It’s truly impressive how everything the MNGOP touches turns to red ink. They’ve mismanaged the state budget, their own party budget, the State Senate budget, and now the State House budget as well:

The Minnesota House has already spent more for per diem — those daily expense payments lawmakers get — than it had budget for the year….

House leaders had planned to end the session by April 30 but blew through that self-imposed deadline. It’s not clear now when session would end.

House leaders had planned to adjourn three weeks early, a laudable but unlikely goal with a split government. But instead of budgeting for a complete session and having some savings left over at the end, they treated their goal as a foregone conclusion. This is what happens when you have a party whose policies are all based on nothing but empty wishes.

The Republican party around the nation seems to be incapable of engaging with reality. They live in a fantasy world where trickle-down economics works and wildly rosy budget assumptions can just be willed into being. Here in Minnesota, we’re seeing the consequences: Things never, ever work out like the Republicans imagine, and they force the rest of us to pay the price.

Minnesota, we can’t let the GOP continue to exercise any control over our state finances until they get their act together and return to reality.

I’ve written a few times about my frustration with the way Americans forget that capitalism is all about acting in one’s own self-interest. For example, I pointed out that we shouldn’t treat “job creators” as if they’re operating a charity — they create jobs only if hiring workers will increase their profits. That’s not a bad thing; that’s how it should work. But too often these days, we seem to confuse capitalism for policymaking.

The continuing debate over the Vikings stadium provides a great example. The debate took a bizarre twist in this direction yesterday, when Republicans suggested that Minnesota businesses should contribute a whole bunch of money to pay for a roof on the Vikings stadium:

Sen. Roger Chamberlain, R-Lino Lakes, got even more specific about the potential to dun someone else for the roof.

“I have been an advocate all along to getting our vast and generous business community involved in this…I would hope that our business community steps up… gets some sort of consortium together in a trust or non-profit, and contributes to a $200 million roof,” Chamberlain said.

Huh? Why would they do that? What possible incentive would they have? There’s no way it will make their businesses any more profitable. What Chamberlain is describing is a public infrastructure investment. That’s the legislature’s duty, not the business community’s.

But the business community, in rejecting Chamberlain’s plan, showed that it’s just as confused with business’s role in our society these days:

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The Voter ID amendment, which I’ve been referring to as the Poll Tax Amendment, has two related goals:

1. End same-day voter registration, making it harder for new voters to exercise their right to vote.
2. Make voting expensive and difficult, stripping the poor of their right to vote.

The second item above is commonly referred to as a poll tax — an illegal charge for voting aimed at taking away certain citizens’ constitutional right to vote.

I know the common retort: The IDs would be free. But the cost of the IDs themselves is just the start. Gathering the documentation required for the IDs can be expensive, time-consuming, and difficult — in some cases, even impossible, as the documentation may no longer exist.

In an Op-Ed in MinnPost, Jay and Iris Kiedrowski gave a great example of the hidden costs of obtaining an ID for Jay’s mother:

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I think Mark Dayton has been doing a great job as Governor, but the one issue he’s been dead wrong on has been the Vikings stadium. His strong stance on tax fairness has simply evaporated when it comes to a new stadium. In fact, he has been the most vocal proponent for giving hundreds of millions of dollars to billionaire Zygi Wilf to subsidize his profitable business.

What’s interesting is that Dayton seems to recognize that the people of Minnesota don’t support paying for a new stadium. That was apparent early today, when he criticized the Republicans’ new plan to use bonding to pay for the stadium. Dayton’s response to the GOP plan indicated a flaw in his logic:

Dayton countered the general fund financing in the GOP plan saying Minnesotans don’t want it: “Polls show… people don’t support it if their tax dollars are going for it. And they support it if they realize their tax dollars are not.”

But our tax dollars are going to pay for it, one way or another. The cost of paying a subsidy to Zygi Wilf is that we can’t spend that money on more important priorities. Whether the money we spend comes from the general fund or some other revenue source doesn’t really matter — it’s still state revenue being squandered, which means it’s still our tax dollars.

For example, I would be absolutely fine raising new revenues from gambling to pay back our schools and increase future education funding. But since we’ll be tapping that funding source to pay for a stadium instead, we’ll have to find another way to pay our kids back. That tradeoff isn’t lessened by the fact that the gambling money is new revenue; it’s still a tradeoff, and a bad one.

So when the Governor says “people don’t support it if their tax dollars are going for it,” I interpret that to mean that Minnesotans don’t want public money spent on the stadium. I agree that the GOP’s new plan is a bad one. But the Governor doesn’t really have grounds to criticize them when he’s also pushing to squander public money on a monument to corporate welfare.

It seems almost definite that Governor Dayton will veto the MNGOP’s outrageous, irresponsible tax bill. This bill will give another tax cut to the rich and big corporations, without even attempting to pay for it. Instead, the Republicans would use fraudulent accounting maneuvers to make it appear paid for.

Dayton has proposed an alternative to the GOP bill that includes certain targeted, temporary tax cuts meant to stimulate job growth, but without the irresponsible long-term budget-busting corporate tax cuts. MPR reports that Dayton said the existing GOP plan would “”rob from the financial future of the state,” which is entirely accurate.

I was never particularly worried about where Dayton stood on this as a stand-alone bill. It goes against his most firmly-held principles on fair taxation. My plea to the Governor not to sign the bill was out of concern that it might find its way back on the table as part of a deal for a bonding bill and/or Vikings stadium. That’s still possible, as anything can happen in last-minute end-of-session negotiations.

I can only hope that once the Governor has vetoed the bill once, it will stay dead. Hopefully, having proclaimed his opposition to the MNGOP’s irresponsible corporate tax cuts, Dayton will stick to his principles if the corporate tax cuts are raised again in end-of-session negotiations. The people of Minnesota elected Dayton because of his message of tax fairness; we won’t forget if he abandons those principles.

House Republicans will let student loan interest rates double unless we cut other spending that benefits the middle class. After all, that’s $6 billion we’re talking about — it has to be paid for, right? Well, only if it’s $6 billion for poor and middle-class students. Handouts for the rich are a different story:

House Republicans say they have no plans to pay for the extension of the Bush-era tax rates, a move that could erase the deficit reduction they have achieved since winning their majority in the chamber in 2010.

So we can give hundreds of billions to the rich, but a few billion for the middle class is a non-starter? That’s particularly ironic in light of the Republicans’ frequent claims that Democrats are engaging in “class warfare.” The real class war is the system devised by the richest 1 percent and the Congressmen they own, in which we nickel-and-dime the middle class to death while blithely emptying the treasury into the pockets of the rich.

And don’t think this is just a question of spending versus tax cuts. Remember, Republicans bitterly opposed a middle-class tax cut last year. The real issue is who reaps the benefits. Unless the benefits accrue overwhelmingly to the super-rich, the Republicans couldn’t care less.

Republicans love to attack Barack Obama on gas prices, which he has little to no control over. The fact is, gas prices are driven by global supply and demand. American supply isn’t even enough to meet our own needs, and as China, India, and Brazil continue to industrialize, American demand is a shrinking as a percentage of total global demand.

As it turns out, though, American dependence on foreign oil has dropped substantially under Barack Obama, according to the Energy Information Administration. To the extent Obama has any control over oil prices, he has kept prices lower than they otherwise would have been. 

I know, I know — trying to fight Republican attacks with the facts is useless. But it’s at least nice to remind ourselves from time to time that, as usual, they have the facts wrong.

Tea Party favorite Joe Walsh (R-IL) doesn’t think we should help students pay for college with low-interest student loans:

Look what this president’s doing. He was running around a month and a half ago basically saying, “free contraceptives for everybody.” Free contraceptives. [Ed.: I’ll let this absurd lie pass and not get dragged off-topic]. What’s he been doing now the past couple weeks? Basically free college education. Student debt? Don’t worry about it. Don’t worry about it, you’ll pick it up.

Where to start? First of all, this isn’t “basically free college education” in any way, shape, or form. In fact, college is more expensive than it has ever been. 

Which brings me to my second point. In what universe would a free college education be a bad thing? Actually, I think that’s a goal we should commit ourselves to — providing a fully-paid education at top-notch public universities.

What a radical idea! We could invest in our nation’s future scientists and entrepreneurs and help them get off to a strong start. Instead, we invest in the already-rich and saddle the up-and-coming generation with enormous bills. Which sounds like a better method for building a strong economy to you?

Republicans are trying to get Governor Dayton to sign an absolutely outrageous tax bill, which would increase the deficit to give more money to the rich and corporations, and use fraudulent accounting to do so. What would make them think he would possibly sign it? They’re hoping the Governor’s eagerness to get a Vikings deal done will give them leverage.

I think Dayton’s principles on tax fairness and honest budgeting are too strong for that. But I want to make sure I add my voice to those pleading with him not to sign the Republicans’ latest attack on our state’s fiscal stability.

Governor Dayton, you were elected after a campaign that focused strongly on tax fairness. It would be a major betrayal of your campaign promises to give in and sign a bill that will make things even worse. The Republicans want to make all Minnesotans pay for corporate tax cuts that won’t create a single job. Their bill is the antithesis of everything you stand for.

Admittedly, you were also candid about your support for a Vikings stadium. But now you’re faced with a question of priorities. Is the Vikings stadium worth compromising your principles on tax fairness, which propelled you into office? I don’t see it as a fair trade, and I hope you won’t either.

Governor Dayton, Minnesota needs you to stand up for the 99 Percent. We’ve been able to trust you to do that throughout your term, and I believe you’ll make the right decision this time. Let the bills stand on their own merits. Getting a deal on the Vikings isn’t worth abandoning your principles on tax fairness.