Dear Neighbor,
It’s been fairly quiet in the House this week. Not because there isn’t work that needs to be done on important bills, but because Democrats have been slow to come to agreement on key policy areas including health, education and the workforce.
Democrats are holding up the education bill because they want to pay people to not work. They’re delaying a health bill because they want to continue providing taxpayer-funded health care to illegal immigrants. And they’re obstructing workforce legislation because they want to remove the ability of companies to use non-compete contracts for their research and development, which, if they were successful in doing so, would drive innovation out of the state of Minnesota.
This all is happening because the most radical elements of the House Democratic Caucus refuse to acknowledge the reality of last November, when they lost their trifecta of power and Donald Trump was given a broad mandate.
Democrats are on the wrong side of all these 80/20 issues, standing with the extreme radicals among the 20 percent instead of supporting what 80 percent of the people want.
Democrats gave “free” lunches to students who didn't need them because they were already being fed under previous law. When House Republicans propose to instead use that money to bolster teachers’ pensions, Democrats say “no.”
When House Republicans seek to take money that Democrats are providing to illegal immigrants for healthcare and instead use it for our own residents, Democrats again say “no.”
And, when we try to provide even a sliver of relief to our businesses for the mandates that Democrats have posed over the past couple years, they still say “no.”
These are the things that are stalling progress at the Capitol. We have one week left to figure it all out and pass a new two-year state budget.
Looking back at how the session started, with Democrats refusing to show up for nearly a month, that level of intransigence and disrespect is now rearing its head again at the intersection. These are not people who are interested in acting in good faith and have on numerous occasions reneged bipartisan agreements that had been struck to move forward important bills.
There’s still time to get our work done, but only if Democrats are willing to acknowledge the sun has set on their radical agenda of the last two years. We’ll see what happens.
Sincerely,
Walter