Dayton Wants a shutdown...

From Freedom Dogs...

Derek's post here indicates the possibility of a plan on part of the DFL and Dayton to shut down our state government and blame the Republicans. Yesterday, I received another letter supporting the same idea - in other words, no "negotiation" with the DFL will work.

This is the email I received. Underlining and bold are mine. [comments are also mine]

Clients and friends,

We just received fairly reliable information from the Administration that there is a good chance that the Governor's shutdown plan will include terminating payments to both health plans and health care providers for all government programs effective July 1. We believe that the decision may be that, even though eligibility for programs will continue, providers and health plans will not be paid for providing their services and coverage. The intent appears to be to have an immediate, strong impact of the shutdown to create the greatest possible pain and resulting pressure on the Legislature to resolve the dispute. [A planned attack on our legislators and the still-working people of MN - that is, Dayton will only want a tax increase - those who believe this is only on the rich will have a very pricey awakening]

Many of you would be seriously, if not fatally, damaged by an extended period of time with no payments under government programs. For this reason, we are planning to work with other health care organizations to try to plan and launch an aggressive media, grassroots and lobbying campaign directed toward legislators who are swing votes in overcoming the deadlock and to maintain as much health care program funding as possible. [So pressure the legislature to spend money we don't have; let Dayton increase taxes on MN; where will this money come from?]

We are organizing a meeting for next week and will send you an invitation and more details as soon as we can. We are also asking for data from DHS and other sources to quantify the impact of the vetoed HHS bill by county and hope to be able to share the data at the meeting so that advocacy efforts can be supported by data on the impact on each legislator's district.

If you are aware of any data or analysis on the impact of the HHS bill, please forward it to me. Also, if you have seen some effective communications messages and personal stories that you think are especially effective, please share them with me, too.

This past Monday, June 6, I was told Governor Dayton was a "no-show" at a scheduled state meeting to discuss the budget with the MN Senate. Yesterday, after hearing a panel of Republican representatives, we were told that Governor Dayton has not given his commissioners any negotiating power. They go to hearings in St. Paul but can't day or do anything.

Why does it appear that the "party of the people" is out destroy business, tax the daylights out of everyone else and hurt the very people they claim they want to help? IMO, control, control, control but to what end?

What can you do?

Support your legislators - "Hold the line!"

Write to your local paper - Dayton and his people are now playing with people's lives. There is enough money to keep these places going - Dayton simply wants more.



Stand strong legislative Republicans!

Mark Dayton, wuss...

I remember that back when Emmer did his 3-day bus tour around the state, finishing at his new HQ he casually pointed out his DFL tracker. We all laughed. Mark Dayton on the other hand can't take it, maybe it's because he knows sooner or later he's bound to say something stupid in public and have it caught by cameras. Mark my words (haha unintentional pun), he will have a "Macacca" moment very soon.
DFL gubernatorial hopeful Mark Dayton said Monday that GOP operatives harassed him at an outdoors expo over the weekend and prevented him from talking to Minnesota voters.

By following him at close range with inexpensive Flip cameras, Dayton said the video trackers "made it impossible for me to conduct normal campaign activities."

Republicans say that the staffers they hired to track and record Dayton were polite and that Dayton overreacted to a time-worn tactic that political parties use to keep tabs on rivals.

"When you interfere with the ability of Minnesotans to walk up to another candidate and have a civil conversation, you have gone too far," Dayton wrote in a letter to state GOP chairman Tony Sutton. "It is intentional harassment, disruption of our campaign activity and intimidation of Minnesota voters."

Dayton called on all three parties to stop using so-called candidate trackers except at public events like candidate forums and debates. He said that trackers should clearly identify which party or candidate they work for.

GOP spokesman Mark Drake said that Republican party officials won't change their use of trackers.

"I am sure Mark Dayton would like to hide from the voters for the next three months, but that's just not going to happen," Drake said. "This isn't 1982. Tracking is a routine part of politics now. ... I've never seen this sort of bizarre, weird, erratic reaction."