Archive for September, 2014
I just published this post to highlight the DCCC’s campaign ad smearing Stewart Mills. Here’s the centerpiece of the DCCC’s smear campaign against Mills:
“Stewart Mills III caught a big inheritance and a job at the family business that pay half-a-million year. But in Congress, Mills will leave you on the hook for higher taxes because Mills opposed tax cuts for the middle class – even as he wants to give another huge tax break to millionaires like himself.”
Next, let’s compare that DCCC lie against Stewart Mills with the lie the DCCC is telling about Torrey Westrom:
“Westrom led the charge to shutdown Minnesota’s government. Why? Because he wouldn’t let go of tax breaks for millionaires.
Here’s Poligraph’s verdict against the DCCC’s lie against Torrey Westrom:
The 2011 government shutdown happened because Gov. Mark Dayton and the Republican controlled Legislature could not agree on a budget to close the state’s $5 billion deficit. Dayton wanted to raise taxes on Minnesota’s top earners (which he did in the last legislative session), but Republicans objected.
That’s true but incomplete. Poligraph’s verdict left out the fact that Republicans were prepared to pass a lights-on bill that would’ve avoided a shutdown while Republicans negotiated a budget solution with Gov. Dayton. Poligraph’s verdict also left out the fact that the budget Gov. Dayton signed after the longest shutdown in state history was the budget he could’ve signed at the end of the regular legislative session.
Further, the budget that the GOP legislature passed never, at any point, included tax cuts for any income group. PERIOD.
The DCCC’s ad is a lie. They’ve done the research on the 2011 budget that Gov. Dayton signed. Their researchers kept track of the bills and amendments that Republicans offered. I triple-dog dare the DCCC to cite the HF/SF number or the amendment offered by Torrey Westrom or anyone in the House or Senate that would’ve cut millionaire’s taxes.
They won’t accept that offer because they know a ‘millionaire’s tax cut’ bill doesn’t exist, especially in Minnesota.
Whether it’s the DCCC, ABM or another of the DFL ‘alphabets’, the script remains the same. The script isn’t the script if it doesn’t lie in accusing Republicans of wanting to cut millionaires’ taxes. I can’t say that that accusation is fictional because the definition of fiction is “something feigned, invented, or imagined; a made-up story.” The DCCC doesn’t engage in fiction. It just lies through its teeth. Here’s the definition of lies:
a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood.
That’s what the DCCC and ABM do with frightening regularity.
Technorati: DCCC, Alliance for a Better Minnesota, Tax Cuts for Millionaires, Smear Campaign, Mark Dayton, DFL, Poligraph, Torrey Westrom, Stewart Mills, Republicans, Election 2014
According to MPR’s article, the DCCC’s latest ad attacking Stewart Mills doesn’t get much right:
The closest the DCCC ad comes to correct is in its claims about Mills personal wealth.
After that, the DCCC gets its facts wrong. Mills said he opposed the Cash for Clunkers program, but that has nothing to do with opposing middle class tax cuts. And while Mills has talked around the issue of tax reform, giving few details on what he would do, the DCCC makes some assumptions about how Mills would vote on tax cuts for the wealthy if he were elected to Congress.
For leaving out critical details, this ad is misleading at best.
That’s MPR’s verdict. Here’s their unabridged version:
In the DCCC’s latest ad, a Mills stand-in hops on his yacht, and motors off into the sunset:
“Stewart Mills III caught a big inheritance and a job at the family business that pay half-a-million year. But in Congress, Mills will leave you on the hook for higher taxes because Mills opposed tax cuts for the middle class – even as he wants to give another huge tax break to millionaires like himself.”
This ad enters rough waters.The Evidence
Mills is the Vice President of Mills Fleet Farm, his family’s business where Mills has spent his career. According to financial disclosure documents, Mills was paid more than $500,000 to do that job in 2013, and has company assets into the tens-of-millions.
To back up its claim that Mills opposes tax cuts for the middle class, the DCCC points to a January 2014 Start Tribune profile of the 8th district race. Mills told the Star Tribune that the Cash for Clunkers program, which paid people to turn in their old gas guzzlers, was “another failed example of Washington, D.C., trying to legislate the free market.”
What does Cash for Clunkers have to do with middle class tax cuts? Nothing.
Whether it’s the DCCC, the Alliance for a Better Minnesota or Nancy Pelosi’s House Majority PAC, the script doesn’t change. Candidate fill-in-the-blank wants to give millionaires tax breaks while voting against tax cuts for the middle class. The other thing that doesn’t change is whether it’s a lie. Poligraph is right. The DCCC ad gets it right that Stewart Mills has personal wealth. After that, they’re pretty much lying through their teeth. So is Rick Nolan, who lifted a big part of the DCCC’s script and put it into his ad attacking Stewart Mills.
Technorati: DCCC, Rick Nolan, Alliance for a Better Minnesota, Smear Campaign, Tax Breaks for Millionaires, Middle Class Tax Increase, Democrats, Stewart Mills, Mills Fleet Farm, Middle Class, Republicans, Election 2014
This afternoon, the Minnesota saw the difference that a great quarterback makes. This afternoon, Teddy Bridgewater became the face of the Vikings, running for a touchdown while completing 19 of 30 passes for 317 yards. This was the first time a Vikings quarterback threw for 300 yards since the year Brett Favre took the Vikings to the NFC Championship Game.
Bridgewater’s play, though, wasn’t the only noteworthy accomplishment for the Vikings’ offense. This was the first game the Vikings quarterback threw for 300 yards, a Vikings runner ran for 100 yards and a Vikings receiver got more than 100 yards receiving in the same game since Brett Favre, Adrian Peterson and Sidney Rice turned the trick against Detroit on 11/15/09. This time, Touchdown Teddy threw for 317 yards, Jerrick McKinnon ran the ball 18 times for 135 yards and Jarius Wright caught 8 passes for 132 yards.
It’s gotta be intimidating for the Packers, the Vikings opponent this Thursday, to think that the Vikings offense cooled off in the second half because they still gained 207 yards in the second half. The Vikings gained 351 yards in the first half.
For the second straight game, the Vikings’ opponent threw tons of exotic blitzes at Bridgewater. For the second straight game, Bridgewater handled it like a veteran. It’d be wrong to highlight the fact that Bridgewater had tons of time thanks to his offensive line playing their best game since 2012. Then again, Atlanta’s defense will never be mistaken for the original Steel Curtain defense led by Jack Lambert, Mean Joe Greene, LC Greenwood and Mel Blount.
The offensive line of Kalil, Johnson, Sullivan, Ducasse and Loadholt dominated Atlanta’s defensive line. McKinnon gained an average of 7.5 yards per carry. Matt Asiata scored 3 rushing touchdowns, with McKinnon and Bridgewater each scoring a rushing touchdown, too. The Vikings gained 241 yards rushing on 44 carries. That’s a 5.5 yard per carry average.
I’d be surprised if this wasn’t a hellish week for Atlanta’s D-Line. They were dominated. They got manhandled. They forced 2 punts the entire day. Atlanta’s defense gave up 558 yards of total offense while letting Jarius Wright had a career day receiving and Vikings receivers seemed to be open all day.
Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk briefly about the Vikings defense. Statistically, it wasn’t a great day. They gave up 411 yards of total offense. They gave up 2 explosive touchdowns in the third quarter. Still, they turned up the heat when they needed to. Rookie first round pick Anthony Barr called the defensive signals today while finishing with 5 tackles and the Vikings’ only sack. After spending lots of time in Coach Zimmer’s doghouse in the preseason, third year corner Josh Robinson essentially finished the game with a great interception down the sideline. Harrison Smith finished with 5 tackles, too, and a 4th quarter interception of Matt Ryan.
Atlanta has too many weapons to be stopped. Still, the Vikings came up with the key stops when they needed them.
It’s too early to make predictions about how many games the Vikings will win this year now that the Bridgewater Era has started. It isn’t too early to say, though, that Rick Spielman, Mike Zimmer and Norv Turner are putting this team together the right way. Turner’s offense looked positively explosive today. Zimmer’s defense played hard-nosed football. They were opportunistic, too.
Finally, the Vikings have a new face of the franchise in Teddy Bridgewater. What’s fun to watch is that the game seems to play out in slow motion for him. It’s also fun to watch his arm talent, too. Teddy’s the real deal.
Technorati: Teddy Bridgewater, Anthony Barr, Harrison Smith, Mike Zimmer, Norv Turner, Rick Spielman, Brett Favre, Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings
Jeff Johnson is taking the fight to Gov. Dayton, this time in Virginia, MN:
Johnson has been a persistent critic of MNsure created under Gov. Dayton. But his opposition reached a new and higher level when PreferredOne, which had 60 percent of the MNsure market pulled out for business reasons.
Johnson even alluded to a possibility that Dayton’s Department of Commerce may have allowed PreferredOne to participate in MNsure even though it couldn’t sustain the low rates. “The Commerce Department’s role is to make sure that the rates are actuarially sound. It doesn’t appear that they were,” Johnson said more than a week ago when PreferredOne left the exchange.
PreferredOne’s decision to not participate in MNsure is a big deal because it’ll mean higher insurance premiums. PreferredOne left MNsure because it was a bureaucratic nightmare, which meant PreferredOne couldn’t make a profit. Commissioner Johnson’s statement must’ve hit a nerve with the Dayton campaign, which released this statement:
Dayton has admitted mistakes with MNsure and has shown his displeasure with its rollout. But the governor’s campaign fired back over Johnson’s allegation of possible political tinkering with the state Commerce Department.
“Commissioner Johnson’s accusations that the governor engaged in illegal activity are unfounded and untrue. We will not dignify Commissioner Johnson’s smear attempt with any response,” a statement from the campaign said.
That’s right. The Dayton administration has never broken. Except when they illegally put people on Medicaid:
We first reported Tuesday the Minnesota Legislative Auditor was investigating complaints that MNsure was placing people incorrectly on Medicaid. Now, we have emails between Minnesota House Research staff and the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) that show state officials and MNsure have known about this problem since January of this year.
Mike Franklin is one of those people. Franklin and his wife combined make more than the $65,000 limit for dependent children to qualify for Medicaid, yet Franklin says he received notice from MNsure that his children had been placed on Medicaid without his consent. Franklin says he even received notices that Medicaid had paid some medical bills for his two children, even after he asked MNsure to discontinue the coverage because he did not qualify. Franklin says it took six months and action by an Administrative Judge to discontinue the Medicaid policy.
That’s right. Gov. Dayton’s Department of Human Services knew that Gov. Dayton’s MNsure was illegally putting children on Medicaid even though their parents made too much for the children to qualify for Medicaid.
That’s the definition of breaking the law. It isn’t just that the Dayton administration broke the law. It’s that the administration knew that they’d broken the law and sat silent, at least publicly.
That means that the Dayton campaign’s statement that Gov. Dayton didn’t engage in illegal activity is 100% spin. Jeff Johnson accused Gov. Dayton’s administration of breaking the law. Jeff Johnson didn’t accuse Gov. Dayton of personally breaking the law.
The important point is that MNsure is a failure that’s hurting lots of Minnesota families. Insurance premiums will increase this fall. The only thing undetermined is by how much they’ll jump. It’s a fact that MNsure will be a disaster for people trying to renew their policies. It’s a fact that people who are trying to add babies to their coverage are being asked by MNsure if their newborn baby is married.
In other words, it isn’t just that the Dayton administration is utterly incompetent. It’s also verified truth that the Dayton administration has broken the law.
Technorati: MNsure, Medicaid, Mismanagement, Mark Dayton, Incompetence, Corruption, Minnesota House Research, Department of Human Services, Life Events, PreferredOne, Insurance Premiums, Rate Increases, DFL, Jeff Johnson, MNGOP, Election 2014
The latest Des Moines Register (DMR) poll isn’t the type of news Bruce Braley and Harry Reid were looking for:
The ground under Bruce Braley has shifted. The Democratic U.S. Senate candidate is 6 points behind his GOP rival, Joni Ernst, according to The Des Moines Register’s new Iowa Poll of likely voters. Ernst leads 44 percent to 38 percent in a race that has for months been considered deadlocked. She leads nearly 4-1 with rural voters, and is up double digits with independents.
“Very interesting, and good news not just for Ernst but also for the GOP’s chances of taking the U.S. Senate,” said national political prognosticator Larry Sabato of “Sabato’s Crystal Ball.”
That’s the type of news that’ll give Joni Ernst an extra lift in her step. The horserace number isn’t the only part of the poll that should worry Braley’s campaign. Here’s another poll result that should frighten Braley:
And he’s suffering badly with rural voters. Only 15 percent support him compared with 58 percent for Ernst.
Losing farmers in Iowa by a 4:1 margin is the fastest path to defeat. That isn’t Braley’s only obstacle to overcome:
“I think he has an attitude about the voters and life in general which was indicated by what he said about Chuck Grassley,” said Democrat Dianna Fuhrmeister, a poll respondent who grows garden vegetables for a living in rural Iowa City. “He thinks he knows better than us.”
That’s why Ernst wins rural voters by a 4:1 margin. If there’s anything that’ll get a rural voter’s dander up, it’s being talked down to by a city slicker.
Fuhrmeister, who is registered as a Democrat but considers herself an independent, said her mind is made up to vote for Ernst, a state senator and lieutenant colonel in the Iowa National Guard. “She’s the veteran. She seems to have common sense,” she said.
Ernst’s lead isn’t insurmountable…if Braley finishes strong. I’m not holding my breath on that happening. Politico isn’t waiting for that to happen, either:
Braley’s remark, made at a private fundraiser in Texas last winter, seemingly disparaged Iowa’s popular 33-year senator for being a farmer, not a lawyer. Braley apologized to Grassley after the caught-on-tape remark was released in March. But that gaffe and others prompted the national political news outlet Politico last week to slot Braley’s campaign as No. 1 on its list of “the worst campaigns of 2014.”
Ernst has run a smart campaign that’s getting notice by the brightest lights in the conservative movement:
The Machine Shed restaurant, where the waitresses wear bib overalls and suggest a cinnamon roll the size of a loaf of bread as a breakfast appetizer, sells a root beer called Dang!, bandages made to look like bacon strips, and signs that proclaim, “I love you more than bacon.” For Joni Ernst, however, the apposite sign reads, “No one ever injured their eyesight by looking on the bright side.”
She, nourished by a cinnamon roll, is preparing for a bus tour taking her Senate candidacy to all of Iowa’s 99 counties, and she seems to love campaigning even more than bacon, not that any proper Iowa farm girl, her description of herself, would publicly rank bacon second to anything.
As more Iowans tune into the Ernst-Braley race, the more they’ll gravitate towards Ernst, partially because of her farm girl image, partially because she’s a military vet and mostly because she isn’t Bruce Braley.
The DMR poll is the most respected poll in Iowa. If Joni Ernst finishes strong, she’ll replace Tom Harkin in the U.S. Senate.
Technorati: Joni Ernst, Iraq War Vet, Chuck Grassley, Iowa Farmers, Republicans, Des Moines Register, George Will, Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, Pundits, Bruce Braley, Gaffes, Democrats, Election 2014
Gov. Dayton’s MNsure problems just got bigger. KSTP’s investigation into MNsure has led them to “emails between Minnesota House Research staff and the Minnesota Department of Health” that show state officials and MNsure have known that MNsure was placing people incorrectly on Medicaid:
Internal emails obtained by 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS show MNsure and other state officials were aware people who made too much money were placed on Medicaid, which is for low-income people.
We first reported Tuesday the Minnesota Legislative Auditor was investigating complaints that MNsure was placing people incorrectly on Medicaid. Now, we have emails between Minnesota House Research staff and the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) that show state officials and MNsure have known about this problem since January of this year.
Mike Franklin is one of those people. Franklin and his wife combined make more than the $65,000 limit for dependent children to qualify for Medicaid, yet Franklin says he received notice from MNsure that his children had been placed on Medicaid without his consent. Franklin says he even received notices that Medicaid had paid some medical bills for his two children, even after he asked MNsure to discontinue the coverage because he did not qualify. Franklin says it took six months and action by an Administrative Judge to discontinue the Medicaid policy.
Now that we know what happened, it’s time to find out why this happened. Why would MNsure and the Department of Human Services knowingly put the Franklin’s children into Medicaid when they should’ve been put on the Franklins’ private insurance policy?
Why wouldn’t MNsure and the Department of Human Services want people on private insurance plans? More importantly, why would MNsure and/or Minnesota’s Department of Human Services obey the law? The $65,000 limit isn’t a suggestion. It’s the law. Don’t Lucinda Jesson and Scott Leitz think that the laws pertain to them? Is it that they think that they know what’s best?
DHS declined an interview request and issued this statement: “We are closing cases (Medicaid) every day and will continue to do so.”
TRANSLATION: We’ll obey the law the minute we’re caught.
The Dayton era of mismanagement and corruption keeps rumbling along.
Technorati: MNsure, Medicaid, Mark Dayton, Scott Leitz, Lucinda Jesson, Minnesota Department of Human Services, Investigation, Corruption, Community Action Partnership of Minneapolis, DFL Culture of Corruption, DFL, Election 2014
After fleecing taxpayers, Community Action Partnership of Minneapolis has shut its doors:
DHS auditors accused the corporation of spending more than it helped. The state wants Community Action Minneapolis to repay more than $850,000 in grant money that was spent incorrectly. The audit showed more than $200,000 paid for unallowable costs like cruises, golf trips and alcohol. William Davis, the Chief Executive Officer, is accused of receiving an excessive bonus and spending thousands on a personal car loan.
Initially, Davis tried rationalizing the expenditures:
Auditors blamed Community Action’s board, which includes several well-known politicians and community leaders, for a lack of oversight and for personally benefiting from $34,892 worth of activities that “do not appear to serve a business purpose, and are considered waste and abuse as defined in state policy.”
Those activities included two weekend trips, between 2011 and 2013, to Arrowwood Resort in Alexandria, where board members and senior management spent $9,000 for lodging, $3,200 for food and $900 for spas.
Davis defended the trips as a “small gesture on our part to offer them a moment of relaxation or entertainment. It’s not like we do this every single week of the year.”
What’s telling is that Davis didn’t think he’d done anything wrong. The only thing more appalling than Davis attempting to rationalize his reckless spending was Gov. Dayton’s statement denying that something like this could happen:
Initially, Mark Dayton responded to Jeff Johnson’s call for an extensive audit of NPOs by saying “The decades-old accusation that Minnesota government recklessly wastes money on people who are poor, sick, or elderly is unfair and unfounded.”
Later, Dayton backtracked quickly:
Gov. Mark Dayton on Monday said that a Star Tribune report of a nonprofit using state funds to subsidize cruises, a director’s car lease and spa treatments was very concerning and alarming. “I was personally really appalled,” Dayton said. “I take it very seriously.”
Let’s revise Gov. Dayton’s statement. Gov. Dayton was “personally really appalled” the minute he thought that the fiasco might damage him politically. Prior to that, he pretended that Community Action was totally trustworthy.
The truth, I’m afraid, is that Gov. Dayton knew about this audit prior to the story going public. Since the Strib article was published, DHS has tried pushing the notion that they should get credit for spotting this during their audit of the organization. Gov. Dayton can’t first say that he’s surprised by this, then say that his administration spotted this during an audit.
I’ve never bought into Gov. Dayton’s I-didn’t-know-about-[Fill in the blank] schtick. I’ve always thought that he used that gambit to get through a politically embarrassing situation. See FarmFest. The DFL legislature should’ve taken their oversight responsibilities seriously. Then again, with tons of prominent DFL politicians and activists on Community Action’s board, it probably didn’t take much to get them to look the other way.
Technorati: Community Action Partnership of Minneapolis, William Davis, Arrowwood Retreat, DFL Legislature, Oversight Hearings, Jeff Hayden, Keith Ellison, Mark Dayton, Department of Human Services, Audit, DFL, Election 2014
I’ve written several posts highlighting the fact that the DFL won’t stop yapping about Minnesota’s supposedly great economy. See here, here and here. Though this article won’t prevent the DFL’s spinmeisters from telling everyone within earshot that Minnesota’s economy is fantastic, it gives me this chart to prove the DFL spinmeisters wrong:
The key statistic to pay attention to is the 1 year change percentage in terms of private sector jobs created. The number of private sector jobs in Minnesota grew by a pathetic .8% over the past 12 months. That’s the worst in the Midwest. The other noteworthy stat is that the 2-year change for Minnesota is 2.9%. That means job growth in Minnesota totally stagnated in the last year. That’s the direct result of the Dayton-DFL policies put in place in 2013.
The DFL’s statements that the Dayton-DFL economy is flying high aren’t substantiated by the facts. Let’s remember, too, that 21,523 of the jobs created by the Dayton-DFL economy are government jobs. That isn’t proof of a healthy economy. That’s just proof that the DFL’s default position is growing government.
The DFL has spent the last 3 years fighting amongst itself on whether they should create mining jobs or if they should fight the creation of mining jobs. The anti-mining wing of the DFL, unfortunately, is the dominant wing of the DFL. Part of that wing of the DFL is located in the Arrowhead and Duluth. Most of the people who fit into the anti-mining wing of the DFL live in the Twin Cities.
At some point, the Iron Range will wise up and realize that the DFL isn’t their home. I hope this is the year that the pro-mining activists choose to vote for the no-excuses pro-mining party. They’re known as the Republican Party of Minnesota. Technorati: Jobs, Private Sector, Mark Dayton, Minnesota, Iron Range, Environmental Activists, Job Stagnation, The Bakken, North Dakota, Jennifer Granholm, Rick Snyder, Michigan, DFL, Election 2014
Jeff Johnson’s campaign is highlighting what’s been happening with the Community Action Partnership of Minneapolis fiasco. This time, the Johnson campaign highlights Gov. Dayton’s past statements about the Community Action Partnership of Minneapolis:
Johnson has proposed performance and fiscal audits of all state programs, beginning with human services programs, to determine which ones work and which ones are a waste of taxpayers dollars. In a September 14 Star Tribune story on Johnson’s audit proposal, Mark Dayton said: “The decades-old accusation that Minnesota government recklessly wastes money on people who are poor, sick, or elderly is unfair and unfounded.”
Actually, Gov. Dayton, Commissioner Johnson’s statement is accurate. Since Gov. Dayton made that ill-advised statement, he’s changed his perspective:
“It’s incredibly ironic that, after criticizing my plan to audit all state programs—beginning with human services programs—this egregious waste of taxpayer dollars has surfaced,” Johnson added. “My audit plan is clearly needed, and Mark Dayton is clearly out-of-touch.”
Actually, Dayton’s statements aren’t as much out-of-touch as they are a predictable defense of liberalism. The most important principle behind liberalism and budgeting is that every penny ever appropriated is forever justified. In fact, in 2007, the DFL legislature fought to have inflation calculated into the budget:
That’s bad enough but Democrats pushing to install “an automatic inflator put into the calculation of the state budget forecast” ain’t gonna fly. This is something that should be rejected before it’s ever proposed. There should be a public outcry against this type of reckless spending. We should recognize this scheme for what it is: an attempt to codify into law liberalism’s dream of ever-increasing taxing and spending.
The thought that government was spending money foolishly was the farthest thing from the DFL’s mind. I had multiple arguments with liberal commenters about that at the time. Gov. Dayton certainly would’ve agreed with the principles behind baseline budgeting, which is based on the thought that budgets must increase each year.
That’s the principle behind not spotting the mismanagement seen in the Community Action Partnership of Minneapolis fiasco. The DFL thinks that budgets should increase each year. Therefore, in the DFL’s thinking, auditing special interest organizations that get government grant money isn’t needed.
“I’m very troubled by and tired of Mark Dayton’s continuous pattern of creating or contributing to problems and then trying to claim credit for fixing them after the damage is done,” Johnson said. “Today, for the second time this week, Dayton’s DHS has employed its ‘arsonist with a fire hose’ strategy. Dayton’s ties to the leaders of Community Action Partnership of Minneapolis are numerous, and if he and his DHS commissioner were competent and aware of what’s happening, they would have discovered these issues long ago, without a tip from a whistleblower.”
It’s one thing for Gov. Dayton and the DFL to propose spending more money. It’s quite different, though, for Gov. Dayton and the DFL to initially pretend that money is being spent wisely, then expressing outrage once it’s proven that the money is getting spent foolishly.
It’s unacceptable that the all-DFL government didn’t care about Community Action Partnership of Minneapolis until it became a political liability. It’s better to be proactive in preventing these fiascos than to clean up the mess after the fact.
Jeff Johnson’s audit plan will identify organizations and agencies that are spending money foolishly. There’s no question that Jeff Johnson will implement proactive policies to prevent these things from happening. There’s no doubt that Gov. Dayton has operated government with a clean-up-the-mess-after-the-fact attitude.
It’s time Minnesota took a proactive approach to protecting the taxpayers. Only Jeff Johnson will bring that approach to governing. Gov. Dayton certainly hasn’t.
Technorati: Mark Dayton, Arsonist With a Fire Hose, Community Action Partnership of Minneapolis, Jeff Hayden, Keith Ellison, DFL, Jeff Johnson, Taxpayers Watchdog, Audits, MNGOP, Election 2014
After reading Pat Kessler’s Reality Check article, I thought a test of Reality Check’s statements were in order. Let’s start here:
“A few years ago, things in Minnesota weren’t going very well,” says the narrator, a thick-Minnesota accented hockey player. “So we got a new coach.” In fact, Gov. Dayton won re-election after Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty decided not to run again.
But the ad accurately describes an economic turnaround. “We’ve added over 150,000 new jobs and have one of the fastest-growing economies in the nation,” according to the ad.
It’s true.
Let’s check whether that 150,000 jobs figure is accurate. Bill Glahn’s post is the definitive source on Minnesota’s job creation statistics. Here’s what Mr. Glahn said:
Let’s start with the 150,000 jobs claim. There is simply no support for that figure. Based on data at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, if you give Dayton credit for the high-water mark for jobs while he has held office (May 2014) and subtract the employment level from before his election (October 2010) you get only 111,626 net jobs created, a far cry from 150,000.
More to the point, if you take today’s figure (July 2014) and subtract the figure prior to his inauguration (December 2010) you get only 96,515, less than 2/3 of the amount claimed by ABM.
Mr. Glahn even created this graphic to quantify his statements:
Glahn’s graphic shows that the 150,000 jobs figure is a myth and that most of those jobs were created before the DFL took total control of state government. In fact, more jobs were created in 2011 than have been created in 2013-2014 combined.
Let’s summarize. First, the 150,000 figure isn’t accurate. It’s off by, at minimum, 35,000 and by 50,000 in the worst case scenario. Next, it’s dishonest for Gov. Dayton to take credit for the jobs created because job creation ground to a screeching halt when the all-DFL government budget went into effect.
I’d give this section a C- because the statistics are off and because it’s misleading.
The ad continues: “Cut taxes while increasing our rainy-day fund and investing in education.”
This is also true. The DFL governor and legislature did cut taxes for middle-income earners. But they also passed a $2 billion tax hike on Minnesota’s highest earners: workers who earn above $250,000 a year.
Actually, that’s misleading, too. Raising taxes and fees by $2,400,000,000, then repealing $508,000,000 worth of the tax hikes they just passed isn’t cutting taxes. It’s reducing the size of the original all-DFL government tax increase.
Finally, I’d add that Gov. Dayton’s job creation figures deserve an asterisk. Minnesota’s economy created almost 60,000 jobs before the Dayton-DFL budget went into effect. The Dayton-DFL budget passed in 2013 is the budget he wanted to pass in 2011. Had Gov. Dayton’s budget gone into effect in 2011, it’s quite possible that Minnesota’s economy would’ve created far fewer jobs. (Yes, I realize that that’s an opinion but it’s worthy of consideration.)
I’d give this section a D+ because it omits the important information that much of the imaginary Dayton-DFL tax cut is the repeal of major portions of the Dayton-DFL tax increase.
Technorati: Pat Kessler, Reality Check, WCCO, Mark Dayton, Jobs, DFL Legislature, Dayton-DFL Tax Increase, DEED, DFL, Bill Glahn, MNGOP, Election 2014
