The following article by Susan Du was posted on the CityPages website October 27, 2017:
Credit: Jared Yamahata
Minnesota’s three Republican congressmen — Tom Emmer, Jason Lewis, and Erik Paulsen — share an essential creed. Americans are being overtaxed. Government spending is out of control. And the national debt — now at $20 trillion — is an outrage.
Paulsen has called the debt the “single biggest threat to national security.”
Lewis vowed in May to “protect our children’s future from Washington’s unsustainable and reckless spending … by funding programs that actually work for Americans and making sensible reforms to tackle the debt.”
The following article by Patty Dexter was posted on the Southwest News Media website October 26, 2017:
Zaheer Babar Khan shows off the sign he made to display at a gathering hosted by the group Make Change MN at the Minnesota River Bluffs LRT Regional Trail bridge over U.S. Highway 212 in Eden Prairie, Oct. 25. Photo by Patty Dexter
EDEN PRAIRIE — Zaheer Babar Khan immigrated to the United States in 2006 from Pakistan and has since become an American citizen.
When he saw images on Twitter of a white banner that said, “You will not replace us. End immigration now! Identity Evropa,” hanging on the Minnesota River Bluffs LRT Regional Trail pedestrian bridge over U.S. Highway 212 near Eden Prairie’s Miller Park, he decided to take action.
“I’ve known that Eden Prairie is far better than what I’ve seen,” he said.
Khan was one of nearly 10 people who gathered at the bridge on the evening of Wednesday, Oct. 25, to share a message of support for immigration and inclusiveness. Those present held up signs for motorists to see. Some drivers honked. Khan’s sign said, “New/old Americans are immigrants.” Continue reading “Residents rise up against white supremacists”
Republican Representatives Tom Emmer, Erik Paulsen, and Jason Lewis today voted to pass a budget that will hurt Minnesotan families. The budget makes drastic cuts to vital programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. It eliminates the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction, which saves Minnesotans thousands of dollars per year. On top of that, it is predicted to increase the budget deficit by at least $1.5 trillion.
“A budget is a moral document, and the Republican budget is a moral failure,” DFL Chairman Ken Martin said. “Minnesotans deserve a budget that ensures financial stability for the country–and for their family. This document does neither. It cuts critical programs that help working families keep food on the table while putting our nation on the path of economic disaster. Republican Representatives Emmer, Paulsen, and Lewis must be held accountable for voting for this misguided budget that will harm the nation’s economy, and Minnesotan’s pocketbooks.”Continue reading “Republican Representative Paulsen Votes for Budget Cuts that Will Hurt Minnesotan Families”
The following article by Jim Tankersley was posted on the New York Times website October 19, 2017:
Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, on Thursday in Washington. Credit Al Drago for The New York Times
WASHINGTON — Almost no one on or off Capitol Hill has seen the tax overhaul bill that Republicans are drafting behind closed doors. Congressional staff members have not settled on many key details. Yet party leaders are preparing to move ahead on a timeline even more aggressive than their unsuccessful attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
The swift pace to complete, release and quickly vote on a tax cut is aimed at leaving little time for the type of dissent that has scuttled previous tax proposals.
The following column by Sirish Samba was posted on the Sun-Sailor website October 18, 2017:
Sirish Samba is a Minnetonka business owner.
I am convinced that the best opportunities come at the most challenging times.
The year 2008 was not the best year for small business owners. The Minnesota economy, like that in many states, was hit hard by the Great Recession and many companies faced the reality of insecure funding streams.
Our company, Sambatek, was no exception. We were primarily a land development/municipal engineering firm that specialized in designing retail stores, apartment buildings, hotels and municipal infrastructure projects. Our services were not of much use in an economic bust.
But as a civil engineer, I was trained to see the solution that might be hidden to others. And I saw the recession as an opportunity to grow our company in a new direction. We decided to create a new specialty in transportation, including public transportation.
It has been almost 10 years and we have never looked back.
By 2014, we were the 48th fastest growing company in the country, with offices in Minnesota and North Dakota. We could not have become as successful as we have without a devoted staff and, strange as it may seem, sustained public investment in our public transportation systems.
When our government prioritizes public transportation, it not only keeps our systems running, but it spawns job creation in companies all along the supply chain.
Our firm employs 100 professionals in what we often refer to as the “Sambatek family.” Plain and simple, we would not be able to provide sustainable careers for these individuals without local, state and federal investment in public transportation.
Currently, we are working on several projects with Metro Transit including the Blue Line Extension and Southwest LRT projects. Not only do these projects provide jobs for hardworking Minnesotans, but they will spur economic growth in our state once they are completed.
Already, the Southwest LRT corridor has experienced more than $515 million in new development in anticipation of the project’s completion, according to a report by the American Public Transportation Association. Once it’s done, estimates hold that the line will create 16,600 jobs near the new stations and 18,500 jobs in downtown Minneapolis.
The Blue Line Extension corridor’s development has grown from $358 million in spring 2016 to $489 million today. It is estimated that, once completed, the Blue Line Extension’s 11 new stations will mean 4,600 new jobs along the route – a 30-percent growth for the region, not to mention the 20,000 jobs created downtown.
So when the federal government invests in public transportation, it’s doing much more than creating a rail in a vacuum. It is supporting small businesses, creating jobs within the supply chain, and facilitating long-term economic growth and long-term jobs.
When politicians fund public transportation, they are investing in our communities and in economic development.
Both the Southwest and the Blue Line Extension LRT rely on several different funding streams, including federal investment. They are both recipients of Capital Investment Grants (CIG grants), which come from the federal government.
Yet federal allocation for public transportation is far from secure. I am calling on Congressman Erik Paulsen and others to designate vital transportation resources in the federal budget next year.
Our politicians often speak about their focus on job creation and economic growth. They can act on these priorities and create real change in their districts and across the country with designated funding for public transportation.
After all, it is more than just the transit systems that benefit from this investment. Our employees would not have jobs without federal investment in Metro Transit’s system.
It was federal investment in public transportation that set our company on a pathway of growth back in 2008 – and what has kept us successful all these years.
I hope that if our politicians truly care about job creation and supporting small businesses in our country, they will support and fund public transportation.
I read the commentary by John Albers questioning the positions of Eric (sic) Paulsen. I have always believed that actions speak louder than words. Paulsen campaigned as a moderate in this district. Regardless of your political party, no thinking person can call this administration’s positions as moderate. Yet Paulsen has voted with the administration on practically every legislative effort of the administration. I am hard pressed to find a single bill or executive action that Paulsen has not supported.
We know many of you aren’t on Rep Paulsen’s list. And, many more have been bumped from the list. So, here’s a link tothe latest survey for you to complete. Granted, there isn’t a plan in place, and not much information has been made available (kind of like with the health care bill he voted for).
The free press is the gatekeeper to our democracy, contrary to what the current rants emanating from D.C. would like you to believe. The beauty of City Pages is that you have the courage, confidence, and conscience to speak the truth of power and to challenge the status quo. Cory Zurowski’s excellent investigative journalism has made a public record of the reality of Erik Paulsen.
No other news organization has taken interest in this congressman who has been serving out-of-state moneyed, special interest groups and extreme ideologues, as opposed to his constituents. No other news organization has taken the time to thoroughly investigate Paulsen and present these truths. In fact, the Star Tribune continually endorses Paulsen to the detriment of my district, state and nation. Continue reading “Erik Paulsen is the poster child for a failed Congress”
The following article by Cory Zurowski was posed on the CityPages website October 11, 2017:
Hilary and Lemar Gilreath’s 3-year-old son started life at a deficit, born six weeks early and weighing less than three pounds.
Erik Paulsen has become the very politician he used to claim to hate. Credit: Jared Yamahata
Over the ensuing 30 months, Logan would be diagnosed with autism, spina bifida, and sensory processing disorder. The onslaught of illnesses posed problems with walking, the ability to communicate, and a brain that struggled to receive information.
Hilary is a patient rep for Allina Health. Lemar works in tech support for a trucking company. The Edina couple receives health insurance through work, which covers 80 percent of Logan’s medical costs. But the tab for caring for a special needs child doesn’t come cheap. One MRI can cost $31,000. Logan’s autism day school runs $800 per week. Twice-weekly therapy sessions ring in at $200 a pop.
The following article by Cory Zurowski was posted on the CityPages website September 29, 2017:
Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Eden Prairie) wasted no time. Less than 24 hours after GOP leaders announced a new tax cut plan that would largely benefit businesses and wealthy Americans, Paulsen came out with a big public thumbs up.
Credit: Glen Stubbe, Star Tribune
The conservative from Eden Prairie called it long overdue “reform” that’s sure to restore “the hope of prosperity for American workers.”
Rep. Jason Lewis (R-Woodbury) went into hyperbole mode: “This plan is about defending the American Dream — the right to fly as high as your wings will take you.”
Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Delano) also came out in support of the blueprint that’s big on cuts, scarce on details. It’s estimated to amount to a $5.8 trillion tax break while doing away with $3.6 trillion in deductions. That comes out to a $2.2 trillion net cut.
Whether America can afford it or not is another conversation.
Here’s what’s known: The corporate tax rate would drop from 35 percent to 20 percent, which in theory greases the wheels for multinational companies to bring money back into the U.S. In the past few years, America’s largest companies have been hoarding cash overseas to skirt their obligations to Uncle Sam.
It would also kill the estate tax, which currently charges as much as 40 percent when a dead person’s assets are transferred to their heirs. Yet this too would be a bonanza for the rich, since it only applies to estates of $5.5 million and greater.
The GOP bill provides another bonus to the financier caste, proposing to lower rates on investment income, which are presently taxed between 15 percent and 23 percent.
What would it mean to working Minnesotans earning $25,000 per year? Or $65,000? Not much.
It looks like a wash now, according to Mark Haveman of the Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence, a nonprofit that focuses on fiscal policy. But he’s quick to qualify that: “There’s a lot of details missing. There’s blanks to be filled in here.”
It promises to bump the child tax credit, which stands at $1,000. But doesn’t say how much. The three new tax brackets — 12, 25, and 35 percent — don’t show which income groups will be subject to the new rates.
Haveman points to the standard deduction, which would double to $12,000 for those filing singly and $24,000 for those filing jointly. At the same time, personal exemptions would be eliminated.
“That sure would take a lot of the benefit away from the doubling of the deduction,” says Haveman. “These benefits of the standard deduction are partially, potentially, and largely — and maybe in some circumstances — could be completely offset depending on the household size.”
In other words, some families might be paying more.
It promises to bump the child tax credit, which stands at $1,000. But doesn’t say how much. The three new tax brackets — 12, 25, and 35 percent — don’t show which income groups will be subject to the new rates.
Haveman points to the standard deduction, which would double to $12,000 for those filing singly and $24,000 for those filing jointly. At the same time, personal exemptions would be eliminated.
“That sure would take a lot of the benefit away from the doubling of the deduction,” says Haveman. “These benefits of the standard deduction are partially, potentially, and largely — and maybe in some circumstances — could be completely offset depending on the household size.”
In other words, some families might be paying more.
“I mean, really,” says Haveman with a laugh. “It’s really difficult right now to access what will happen, and how burdens will shift, and who wins and who loses because there’s so many important details yet to be determined.”
Like how to create massive cuts without adding trillions of dollars to the national debt.
For now, it looks suspiciously like a trickle-down plan the GOP has peddled since the days of Reagan. THey’ve led to an economy that harkens back to the 1920s, with wealth congregated in the hands of a few and stagnant wages for the rest.
Hamline University profession Joe Peschek looks to history for what lays ahead. President Ronald Reagan’s 1981 plan featured billions in lower taxes for corporations and slashed estate taxes. It reduced income tax rates for every bracket.
President George W. Bush’s tax plans in the early 2000s were essentially crafted in the same trickle-down mold, according to Peschek, who argues the GOP’s sales pitch in 2017 isn’t much different.
“If we look back through those two periods,” he says, “wages were pretty flat, there was sluggish growth, and economic inequality grew. It’s hard to argue these kind of tax cuts trickle down very much.”
Rep. Betty McCollum (DFL-St. Paul) offered the best summation of the Democratic view, calling it “a multi-trillion dollar giveaway to billionaires and big corporations” that leaves “working families footing the bill.”
