Tom Berg and Rep. Martin Sabo discuss a Minnesota Miracle

Tom Berg

Saturday, December 8

8:00 AM – 9:30 AM

Gardens of Salonica 19 5th St NE, Minneapolis (map)

This month it’s a discussion of Tom Berg’s new book, Minnesota Miracle, by two people at the center of “a state that worked” in the 1970s, Tom Berg and former U.S. Rep. Martin Sabo.

This is part of our monthly series of informal “Stone Arch” conversations at Gardens of Salonica.  As usual, invite anyone interested–free and open to the public. Come, buy your coffee (the law is you can’t bring food or drinks into a restaurant), learn a lot and have your questions ready.

The Grand Consensus: Overview

The Grand Consensus: Minnesota’s Progressive Legacy – Overview

By Iric Nathanson

“Minnesota nurtures an extraordinary society,” Time told its readers in 1973.

On August 13 of that year, the weekly news magazine showered this state with accolades in a glowing profile, “Minnesota: The State that Works.” As a lead-in to the profile, Time featured a flannel-clad Governor Wendell Anderson on its cover.

“If the American good life has anywhere survived in some intelligent equilibrium, it may be Minnesota,” the magazine noted. “It is a state where a residual American secret still seems to operate. Some of the nation’s more agreeable qualities are evident there: courtesy and fairness, a capacity for innovation, hard work, intellectual adventure, and responsibility.

“Politics is almost unnaturally clean—no patronage, virtually no corruption. The citizens are well-educated and remarkably civil.”

Time went on to comment about a major legislative action two years earlier. In 1971, Anderson and the Minnesota Legislature had agreed to a package of state tax hikes that would boost revenues by more than a half-billion dollars. Those new revenues would be used to increase state spending for public education. At the same time, the 1971 measure would lessen the burden of local property taxes, then the major source of support for local school districts.

“It was a major piece of social legislation,” Time observed. “… [W]ithin a six-year period it will virtually equalize the per-pupil spending for education throughout the state and thus go along way towards equalizing education in the cities, suburbs, and rural areas.”

Taxes with the MN Budget Project’s Nan Madden

This podcast features Nan Madden, Director, MN Budget Project at the MN Council of Nonprofits. Madden is an active voice for tax fairness, a balanced approach to MN’s budget, adequate funding for government programs and author of numerous publications on fiscal issues and economic self-sufficiency.

Listen to the podcast from iDream.tv.

The linked podcast is a segment from the Stone Arch Discussion Group, a project of the DFL Education Foundation. It was recorded on March 10, 2011, at Gardens of Salonica in NE Minneapolis. Production services provided by Minneapolis-based multimedia company iDream.tv.

Stone Arch Preview: Taxes! With MN Budget Project’s Nan Madden

Saturday, April 14

8:00 AM – 9:30 AM
Gardens of Salonica 19 5th St NE, Minneapolis (map)

What’s more appropriate than taxes in April?  On April 14, the Stone Arch Discussion Group will feature Nan Madden, Director, MN Budget Project at the MN Council of Nonprofits. Madden is an active voice for tax fairness, a balanced approach to MN’s budget, adequate funding for government programs and author of numerous publications on fiscal issues and economic self-sufficiency.

As usual, invite anyone interested–free and open to the public. Come, buy your coffee (the law is you can’t bring food or drinks into a restaurant), learn a lot and have your questions ready.

Stone Arch Preview: Vance Opperman Provides A Businessman’s View of Government and Politics

Saturday, January 14  8:00 AM – 9:30 AM Gardens of Salonica 19 5th St NE, Minneapolis (map) At the first Stone Arch discussion of 2012, businessman and long-time DFLer Vance Opperman will provide his perspective on politics and government. As usual, invite anyone interested–free and open to the public. Come, buy your coffee (the law is you can’t bring food or drinks into a restaurant), learn a lot and have your questions ready.

Things to Tax

Paul Krugman, NY Times

The supercommittee was a superdud — and we should be glad. Nonetheless, at some point we’ll have to rein in budget deficits. And when we do, here’s a thought: How about making increased revenue an important part of the deal?

And I don’t just mean a return to Clinton-era tax rates. Why should 1990s taxes be considered the outer limit of revenue collection? Think about it: The long-run budget outlook has darkened, which means that some hard choices must be made. Why should those choices only involve spending cuts? Why not also push some taxes above their levels in the 1990s?

Let me suggest two areas in which it would make a lot of sense to raise taxes in earnest, not just return them to pre-Bush levels: taxes on very high incomes and taxes on financial transactions.

…read more…

GOP’s Budget Proposal Ends Current Medicare and Medicaid

By Carol Woehrer

 Congressional Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R – Wis) grinned as he announced that giving future seniors vouchers to buy private health insurance would bring costs down by encouraging competition.  Ryan wants you to believe the sweeping assumption that competition would bring health care costs down.  It is indeed a false one.

For consumer goods and services like autos, appliances, furniture, restaurant meals, roofing, and yard service, where a consumer can compare alternatives, yes, competition is a good idea and does overall result in higher quality goods and services at lower costs.  Health care, however is an essential requirement for people’s well being in which choices are heavily influenced by medical professionals and insurers often under conditions when choice is not an option.

Both worldwide costs and those within the U.S. demonstrate that private health insurance is far more costly than government provided insurance.   The U.S. is the only country that allows private for profit insurance as a means to provide health care to its population, and its health care costs are on average double those in the rest of the world that mainly provide health care coverage through their governments.  The U.S. itself has three health care systems:  direct government provision of health care – the health care for Veterans; a mainly single payer insurance system – Medicare; and private health insurance.  The system which is least costly and rated as the highest in quality is the Veterans system.  Traditional Medicare, a single payer insurance system, costs 14% less than Medicare Advantage that pays private insurance companies to provide Medicare benefits.

The idea that having the government pay for a service harms the economy is based on ideology rather than reality.  The total amount of the economy dedicated to health care determines how much health care affects the economy rather than the mechanism for paying for it.  The higher cost we currently pay for health care in the U.S. isn’t available for education, research and development, and good transportation systems, all of which contribute to a vibrant economy nor for other consumer goods and services.  Government provided insurance greatly reduces administrative costs; increases negotiation for lower cost drugs, supplies, and medical services; and provides opportunities to develop care models that improve quality and reduce costs.

The Medicare Rights Center states that the GOP plan would substantially increase the cost of health care for the nation’s future seniors as well as weaken the program for current recipients.  It would deprive tens of millions of Americans  of health care coverage, all to provide tax advantages for wealthy Americans.  This would increase the disparity between hard working American families and the wealthy now already at a record historical and global high.

For additional details on how the GOP Budget affects Medicare and Medicaid costs and recipients, listen to Democracy Now’s excellent interview of Joe Baker, president of the Medicare Rights Center, and Elizabeth Benjamin of the Community Service Society of New York, recently awarded the Families USA Consumer Health Advocate of the Year Award.  It is the first segment of the program, about 12 minutes long.

Dayton Uses a Balanced Approach to Balance the Budget

Christina Wessel

 This morning, Governor Dayton presented a budget proposal that takes a balanced approach to solving the state’s $6.2 billion deficit through a combination of spending reductions and revenue increases. It seeks to address the needs of Minnesotans struggling in tough times, restore balance to the state’s tax system and improve the state’s fiscal health over the long term.

The major elements of his proposal include:

$950 million in spending reductions. Any balanced approach to solving the state’s budget crisis must include spending reductions. Years of budget cuts have already forced significant cutbacks in state services, so there are no easy choices left. Governor Dayton’s proposal includes $680 million in reductions to health and human services, including cuts to health care eligibility, payments to health care providers, and services for people with disabilities. Some cuts in this area are offset by drawing down federal funding.

Read more at TC Daily Planet…

A Day in the Life of the Tea Party

The Tea Partier gets up at 6:00am to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot full of good clean drinking water because some liberal fought for minimum water quality standards. He takes his daily medication with his first swallow of coffee. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to insure their safety and work as advertised. All but $10.00 of his medications are paid for by his employers medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance, now The Tea Partier gets it too.

He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs this day. The Tea Partier’s bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry. The Tea Partier takes his morning shower reaching for his shampoo; His bottle is properly labeled with every ingredient and the amount of its contents because some liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

The Tea Partier dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some tree- hugging liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air. The Tea Partier begins his work day; he has a good job with excellent pay, medicals benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some liberal union members fought and died for these working standards The Tea Partier’s employer pays these standards because The Tea Partier’s employer doesn’t want his employees to call the union. If The Tea Partier is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed he’ll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some liberal didn’t think he should loose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It’s noon time, The Tea Partier needs to make a Bank Deposit so he can pay some bills. The Tea Partier’s deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some liberal wanted to protect The Tea Partier’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the depression. The Tea Partier has to pay his Fannie Mae underwritten Mortgage and his below market federal student loan because some stupid liberal decided that The Tea Partier and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime.

The Tea Partier is home from work, he plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive to dad’s; his car is among the safest in the world because some liberal fought for car safety standards. He arrives at his boyhood home. He was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers Home Administration because bankers didn’t want to make rural loans. The house didn’t have electricity until some big government liberal stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and demanded rural electrification. (Those rural Republicans would still be sitting in the dark)

He is happy to see his dad who is now retired. His dad lives on Social Security and his union pension because some liberal made sure he could take care of himself so The Tea Partier wouldn’t have to. After his visit with dad he gets back in his car for the ride home. He turns on a radio talk show, the host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good (He doesn’t tell The Tea Partier that his beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit The Tea Partier enjoys throughout his day).

The Tea Partier agrees, “We don’t need those big government liberals ruining our lives.”

MinnPost – Three ways to a balanced Minnesota budget

MinnPost – Three ways to a balanced Minnesota budget.

Minnesota’s budget has been in turmoil for several years now, as
plunging state revenue has created more and more red ink. Political
chaos resulting from the Nov. 2 election compounds the budget quagmire.
New Republican majorities take over both bodies of Minnesota’s
Legislature, while Mark Dayton appears likely to become the first DFL
governor in 20 years.Minnesota’s near-term fiscal future is likely to go in one of three possible directions.