Right on the money

One of the real bright lights in the political firmament right now is Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. The son of Cuban immigrants, Rubio is a rock-solid conservative as well as a bright, articulate spokesman for basic liberty and freedom issues. Yesterday on Hugh Hewitt's radio show, Rubio summed up the Obama presidency very succinctly when asked by Hewitt about the president's problems.

"I think there are three things going on here. Number one, I think he’s a prisoner to extremist elements in his own base who not only, they don’t care that the taxes don’t solve any problems. They want their pound of flesh. They want to punish somebody, they want class warfare. That’s what they believe in. And this is their chance to do it, and they’re putting pressure on him to do that. So I think that’s his first problem. His second problem is that I think he’s surrounded by a bunch of people who philosophically do not believe fully in the free enterprise system, and in fact, they’d like to see government play a greater role. And they see this downturn in the economy, and crisis such as this, as an opportunity to exert more government involvement in our economy. And that’s the second problem. And his third problem is a level of incompetence. I think the President, quite frankly, is not up to the job. And if you look at every measure of quality of life in America today, unemployment is higher. The debt is higher. The only thing lower is the value of your home. If you look at every measurable economic thing in America today, they are all worse than they were the day he took over. Two and a half years into his presidency, things continue to get worse, not better, and it’s because the President is incompetent in his job as president. He is not, he doesn’t know what he’s doing."

Much of what Rubio said can be equally applied to Minnesota's own Gov. Goofy, Mark Dayton. I believe Rubio is going to be a major player on the national political stage for years to come.

Math is hard at the Star-Tribune

The Star-Tribune has been performing as a public relations arm of the Dayton Administration since the government shutdown began on July 1. Every story is written from the premise that the shutdown is bad, and that Republicans are at fault. (Though it was Dayton who vetoed a balanced budget and refused a "lights-on" bill that would have kept things functioning.)

The bias in favor of considering the shutdown a catastrophe made it into the paper's web site Monday when a headline said "As the shutdown enters its third week..."

Well, I'm no math wizard, but I think the timekeeping goes something like this: The shutdown started on July 1, and today was July 11. That is somewhere around 11 days. If we were going into our third week, it seems that this should have been maybe - oh, I don't know - maybe the 15th day of the shutdown?

When folks have that much trouble with simple math, how can you trust them on the big things?

The Dayton Shutdown, Day 7, and an easy prediction comes true

Normally when you make a political prediction, you have to wait weeks, months or even years for it to come true.

Today, however, the Carlson-Mondale "commission" made the prediction in my post of less than 48 hours ago (which you can read here) come true.

I said that anything with Arne Carlson's fingerprints on it was sure to include a tax hike. With remarkable speed, the group spit up their report today, and the highlights include:

- A 4% income tax increase for everyone in the state;
- An increase of over a dollar in the cigarette tax;
- An alcohol tax increase;
- A "human services surcharge" of $250 million

Net effect of all these taxes and surcharges? A $1.4 billion tax increase and a double-digit increase in spending from the previous biennium. Of course, the income tax hike is supposed to be "temporary," but there is nothing more permanent that a "temporary" tax increase. House Speaker Kurt Zellers said it best: "It is a retread of failed tax-and-spend policies."

Thanks for playing our game, Wally and Arne, too bad you failed miserably. Please return to the obscurity of your retirements.

Where do they get the nerve?

At left are Minnesota government employees (according to the caption in the Star-Tribune, which gets credit for the photo) and I guess that maybe unionized government employees inhabit a different world than I do.

I can't imagine having the nerve to go out in public and demand that government stick its hand in someone else's pocket so that I could have the money.

Full disclosure: I spent about six of my 30-odd working years on government payrolls, serving as a staffer in the Minnesota Legislature, United States Senate and Office of the Governor of Minnesota. But I considered each of those positions to be a privilege, and an opportunity to serve. The idea that the taxpayers owed me a living - or the notion of picketing to make them pay more - would have been unfathomable to me. I worked for the taxpayers, not the other way around.

My successor in the governor's office was a bit of an airhead - her previous career involved reading the news on TV - who got caught by the Star-Tribune forcing staffers in the governor's office to watch her kids during the work day. When she was called out on it she huffed, "These people work for me." Someone had to remind her that, no, those people worked for the taxpayers of Minnesota, who weren't paying them to be her babysitter. Her attitude would have fit perfectly with these stooges on the capitol steps.

The Dayton Shutdown, Day 5, and some insight into Arne Carlson

The Dayton Shutdown continues, and today's news brings word that a "commission" assembled by former Veep Walter Mondale and former Guv Arne Carlson is now going to sit down and try to hammer this out.

Let's set aside for a moment the fact that we have elected representatives to do this job, and there's no real reason why we should farm the state budget work out to a group of unelected, unaccountable people.

Before this group has even met, here's what I can guarantee you: Part of their solution will be an increase in taxes.

That's because Arne Carlson is involved, and he never saw a tax rate or a government program that he didn't think should be increased.

As some of you know, I was Gov. Carlson's Press Secretary in the first year of his administration, and in early 1991, Minnesota was facing a budget "shortfall" as it is now, although much smaller. I vividly remember sitting in the governor's office in the Capitol in the second or third week after taking office, with most of his high-level staffers around to discuss the budget. Finance Commissioner John Gunyou, Chief of Staff Lyall Schwarzkopf, Patsy Randall, Lt. Governor Joanell Dyrstad and about five or six others of us were in the room. The discussion immediately turned to which was the best way to raise taxes to get out of the mess.

Income tax surcharges, sales tax increases, cigarette taxes, liquor taxes...they were all part of a 30-minute discussion about what the political fallout would be, which ones DFLers would go along with, etc., etc.

Finally, after listening to all of this, I spoke up and said, "How about we cut spending instead of raising taxes?"

They looked at me like I had suggested flapping our arms and flying to Mars. The notion of cutting spending instead of raising taxes hadn't event occurred to this group, and it was right about then I realized I probably wasn't a good fit for this administration. I'm a pretty conservative guy, but I'm not exactly a flaming right-winger, so if I'm far and away the most conservative guy in the room of alleged Republicans you know something's wrong.

In the end, taxes were raised, programs were expanded and the entire Carlson administration continued the explosion in the growth of government that has contributed to the current predicament.

So if Arne has his fingerprints on this "commission," there's no doubt in my mind that higher taxes will be part of their proposal. It didn't fly when Governor Goofy proposed it, and it won't fly when this group does it either.

My favorite 4th of July story

As I probably mention every year, the 4th of July is my day. A couple years ago I wrote about the special 4th of July celebrations I grew up with in Pease, Minnesota (which you can read here), and even on my 54th 4th of July, the day still brings out the little kid in me. You might not think of me as a guy who enjoys musical theater, but my favorite play of all time is 1776, the musical that tells the story of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and others in the Continental Congress.

These men were giants; Visionaries who risked their "lives, fortunes and our sacred honor" to challenge the most powerful nation in the world over the concept of liberty, and then saw the battle through to the very end. Their actions changed the course of history and still resonate today.

One of my favorite 4th of July stories took place in 1826, on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. That day, Jefferson and Adams both passed away, and the story of their passing is one of history's great tales. Bill Bennett told the story in his book, "Our Sacred Honor," and I'll let him take it from here:

"It was if Adams and Jefferson willed themselves to live to see July 4, 1826. There was much anticipation regarding the Fiftieth Anniversary of America's Independence in Adams' hometown of Quincy, Massachusetts. Adams was too weak to attend any of the planned festivities, so a local committee approached him in late June to ask him for a toast. Adams replied "Independence forever," and refused to add another word.

Though bedridden, when the great anniversary arrived, Adams asked to be seated in his chair in front of the window, so that he could take in the festivities. Soon after he slipped into a state of unconsciousness, and his doctor predicted he would not live to see another day. Adams' last thought - at least the last one he uttered out loud - was of his friend and fellow laborer for independence, Thomas Jefferson. Adams woke from his coma and said, "Jefferson still survives." Those were his last words. He died that evening.

But Adams was mistaken - Jefferson did not survive him. Jefferson's health had been on the decline. He told his grandson in the spring of 1826 that he did not expect to live to see midsummer...In the weeks that followed, Jefferson prepared for his death. On the morning of July 3, Jefferson's doctor reported that his "stupor" or coma was "almost permanent." However, Jefferson woke up at seven o'clock in the evening and asked the doctor,"Is it the Fourth?" The doctor assured him it soon would be. He clung to life long enough to die peacefully at around one o'clock in the afternoon on July 4, 1826."

It was left to the great Daniel Webster, speaking at Faneuil Hall in Boston a month later, to sum up the momentous event:

"Adams and Jefferson are no more. On our fiftieth anniversary, the great day of national jubilee, in the very hour of public rejoicing, in the midst of echoing and reechoing voices of thanksgiving, while their own names were on all tongues, they took their flight together to the world of spirits...Poetry itself has hardly terminated illustrious lives, and finished the career of earthly renown, by such a consummation. If we had the power, we could not wish to reverse this dispensation of the Divine Providence. The great objects of life were accomplished, the drama was ready to be closed. It has closed; our patriots have fallen; but so fallen, at such age, with such coincidence, on such a day, that we cannot rationally lament that the end has come, which we knew could not be long deferred."

Indeed, the "great objects of life" had been accomplished, because these two great men believed certain "truths to be self evident." And now, 235 years later, we live free because of their vision. I know it's a day for picnics and golf and time on the boat, etc., but take a moment to thank "Divine Providence" for what happened in Philadelphia more than two centuries ago.

The Dayton Shutdown, Day 1

As of midnight, July 1, Minnesota state government is shutting down, thanks our own Governor Goofy, Mark Dayton.

I've talked about the issues involved before, in this post, but it's worth a quick review. During one of the worst economic recessions in history, the Minnesota Legislature managed to pass a balanced budget that increased spending by about 9% for the two-year budget cycle, without raising taxes.

The Legislature increased funding for education, highways, the criminal justice system and other priorities. Dayton vetoed the budget bills because 9% wasn't enough of an increase: He was insisting on nearly $2 billion in increased taxes as well. (His tax hike bill was voted down in the legislature, 63-1 in the Senate, 131-0 in the House...the very definition of bipartisan opposition.)

The tax hike was a non-starter in the legislature, but Governor Goofy is insistent. And so, tonight, most of government came grinding to a halt. Even the editorial board of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, not exactly a bastion of free market conservatives, ridiculed Dayton's stance, calling his threat of a shutdown "hostage taking."

Now, the only people who are really going to notice the shutdown right away are people who wanted to spend the 4th of July weekend in a state campground. Those were shut this afternoon, and the campers sent elsewhere. Also, if you wanted to use a rest stop on the highway, you found those closed as well. The Minnesota Zoo will also be closed, but fortunately - if you just HAVE to go see animals in captivity - there's the fantastic Como Zoo, which isn't run by the state and has free admission. (Hmmm, maybe there's a lesson there about government efficacy?)

If you're not affected by those, it's going to be a while before you really notice anything. Personally, I can go quite a long time without the:

Department of Human Rights
Department of Tourism
State Arts Board
Minnesota Lottery
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
Department of Commerce
Department of Labor and Industry
Board of Accountancy
Office of the State Archaeologist
Board of Assessors
Board of Animal Health
Chicano Latino Affairs Council
State Office of Climatology
Minnesota Film and TV Board

and most of the other agencies that employ these thousands of bureaucrats.

Shut 'em all down until Labor Day, at least, and maybe by then the voices in the governor's head will go away and he'll realize the basic economic folly of raising taxes in a recession.

In the meantime, Minnesotans can enjoy the little extra bit of freedom that comes with diminished government, which seems particularly appropriate for the 4th of July weekend.