I grew up reading comic books wanting to be a superhero. Comics taught me that those who speak the truth are heroes, all the rest are liars.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Random Thoughts On The GOP MN Budget

Education: In the old days they would burn books, now they just cut education funding. In Minnesota the GOP are proposing to cut $411 million from higher education funding. In effect, they are burning books. Shorted sighted, ignorant and opportunistic comes to mind...guess they want our children to be like them!

Health care: Gallup reports today on which states have the highest and lowest rates of residents without health care coverage. Minnesota is ranked as the third best state in the country for the lowest rates of uninsured. But if we enact the GOP cuts, look for Minnesota to topple into the bottom states...sigh...

1. Massachusetts, 4.7% uninsured
2. Connecticut, 9.9% uninsured
3. Minnesota, 10.5% uninsured
4. Hawaii, 10.6% uninsured
5. Pennsylvania, 11% uninsured
5. Vermont, 11% uninsured

Energy: Not saying we should necessarily label all nuclear power as bad...but what's going on in Japan should all give us (including the MN Reps!) pause to rethinking and evaluate the risks and costs. We need to free ourselves from dependency on foreign oil, but from the pan to the radioactive stove won't help. As Spidey says 'With great power, comes great responsibility'. BTW this is a great link on information regarding the crisis in Fukushima.

Thank goodness for Governor Dayton...

1 comment:

Minnesota Central said...

The best job incubator is research at higher educational institutions … it does not matter if it is from the Minnesota Center for Automotive Research at Minnesota State University – Mankato or Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology & Medical Genomics through the University of Minnesota, these types of programs have – and could in the future IF FUNDED – create jobs. BTW, did you see that the census growth in Rochester and Mankato – those are the only two cities that I read about – both were attributed to having universities in their communitities.

Funding cuts on the other hand produce staff cuts and/or student tuition increases (how many has St. Cloud already cut?) … bad deal.

Meanwhile, there is “helping” hand being raised by John Kline (R-MN-02) … err … I meant he had his hand out accepting contributions from the For-Profit Industry while voting for cuts in Pell grants.

Oh, that’s GOP Leadership in action …. BTW, on the healthcare, I believe that both MA and HI have mandatory healthcare insurance which is why those states are rated so well.