Category: Economy

by Dave Mindeman

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

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

--50 million Americans are now on Medicaid.

--40 million Americans now get Food Stamps.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Category: John Kline

by Dave Mindeman

An article in the Apple Valley paper regarding the latest Dakota County Commissioner's meeting caught my attention. Especially this little blurb:

Commissioners also talked about raising the 2011 Regional Rail levy 38 percent.

Although the percentage increase sounds significant, the result on a median-value home, which for 2011 is $206,100, would increase $2.35 per year, going from $5.69 per year to $8.04 annually.

The funds would help pay for continued transit improvements along Cedar Avenue and the Robert Street corridor.

This refers to the BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) system scheduled to be built on the Cedar Ave corridor in Lakeville/Apple Valley. In early May, it was reported that the County had sought to get a final $20 million through a Federal appropriation... but Rep. John, the anti-district funding king, Kline refused to help.

Republican U.S. Rep. John Kline has refused on principle to seek earmarked federal funding for Cedar Avenue, (Dakota County Commissioner Will) Branning said Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken have each asked for $1 million for the transitway. "We'll continue to strive to get as much federal funding as possible," Branning said.

The window of requesting funds is rapidly closing. The final funding mechanism has to be found. Where? Guess where....

The Dakota County property tax payer.

Regarding that $20 million? The citizens of Minnesota have already sent that money to Washington in Federal taxes. The BRT is approved and has Federal backing already. Kline could bring that money back to pay for this project that goes virtually by his house. Yet, he refuses to help.

And we pay double.

Thanks John Kline....for making me pay more....again.

by Dave Mindeman

Paul Krugman was on CNBC (financial channel) for a brief segment today. He held his ground, as a conservative talking head interviewer tried to get him to criticize the original stimulus package. Krugman has remained consistent from the beginning of this financial crisis....he has maintained that the original stimulus package was half the size it needed to be.

Democrats were too timid when they had the opportunity to really address an economy in free fall. As Krugman pointed out, the stimulus package that was passed has helped, but only in that it staved off complete disaster.

The interviewer asked Krugman what needs to be done and he boldly proclaimed in a matter of fact manner -- another stimulus package of course. When asked how much, he responded with..."the same size or bigger."

The interviewer than tried to pin him down on tax cuts as part of this new "stimulus package". She asked him if extending the Bush tax cuts would be part of it or a corporate tax cut....as most of the financial talking heads are enamoured with.

Krugman noted that maintaining additional tax breaks for wealthy individuals would give marginal stimulus to the economy. They just have no real incentive to spend. And corporate tax cuts are absolutely useless...he actually said it "would have zero effect".... because corporations are currently sitting on trillions in cash and if they won't spend what they have, why give them more cash that they won't spend.

He did give some credence to a payroll tax holiday, because that would benefit the major part of the population that would push it right back into economic demand.

Krugman has never wavered from his original ideas on the economy. Yet, no one it would seem willing listen to this Nobel prize winning economist. The political will for doing what is right is woefully lacking.

You know, there is a real possibility that the Republicans will win back the House this fall. Kind of like being rewarded for the mess they caused. But if they would happen to gain that majority, what would they do?

What would they do?