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With an insider’s eye, Hot Dish tracks the tastiest bits of Minnesota’s political scene and keep you up-to-date on those elected to serve you.

Contributors in Minnesota: Jennifer Brooks, Baird Helgeson, Mike Kaszuba, Patricia Lopez, Jim Ragsdale, Brad Schrade and Rachel E. Stassen-Berger. Contributors in D.C.: Kevin Diaz and Corey Mitchell.

Posts about President Obama

Bachmann takes another shot at Obamacare

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: January 4, 2013 - 12:17 PM

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Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann began her fourth term in Congress Thursday by immediately filing another bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act “in its entirety.”
 
There was no press announcement. Nor was it mentioned in a swearing-in day press release announcing staff changes, office locations, and a new Web site design.
 
The news came via her Twitter account: “At noon today, I introduced the first bill of the 113th Congress to repeal Obamacare in its entirety.”
 
The GOP-controlled House passed repeal legislation in the last session of Congress, though it wasn't the version authored by Bachmann, who often describes herself as the "tip of the spear" in the repeal effort. In any case, the bill never went anywhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
 
On the presidential campaign trail in 2011, Bachmann often told audiences in Iowa that defeating President Obama was the last best chance of undoing his signature health care law. But that doesn’t mean she won’t keep trying.
 
 

How will the 'fiscal cliff' affect you?

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: December 28, 2012 - 8:18 AM

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So it’s come to this: Almost two months’ worth of a lame duck session of Congress, and with four days to go, no deal on a way to walk back from the year-end “fiscal cliff.”  Just crickets, and an occasional jab at the other side for wasting time. For the past week, hardly anybody from the Minnesota Congressional delegation in either party has uttered a word about it in public, and there’s talk in the U.S. Capitol of “radio silence.”

But the automatic tax hikes and federal spending cuts known as the fiscal cliff will kick in starting next week, unless Congress can make a last-minute deal. If the politicians aren’t talking, or at least not talking constructively, we want to know how it’s affecting you. Tell us your story by sending an e-mail to Whistleblower@startribune.com.
 
And, as usual, you can also sound off in the comments section below.

Two DFL takes on the 'Plan B' debacle

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: December 21, 2012 - 2:28 PM

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Minnesota Democrat Tim Walz, leading an effort to force a U.S. House vote on extending the Bush-era tax cuts on the first $250,000 of income, called on House Speaker John Boehner Friday to keep negotiating with President Obama.
 
“We still have to find a solution,” Walz said. “I refuse to believe we cannot do it.”
 
Walz was one of only two Minnesotans in Congress to talk publicly Friday about Boehner’s failed attempt to vote on so-called “Plan B” legislation.
 
The other one was Democrat Keith Ellison, who issued a statement saying, “Instead of Plan A—a bipartisan agreement with the President—Speaker Boehner tried to bring a Tea Party wish list to the floor last night known as ‘Plan B.’”
 
Walz and Ellison, however, represent two different sides of the Democratic coin. Walz said Democrats will have to consider reforms to federal health and retirement plans as part of a larger deal on new taxes and spending cuts. Ellison, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has ruled out voting for any benefit cuts.
 
Walz, however, said Republicans have not shown much willingness to negotiate, no matter how much centrist Democrats are willing to bend. “It’s become obvious it doesn’t matter what we said,” Walz told Minnesota reporters Friday. “I could have proposed a trillion-to-one on revenue to cuts, and they still would have rejected it. This is ideological rigidness.”
 
Meanwhile, Minnesota Republicans in Congress stayed mum on the Plan B debacle, which has raised questions about Boehner’s speakership. But departing one-term Rep. Chip Cravaack said early Thursday he was prepared to vote against the Plan B proposal unless it was paired with significant cuts on the spending side.
 
Alas, the Plan B vote was cancelled for lack of support from Republicans.

Which Wile E. Coyote cliff?

Posted by: Rachel E. Stassen-Berger Updated: December 20, 2012 - 12:45 PM

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Minnesota economist Tom Stinson, whose biannual poker-faced delivery of the state's economic forecast has become a Capitol tradition, picked a cartoon image to describe the state's fate if the country goes over the so-called fiscal cliff.

The state's post-cliff job loss estimate, he told MPR, was only if "we go completely, Wile [E.] Coyote-style over the cliff and fall all the way to the bottom."

But that description begged the question: Would the fall be more like this?

Or like this?

Through a fine Minnesota Management and Budget spokesman, we got an answer from Stinson on which Wile E. Coyote cliff fall is more representative.

In response to our query, Stinson said: "As with all economic questions the answer is “It depends.” If the period you are observing began the day after the election -- or even the day after Thanksgiving – video #1 (lots of ups and downs, but ultimately a crash) is the proper depiction. If your observations begin December 31, video #2 (The Congress nudging the economy off the cliff) is more appropriate. In either instance the result is the same – the economy starts down at the start of the year, there is a lot of pain when we hit bottom, and it will take a while to climb back up to where we were before falling off the cliff."

 

Paulsen disputes Obama account of med device tax

Posted by: Kevin Diaz Updated: December 14, 2012 - 11:56 AM

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White House photo

White House photo

Minnesota Republican Erik Paulsen pushed back against President Obama Friday in the ongoing dispute over the $29 billion medical device tax that was slapped on the industry – an important one in Minnesota – to help fund the Affordable Care Act.
 
Paulsen, the acting chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on human resources, has been trying to rally support in Senate to repeal or delay the tax, which goes into effect in 18 days.
 
Asked about the tax by WCCO’s Frank Vascellaro on Thursday night, Obama argued that medical device companies, insurers, and other health care providers will all benefit from the 30 million new customers that the Affordable Care Act brings.
 
“It’s going to be great for business, and they’re doing really well right now,” the president said. “This additional tax essentially comes back to them as new customers.”
 
Paulsen called the supposed “windfall’ to the industry a “convenient myth.”
 
“In reality, utilization of medical devices is heavily tipped towards America’s aging population,” Paulsen said. “Medicare beneficiaries, both elderly and disabled, are disproportionally large users of medical devices and already have coverage through that program. Similar state level reforms in Massachusetts have not resulted in more revenues for medical device innovators.”
 
The president argued that “nobody should go bankrupt when they get sick in this country” and that “providers of medical services should recognize they’re going to get a benefit from all of these uninsured folks suddenly having insurance, and that means they should be willing to do a little bit in order to make that happen.”
 
He also argued that this is not unique to the medical device industry. “Hospitals are doing a little bit more because they know now they’re not going to have uncompensated care in emergency rooms, everybody’s going to have some kind of insurance. Doctors, same kind of thing.”
 
Paulsen says the tax will be a job killer in the industry. He got a repeal bill through the House in June, and has been joined by Minnesota Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken in seeking its repeal or postponement this month.

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