Thursday, July 14, 2011

Democrats Cave In Minnesota – Republicans Win Budget/Government Shutdown Showdown


Governor Accepts GOP Budget Gimmick, More Debt Proposal

Minnesota government has been shut down for almost two weeks as the Democratic Governor would not agree to budget cuts, and the Republican legislature would not raise taxes to pay for all of the programs in the Governor’s Budget.  The gap started out at $5 billion and narrowed to about $1.4 billion when the two sides broke off talks and government shut its doors.

Now Governor Mark Dayton (D) has agreed to the Republicans offer to close the gap by

  1. An accounting/budgeting gimmick saving on paper $700 million

and
  1. Borrowing $700 million.

The Dismal Political Economist forecast this result earlier

The Dismal Political Economist believes that the dispute between Democrats and Republicans in Minnesota over raising or not raising taxes that has led to the partial shutdown of state government will be resolved in favor of the Republicans.  This is not because their position is superior, but because they care more about ideological purity than the welfare of the citizens.  This makes them more immune to the pain and suffering a government shutdown that is incurred by ordinary citizens than the Democrats, although Democrats have plenty of immunity themselves.


The winners  on the political scene will not be known until polls are taken and the next state elections are held.  The losers, well the losers will be Special Education children amongst others, but then Special Needs children really didn’t stand much of a chance against the greed of Conservatives determined to preserve low taxes for millionaires at any cost.
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousJuly 14, 2011 at 10:44 PM

    While it is true that the Democrats caved in to Republicans, it was probably the right thing to do. It served no purpose to keep the Minnesota economy on a crash course and true leadership (Dayton) realized this. The real success for the DFL will come with the next election cycle.

    On the same day Dayton agreed to bad public policy so that folks could get back to work, a poll reported on CNN Money showed that nearly 70% of the American people on a national scale (Quinnipiac University) are disgusted with GOP no-new-tax pledges and only 20 percent (Gallup) say that a spending cut solution is acceptable to budget woes.

    What will happen is that every school that closes, every person who is cut off needed services, and every individual hurt by the refusal of the GOP to raise taxes on those who benefit the most from government, is going to be blamed on the GOP for refusing to compromise.

    Conservatives not only caused bad public policy to be approved by a Governor willing to compromise, but they're going to lose crucial legislative seats because of it.

    Win-win for the DFL... Republican bad public policy, bad politics.

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