Governor Timmy, Brainless Bachmann and a Stormy Update

Minnesota Governor Timmy Pawlenty and Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann jumped to the head of the line this week as being heartless and, in the case of Bachmann (no surprise here), just goddamn stupid.

Governor Heartless

Governor Timmy, in the end, is a petulant little boy whose attitude is that
he’s not raising taxes no matter the consequences. He is the poster
boy to the anti-tax types like Grover Norquist and this, of course,
makes him very attractive to contemporary Republicans at the national
level. Helpful, if you are delusional enough to think you can be
president. Yet, he fails to realize that while he placates the
every-shrinking group of anti-tax, no-government whack jobs, in
the long run Minnesotans will have more money leave their pockets for
those things that must always be paid for. Wait until all those saying
“oh, thank you Governor Timmy for not raising taxes when we are all
struggling in a bad economy” get their next property tax statement. I
wonder what they will think of Governor Timmy when they pay increased
fees at the local, county and state level, see costs for healthcare
insurance really go up because the money to treat the poor and
indigent needs to come from somewhere (you don’t think Blue Cross/Blue
Shield is going to absorb that, do you Mr. And Mrs. No Tax Increase?)
In the end, we will continue the legacy under Governor Timmy of having
Minnesota not work nearly as well as it should.

It is important to point out that previous generations of Republican
leadership at both the national and state level were never this cold
hearted. In Minnesota, past Republican governors like Elmer L.
Anderson, Al Quie and Arne Carlson, while traditional Republicans when
it came to fiscal matters, nevertheless found compromise and did, in
the end, care for the less fortunate, albeit not exactly in the same
way the Democrats did

Under Governor Timmy, of course, the upper one to two percent of the
income bracket is never being asked to pay their fair share. They
continue to keep a greater percentage of their gross income while the
masses down below face just the opposite situation.

An example of Pawlenty’s heartless attitude is General Assistance
Medical Care (GAMC), which is for people who do not qualify for other
state programs and do not have private insurance. These are very
low-income adults 21to 64 years old and who do not have children.
These people often suffer from chronic health care problems and are
the ones we think of when we think of those forced to use a nearby
hospital emergency room for virtually every medical situation. To be
eligible, their monthly income can’t exceed $650 and they can’t have
more than $1,000 in assets although they may own a home or a vehicle
in certain circumstances. There is a hospital-only coverage program
in which the income and asset limits are slightly higher but not much.

These people are also responsible for co-pays. Obviously, the number
of those who are eligible rides up and down with the economy.

While the GAMC is a state-only funded program, expenditures are used
to draw down federal hospital payments for hospitals serving a
disproportionate share of low-income people. The result of Timmy’s
veto is he just said “fuck you” to roughly 30,000 Minnesotans and,
$18M in federal revenue in FY ‘11 will be lost.

So Governor “Palenty-for-me-and-my-rich-supporters, nothing-for-anyone
else” has cut off his nose to spite his pretty boy face. Hang on,
Minnesota, because there are going to be less cops, less firefighters,
an increase in shitty roads and maybe even another bridge collapse or
two!

At the same time, the Democratic majority leadership in the
legislature needs to be taken to task. I believe they failed early on
in this session to form a strong enough unified front and to make
tactical moves back during the winter to be able to stop Timmy.

Regardless, all this poses some real problems for Timmy. He has pretty
much told us he won’t seek reelection. He has pissed off just a little
too many of the state’s citizens. Remember, he has never won the
majority in his previous two races. Then there is the awful spot he is
in when it comes to signing the certification on the outcome of the
Franken-Coleman race. Logic says Franken wins. If Timmy signs the
certification, that gets the national Republican leadership all riled
up because the Dems now really control the U. S. Senate. If he takes
the chicken-shit route and doesn’t sign it, the matter goes to the
federal courts delaying Minnesota having a second
senator even further. At this point, Minnesotans will be so goddamn mad at him that he
probably will have to take a job with David Strom and the Taxpayers
League ala Phil Krinkie.

Onto Michelle “Brainless” Bachmann.

When completed in the near future, the Northstar Commuter Line will
run from the Twin Cities northwest to Big Lake, MN. There is federal
funding available to extend that an additional 30 miles to St. Cloud,
a sizeable city roughly 75 miles northwest of Minneapolis. Over the
past twenty years, this area has grown in population at an alarming
rate and is a classic example of urban sprawl. It screams for commuter
systems. But Bachmann, who has demonstrated she has the intelligence
of a fork, is against it because “she opposes earmarks. “Bite me,
honey!” You moronic bimbo, you took nearly $4 million in earmarks for
your district (the Congressional Sixth) back in tour first term
starting in 2007!

While previously serving in the Minnesota State Senate, Mindless
Michelle was part of a lunatic fringe group that advocated
individualized pods for commuters that would ride along on some kind
of a rail system…. one person per pod. Apparently, she is afraid that
if she were to ever ride on a commuter bus or train, gays or lesbians
might sit next to her and she would catch something.

Minnesotans for Stormy Expanding

Minnesotans for Stormy may well be taking on a bigger role in Ms.
Daniels’ campaign in Louisiana than was previously noted. There are
strong indications that a couple of Minnesota Democratic campaign
veterans could be making notable contributions to the campaign. Of
course, of all this is predicated on whether Ms. Daniels decides to
run against “Diaper Dave” Vitter.

Diaper Dave will face a yet-to-be-determined Democrat opponent and either
Ms. Daniels will challenge him in the Republican primary or seek
office as an independent. I am, by the way, checking out rumors as to
whether a special stroller is being built to accommodate Diaper Dave
so that his Mommy, as well as campaign workers, can push him along at
events such as parades and rallies.