Blog
June 14, 2013
Last Thursday evening, I had the privilege, for the eighth consecutive year, of acting as master of ceremonies for the Annual Dinner of the Center of the American Experiment. This year’s dinner featured Dr. Benjamin Carson, one of the most eminent physicians in the United States, whose speech at the National Prayer Breakfast made him a household name. There was a lot of excitement about Dr. Carson’s appearance, and 1,000 people, a sellout crowd, attended the dinner.
May 24, 2013
In the waning days of the Minnesota State Legislature’s 2013 session, unfinished business stemming from a Watchdog Minnesota investigation surfaced on the Senate floor. The issue: How to rein in a State Arts Board program that’s sent dozens of Minnesota artists on taxpayer-funded trips around the world?
“At a time when we’re asking taxpayers
May 23, 2013
Please join us in persuading our fellow Minnesotans that liberty, hard work, gratitude and self-restraint are the best Minnesota traditions we can pass on to the next generation.
May 23, 2013
A wealth property owners that doesn't pay property tax will get yet another tax break, in a move that may finally mean the repair or replacement of a bridge that has been deemed unusuable and unfixable for 20 years.
May 21, 2013
Introduction: As I write this, the Minnesota House is set to vote on a proposal to unionize independent, self-employed business owners who heretofore worked primarily for families of small children. Some of these business owners have customers who receive public subsidies. AFSCME, the powerful union of state and local workers, has been seeking to unionize, and enrich its coffers with the dues of, these business owners for several years now. Thanks in part to the union’s backing of today’s majority party, the Legislature will say “thank you” to AFSCME. And the union, in turn, will of course say “thank you” to the DFL with future contributions of time and treasure.
While it’s true that
May 15, 2013
HF 729 should be renamed the 2013 Omnibus Jobless Bill
May 15, 2013
A number of proposals to implement new energy mandates on electric utilities and their consumers are quickly moving through the Minnesota legislature in the final days of the legislative session. Ironically, the solar and other energy mandates, despite finding a home in the jobs bill, will cost Minnesota jobs.
May 14, 2013
We are being told these are exciting days for education in Minnesota. For the first time in better than two decades DFLers control both houses of the legislature and the governor's chair. The spigots have finally been pried open, and the dollars are about to flow. What could be more exciting than that? Plenty.
May 9, 2013
This week, the Minnesota State House of Representatives issued a news release that said the following:“The Elections Omnibus Policy bill (HF 894), authored by Rep. Steve Simon (DFL—Hopkins), passed by a vote of 74-60 with support from both sides of the aisle.”
May 7, 2013
Sunday’s Opinion section in the Star Tribune had a lot to like as well as not like, including in the first category Senior Fellow Kathy Kersten’s decisive column about Minnesota’s overspending and overtaxing ways. If you haven’t read “Someone’s Got to Pay for All That Spending” you can do so here.