So Governor Pawlenty is going to have to cut the budget himself to balance it. The question is how? He’s asked for public input at budgetideas@state.mn.us, and a lot of people have been sending him suggestions. We have little idea what those suggestions are because they haven’t been released in their entirety, but the ones that have been released, such as liquor sales on Sunday (which I support) and racino (which I do not), aren’t real solutions because the governor has to cut the budget; he can’t unilaterally change the law to increase revenue. Asking the public what to cut is a lot more difficult (if I was asked, I’d first suggest the governor stop being a stubborn, short-sighted, mean-spirited jerk; then I might suggest cutting IT costs by moving to open-source software like Linux and Open Office). Why is it more difficult to get answers from the public as to what to cut? One reason is that many people don’t know where the budget goes.

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• Current Mood: Unlucky
• Currently Listening To: "New Year's Day", U2

A couple weeks ago I went to the dentist, and although I didn’t have any pain or other issues, my dentist found the beginnings of a small cavity. I went in a week later to have it filled; less than an hour later I was on my way. A short time later, I got my bill for $150 (which, when I thought about it, seems like a really good deal). My insurance paid for the majority, I paid the rest, and that was it.

All in all, it’s a pretty mundane story. Hardly worth even mentioning, you’d think. But taking a closer look at the pieces, it’s not unremarkable at all. I’m very fortunate that I can engage in such a transaction so easily at so little cost to me; for countless people, that just can’t happen, and the distance between my situation and theirs is not as great as one would think.

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