Republicans in MN are crowing already about how they won the budget battle there

that has had the state shut down for 2 weeks. Governor Dayton gave in with no tax increase for millionaires that he had wanted. Republicans are claiming that the whole nation is watching what is happening in Minnesota and what they mean by that, and what is most important to them--no new taxes!

The question is, will this be what happens with the increase to the debt ceiling, that Obama will do it with no tax increase even though he insists there must be one?

This is exactly how it is going to be playing out.

their corporate buddies.

How on earth people don't see this is astonishing to me.

on giving the Minnesota public school system only 60% of its budget this year and delaying payment of the remaining 40% until "later."

These legislators should simply burst into flames in SHAME at what they're doing to the schools, to the kids of Minnesota -- how are the schools supposed to pay their bills with only 60% of their income coming in? IOUs?

The mindless "no tax increase" legislators should be horsewhipped in public, imo.

How can people this callous get elected to public office.

If I could wave a magic wand, I would instantly reduce (by 40% or more) the wages and benefits and Koch monies received by all the legislators who agreed to this fiasco.

It's child abuse, imo.

edit: don't have a cite -- heard this on Minnesota Public Radio this morning.

and that's where I heard most of the information about this.

We have our own well known problems here in Wisconsin, but it was just heartbreaking to hear of Dayton caving to the Republicans. No matter what concessions they might give the Republicans will be jubilant about getting Dayton to agree to no new taxes.

at the expense of the education of a generation that can't yet defend themselves -- this is just unconscionable beyond words.

And the Iowa legislature is almost as bad -- the Dems caved to a zero percent increase for the public schools in the new budget while granting increase from 7.5 to 8.75 million increase in what can be donated tax-deductible to private (i.e. religious) schools.

while protecting vulnerable Minnesotans, education, and other valued programs (assuming the Repuke leadership can herd their cats to vote for the agreed-upon framework).

with no new taxes, and new taxes is what Dayton wanted. Their spin, which will be believed by very many, fools or not, is that no new taxes=the Republicans won. That will be the big story, no the details of concessions that Dayton may get.

Conversely, the Republicans are greedy sociopaths who could wait indefinitely because they truly don't care about who they hurt or destroy. The repubs won't be in control for long. Dayton was our only firewall from Minnesota going full blown Wisconsin.

I hope that in not only WI and MN but in all the states where Republicans are working hard and fast to dismantle any and all Democratic ideals that Democrats understand how important it is to get out and vote.

The only things they should have left running were the prison system and the state patrol - both for public safety reasons.

The Star Tribune articles kept referencing people who said they couldn't even tell there was a shutdown.

Oh, sure, you couldn't get a fishing license, stop at a highway rest stop or go to the track, but the zoo reopened and all the buses were running ( the Met Council had reserve funds that they could use to continue running buses). They should have shut everything down and showed the actual effect. It would have hurt, no doubt about it.

There was no motivation to pressure the Republicans to move off their positions.

Dayton never should have sat down to negotiate. His job is to sign or veto the budget and he should have stated what was needed for him to sign it and then let the legislature come to a budget. All that negotiating business made it look like it was partly his fault.

We could have totally pinned the shutdown to the Republicans and we let it slip away.

We could have had a brief, sharp, intense pain and we opted for a long, groaning, soul destroying descent.