Former GOP Rep. Paul Kohls (no relation to the department store) says that the state must raise revenue if a budget deal is going to be found. (Photo: Minnesota Legislative Reference Library)
Reasonable Republicans continue to line up against the current GOP leadership in the Minnesota Legislature over the budget impasse with Governor Mark Dayton. The latest GOP defector was former gubernatorial candidate and former Rep. Paul Kohls (of Victoria).
On Minnesota Public Radio’s Morning Edition former Rep. Paul Kohls, when asked about what it would take to get a budget deal done, said that he thinks that “finding a place for some additional revenue of some type is probably going to be necessary.”
This is a very realistic view, even if you don’t think the state should raise revenue–this, I think, is an accurate portrayal of the political realities currently between Governor Dayton and the GOP Legislature.
Playing around with the color and lighting of a photo can make even smiling people look sinister. (Original photo: MPR News)
Unfortunately, rationality isn’t something that we get very often from the GOP anymore. Former GOP Governor and now Presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty has been urging MN Republican lawmakers to hold the line on taxes and not to give in to the Governor. The problem with this is that now that Pawlenty is running for President, he has essentially jumped ship from Minnesota and a government shutdown isn’t going to hurt him any. Never mind that he was responsible for driving the ship toward the iceberg in the first place.
Icebergs suck (Photo: AFP - Getty Images).
