Just two and a half weeks ago, I predicted that Republicans in the legislature would oppose infrastructure spending to create new jobs, including the bogus reason they would use:

Though it is a bonding year, a bonding bill will not be passed. Republicans will call it irresponsible borrowing, and incorrectly compare it to the borrowing they did to balance the operating budget.

I then proceeded to explain why this sort of argument is bogus, and how responsible bonding differs from the Republicans’ irresponsible borrowing.

Sure enough, Speaker Kurt Zellers is already starting to use the dishonest and hypocritical reasoning I predicted:

Republicans remain concerned with the rising financial commitment of debt service. If we have learned anything from the mortgage crisis and subsequent high rate of foreclosures, buying more because rates and costs are low isn’t financially prudent or sustainable.

Oh, you’re concerned, are you? That’s funny, it didn’t stop you from putting us $1.4 billion in debt to pay for our basic operating costs. But now you suddenly object to spending half that on responsible long-term capital improvements? 

Speaker Zellers, your excuses for opposing the jobs bill are as flimsy as they were predictable. 

Speaker Kurt Zellers has taken a wishy-washy, cowardly stance on the Vikings stadium. Knowing that the stadium is unpopular, Zellers has sought to do everything he can to distance himself and his caucus from the political fallout its inevitable passage. Here’s my personal favorite evasion, from a press conference yesterday:

Zellers said he will not propose his own Vikes stadium bill. “I’m far more focused on a daily basis on how we get jobs back in Minnesota”

Now he’s concerned about how we get jobs back? During the legislative session, he was focused on issues like gay marriage. Even when crafting a plan to balance the budget, Zellers’s caucus proposed a plan that would have cost Minnesota 30,000 jobs. Now that the politically-tricky Vikings stadium is up for debate, he finally cares about jobs? How convenient.

Minnesota’s Speaker of the House, Kurt Zellers, made a comment this past Friday at the TwinWest Chamber of Commerce* that I think says a lot about the mindset of today’s Republican party. It may seem like an innocuous comment to many, but to me, it’s a concise statement of the Republicans’ economic illiteracy. 

To all of you here who employ people: Thank you.

This is the sort of humility and reverence that our politicians used to save for soldiers. The sacrifices our soldiers make are worthy of that reverence. Business owners and investors, on the other hand? They’re not making sacrifices** or providing charity — they’re simply engaging in capitalism.

No thanks is required for businesses hiring workers. Do you know why Job Creators^TM employ people? Because the demand for their product is great enough that they can’t meet it on their own. To meet that demand and increase their revenues, they exchange a portion of that extra revenue for their employees’ labor.

Employers don’t hire workers because they want to help the economy. They don’t do it because their profits are large enough that they want to give something back. They hire for one reason, and one reason only: They believe that by hiring another worker, they will increase their profits even after paying that worker’s salary and benefits.

Read More

The Republican-led legislature, after rejecting seven different budget offers, eventually agreed to a budget that borrowed $1.4 billion so they could continue offering the rich special treatment. That fiscal irresponsibility led one credit agency after another to downgrade our state’s credit. Now Standard & Poor’s, the only agency that hadn’t done so, has downgraded us as well.

This downgrade will cause immediate pain. The same budget that caused the downgrade also forces our schools to borrow money; that debt will be more expensive because of our lower credit rating. 

Minority Leader Paul Thissen (DFL-Minneapolis) put it well in a press release:

Every day that passes, the consequences of the Republicans’ beg, borrow, and steal budget solution become more glaring.  Our kids started the school year in debt, with nearly half of their schools asking taxpayers to fill their budget gaps. Now the Republican-forced loans that schools, cities, and counties are seeking will come at a higher cost.

Even the Republicans are having a hard time denying their culpability. Speaker Kurt Zellers offered one of the weakest defenses I’ve ever heard from him:

Read More

Remember Tom Hackbarth? Last year, he was suspended from his chairmanship of a committee after stalking a woman with a loaded gun. A few months ago, he wrote a furious email comparing progressives to Hitler and Castro.

Apparently, that’s all in the past now. With Minnesotans’ attention elsewhere while the legislature is not in session, Speaker Kurt Zellers returned Hackbarth to a leadership role:

On Friday, Zellers said Hackbarth would chair an energy subcommittee to the House Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee.

A man who can’t even communicate with his constituents in a civil way should remain a backbencher for life. And that’s to say nothing of Hackbarth’s run-in with the police. What in the world is Zellers thinking? Is it really so difficult to hold the members of his caucus accountable?

A source from within the “cone of silence” that enveloped budget negotiations tells me that the two offers Governor Dayton made yesterday were his sixth and seventh since negotiations began. All have been rejected out of hand by the MNGOP leadership.

Speaker Kurt Zellers explained why the GOP refuses to budge an inch:

“If that’s what we were elected on, how do our members go back home and say we gave up on all of our principles to the governor?” he said.

Well then, we’re well and truly screwed, aren’t we? Because the Governor was elected on a campaign pledge to tax the rich. Speaker Zellers, you seem to think that your own election gives you an absolute mandate — but what about Dayton’s election? Why don’t you have any respect for the governor’s principles and the Minnesotans who elected him? When the people of Minnesota elected a divided government, didn’t that signal their desire for compromise?

Rep. Zellers, what is it that makes you so special? What puts your party above compromise? Why should 99.7 percent of Minnesotans have to suffer because of your determination to protect millionaires?

It’s laughable today to look back on some of the things Speaker Kurt Zellers said way back in November:

The social issues that once defined the conservative movement in the party?

Zellers seemed to indicate that such things as abortion and gay rights issues will have no part — at least in the immediate future — of the new Republican majority.

“If it isn’t about jobs, improving the business climate, it’s not a priority,” Zellers said. [MinnPost]

Well, let’s review the Republicans’ legislative session, shall we?

• Their proposed budget — which was thankfully vetoed — would have cost Minnesota 30,000 jobs, mostly in the private sector.
• The state government shutdown, caused by purposeful GOP sabotage, could cost tens of thousands of jobs.
• That GOP sabotage? They demanded action on social issues like abortion.
• Republicans didn’t pass a budget until the session was nearly over, and even then it was one that never had a chance of being signed.
• Why didn’t they pass a budget? They were busy with a constitutional amendment against marriage.

So, Minnesota, take a look at where we are today. Is this what you wanted?

Finally some progress on the budget?

With less than a week to go until a possible government shutdown, lawmakers and Dayton spent a full day behind closed doors trying to negotiate a compromise to erase a projected $5 billion state budget gap. Dayton said nothing is finalized, but they reached consensus on a number of items.

“We had a very constructive day. We’ve run through a number of the expenditure bills and come to agreement on considerable parts of them,” Dayton said. “We have areas of disagreement that we’ll go back to, but it was a very worthwhile day.”…

“We’ve gone through spreadsheets, we took out highlighters, we’re looking at numbers. It was a very productive day. We covered a lot of issue areas in the time we were in there,” [House Speaker Kurt] Zellers said.

Hooray! Looks like the looming deadline has finally gotten everyone focused. Let’s hope the news remains good after today’s meeting.

TO: Rep. Kurt Zellers and Sen. Amy Koch, GOP leaders
FROM: Jeff Rosenberg, concerned citizen
RE: Budget solution

Dear Rep. Zellers and Sen. Koch:

You will be happy to know that I have a solution to the state budget crisis. I know that as a private citizen, I have no official position in the negotiations, but I am supremely confident that my proposal will meet with your approval, since it is largely based on your own proposals.

There is still a $1.6 billion gap in our budget. To eliminate that gap, I propose that the Governor agree to $100 million in cuts to Health and Human Services, and in exchange, you agree to $1.5 billion in increased taxes on the rich.

Given your recently-expressed proposal that one side in the negotiations give up nearly 16 times as much as the other, I presume you will find this arrangement acceptable. It differs from your proposal only in that it asks you to make the larger concession instead of the Governor. This seems only fair, since it was you who proposed such as arrangement in the first place.

I thank you for laying the groundwork for this compromise, and I look forward to the speedy resolution of our budget crisis.

Yours Truly,
Jeff Rosenberg

Has anyone seen Republican leaders Amy Koch and Kurt Zellers? Where are they, and why won’t they do their jobs?

Koch and Zellers have been silent on the misbehavior of Tom Hackbarth and Gretchen Hoffman. Zellers once claimed “we are reforming government, starting with ourselves.” Fast-forward seven months, and he is unwilling to even discipline a member of his caucus.

Even worse is that they appear to be absent from budget negotiations. With only two weeks left, they haven’t even made an offer yet.

We need the MNGOP’s leaders to show some leadership. And we need them to do it now.