Letter to Governor Dayton

We fully support your stance in the budget talks. We agree that Minnesota's Republicans are holding us hostage to their extremist ideology. The following is an e-mail that I have sent to our representatives in the state House and Senate, Rep. Torrey Westrom (R) District 11A, and Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen (R) District 11.

The GOP's stance on compromise is that the other side gives in. The extremist ideology of the current Republicans is frightening.

Republicans are under the delusion that they can balance the state's budget with cuts only. Even Pawlenty had to resort to shifting costs to future years to balance his budget without revenue increases.

Washington is passing costs on to the States. States' revenues have decreased due to the global financial meltdown and recession. Unemployment and underemployment have resulted in increasing demands on assistance programs.

Yet the Republican response is to cut funding for those assistance programs when they are most needed, and to refuse to consider any tax increases (temporary or otherwise) on the people who can most afford it. The so-called job creators, who, despite getting lower federal income taxes, lower capital gains taxes, lower taxes on dividend income, lower estate taxes, lower interest rates on loans, and plenty of subsidies for the booming economy on Wall Street, have created very few jobs.

What does this say about the Republican party today? The "No New Taxes" pledge is delusional and is partisan politics at its worst. It seems that the GOP is willing to run up the national debt and to screw over the middle class and the poor just to gain votes for the 2012 elections.

It is time to take the rich man's hand out of the poor man's pocket. It is time to oppose the politics of Ayn Rand, where selfishness is king and social responsibility is anathema. Do your duty as our elected official, and put people first.

Let's hope that this message resonates with the people who are supposed to be representing Minnesota's citizens.