Dayton “wants the GOP to be honest ” about their budget cuts:
Gov. Mark Dayton is renewing his challenge to the Republican-controlled Legislature to come up with a balanced budget without raising taxes — and without hurting the state’s most vulnerable residents.
“They aren’t being honest about the cuts they would have to make to achieve their budget targets,” Dayton told MPR’s Morning Edition on Tuesday. “Tell us the truth about what the results of that would be and then we can discuss whether that would be in the best interests of Minnesotans.”
…in an argument where all cuts, or even cuts to the DFL’s planned increases, are assumed to be catastrophic, and the “best interest of Minnesotans” means “keeping government fat and happy at all costs”.
Lest you thought the DFL had trouble staying on message (emphasis added):
Dayton, a Democrat, has said balancing the budget through $5 billion in cuts would hurt nursing home residents and others, but he acknowledged that something must be done to slow the growth of health care spending. Dayton has proposed some cuts to health and human services spending and has asked health care providers to return profits to the state.
“We can’t just throw people out of nursing homes or deny them the care that they need,” Dayton said of cutting health and human services spending. “It has to be done skillfully.”
Interesting how Dayton figures that the budget can be done “skillfully”, but he figures the state’s nursing homes and health care providers are too stupid do figure out how to do their job with a lower budget – the sort of things that Minnesota families do every day when budgets shrink.
The DFL is vamping. The GOP has beaten them; the only venue they have left is to tell the public that something that walks, flaps and quacks like a duck is really a schnauzer.
In his State of the City address the other day, Hizonner Chris Coleman said St. Paul was in “great shape”. I think he should refuse LGA. Do it, Chris. Do it for the children and all those folks in nursing homes.
Dear Governor Moonbeam:
You and your president seem to believe that the ‘filthy rich’ are a well of money, to be tapped at your leisure. Let’s make a deal.
We’ll let you jack taxes on the filthy, stinking rich…just as soon as all those people who pay absolutely ZERO in income taxes (which is around 35% to 45%) must pay a minimum tax. They (the unwashed poor) MUST have some skin in the game. If its dandy to take every dollar you can squeeze out of the filthy rich, then the poor can pony up $50 per year for the services they get. Less than a buck a week. A can of soda a week. They can afford that, right?
Deal?
Oh…no? Then screw you.
has asked health care providers to return profits to the state.
Somewhere, Marx is weeping with joy.
MGIN;
Like I said before, when he and his family brings back all of the money that they earned in MN, but stashed in SD to avoid paying taxes on it, he will have at least some credibility.
On a related note, did anyone see that the Obumblers paid $450,000 some in taxes and received a $12,300 refund? They must be going batshit over the fact that the Bush Tax Cuts saved them another $100K! Classic!
The person that is talking about thowing “people out of nursing homes” is Governor Dayton.
Why does Mark Dayton want to to that to people in need?
Interesting how Dayton figures that the budget can be done “skillfully”, but he figures the state’s nursing homes and health care providers are too stupid do figure out how to do their job with a lower budget – the sort of things that Minnesota families do every day when budgets shrink.
Or here’s another idea. Submit a balanced budget to the governor and tell him that if can find any additional cuts in State spending, he can the saving from these additional cuts to restore an equivalent (or a straight percentage of the) amount in funding cuts that were made for nursing homes.
We keep hearing how “everyone” wants to get rid of “waste, fraud and abuse” or “programs that don’t work” or “duplicative programs” but they always seem to stay in the budget despite “everyone” saying they shouldn’t be. Maybe the way to get rid of some of these programs is to make it “worth” our elected official’s time by enabling them to mitigate some of the cuts that are being made to more necessary and popular programs. If Dayton knows that cutting a million dollars in diversity counselors or Phyllis Kahn’s pet art project means he can restore or spend an additional million dollars for nursing homes, it sort of puts in perspective how our tax dollars have been and are being managed.