Last week in The Draz Traveling ALEC Reform 2.0 Medicine Show hits Kenyon, Goodview and beyond, Bluestem looked at the source of the supermajority amendment that's at the core of House Republican so-called reform.
Yesterday, MPR's Tim Pugmire reported in Dayton blasts proposed amendment for supermajority vote:
. . .House Republicans said the amendment will be a key piece of their agenda for the 2012 session. During an appearance Monday at the [state] fair, Dayton called the proposal the "millionaires tax protection amendment." The DFL governor said it would be impossible to ever pass his proposed income tax increase on top earners. . . .The threshold would force the Legislature to focus on redesigning government rather than on raising taxes, said Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, the chief sponsor of the proposed amendment.
Bluestem modestly suggests that, given Drazkowski's deep involvement with throwing "jackets" on ALEC model legislation (witness his "authorship" of Minnesota's SB1070copycat anti-immigrant and anti-brown bill [HF3830]), Draz is really talking about outsourcing government redesign to ALEC's corporate bill factory, which will supply the heavy lifting in crafting the redesign.
Because of the state's lobby gift ban, Draz and others cannot accept "scholarships" from ALEC to travel to its meetings, nor does state law allow Minnesota public funds to be used for this travel. And it can't hold meetings on its own in Minnesota without registering as a lobby (not that the law stopped it from doing so).
Bluestem thinks that the selfless creation of model bills on the part of America's finest corporate citizens should be acknowledged in Minnesota by cutting legislative pay by two thirds and doing away with the per diem system. Since the Republicans believe that there's nothing wrong with having the American Legislative Exchange Council write our laws, perhaps Minnesotans should simply concede our out-dated and expensive conceit that legislators work for us. We can save a lot of money by not paying them for plagiarizing model bills written elsewhere.
Surely $10,000 should be a generous stipend for each lawmaker to act as ALEC's file clerks, and the parsimonious pay should prove incentive for them to get their work done in a day or two, then go home to run their pizza places, sell insurance products or do whatever it is they do for their livings.
Image: Zombie Draz, animated by ALEC and depicted by Tild.
Republicans think it is important that the wealthy don't pay the same tax percentage as we do. They believe that the wealthy are magical job creators who create more jobs when they don't pay as much in taxes. To make sure that the wealthy don't pay their fair share, Republicans are proposing deep cuts in the Health and Human Services budget.