Adventures in Learning -- and Living

At our church on Wednesday evening we particpated in a session with the President of a local think tank, Growth and Justice. The Republican policy, promoted by Pawlenty as almost religion for the past 6 years, of lower taxes and starving government -- proclaimed to promote the economy -- has now resulted in Minnesota's economic growth falling below both the national and regional averages, whereas under other tax and economic policies used by both Democratic and Republican governors, Minnesota has been both a regional and national leader in both economic and social policies.

For more information about this see, http://www.growthandjustice.org/

And preview of things to come -- moderate Republicans in Minnesota are going to be holding "unsanctioned sessions" while the Republican convention is here in town.

And now today we hear that the use of these policies at the national level has resulted in the highest unemployment rate in years. We are seeing signs of what it means also to have policies of starving government. The current concern over whether the FAA is regulating the airlines is one sign of what happens when one starves government to the point that essential services can no longer function. And now today the New York Times reports that 81% of us find the country is on the wrong track.

Earlier this week I was driving around and got into the middle of an interview about aspects of our immigrant policies. The speaker pointed out we educate 80% of the engineers in the world, but refuse to let students here on student visas to stay and work in the United States, due to our restrictive immigration policies. This speaker seemed to be at a loss of words for how to talk about this policy in words that could be used on the radio and finally came up with "dumb headed public policy."

We have a lot to think about when we go to the polls this fall. And recently in another conversation I was reminded about how forthright Europeans are about asking Americans who they are going to vote for in the election. I imagine I'll have a lot of explaining to do this summer in Europe too.