{"id":17720,"date":"2011-01-27T12:30:13","date_gmt":"2011-01-27T18:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=17720"},"modified":"2011-09-01T07:37:08","modified_gmt":"2011-09-01T12:37:08","slug":"patience-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=17720","title":{"rendered":"Patience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dave Mindeman at mnpACT has his eyes on the GOP’s priorities<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Remember the good old days when the House and Senate GOP were going to make the budget and JOBS issue number one?<\/p>\n

Actually you should remember….it was three weeks ago. But that was then, this is now….priorities seem to have changed:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, no.\u00a0 And of course, HF1, the very first bill introduced in the session,<\/em> which would reform the permitting process in Minnesota (and which Mindeman curiously ignores) does directly address those priorities.<\/p>\n

And perhaps, being a DFLer, Mindeman thinks that the GOP should push a bill, perhaps one requiring <\/em>companies to create jobs.\u00a0 But debate over most of the real job-killers – regulation and taxes, especially corporate taxes – happens when we get into the budget process.\u00a0 The GOP has a proposal out there.\u00a0 Governor Dayton is waiting until February 15 – presumably because, as we discovered during the campaign, he hasn’t the foggiest idea what to do, other than “Tax the Rich”.<\/p>\n

Still, leaving aside Mindeman’s selective choice of bills, the fact is the word “priorities” implies that there is more than one thing to be accomplished.\u00a0 The MNGOP was sent to Saint Paul to do a whole bunch of things; jobs are the top priority<\/em>; if it were the only <\/em>objective, then there’d be no need to prioritize at all.<\/p>\n

Mindeman cherry-picks some initiatives:<\/p>\n

SRepublicans push photo I.D. bill<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Republican legislators are using their new-found majorities in both chambers to push a bill to require photo identification at the polls.<\/em><\/p>\n

Estimated Job generation: 0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Imagine how many jobs we’d create if we legalized fraud!<\/p>\n

Union options could wind up on 2012 ballot<\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The proposed legislation would ask residents to vote on a constitutional amendment on whether workers should have the \u201cfreedom to decide to join or not join a labor union; to remain with or leave a labor union; and to pay or not pay dues\u201d to a union, without the choice affecting their employment status.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Estimated Job generation: 0 (but you might get to work for less)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, maybe and maybe not.\u00a0 One of unions’ key purposes is to restrict the supply of labor available in a given trade and area, to help keep prices high.<\/p>\n

One of the DFL’s other memes on this issue is “now you can work for less”.\u00a0 Well, that depends on how effective your union is, now, doesn’t it?<\/p>\n

Partial smoking ban repeal introduced in House<\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A bill that would partially repeal Minnesota\u2019s smoking ban has been introduced in the House. The legislation would allow smoking in bars provided they meet certain requirements.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Estimated Job generation: Possibly a few minimum wage jobs but probably offset by more health care costs<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m going to guess that Mindeman has never worked as a server, and doesn’t know anyone who does.\u00a0\u00a0 Waiting can <\/em>be minimum wage; it can pay six figures; most of all, it is a job with no entry requirements that, with effort and application, can pay just fine – just like any other trade.<\/p>\n

But Mindeman seems not to care for the jobs that the smoking ban destroyed; the waitstaff laid off, the bars and restaurants closed.\u00a0 Those jobs may or may not come back – but I’ll take my chances.\u00a0 Real <\/em>estimate of jobs created: hundreds and hundreds.<\/p>\n

Hackbarth backing amendment protecting right to bear arms<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rep. Tom Hackbarth is proposing an amendment to the state\u2019s constitution that would explicitly guarantee the right to bear arms. The proposal would essentially mimic the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in ensuring gun rights.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Estimated Job generation: 0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Civil rights are every bit as important as jobs.<\/p>\n

Abortion emerging as major issue, lawsuit at Minnesota Capitol<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, a bill restricting funding for abortion was submitted to the Minnesota Senate, co-sponsored by Koch. The bill, Senate File 103, is the first anti-abortion bill of the session.<\/em><\/p>\n

Estimated Job generation: 0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Except that some of the babies saved will be the entrepreneurs that start the companies that’ll create the jobs that’ll generate the wealth that’ll be sapped by government to pay for Mindeman’s retirement.<\/p>\n

Jobs generated: Countless.<\/p>\n

After the election Senator Koch and Speaker Zellers were telling us how “focused” they would be. It wasn’t that long ago that these words were uttered…..<\/p>\n

“If it doesn’t have anything to do with business and jobs, it shouldn’t be our first priority.” Rep. Kurt Zellers, the speaker of the Minnesota House<\/em><\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of important issues and we will get to them. But the priority now is the budget, jobs, and the economy,” Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch<\/em><\/p>\n

That was then….this is now… (and the way they were going to do it all along).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dave Mindeman: Cross “clairvoyant” off of your future career options list.<\/p>\n

And hang on.\u00a0 February is going to rock<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dave Mindeman at mnpACT has his eyes on the GOP’s priorities: Remember the good old days when the House and Senate GOP were going to make the budget and JOBS issue number one? Actually you should remember….it was three weeks ago. But that was then, this is now….priorities seem to have changed: Well, no.\u00a0 And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,144],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy-and-the-market","category-governor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17720"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22151,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17720\/revisions\/22151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}