The Federal DREAM Act

Congress is debating the DREAM act, which would give the children of undocumented immigrants the opportunity to normalize their status, and thereafter gain citizenship, if they server in the military or get a college education. If there was ever a no-brainer, this is it, and polls show widespread support for it. Businesses support it. Human… Continue reading The Federal DREAM Act

A Vision for Minnesota

Tom Emmer released the final part of his budget plan yesterday. As I figured, it was pretty brutal: a one-third cut(!) to LGA, cuts to K-12 education (giving them less than they get this year is not quite “holding education harmless”), cuts to higher ed, cuts to health care (reading between the lines of his… Continue reading A Vision for Minnesota

Anti-union sentiment

I was reading this story about concessions that Harley-Davidson is asking its union workers to agree to in order to save their jobs in Wisconsin. What struck me was not the fact that workers were being asked to sacrifice for years, something that happens with depressing regularity these days, but the reader comments on the… Continue reading Anti-union sentiment

Emmer’s budget fantasy

Tom Emmer has been rightly criticized for not revealing the details of his budget (the Grand Forks Herald, not exactly a liberal newspaper, has a particularly brutal dressing-down of Emmer). So far, he’s released a program of more than $600 million in tax cuts, which only widens the budget deficit Minnesota faces. Why hasn’t he… Continue reading Emmer’s budget fantasy