And still…

United States just like the state of Minnesota is a place where you choose to live and just like a hotel if you choose to stay you have to pay. Nobody is stealing/coercing or otherwise forcing you to pay or forcing you to stay, but if you choose to stay you have to pay. If you have no money you stay in the utility room with just enough to survive. If you have a little money you get the bare minimum room and pay accordingly. If you have a lot of money you get a suite with all the amenities but again you pay accordingly!!

Bring back rational tax rates of the 1950 and 1960, so the next time we have a recession we can cut taxes in a meaningful way.
Let start negotiating at the 94% tax rate, like it was and negotiate down from there.

google “Historical Top Tax rate”

Why even have a shutdown if someone still benefits from it? Either shut it down all the way or pass a budget that eliminates unnecessary items. That’s pretty much what the judge is doing – passing our budget since our legislative branch can’t…

So former governers get a retirement check and the people that are layed off don’t get paid.????????? Dayton gets to keep his cook and housekeeper, funny what is important or essential and what is not…….

Dayton kept his cook out of his own pocket. He should be able to spend his own money on whatever he would like.

It is now clear to me that the word ESSENTIAL has lost its meaning in today’s society because a lot of people look at the nanny state to address their needs. May I be wrong.. but tough times are coming and we will all have to relearn what essential to survival really means…

American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
Ghostwriting the Law for Corporate America

AAJ’s Report

The Koch Brothers, big tobacco, insurance companies, and the drug industry: all behind the shadowy corporate front group known as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). On the surface, ALEC is mostly comprised of thousands of state legislators, each paying a nominal fee to attend ALEC retreats and receive model legislation. In reality, corporations pay ALEC a king’s ransom to access legislators to distribute radical legislation that puts corporate interests over American workers and consumers.

So, while the membership appears to be public sector, corporate money dominates ALEC. In fact, public sector membership dues account for only around one percent of ALEC’s annual revenues. ALEC claims to be nonpartisan, but its pro-corporate, anti-consumer mission is clear.

Read about ALEC’s hand in protecting oil companies, chemical manufacturers and Wall Street banks in AAJ’s report here:

ALEC: Ghostwriting the Law for Corporate America >>

AAJ Release: Report Lifts Veil on ALEC’s Pro-Corporate, Anti-Consumer Mission >>

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Executive Summary:

Few have ever heard of it, but the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, is the ultimate smoke filled back room.

On the surface, ALEC’s membership is mostly comprised of thousands of state legislators. Each pays a nominal membership fee in order to attend ALEC retreats and receive model legislation. ALEC’s corporate contributors, on the other hand, pay a king’s ransom to gain access to legislators and distribute their corporate-crafted legislation.

So, while the membership appears to be public sector, the bankroll is almost entirely private sector. In fact, public sector membership dues account for only around one percent of ALEC’s annual revenues. ALEC claims to be nonpartisan, but in fact its free-market, pro-business mission is clear.

The result has been a consistent pipeline of special interest legislation being funneled into state capitols. Thanks to ALEC, 826 bills were introduced in the states in 2009 and 115 were enacted into law.

Behind the scenes at ALEC, the nuts and bolts of lobbying and crafting legislation is done by large corporate defense firm Shook, Hardy & Bacon. A law firm with strong ties to the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries, it has long used ALEC’s ability to get a wide swath of state laws enacted to further the interests of its corporate clients.

ALEC’s campaigns and model legislation have run the gamut of issues, but all have either protected or promoted a corporate revenue stream, often at the expense of consumers. For example, ALEC has worked on behalf of:

•Oil companies to undermine climate change proponents;
•Pharmaceutical manufacturers, arguing that states should be banned from importing prescription drugs;
•Telecom firms to block local authorities from offering cheap or free municipally-owned broadband;
•Insurance companies to prevent state insurance commissioners from requiring insurers to meet strengthened accounting and auditing rules;
•Big banks, recommending that seniors be forced to give up their homes via reverse mortgages in order to receive Medicaid;
•The asbestos industry, trying to shut the courthouse door to Americans suffering from mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases; and,
•Enron to deregulate the utility industries, which eventually caused the U.S. to lose what the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) estimated as $5 trillion in market value.
AAJ News
We need to get rid of all these morons Koch and Zellars and the rest of the GOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When you shut the state down, shut it all down! Don’t be making exceptions for this and that. I am a state employee who has been laid off and the customers I work are just as important as anyone else!

How about they fire back up the Minnesota Work Force Center website. The servers still draw the same power they did when they had jobs listed and not some 5 line txt site.

I would like to get a good job.