Letter of the Day: Pawlenty and health care

PAWLENTY AND HEALTH CARE

To win presidency, he has to woo the extremists

None of us should envy Gov. Tim Pawlenty. To sound sane, he has to acknowledge that death panels are not in the health care bill. But to mollify the extremists who will control the 2012 Republican conventions and primaries, he has to say that concerns about death panels are "legitimate" because in the future, maybe, someone might propose them.

Pawlenty knows that the House bill explicitly prohibits benefits for illegal immigrants. House Republicans propose amendments tightening verification requirements. Democrats oppose the amendments as too strict, saying that they are not needed and will prevent citizens from getting care they need and to which they are entitled. In this disagreement over the wonky details of legislative drafting, the extremists have detected a plot to give benefits to illegals. Pawlenty, who knows better, has to say their claims have "merit."

The poor guy wants to be president. We should worry about his ability to sleep at night.

BILL MULLIN, MINNEAPOLIS

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In July, Gov. Pawlenty unilaterally balanced the state budget through unallotment, cutting health care and local government aid to the tune of $3 billion. One of the most devastating cuts he made was to eliminate General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC), a program that provides health care for the 35,000 of the state's poorest and sickest Minnesotans, most of whom suffer from severe and persistent mental illness.

Last week, the Hennepin County Board proposed a property tax increase of nearly 5 percent for 2010, the bulk of which will be used to pay for the increased costs associated with the rise in the number of uninsured people needing help at the county hospital due to the GAMC cuts.

This is another example of a governor who pushes the cost of state government onto property taxpayers like us in order to keep his pledge to extreme special-interest groups. The costs don't go away; they just get shifted to the least fair of taxes and to those least able to pay.

To those who say they don't want to pay for health care for others, I say this: You're already paying. Just look at your next property tax statement.

REP. JIM DAVNIE, DFL-MINNEAPOLIS

LORING HILL PROJECT

Goodman was listening to her constituents

I spent hundreds of hours phoning neighbors, knocking on doors, standing on street corners and hitting the pavement of the Loring Park neighborhood to personally collect the majority of 750 signatures on a petition opposing developer Brad Hoyt's proposed 21-story glass tower for Loring Hill, so I will not allow Hennepin County District Judge Aldrich to steal credit for organizing my neighborhood from me.

I am aghast that Aldrich could conclude that Minneapolis City Council Member Lisa Goodman "organized neighborhood opposition" in his ruling on Hoyt's lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis (Star Tribune, Sept. 17). Despite repeated invitations, Lisa Goodman never attended one of our grass-roots opposition meetings. In fact, fellow activists and I were rather convinced that Lisa did not support our position. It was that doubt that fueled the fervor with which I and scores of my neighbors flooded Goodman's office with phone calls, e-mails and letters urging her to support her constituents in opposition to the tower.

In the representative democracy that is the Minneapolis City Council, Aldrich is faulting Goodman for what -- doing her job?

MICHAEL MARN, MINNEAPOLIS

MNSCU BONUSES

Administrators should give them to students

I am a community college instructor, and the announcement this morning that MnSCU administrators received bonuses absolutely floored me. I make a good living and certainly will not starve because my union decided to step up to the plate in support of the students and taxpayers and not ask for a salary increase in the last contract negotiations.

Students are having a hard time buying books, paying tuition, meeting living expenses, etc., and now MnSCU administrators are taking a bonus.

I call on these administrators to return that money to the taxpaying students who are struggling during this economic crisis.

KAREN JOHNSON, BROOKLYN PARK

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Recently substantial bonuses were awarded to top administrators of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system (Star Tribune, Sept. 18). Apparently these were based on satisfying (or partially satisfying) goals set forth by MnSCU.

As a recent retiree from the same system, I know that faculty must also submit goals compatible with the mission of MnSCU. While I am certain that most faculty members satisfied these goals, I am also certain that none received any bonuses for so doing.

DON MATTSON, MOORHEAD

OBAMA OVERKILL

He should give up the cameras for his desk

Why is Barack Obama going to appear on five Sunday talk shows and "Late Night with David Letterman" on Monday? I thought that America elected him last November, so why is Obama still campaigning?

CHRIS LUND, HAMBURG