This legislative session, Republicans have rejected the budget numbers from the office of MN Management and Budget. Instead they have created their own fantasyland budget with the help of their corporate minders.
Back in December, when governor-elect Mark Dayton announced that he would promote Minnesota Management and Budget Deputy Commissioner Jim Schowalter to assume the top job in that department, he drew praise from both sides of the political aisle. Schowalter had been appointed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and for the past six years has been deeply involved in Minnesota's budgeting process.
Kurt Zellers, the soon-to-be-speaker of the GOP-controlled Minnesota House, declared Schowalter an "outstanding" choice.
Fast-forward to Monday, when Zellers was in the same room with Sen. Amy Koch and a variety of other GOP leaders at Rochester International Airport. A member of the Post-Bulletin's editorial board pointed out that non-partisan analysis has determined that the Republican's all-cuts budget proposal is still $1 billion short of being balanced.
Even before the question had been completed, Koch was reaching for the microphone.
"They're not non-partisan analysts that said that," she said. "It's the governor's appointees who are saying that."
[my emphasis]
This the classic story of Republicans opposing something they used to support. In this case applauded would be more apt. Republicans talk up bipartisanship and doing what's good for the state before the session starts, but never near it's end.
