Dear Neighbor,
The House is set to meet again today as we continue a special session called by the governor. Let’s hope today is more productive than Friday, when House Democrats killed another attempt to end Gov. Walz’s emergency order.
That means at least another 30 days of one person deciding what’s best for Minnesotans, for a total of 120 days by the time this extension expires.
This is beyond ridiculous and when will it ever end? Good people are being hurt, losing their livelihoods and being pushed into a financial hole so deep there might not be a way out. There is no crisis. There is no emergency. We are seeing more deaths per million in Minnesota than in other states that have re-opened.
One major problem is Gov. Walz is still allowing COVID-19-positive seniors to be placed in nursing homes. Our seniors continue to be unnecessarily exposed to risks and the vast majority of COVID-19 deaths are being suffered by people in long-term care facilities.
On a separate note related to Friday’s failures, Senate Democrats to blocked CARES Act funding that was agreed to by all four caucuses to help our local governments. Why would the Democrats, at the direction of Gov. Walz, agree to block a compromise bill, delaying badly needed funding to counties, cities, and townships? There’s no excuse for playing politics on a bipartisan compromise like this to withhold badly needed local funding.
It is time to restore balance at the Capitol and safely re-open Minnesota, but House Democrats prevented that from happening Friday. The message I heard from them on the floor is they aren’t capable of dealing with tough issues and they’d rather stand aside so the governor can run the show and keep our state under one man’s rule.
Stay tuned and we’ll see what happens today and the rest of this special session. There still are questions over exactly how long it will last and what will be on the agenda, which is highly unusual for a special session and once again shows a lack of leadership from the House majority that is willing to sit back and let the governor call the shots.
I also continue attending county board meetings in our area and next up is Tuesday in Hubbard County. I am encouraging Hubbard to join other counties and cities that are passing resolutions to re-open.
-Steve