Category: State Issues
Walmart halts sale of perfect gag gift: Erik Paulsen’s deep thoughts
The following article by Pete Kotz was posted on the CityPages website July 20, 2018:
For a brief moment, the searing profundity of Minnesota’s greatest statesman could have been yours for just $13. Your bathroom wall would have thanked you. Credit: Walmart
For a brief moment last week, Walmart took the early lead in the perfect gag gift standings for the coming holiday season.
Among its wares, the discount goliath trades in motivational posters. They’re the kind you often find in Aunt Kathy’s bathroom, featuring scenes of sunsets and nature’s wonders, overlaid with quotes meant to comfort or inspire.
But one seemed more designed to evoke laughter. Or perhaps consternation.
It featured a scene from what appears to be the California coast, replete with this heartrending gem: “Spending more time with my colleagues outside the Capitol helps build bipartisan relationships.”
Erik Paulsen campaign manager posts racist-looking tweet
The following article by Hannah Jones was posted on the CityPages website July 26, 2018:
Republican Congressman Erik Paulsen is fighting to keep his seat representing suburban Minneapolis. Democrat Dean Phillips, heir to the Phillips Distilling empire, is trying to take it from him.
The two have been locking horns for a while, but a tweet posted Wednesday by Paulsen campaign manager John-Paul Yates seems to take that competition to a weird, possibly offensive place.
It included a link to a Star Tribune story about Phillips’ campaign, with a photo that showed him high-fiving a young child while a woman looked on. Both the child and the woman had brown skin.
Yates’ caption: “Come on down to the Family Detention Dock and hop a ride on the old Pipeline Pontoon!”
Trump official dismisses US farmers facing huge losses from trade war
The following article by Eric Boehlert was posted on the ShareBlue.com website July 19, 2018:
‘It’s a little bit like weight loss,’ a Trump official said of the huge hits coming to U.S. farmers.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue belittled American farmers on Wednesday.
“It’s a little bit like weight loss,” Perdue said of the tariffs that are damaging the bottom line for lots of red state, U.S. farmers. “It’s going to be good to get there but it is a little painful in the meantime.”
Perdue referred to Trump’s reckless tariffs as “trade disruptions we’re experiencing,” as if they weren’t specifically manufactured and imposed by the Trump administration. His remarks echoed Trump’s dismissive rhetoric about how trade wars are “easy to win.”
Democrats are Fighting for People with Disabilities
Richard Painter Refuses to Say He’s a Democrat
Today, less than three weeks before the DFL Primary, lifelong Republican Richard Painter refused to say he’s a Democrat. Painter claims he wants to focus on the “issues,” but four months ago Painter had no problem publicly declaring himself a Republican. What gives?
Well, Painter is now running in a DFL Primary – not because he believes in the DFL Party or the values DFLers fight for, but because he viewed it as an easier path than running as a Republican.
Minnesota Democrats should not be fooled by Painter’s blatant political opportunism and attempt to deceive voters.
Don’t believe us? Here’s Painter in his own words: Continue reading “Richard Painter Refuses to Say He’s a Democrat”
Rep. Erik Paulsen and Southwest Light Rail
Asking Paulsen to take a position on this is clearly asking too much
The July 26 editorial “Southwest LRT needs friend in GOP” calls on U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen to become a supporter of this rail line, which would largely run through his district. It is also a highly contentious matter.
A couple of months ago, I called Paulsen’s Eden Prairie office and asked his staff person about Paulsen’s position on Southwest LRT. He responded that Paulsen had no position because it was not a federal matter. I responded that this was curious, since a billion dollars of federal money is involved. He reiterated that Paulsen had no position.
Paulsen has obviously been walking a narrow plank because he knows that either pro or con on Southwest LRT will alienate many in his district.
Bill Hay, Edina
Star Tribune, July 27, 2018
Estimated Increases in 2019 Premiums by Congressional District Due to ACA Sabotage
The following article by Emily Gee and Aditya Krishnaswamy was posted on the Center for American Progress website July 24, 2018:
This column contains a correction.
Over the past two years, the Trump administration has worked tirelessly to sabotage the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The U.S. Congress’ repeal of the individual mandate penalty and the Trump administration’s actions to expand the availability of skimpy short-term plans are raising premiums for middle-class families. In its latest attack on the individual market for health insurance, the Trump administration also slashed funding for enrollment assistance by 72 percent and halted payments for risk adjustment, the federal program that discourages plans from avoiding sicker enrollees.
Last year, President Donald Trump’s decision to end cost-sharing assistance payments resulted in staggering increases in 2018 marketplace premiums, and these more recent attempts to destabilize the individual market will result in even higher rates for 2019. Although tax credits rise with premiums and therefore insulate lower-income individuals from higher costs, many middle-income families who buy insurance on their own will see 2019 premiums thousands of dollars higher than they would be if the Trump administration allowed the ACA to work as intended. Based on rate information to date, the Center for American Progress estimates that an unsubsidized 40-year-old will pay an extra $970 in marketplace premiums on average in 2019 because of the end of the mandate and the expansion of short-term plans. Continue reading “Estimated Increases in 2019 Premiums by Congressional District Due to ACA Sabotage”
Minnesota Earns AAA Bond Ratings
With sound fiscal management and a structurally-balanced budget outlook, national rating agencies assign top bond ratings for the State of Minnesota
ST. PAUL, MN – In separate announcements today, two national bond rating agencies – Fitch Ratings and Standard and Poor’s (S&P) – gave the State of Minnesota their highest “AAA” bond ratings, affirming that Minnesota is in prime fiscal health. Today’s bond rating announcements follow nearly eight years of sound fiscal management from the Dayton Administration – including difficult budget cuts, the elimination of budget shifts and gimmicks that undermined our fiscal health, the long-term stabilization of the State’s revenues, structural budget balances into the future, public employee pension reforms, and historic savings in Minnesota’s Budget Reserves.
“Our state government has made a complete financial turnaround in the past seven-and-a-half years,” said Governor Mark Dayton. “The credit for Minnesota’s success belongs to the people of our state. I thank Minnesotans for their many contributions to the strength of our economy and the stabilization of our State’s budget. And I thank MMB Commissioner Myron Frans and his tremendous staff for their steadfast commitment to improving Minnesota’s financial management.” Continue reading “Minnesota Earns AAA Bond Ratings”
Minnesota’s soybean sales could take big hit if China tariffs proceed
The following article by Jim Spencer was posted on the Star Tribune website June 22, 2018:
President Donald Trump touts his trade policy as long-overdue action to help America’s workers and industries, but some economists warn that tariffs he has placed or is threatening to place on China and Chinese retaliation to them could actually bolster other countries at the expense of the U.S.
Nowhere is that more apparent than in the case of Minnesota’s vital agricultural staple, soybeans. The state ranks fourth in the country in all agricultural exports. Soybeans, as Worthington, Minn., farmer and American Soybean Association director Bill Gordon puts it, are the “golden egg,” accounting for 30 percent of the total. Minnesota’s farmers exported $2.1 billion worth of soybeans in 2016, according to government statistics. Most of them went to China.
If the Chinese proceed with a threatened 25 percent import tariff on U.S. soybeans in retaliation for 25 percent protective tariffs Trump placed on a variety of nonagricultural Chinese products, Minnesota soybean growers and others across the country face a loss of 69 percent of Chinese sales, said Purdue University agricultural economist Wallace Tyner, who analyzed data for the U.S. Soybean Export Council. Continue reading “Minnesota’s soybean sales could take big hit if China tariffs proceed”