Readers write (June 21): State budget, road construction, Michele Bachmann and Barack Obama, space exploration

In refusing to accept a salary if the state government is shut down, Gov. Mark Dayton is modeling what is principled and just. Even though he's wealthy, he's been a tireless advocate for the rights of those who aren't rich.

Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch followed the governor's lead and said that she, too, would turn down a salary. Thanks to the both of them. The remainder of the Legislature seems to believe they deserve to be paid overtime to wrangle about the unholy budget mess they've created.

They want to be paid for not doing what they were elected to do. That's wrong. Republicans repeatedly say that government should be run like a business. If that were so, the Legislature would be downsized immediately, leaving Democrats in the chamber.

Would they be lonely? No. They'd get the job done.

BARBARA MILLER, EAGAN

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Wonderful news that the big shots in government won't accept paychecks if a shutdown occurs. The majority of people I know don't get paid for work not done. These government folks seem to want a medal -- as if they're doing something noble. Come on, get the job done.

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I live and work in St. Paul. All at once there are many road construction projects going on in the city and right around my home. The roads downtown to my workplace are also torn up. What were they thinking? Wouldn't it make more sense to finish one spot before tearing up another?

My little Honda got stuck in the mud one day and I had to call a tow truck to pull me out. On other days, I have trouble getting to work because of roadblocks. It's great all these road and construction workers have jobs, but I have a job, too. And I don't want to lose it because I can't get to work because of road construction.

I thought our state was having trouble with money. Where is all the money coming from to do all these jobs and all at the same time? Stop the madness and let us get to work!

KELLY GEORGE, ST. PAUL

I agree with U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., that President Obama has made some mistakes. I don't agree with her as to which mistakes could have been avoided.

Perhaps his biggest mistake was to give in on the extension of the Bush tax cuts, including the tax cuts to the richest Americans. He should have let the cuts expire on schedule.

That would have sent Democrats and Republicans scrambling to restore tax reduction to save their congressional seats.

The president could then have set the agenda for exactly which tax bill he would sign. Of course, bill after bill would appear with amendments to restore cuts for the rich, but he could have vetoed one after another.

If no bill ever restored cuts to the middle class, all blame would have fallen on Congress. Gov. Tim Pawlenty used that strategy for eight years. While my property taxes soared, he boasted of no new taxes.

Meanwhile, Obama continues his dream that logic will persuade the legislative blanch to do the right thing. In that he is mistaken.

DANIEL R. KRUEGER, MINNEAPOLIS

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To buttress his claim that America has given up on exploration, Keith Reed contrasts the rapid advances in 20^th century aviation, with the apparently limited achievements in space exploration that followed the Apollo program ("America has given up on exploration," June 19).

However, his arguments ignore the key role that economics has played in exploration and technology. Economics explains why only 12 short years after Charles Lindbergh, people started taking planes rather than ships across the Atlantic.

Unlike Reed, I believe that unmanned space excursions such as the Mars Rovers, Hubble Space Telescope and New Horizons mission to Pluto provide enormous bang for the buck in terms of adding to the storehouse of human knowledge in areas essential to manned space exploration.

That kind of exploration -- coupled with research in energy, astrophysics, nuclear physics and related areas -- can hasten the time when manned exploration of space becomes economically feasible.

We have the technological know-how to send men and women to Mars now, but the tens of billions of dollars that it costs to do so would turn this mission into another one-time stunt.

It would also siphon money away from other areas of research and exploration that would do more to further the cause of human space exploration in the long run.