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Editorials
Pawlenty’s magic…trick
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11/24/2009 |
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Ah, that gigantic, maddening Rubik’s Cube known as the state budget. Cut something here, it just pops up somewhere else. It’s hard to not sympathize with Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s epic struggle to balance it. But he’s portraying himself as a man with a plan, and his plan is really sleight of hand.
With his eye on a 2012 Presidential run, he’s been trotting around the country speaking at Republican fundraisers, criticizing President Obama’s budget. But his timing is as bad as his message is hypocritical. While Pawlenty uses $1 billion in federal stimulus money to help balance the state budget, it’s looking like St. Paul still will have to resort to short-term borrowing in 2010 to pay its bills for the first time in three decades.
As for the sleight of hand: Take his slashing of $400 million in General Assistance Medical Care (story here). Legislators in both parties were shocked by his action, but Republicans weren’t sufficiently dismayed to back the override attempt. Still, DFLers aren’t doing any better at balancing the budget from the expense side.
Justifying his veto of General Assistance Medical Care, Pawlenty said it’s been the fastest growing state health care program. But a good chunk of growth actually has been on paper, the result of a spending shift as state hospitals closed and former patients already on the state tab were transferred to the program he effectively ended with his veto.
Even with his termination of this healthcare coverage for the poorest (and politically most vulnerable) of Minnesotans, they won’t just disappear. Without treatment, many are likely to create trouble for law enforcement and hospital emergency rooms, where they become even more expensive.
So Pawlenty has been goaded into coming up with another stop-gap solution, transferring them to MinnesotaCare, another fast-growing program. That’s expected to turn a MinnesotaCare surplus right now into a deficit by 2011.
Will this sleight of hand advance his standing as potential presidential timber? Or will he be seen as a lame duck politician who left a mess for his successor?
It’s a risk he seems willing to take.
Previous Editorials Articles:- Information deficit complicates healthcare talks -8/3/2010
- CAYP illustrates what the region has to offer -7/21/2010
- Case for NorShor, Temple Opera investment has yet to be made -5/4/2010
- Moving on -4/6/2010
- Like our customers we are stakeholders -2/3/2010
