December 2011
61 posts
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Predictions for 2012: National Politics
Looking back at last year’s predictions, I made one big mistake — I expected the economy to start improving more markedly, thus boosting President Obama’s ratings. I’m pretty happy, though, with my prediction that “Republican control of Congress will also cure Obama’s capitulation instinct,” although it took a lot longer than I would have expected.
Looking...
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MNGOP party finances reveal their fiscal...
No wonder our state finances are such a disaster. The Republicans in control of the legislature just don’t know how to stay out of debt.
The GOP’s “solution” to our budget problems earlier this year was to pile debt on our schools. All in all, they opted for $1.4 billion in new debt, instead of making millionaires pay their fair share. Combine that with the previous...
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Allen Quist's misplaced rage
Uh-oh, you guys. Perennial candidate Allen Quist is really mad:
Congressional candidate Allen Quist is calling on Congressman Tim Walz to stop mailing what Quist calls “campaign advertisements” at taxpayer expense. Quist said Walz is mailing fliers to thousands of First District constituents that are primarily political….
Quist stated that such mailings are an abuse of the franking...
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Yet another flavor of the month
Wow. I misunderestimated how much Republican voters hate their presidential candidates. I thought it was a pretty safe bet when I wrote, with less than a month before the caucuses, that Gingrich would be the final anti-Romney candidate because “there’s likely no time left for a different flavor of the month before the Iowa caucuses.”
As it turns out, there was plenty of time. With Ron...
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MNGOP resurrects previously-discarded leader for...
In 2010, David Senjem (R-Rochester) served as the Senate Minority Leader. In the euphoria of capturing the Senate for the first time in decades, though, the GOP dumped him, opting for Amy Koch’s conservative credentials over Senjem’s leadership experience. Now that the Senate GOP leadership under Amy Koch has crashed and burned, the GOP has come crawling back to Senjem.
Senjem...
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all my wonderful readers! I hope you all have a fantastic holiday weekend.
I’ll be taking a break and spending some time with family over the next week, so posting will be pretty light. I’ll be back at full strength after New Year’s Day; there’s a big year ahead in 2012!
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House GOP reluctantly agrees not to screw the...
The House GOP tried really hard to avoid passing a middle-class tax cut. Most likely, they would have jumped at the chance to give that money to the rich, but they just could never get interested in working for the middle class. Eventually, though, a frustrated John Boehner reluctantly agreed to extend the payroll tax credit for the middle class.
Before Boehner caved, Karl Rove advised...
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Supervillain or Newt →
Who proposed these outlandish policies? Was it Newt Gingrich or a comic supervillain? It’s distressingly difficult to tell; I only managed to get 4 out of 10 correct.
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Since 1983, the top 10% have received over 90% of...
Here’s yet another view of a trend I’ve been writing about for quite a while: Almost all of our economic growth over the past three decades has gone to the rich, while the rest of us have lost ground. Given that trend, it’s not surprising that our economy tanked as consumers keep falling further behind.
This is just one of a number of great charts from the Economic Policy...
Study: Wealth Inequality In America May Be Worse... →
In the United States, the top 1 percent controls roughly 40 percent of the nation’s wealth. According to the study, which examined Roman ledgers, previous estimates, imperial edicts, and Biblical passages, Rome’s top 1 percent controlled less than half that at the height of its economic power.
Wow. Just… wow.
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MNGOP chair candidate Pat Shortridge was the...
Somehow, I don’t think MNGOP chair candidate Pat Shortridge is what the party is looking for to turn its finances around. After all, he was the senior lobbyist for Enron — that doesn’t exactly scream “sound financial principles.”
This very blog broke the story six years ago. Sadly, it’s no longer in our perennially-plagued archive, but an extended quote from...
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Politisemantics
Fact: Medicare is a single-payer health care system.
Fact: Paul Ryan’s “Medicare” plan is private-insurance system.
Fact: Medicare provides full coverage for all seniors.
Fact: Paul Ryan’s “Medicare” plan would provide a voucher and
To sum up, Paul Ryan wants to replace a single-payer system that provides full coverage for seniors with a private-insurance...
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What DFL narrative?
In response to my post yesterday urging the DFL to start pushing its narrative while the GOP can’t easily respond, commenter Amuseinc says there’s no such thing:
Not to rain on your parade but what exactly is this “DFL narrative” you speak of? I have not heard a coherent platform message from the DFL since Humphrey was in charge.
Ouch.
Long-time readers of the blog...
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Cowardly Republicans chicken out of payroll tax...
The House was supposed to vote last night on a Senate bill to extend a middle-class payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance benefits, but Speaker John Boehner chickened out at the last minute. Why? Because some Republicans didn’t want to vote against the middle class, but Boehner wanted to make absolutely sure the bill didn’t pass.
In a stunning move, the House Republican...
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DFLers, now is the time to strike
It would be an understatement to say that the MNGOP is in disarray right now. The party is an utter mess, and rumors are that it may get even worse. For the DFL, this is an enormous opportunity.
I know many of us are currently having a grand old time surveying the wreckage, and possibly poking it now and then to see what else we can stir up. That’s all well and good, but now is the perfect...
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“[Mitt Romney] was born with every advantage of wealth, power, and privilege. But...”
– Paul Begala on Mitt Romney [via Political Wire]
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If you're going to do something, do it right
Yesterday, Republicans rejected a measure that would have extended unemployment benefits and a middle-class payroll tax cut for two months and allowed Congress to recess. The GOP is widely being ridiculed for the vote. And they’re deserving of ridicule — but not for this particular vote. Though I rarely say this, I agree with John Boehner:
“It’s time to just stop, do our work,...
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SOPA Markup Day 1: We Don't Understand This Bill,... →
Techdirt offers a horrifying look into Congress’s Markup of SOPA, the bill to break the Internet.
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WCCO: Koch Resigned After Allegations Of... →
Well, that explains a lot. Amy Koch has been accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a staffer.
There’s more to come, too. Mike Parry will be holding a press conference shortly as well.
I’m not going to be covering this story any further. I have absolutely no desire to wade through the details of the scandal. As far as I’m concerned, this is between Koch, her...
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MN Progressive Project: Where There Is Smoke,... →
MN Progressive Project’s Two Putt Tommy wonders why the MNGOP is cleaning house:
Here’s a time line of what we know:
1 - GOP Deputy Chair Michael Brodkorb resigns: 12 October 2011 2 - Senate GOP Majority Chief of Staff Cullen Sheehan resigns: 09 November 2011 3 - GOP Chair Tony Sutton resigns: 02 December 2011 4 - GOP Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch resigns Majority Leader...
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Exactly what the MNGOP wanted, part 2
On Monday, I wrote that the MNGOP has had a lot of success pitting residents against their city and county elected officials:
Our cities and counties aren’t to blame for the property tax increases, but that’s difficult to see. For most people, it looks like their local governments are to blame. And that’s exactly what the MNGOP wanted.
Ramsey County is a perfect example of what I’m...
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Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch resigns
Yesterday evening, Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch (R-Buffalo) announced that she would not be running for reelection in 2012, and that she would be resigning as Majoriy Leader immediately. In a letter to colleagues, she wrote “we cannot afford a lame duck leader in negotiations next session, which is why I am resigning from my position of Majority Leader.”
The highlights of...
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Obamacare means health insurance for 2.5 million...
The right continues to complain that Obamacare is going to ruin our country, but it’s getting to be a hard argument to make. Every month, it seems there’s more news about how the Affordable Care Act is making health care more accessible and more affordable. Last month, it was shrinking the Medicare Part D “doughnut hole.” This month, it’s a drastic increase in young...
Feel-good story of the day
An anonymous do-gooder has been making the rounds in the east metro, leaving big stacks of goodwill in the Salvation Army’s red kettles.
In each case, the grand gestures have come in the form of 10 crisp $100 bills, tightly folded, said Salvation Army spokeswoman Annette Bauer. [Star Tribune]
Anonymous donations are the true spirit of charity. Thanks, whoever you are!
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Analytical wizardry will give Obama a boost in...
Last month, I wrote that the Obama campaign would need technological innovation to be successful in 2012. It appears I won’t be disappointed. The campaign already has over a dozen software engineers working for it, building new political tools from the ground up:
The Obama team is taking technology development in-house.
“In 2008 we were very adept users of technology,” said Michael Slaby,...
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Millionaires to be held harmless yet again?
Last night, news outlets were reporting that Democrats will cave on paying for an extension of the payroll tax cut with a surtax on millionaires. Even worse, Josh Marshall speculates that instead of a millionaire surtax, it might be paid for with immediate cuts to Medicare.
Maybe this is a stupid question, but why exactly does a small tax cut for working middle-class families need to be paid for,...
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ACLU sues Wisconsin, says voter ID is a poll tax
This is great news. The ACLU is suing Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker over his draconian voter ID law:
Wisconsin’s voter ID law imposes the equivalent of a poll tax on individuals with out-of-state drivers licenses and discriminates against the poor, students and the elderly, according to a federal lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday.
ACLU lawyers argue in a 54-page...
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Ellison sponsors "Restore the American Dream for...
Most of Washington — including a number of Democrats — can’t be bothered to lift a finger for the 99 Percent. In fact, they demand ever-greater sacrifices from the 99 Percent to fund larger tax cuts for the super-rich. Fortunately, Keith Ellison and the Progressive Caucus are different. Ellison is a chief sponsor of a bill that would create over 5 million jobs.
The plan proposed...
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Newt Gingrich thinks the rich need a massive tax...
For decades now, the tax rate for the richest Americans has been on the decline. As a result, they’ve been pulling in a larger and larger share of the nation’s after-tax income. In fact, they’re now taking all of the gains from our economic growth, and it’s killing our economy.
Newt Gingrich, though, thinks we need to give them even more. Here’s his plan to give an...
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Goldman Sachs predicts we will strangle our own...
Economist Jared Bernstein had a discussion yesterday of a surprising forecast by researchers at Goldman Sachs. The forecast predicts that unemployment will continue to decrease for another three months or so, and then start increasing again.
What’s really telling to me is the reasoning for the forecast:
First, we expect the Euro-area crisis to weigh somewhat more heavily on growth than...
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WatchA Minnesota woman wants John Boehner to listen to the 99 percent
Audio: Jeff on last night’s Late Debate
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Republicans And Business Groups Unable To Find One... →
Republicans claim that millionaires are “job creators”, and that raising their very-low taxes would somehow upend our economy. That’s nonsense; the rich aren’t job creators, and even if they were, any money businesses spend on employees’ wages and benefits is not taxed.
Perhaps that’s why it’s so hard to find millionaires who can legitimately claim that...
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Exactly what the MNGOP wanted
Stories like this one must make Republican legislators laugh with the satisfaction of a job well done:
“My taxes are going up 10 percent … outrageous for what I live in,” [a resident] told Ramsey County commissioners at a truth-in-taxation hearing a couple of weeks ago. “There’s just no way that you can continue to increase the spending and expect the taxpayers to...
Tonight: Jeff on the Late Debate
For readers of the blog in the north metro or Saint Cloud, you can catch me tonight from 10 pm to midnight on The Late Debate on the “Tea Party Radio Network.” That’s 95.9 FM in the north metro, and 1150 or 1300 AM in Saint Cloud.
Last time I was on, it was a lively and free-wheeling debate. Tonight’s episode promises to be another good one, so tune in!
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Government should be a "platform" for 21st century...
One of the reasons our economy is in such rough shape is that it no longer has a strong base. Our economy is no longer built on manufacturing. Service jobs don’t provide liveable wages that allow workers to contribute to consumer demand. And our housing-based economy of the last decade was a mirage from the very beginning — it just took a while for us to find out.
For well over a...
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Romney backs Ryan plan to end Medicare
The Republican primary just keeps on giving, and I have a feeling Newt Gingrich is going to be an enormous asset for the Democrats. In just a few weeks as the new frontrunner, he’s managed to force Mitt Romney into a position that Democrats have been dreaming of for months.
We all know that Mitt Romney will take any position on any issue if it will get him elected. But in trying to go on...
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“When you have some money in your savings account but you’ve maxed out your...”
– House Minority Leader Paul Thissen (DFL-Minneapolis) on the budget “surplus”
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Are Democrats finally ready to abandon supply-side...
Supply-side economics — otherwise known as “trickle down” economics — has a remarkable history. The theory has been the accepted wisdom of the political establishment for three decades now, which is quite a long time. It’s an even longer time when you consider that it has never proven to be even remotely true.
To some extent, of course, supply-side economics has...
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Why Republicans are so concerned about fraud in...
Have you ever noticed how obsessed Republicans seem to be about voter fraud? It’s as if they’re convinced, despite all evidence to the contrary, that fraud is an enormous problem plaguing our system. Why do they think that?
Maybe it’s because so many top Republican operatives are engaged in some sort of fraud themselves, and they just assume that the other side must be, too. And...
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Taxpayers would have to "cosign" gambling revenue...
It’s no secret that casinos bring in a lot of money. That’s why plans for a new Vikings stadium rely on new revenue from expanding gambling. As MPR’s Tim Nelson explains, though, gambling would be a new and somewhat speculative revenue source, and bond underwriters are nervous about it:
…new gambling proceeds, be they from a racino, a downtown Minneapolis casino or new...
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“[Trickle-down economics] doesn’t work. It’s never worked. It didn’t work when it...”
– Barack Obama
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Barack Obama lays out the case for liberal...
I’ve been waiting for this for years now. In a speech on the economy yesterday, Barack Obama made a fantastic, full-throated defense of liberal economics, while highlighting the abysmal failures of conservative “trickle-down” economics.
Obama made the case that middle-class consumers drive the economy, not the super-rich:
This kind of inequality - a level we haven’t seen since...
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Allen, Dziedzic win special elections
The results are in, and Susan Allen and Kari Dziedzic have won the special primaries in House District 61B and Senate District 59, respectively. Below are the official results from the Secretary of State.
Congratulations to Allen and Dziedzic!
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The Tax-Dodging Owners Of Zuccotti Park Owe The... →
This couldn’t possibly be more perfect. It turns out that the “job creators” that own Downtown Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park — and who got the Occupy Wall Street protesters kicked out — aren’t exactly role models working for the public good. Actually, they’re delinquent on four years’ worth of back taxes.
Apparently there are different sets of...
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Dems dare GOP to vote against a middle-class tax...
The current battle over extending President Obama’s payroll tax cut is a case study in how the Republicans have begun fighting against the middle class. Republicans incessantly claim that tax cuts are the solution to all our problems — and then vote against tax breaks for the middle class. They insist that the middle-class tax cut be paid for — even thought they also insisted...
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Vote today in SD59 and SD61!
Voters in Northeast and South Minneapolis, don’t forget to vote in today’s Special Primary! Elections are being held in Senate District 59 and House District 61B. If you’re not sure which district you’re in, you can find out here.
Since Minneapolis is such a DFL stronghold, today’s primary will almost certainly determine the winner in both races. So get out and vote!
