The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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August 20, 2010

Your View: Republicans redistributed wealth upwardly

By Don Strasser, Mankato

— Clearly, Republicans and their supporters are out of touch with economic reality. Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer advocated cutting the income of Minnesota restaurant workers, which would reduce their contributions to retail sales and to state revenue.

We cannot afford Third World wages.

Emmer also would slash the state budget by up to 30 percent, which would result in incalculable harm to state employees, state education, state roads and more importantly, those Minnesotans most dependent upon state services.

He also would keep a lower income tax rate for the state’s wealthiest than for middle-income Minnesotans.

On the other hand,  DFL gubernatorial candidates would use a sensible combination of taxes, budget cuts and deferments to get us through our fiscal crisis.

There was a time when progressive Minnesota was the envy of the nation. Jesse Ventura and Gov. Tim Pawlenty took care of that. Under their leadership, we lost not only our state’s rainy day fund, but also our quality of life, even before the George W. Bush recession.

Now, Emmer promises to give us their failed policies in exaggerated form.

Congressman Tim Walz’s Republican opponent Randy Demmer believes the Republican myth that the unemployed would rather apply for benefits than apply for work. Most job seekers and employers report 20 applicants for every job opening.

And how can Minnesotans apply for jobs his business buddy shipped to the Czech Republic?

Demmer is out of touch with the plight of the unemployed and underemployed.

Republicans have redistributed the wealth upwardly. Their policies during the Bush years gave us the first economic expansion in our history in which poverty increased and the typical family lost income.

Don Strasser

Mankato

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