looming government shutdown.

Technorati: Government Shutdown, President Obama, Jay Carney, Continuing Resolution, Democrats, Paul Ryan, Tom Coborn, Individual Mandate, American Families, Republicans

Calling in-home child care providers extremists won’t help Gov. Dayton politically with this group. Still, that’s what he did yesterday:

He added, “There’s a whole extreme right-wing element in this state and this country who believe they should dictate to people, ‘No you don’t have that chance, to vote for yourself.'”

Gov. Dayton, it’s time you stopped with the vitriol. You represent all Minnesotans, not just those that contribute to your campaign. Predictably, Gov. Dayton’s aide tried walking his boss’s statements back:

Bob Hume, Dayton’s Deputy Chief of Staff, said the governor respects providers who oppose the union and has met with them in the past. He said Dayton’s reference to the “extreme right wing” was “not to the providers, but to the national moneyed interests” who are funding lawsuits and seeking to prevent providers from voting.

That’s a pathetic explanation. It’s as if Mr. Hume expects people to think that the people filing the lawsuits aren’t in-home child care providers. Unfortunately for Mr. Hume, in-home child care providers were the people that filed the lawsuits. These independent businesspeople also lobbied the legislature to not pass the bill in the first place.

Predictably, the DFL ignored these grassroots women’s efforts. And yes, it’s grassroots because it’s mostly been the effort of a handful of in-home child care providers that organized these efforts. The DFL legislature didn’t care. They owed the public employee unions too much to say no to the unions.

The DFL legislature didn’t care that private sector employers aren’t public sector employees. They wrote the bill in such a way that said these independent business owners were public sector employees. Using their logic, anyone doing any work for the government would fit the description of a public employee. Cement contractors, public housing contractors and others would be getting their checks from the government.

Gov. Dayton has a nasty habit of shooting his mouth off at people he disagrees with. That’s especially true when he doesn’t stick to his script. His vitriolic statements reveal the real Dayton.

The definition of a political gaffe is when a person accidentally tells the truth or accidentally reveals a part of their personality/character that they don’t want the public to see. That’s what happened with Gov. Dayton when he made these hate-filled, ill-advised statements.

Is Gov. Dayton the gentleman he tries to portray? Or is he the vitriolic man that surfaced yesterday? Or is it that he can’t control himself, at least not consistently? I suspect it’s all of the above. It’s a shame he can’t control himself. It’s a shame because he lapses into the vitriolic politician far too often.

Couple his vitriolic nature with the fact that he’s totally beholden to the DFL’s special interest allies and you have the recipe for a disaster. That desciption definitely fits Gov. Dayton. He’s been a disaster for most of the last 15 years.

Technorati: Mark Dayton, Special Interests, Public Employee Unions, Bob Hume, Damage Control, Public Employees, DFL, Child Care Providers, Independent Businesses, Grassroots Activists, Lawsuits

To: St. Cloud State faculty
From: Gary Gross, citizen journalist
Subject: St. Cloud State’s transcript cover-up

I’ve written lots of articles about President Potter’s attempt to cover up his administration’s transcript scandal. These aren’t baseless accusations, though they’ve been characterized that way by this administration. It’s been verified by some of your colleagues. This is one of the posts I’ve written on the scandal. Judge for yourself if my accusations are baseless or irrefutable. This is from Dr. Phyllis VanBuren’s monthly column for the St. Cloud Times:

Meet & Confer sessions are held regularly between the Faculty Association and St. Cloud State’s administration. On every agenda of M&C minutes from October 2012 through this May, the topic of grades changes appeared.

The minutes show there is a lot of finger-pointing and the need for data sharing and adherence to policies and practices by students, faculty and administration. There are two main issues. One involves changing grades, usually to a W. The other involves the possibility of dropping classes from transcripts without informing faculty.

This post verifies as fact that students’ participation in classes have been completely deleted:

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Last spring, Tamara Leenay, a chemistry professor at St. Cloud State University, was reviewing grades when she came across the transcript of a student who failed an organic chemistry class she taught a couple of years earlier.

“I noticed the course was not even on his transcript,” Leenay said. “There was no ‘F.’ There was no course number…It was completely gone. And I have [a] record that he was in my class and that I gave him a grade…and I was never notified of any of these changes.”

Leenay’s experience isn’t unique. Faculty members at St. Cloud State say they’re concerned that students’ grades have mysteriously disappeared from transcripts. Professors and instructors aren’t sure how widespread the problem is, but say, except in rare instances, the university’s failure to notify them of grade changes is an ethical breach.

“A number of faculty members raised concerns that they believed from what they were seeing that student’s grades were actually disappearing off transcripts,” said Stephen Hornstein, president of the university’s faculty association. “A student would take a course, get a poor grade and then a semester or two later that grade would not appear on the transcript at all.”

Dr. Leenay’s statement was unequivocal. There isn’t room for interpretation. A student took a class from her. The student failed the class. Later, she discovered that the student’s participation in the class had disappeared from St. Cloud State’s official transcript system.

Despite this irrefutable proof, the administration insists proof doesn’t exist:

In addressing this concern at a meet and confirm meeting conducted amongst university professors and administration, Hammer said the cause for concern primarily dealt with late drops and withdrawals.

Here’s what Provost Malhotra said about the issue:

Recently, questions about student registration and transcript changes, specifically late withdrawals and drops, at St. Cloud State University have been reported in a few media outlets.

Apparently, Provost Malhotra think that getting a grade removed after a student has failed the class deals specifically [with] late withdrawals and drops.

When your colleagues have a name for when the transcripts have been permanently and secretly altered, that suggests this isn’t an isolated incident. When your colleagues add ‘poofs’ to the campus jargon, that’s proof that the administration isn’t telling the whole truth about this.

When academic integrity is compromised at a university, no amount of rebranding will help wipe that away. The only way to correct that is to admit that it happened, then restore the students’ transcripts. Without that act of integrity, the university’s reputation will continue suffering.

Technorati: Earl Potter, Devinder Malhotra, Adam Hammer, Transcript Fraud, Investigation, Tamara Leenay, Phyllis VanBuren, Meet & Confer, Poofs

If ever there was a fit made in heaven, Gov. Dayton and the business community isn’t it. Gov. Dayton hasn’t hidden his dislike of the business community. That feeling is mutual. It’s with that context that this article should be viewed:

“I realize that most of you are unhappy with my raising some taxes to balance the state’s budget last spring. I was just as unhappy about the need to do so,” Dayton told the sold-out crowd at the Minneapolis Convention Center. “But there’s good news ahead. Under current trends, our state’s economic future looks even better. The most recent state budget forecast predicts we will start the next biennium beginning July 1, 2015 with a $728 million surplus… If I’m in office, I want to devote much of that surplus to serious tax reductions.”

“I don’t expect you to believe this,” Dayton added. “Just remember it.”

Gov. Dayton is right. I don’t believe him. That’s especially true since Sen. Bakk, the Senate Majority Leader, insisted that repealing the business-to-business tax increases would be difficult. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, though it’s a big iceberg.

Cargill is moving their warehousing operation to Iowa. Red Wing Shoes is thinking about moving their warehousing operation to Wisconsin. Polaris is thinking about moving their warehousing operation to another state. DigiKey, easily the biggest employer north of Brainerd, is thinking about moving to North Dakota.

Gov. Dayton didn’t improve his standing with the business community when he told the AFL-CIO he wants the minimum wage increased to at least $9.50/hr.:

On the same day California’s governor signed a bill upping the state’s minimum wage to $10 within three years, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton made clear that he would be disappointed if the Legislature doesn’t push up his state’s wage floor next session.

Addressing a retiree council of the AFL-CIO, Dayton said Wednesday that it’s wrong that Minnesota has a lower minimum wage than all of its Midwest neighbors and one of the lowest in the country. It hasn’t gone up since 2005. While the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour often applies, some workers in Minnesota earn as little as $5.25 from small employers or $6.15 from larger companies.

One minute, Gov. Dayton is pandering to the business community. The next, he’s telling people he wants to dramatically raise Minnesota’s minimum wage. Gov. Dayton’s behavior is baffling. Didn’t he figure it out that the business community won’t support him if he supports a significant increase in the minimum wage? Apparently, Gov. Dayton is about as bright with pandering with entrepreneurs as he is with farmers.

Gov. Dayton didn’t make friends in St. Cloud when he visited St. Cloud this April. This is how one businessman responded to Gov. Dayton’s rhetoric:

After Teresa Bohnen pointed out concern by the business community on the impact of Governor Dayton’s 4th tier income tax on S-Corps I felt his response was disrespectful. He implied that businesses are “OK” with disparities in tax rates of businesses compared to middle income earners. He called the Minnesota Chamber destructive. Then he implied that Teresa and other businesses were unrealistic about the facts.

Telling businesses that they’re ok with hurting the middle class, then telling the AFL-CIO that he wants a significant increase in the minimum wage, isn’t the way to win support for his (anti-entrepreneurial) agenda.

It’s pretty clear that math and economics aren’t Gov. Dayton’s strong suits.

Technorati: Mark Dayton, Minimum Wage, Tax Increases, Warehouse Tax, Red Wing Shoes, DigiKey, Cargill, Polaris, Tom Bakk, DFL, Business Community, Minnesota Chamber of Commerce