The State of the State was two days ago, but thanks to The Uptake, I can still blog about as if it were happenning right now. What follows are jumbled notes and incomplete thoughts about the unnecessary speech.

DFL Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kelliher (Minneapolis), introduces T Paw as “the Honorable Tim Pawlenty” and joins with the rest of the room — its left and right — in giving him a standing ovation. Gov. T Paw comes in, shining and sweet. He makes a joke about another governor dropping dead. “You might not be so lucky, my health is pretty good,” he says. T Paw continues the showboating and attempts to ride Obama rhetoric coattails about unity. He now goes into distinctly Minnesotan phrases – “lake as still as glass” “call of the loon” “purple rain” (?) – and gets nostalgic about Minnesota and gets another lame full-room applause because of it. Common sense – “a trait we’ll need now more than ever before.”

He tells the story of the typical family at the “Minnesotan kitchen table” where bills are a tough burden. “Please, don’t add to their burden by increasing their bill from government. Please! Don’t take more of their hard earned money. Please! Don’t waste their taxes!” But please! Don’t do anything about it. For this T Paw gets another standing ovation from both sides, even though he’s exploiting the definition of liberal government. The ovation’s long enough for him to take a sip of water and thank the audience.

The Budget: How to tackle a state that’s $5 billion in the hole

First Priority: Kickin’ ass

“The highest priority of government is to keep our citizens safe and make sure we have the capability to protect and defend.” United States military kicks ass. We can’t stop kicking ass in Minnesota. Gathering from these thoughts, I guess more military spending will be on top of the budget. T Paw then takes the focus off politics and tells a hell of a story about a Sergeant from Minnesota in Iraq being ambushed, going from vehicle to vehicle to check on his soldiers and fight with them. This gets a giant standing ovation that lasts twice as long as the last few. The whole thing is a way to kill ten minutes of time without addressing any major issues other than spending more on the military.

Second Priority: Jobs (AKA business tax cuts)

“It pays the bills on the kitchen table.” Government can’t make jobs. Only people can make jobs. He’s again corrupting the definition of liberal government and again getting applauded by both his Republican and DFL audience. He proposes the Minnesota Jobs Recovery Act, which will cut business taxes. To back it up, T Paw cites some statistics from anti-tax organizations. “In 2009, it costs too much for employers to keep jobs in this state.” Funny, we’re only halfway through its first month so far. Gov. proposes to cut the business tax rate in half – from 9.8 percent to 4.8 percent. That’s a little more than half. DFLers take a cue this is something partisan and decide not to applaud and instead give the Gov. a gloomy look from their seats, hands under their chins attempting to give the evil eye.

Third Priority: Education (AKA No Child Left Behind)

“Our K-12 system is not ready for the future.” For the Gov. that means more funding for education, “even in times like these.” My guess is this is an easy way for T Paw to appeal to the centrists. But his proposal really means higher standards for training teachers and teacher certification. “Modernize the way we pay teachers. Pay teachers more when they have better results.” Unfortunately, this is T Paw’s way of saying, “Pay more to the schools in the white suburbs that have always showed better results.” In essence, T Paw is localizing No Child Left Behind by refusing to define schools “geographically,” as he puts it, which will no doubt ignore the urban schools. Another classic example of the Gov. ignoring the city he lives in, St. Paul, and the city he’s neighboring by, Minneapolis. He says his plan will “permanently increase per-pupil spending by the equivalent of 5 percent.” Now the DFLers are pissed, and they sit on the left and continue to glare while their right counterparts applaud.

The Gov. wraps this up with more attempted Obama-style unity rhetoric and gets a few standing ovations from both sides again – the DFLers aren’t shy this time. After abiding by the nostalgic and polite parliamentary procedure – it takes a few members of Congress to call for adjourning before anyone can actually leave (except for T Paw, who’s lucky ass was already long gone) – the DFLers leave and later make a critical response to the Gov., who will be nowhere near them to hear their thoughts.

DFL Response: Outrage

Speaker Kelliher, who introduced T Paw as “honorable,” alleges that the Gov.’s proposals will make the $5 billion deficit surge. “The Gov.’s answer was to actually make it worse for Minnesotans.” “There was a lot of talk about people sitting around the kitchen table, but no talk about how to help those sitting around the kitchen table,” says a DFLer. Speaker characterized the Gov.’s proposals on cutting the budget as “small nibbles” that won’t change a damn thing. Senate Majority Leader Larry

Pogemiller, a former MPIRGer, says he “genuinely expected an uplifting speech on shared sacrifice” but instead got “more tax cuts on businesses.” Kelliher is mad that T Paw is proposing lots of spending.
Pogemiller flexes his muscles: “Perhaps you’re aware that out of the four of us I’m viewed as not being the closest to the Gov.” But besides the rhetoric the response drags on the same way a legislative session will drag on, with the DFLers failing to give any real budget ideas of their own. “But we can still criticize the Gov.!”

Tags: DFL, Margaret Anderson Kelliher, State of the State, The Uptake, Tim Pawlenty