Readers Write for Saturday, Jan. 23

It is amusing to read the excuses given by Democratic Reps. Tim Walz, Betty McCollum and Keith Ellison trying to understand their party's disaster in Massachusetts. They just don't get it yet. Americans don't want a mysterious, backroom-produced, government-run health program. They just want our present program to be run more efficiently so premiums can be more affordable. They don't want "green jobs" based on bogus man-made global warming hysteria. They want real jobs brought about by real, small businesses having the confidence to start up again.

Even President Obama gets it wrong when he blames the lost Senate seat on "the people being mad for the last eight years."

It is not the economy that has the people worked up. It is Obama's fast and furious move to turn our country into his very own socialist utopia. We can't say he did not warn us -- he certainly did. Remember when he said, "It's only five days until we start transforming America."

BOB MAGINNIS, EDINA

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Bravo. We have elected Republican Scott Brown to the Senate seat once held by Ted Kennedy. The big news is that now the health care bill will likely be derailed.

This is not a partisan issue. It is criminal for the richest country in the world to have more than 47 million of its people without access to health care. Now that the health care bill will be stopped, what next?

NAEEM QURESHI, MINNEAPOLIS

So right-wing Republican Bill Cooper, the CEO of TCF, wants to eliminate my free checking account (Star Tribune, Jan. 22). In the middle of a recession caused by the banking industry, he is concerned that his company's profit margin has slipped. He needs to make up the difference on the backs of those of us struggling to live below the poverty line.

First they want politicians to make a "no new taxes" pledge and cut the programs that keep the poor afloat. Now the rich want more money, so the less fortunate in society will have to make up the difference after banking's predatory policies are outlawed.

You would think banking industry officials would rethink their own employee compensation programs if their bottom line is hurting.

ROBERT A. SWART, MANKATO

A thriving urban village known for its arts community, Farmers Market, high-tech businesses and historic charm, Lowertown has much to gain from Central Corridor.

However, the decision to site the Central Corridor maintenance facility in the former Gillette plant maximizes adverse impacts and limits development opportunities that could build on light rail and new growth, including Cray Research's move to Lowertown, restaurants on Mears Park and new condos and apartments.

The maintenance facility and associated tracks would remove critical on-street parking, require train activity 60 feet from residential buildings, cut Lowertown off from the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary and dominate the largest developable property in downtown. Residents and business owners spoke out strongly against locating the maintenance facility here, but we were told that cost issues made the Lowertown site necessary.

With this new ruling, we challenge our leaders to place the maintenance facility in an industrial area, not the heart of our community, and allow redevelopment of the Gillette site for uses that can attract millions in new investment and expand the economic success of Lowertown.

WEIMING LU, MINNEAPOLIS;

As he nears $200 million in discretionary spending to reward teachers (Q Comp), Gov. Tim Pawlenty is seeking the green light for more as he seeks federal Race to the Top education funding for his pet program.

Although no data has yet surfaced to indicate improved student achievement from Q Comp five years into the project, the Minnesota Department of Education has granted the governor's wish, and, in so doing, has placed Pawlenty on a wild education spending spree. Wild, because Pawlenty has negated his own political mantra of accountability in government.

With Q Comp, there is no accountability. Following an independent assessment, the Education Department received that message late in 2008, yet sent the governor's plan onward. That means we can credit both Education Commissioner Alice Seagren and the governor for the current and predictable future waste.

After great cost to taxpayers and to a teaching corps further demoralized, we will be compensated with the simple truth that there is no statistical means, no objective way, to connect teacher merit pay to student achievement.