The House GOP screwed this up from the beginning. These miners were laid off due to no fault of their own (the Chinese flooded the world markets with cheap steel), and their unemployment benefits ended at the New Year. What could've been a nice olive branch to rural Minnesota has thrown the House GOP into a political mess, and has seriously jeopardized the Republican's chances of holding the Minnesota House in 2016.
Let's start at the beginning. China floods the world markets with cheap steel, leading to layoffs at the mines on the Range. Minnesota Democrats last year wanted to pass a "Minnesota steel for Minnesota projects" bill, but House Republicans stopped it. Around November, Governor Dayton (D) starts floating the idea of a special legislative session to deal with the soon to be ending unemployment benefits. This would be an easy fix, as the state has a designated fund already set aside to give to unemployed workers. No tax had to be created, and no fund needed to be raided. To extend these benefits, a simple vote to transfer money out of a solvent unemployment benefits fund was needed. The MN House Republicans were dealing with bad publicity they'd garnered from not fulfilling promises they made to rural voters in 2014 ("Elect us! We promise we will take every dollar out of the inner city and give it you you salt of the earth rural folk!"). In 2015, they pretty much ignored the rural parts of the state, instead giving the wealthiest Minnesotans, and the biggest businesses, tax payer handouts. Rural Minnesota took notice. The extending of unemployment benefits to Iron Range workers was potential image rehabilitation; a no brainer, or so you'd think.
The GOP, lead by Speaker Kurt Daudt, went into the negotiations on the special legislative session with clear intent to make sure it never happened. Daudt demanded the Governor build an oil pipeline across the state, and approve two new precious metal mines in the fragile northern Minnesota Arrowhead region, mines that would use a highly dangerous, and environmental damaging, sulfur mining process. The Governor couldn't make those demands happen, even if he wanted to. They needed approval on numerous other governmental levels, something that takes years, not weeks. This was Speaker Daudt negating the special session from the get go, but he promised the House GOP would approve the unemployment extension on the first day of the regular session.
It was clear that wasn't going to happen before the regular session started. Republicans insisted a massive tax break for big businesses had to be approved before they'd write the check for the unemployed miners. Once again, the Republicans, after they shot down the special session, had PROMISED this aid immediately after the House opened for it's regular session. They finally passed a bill which had a tax cut and unemployment aid wrapped together, something the Minnesota Senate, lead by sometime Democrat Tom Bakk, a powerful and popular politician from the Iron Range, already said the Senate wouldn't pass. The Senate wanted two separate bills, and proceeded to vote on the tax cut first, which all Senators passed, and then the unemployment aid extension, which passed the Senate unanimously as well. This little power play by Daudt backfired. Last year, he was able to use his personal friendship with Bakk to override the Governor, but with the dragging of Republican feet on Iron Range unemployment benefits, Bakk clearly soured of Daudt's games, creating a definitive wedge between the two houses. Daudt, realizing he'd misplayed the entire fiasco from the beginning, dropped his demand for the two elements to be in the same bill. The Republican House FINALLY proceeded to vote in favor of the tax break first, then the unemployment benefits extension, weeks after the regular session started.
Once again, the GOP got their one time tax cut for businesses before the money from the unemployment fund was dished out. With a unanimous House vote on the extension, they might be able to spin this pathetic mess into a tie. Then seventeen Republicans decided that the Iron Range workers didn't deserve ANY help. NONE!!! All they had to do was write the check from the already funded unemployment benefits fund for unemployed people. These 17 inexplicably refused.
Why? It makes no sense politically. As I laid out, this has damaged the Republican brand with rural Minnesota voters, and it unnecessarily damaged the relationship between Daudt and Bakk. It doesn't make any sense fiscally either, as the money was already there; all they had to do was flip the switch.
The only answer I could come up with? These 17 Republicans represent the belligerent, militant, radical, Reagan hybrid Republicans who have taken over certain states in the country. Kansas, Louisiana and Wisconsin were controlled by these extremists who don't think about what they're doing, they just do it. In all three of those states, the Republicans first give every available dime they could get their hands on to the wealthy. I mean everything! They rescinded the wealthiest's taxes as a whole, made business taxes disappear, gave them rebates on federal taxes they paid, and shifted tax payer dollars into their pockets at obscene levels, creating a massive crater in their state's budgets. They were PAYING wealthy people to live in their state, just because they were wealthy. It's trickle down economics on steroids. The Republicans might be complete idiots who didn't know trickle down economics doesn't work, and never has, but more likely they knew exactly what they were doing; a pathetic attempt to get a cushy job after their political career was finished, with the same wealthy people they rewarded.
In Kansas, during the school year, they had to close schools 6 weeks early, because they couldn't afford to keep the doors open. In Louisiana, they raided railroad crossing safety dollars to pay for basic day to day state operation. In Wisconsin, they stopped picking up deer carcasses on the side of the road, as 'carcass free roads' were deemed a luxury Wisconsinites could no longer afford. Where most people would look at these results with disgust and anger, these 17 Minnesota Republicans might've thought this was a template they could use, pegging the Unemployment Benefits Fund as a stockpile of cash to give to the rich. If that's the case, them scrawling a check to unemployed people from the fund, even though that's what it was designed for, would've been too much of a sacrifice.
I should mention, many of these 17 Republicans have brought up their religious faith when touting their qualifications for holding political office. False piety and bogus religiosity has been the 'moral' foundation for the GOP for the last 30 years. This embarrassing disaster proves these 17 can't actually believe in Christian doctrine.
If a man was dying of thirst in the desert, Jesus, and any good Christian, or decent human being for that matter, would've given him water, no questions asked. Unfortunately for the thirsty man, he came across these 17 people first. The 17 are in control of a vat of water specifically designated for thirsty people needing a drink. They tell him, even though they have plenty of water readily available, they decided the need of the thirsty man was not great enough. They tell him to wait for a few months. The thirsty man waits. Then comes the day when the 17 said they'd give him water. The 17 then say, "first you need to go dig a new well for each of the richest land owners in the region. When that's done, then we'll give you the water." The man goes and digs the wells for the wealthiest landowners, and returns. Then the 17 say, "even though you've done what we asked, even though we have plenty of water, designated for you, readily available, even though all we have to do is turn the switch for you to drink, we've decided against it...by the way, have we told you we're Christians?"
The GOP in Minnesota, and in this country, are absolutely bankrupt on all levels, especially these 17: Mark Anderson, Sarah Anderson, Peggy Bennett, Drew Christensen, Steve Drazkowski, Glenn Gruenhagen, Jerry Hertaus, Eric Lucero, Joe McDonald, Jim Nash, Joyce Peppin, Cindy Pugh, Peggy Scott, Dennis Smith, Bob Vogel, Abigail Whelan, Anna Wills
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please feel free to leave a comment. I'll review it and as long as it's not dirty, I'll post it (even if you disagree with me).