Catholic Eye on the Capitol

Less blogging, but not less news

2009-01-09T09:25:00.000-08:00

Visit www.TheCatholicSpirit.com to read MCC and OSJ's preview of this legislative session and what they'll do as our legislators seek to tighten the belt. Creating jobs is huge for both public policy organizations.

Also, FYI, I'll be posting far less to this blog this session. Add www.TheCatholicSpirit.com to your RSS feed for legislative stories as they come out!

Happy New Year (and here's to a new legislative session)

2008-12-31T13:17:00.000-08:00

The 2009 legislative session will begin at noon on Jan. 6. Of course, the budget is the hot topic this year. The Minnesota state government announced Dec. 5 that we're facing a $5.3 billion deficit over the next 2.5 years. Some think the February forecast will put it at $7 billion.

Yikes. That would put about 15 percent of our total budget in the red.

The Minnesota Catholic Conference and Catholic Charities' Office for Social Justice both plan to urge support of legislation that would support job creation, especially for low-income families, who are being hit hardest by the recession.

MCC told me they plan to push legislation in other areas that don't have dollars attached, but MCC's Pete Noll reminded me that this isn't the time to stop investing in what's important, just because money is tight. Education, he said, is like a 401k — you put money in it now because it needs to pay off in the long run. If our kids aren't educated, what do we have?

The Office for Social Justice's newsletter, Seeds of Justice, is available for PDF download at OSJ's Web site. It provides a good, critical overview of the budget, with a good reminder that just a few years ago we were facing a surplus. (How fast and far that pendulum swings.) The newsletter also outlines OSJ's objectives, which include:

job creation
worker justice
raising minimum wage
protecting funding for low-income housing
supporting legislation that would make it easier for ex-legal offenders to find jobs
universal health care for children
opposing anti-immigrant proposals

There's more. I suggest you check it out. MCC will be releasing a statement from the bishops within the next week or so. At the heart of all of OSJ and MCC's work is the protection of human dignity. People need to be treated like people. It's pretty simple, until money gets in the way.

And it's over!

2008-05-22T08:31:00.000-07:00

With the end of the legislative session last week, it's worth checking out the Minnesota Catholic Conference's session analysis that appears in this week's The Catholic Spirit. From sex education, ending poverty and inmate re-entry, MCC's priorities run the gamut.

Vetoed!

2008-05-16T06:27:00.000-07:00

Governor Pawlenty vetoed the minimum wage bill late yesterday afternoon. It's unlikely that the Legislature will have the votes to over turn it. The Star Tribune has the story.

The governor said that a higher minimum wage would make it difficult to allow employers to maintain jobs during while the economy slows and prices hike. He also said that Minnesota does not recognize a tip credit, as 43 other states do. He would like to see a provision for a tip credit in the bill.

Legislative wind down (or heat up)

2008-05-14T09:47:00.000-07:00

The end of this legislative session is scheduled for Monday, and the Minnesota Catholic Conference is working hard to pass and block a few pieces of legislation.

Included is Senate File 2965, which regulates gestational carrier arrangements and assisted reproduction. It's on the governor's desk, and MCC hopes he'll veto it.

In a letter to Governor Pawlenty on the bill, MCC wrote:

"The Catholic Church teaches that marriage is the only morally acceptable framework for human reproduction. Further, donation of semen or ova and the use of surrogate motherhood to bear children are contrary to the unity of marriage and the dignity of the procreation of the human person. The issue of assisted reproduction is complicated. While we sympathize with childless couples who are desperate to have children, the ends do not justify the means. We hope that government will not attempt to redefine the natural state of marriage and human procreation.

In addition, the bill fails to address the rights of human lives created through assisted reproduction technologies. Most human embryos created through in vitro fertilization are not implanted, much less carried to term, but are discarded, frozen or used in destructive and undignified experimentation."

A bill MCC does want the governor to sign is the minimum wage bill. According to the MCC, 29 states presently have minimum wages higher than Minnesota's. More than 300,000 Minnesota jobs would get a pay boost, which I assume would benefit the economy (the more money you have, the more you spend). And, most importantly, as Archbishop Flynn said two weeks ago, it's a matter of affirming human dignity.

To find out more about these bills, read The Catholic Spirit editor Joe Towalski's editorial this week online.

Happy Birthday, Archbishop Flynn (and happy retirement, too!)

2008-05-05T06:37:00.000-07:00

Friday was Archbishop Harry Flynn's 75th birthday. It was also the date of his official retirement. Instead of hopping a plane to some beach to lounge (or to his cabin in New York State), he spent part of his morning at the State Office Building to speak at a press conference on increasing minimum wage.

The House passed the bill the night before, and it was going to conference committee to resolve differences between the Senate and House versions. It is expected to be on the governor's desk within the week.

"People keep reminding me that this is my 75th birthday — a fact that hasn't gotten by me; but as I move into retirement I wanted just one more tiem to speak about this very important issue and on behalf of these very important workers," he told the gathered crowd, legislators standing proudly behind him.

"I believe that increasing minimum wage is a matter of justice," he said.

"It is true that the people of this state value hard work, but we also value the dignity of the worker. For me, that means that the life of the worker has to be spent doing more than work."

Many low wage workers work two or three jobs to make ends meet, he said.

"This isn't a dignified life," he continued. "True human dignity means that people not only focus on their material survival but that they have time and opportunity to participate in their social, cultural and spiritual development as well. Family life and participation are key to human dignity and important to our democracy."

Increasing minimum wage would allow people to work only one job and thus, have more time for family and social life, he said.

Will Minnesotans pay for embryo destruction?

2008-05-09T11:48:00.001-07:00

Those of you who read my blog last session may recall the amount of attention I gave to a bill that would grant taxpayer funding to embryonic stem cell research at the University of Minnesota. The bill narrowly passed the House Wednesday. It passed the Senate last session. The bill's going to conference committee to reconcile the different versions.

I don't expect Governor Pawlenty to sign the bill, and considering the 71-62 vote in the House, it doesn't look like an override is possible.

I could always be wrong, however.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research is dastardly in and of itself, but it also leads down a slippery slope of continued denial of human dignity to the weakest and voiceless.

Happy Prayer Day!!

2008-05-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

Today's May Day. I remember leaving a May basket brimming with Tootsie Rolls on the doorstep of one of my neighbors when I was about eight, only to watch it blow away.

Twice.

On this May Day, as we look ahead not only to wind, but possible snow, this weekend, it's nice to know that there's something good going on:

The National Day of Prayer

As I write this, Governor Pawlenty and Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau are preparing to speak on the Capitol steps before the gathered crowd. Created in 1952, The observance is always held on the first Thursday of May, and it is intended to invite people of all faiths to pray for America. It's not hard to see, with the war continuing in Iraq, home foreclosures, possible economic recession, and the like, that we could use some serious prayers.

And then some serious response.

(I know that the rest of you who went to Catholic schools, which I didn't, recall that today is also the day we crown the Blessed Virgin Mary, as May's her month. I think that's nice that the May Crowning and National Day of Prayer coincided this year.)

Health care access fund trouble

2008-04-22T13:06:00.000-07:00

Gov. Pawlenty offered a budget proposal yesterday to the legislature in an effort to toss a rope over the chasm between what he wants and what DFLers want.

He offered to cut the amount used from the Health Care Access Fund from $250 million to $125 million. However, he would require the legislature to make $125 million in other, unspecified cuts. He would also use some of the state's general fund budget reserves, instead of the DFL-proposed use of the state's $350 million cash flow account.

I don't know if the DFLers will bite on this one. I'm betting not.

If you recall, the Health Care Access Fund is supposed to fund health care (hence its name). The Democrats don't want any of this money being used for something for which it wasn't alloted.

Children as a commodity

2008-04-17T10:28:00.000-07:00

Apparently, surrogate mothering has raised some questions.

Like questioning who the child's real parents are — the egg and sperm donors, or the woman who carried the child in her womb for 9 months. Like who has custody of the child at birth. Like who can even be a surrogate mother.

No one seems to be asking why this is legal in the first place.

The Senate approved a bill yesterday that establishes a legal framework for "gestational carriers," or women who have an embryo implanted within them and carry the pregnancy to term with the agreement that the child will be given to the biological parents — presumably the sperm and egg donors — upon birth.

The bill requires that surrogate mothers be at least 21 years old and pass medical and mental health tests. It also gives the biological parents immediate legal custody at birth, and mandates that the surrogate cannot "genetically contribute" to the embryo (meaning, it can't be one of the parents).

The Associated Press quoted Sen. Claire Robling, R-Jordan, saying that the bill would treat "children are products and mothers are paid incubators."

She's on to something. This is a buying and selling of one's body and of one's offspring that violates the church's teaching on the dignity of human life. First of all, the child's conception takes place in a laboratory, and not in an act of intercourse. (Check out the March 25 blog post on invitro fertilization for more on this.) Second, the child is not carried by its biological mother, leading to the question of what motherhood really is: a biological participation, or a self-giving action of a woman to a child? What happens when you remove one from the other? Third, the surrogate mother is paid, presumably, making her body something that can be bought for a price.

The House hasn't voted on this yet, but we'll see how it fares there.

Government subsidized heath care (and waffles)

2008-04-15T11:57:00.000-07:00

Later hours for bars is back on the legislative table. Toby Pearson of the Catholic Health Association of Minnesota reminded me that nothing is dead until the legislature adjourns sine die — the end of a legislative biennium "without day."

St. Paul mayor Chris Coleman wants his city council members to make a push for it at the legislature. We'll see what happens.

I wanted to use some snarky segway about how drinking until 4 a.m. can lead to the main topic at hand — the need for health care and other related topics — but I couldn't settle on just one.

However, if the bars are going to be open that late in St. Paul during the convention, it's hard to resist that kind of novelty. I might consider it a duty to Catholic Spirit readers that I'm at the Liffey until closing time getting an inside scoop on the convention. And if the legislation doesn't pass, the 24-hour dive diner Mickey's on West Seventh better be setting up street-side as all the Republicans rush for waffles.

There's legislation for health care reform in the House. It's pretty much agreed that there's need of health care reform and that insurance is too high, but then what is the "right price" for health insurance?

This bill thinks it has the answer: If you pay more than $3,800 per year but make less than $64,000, you're paying too much, the bill says. It's pushing for state-subsidized health care, and it plans to use the surplus in the Health Care Access Fund, which also supports programs like Minnesota Care. (This is also the fund Gov. Pawlenty wanted to use to help balance the budget.)

Some Republicans oppose the bill because it's getting too close for comfort to government-provided care and away from market-based insurance.

So, what do you think? What role, if any, should the government play in affordable health care? Check out this week's Catholic Spirit for a letter from Jeff Maciej, a masters in social work student at the The College of St. Catherine/University of St. Thomas who argues that we need universal health care.

2008-04-09T13:17:00.000-07:00

A lot’s happened since my last post — namely, the passing of a bonding bill in both the House and the Senate — a bill Governor Pawlenty said is too big. Then, yesterday, the governor line-item vetoed more than $200 million worth of projects before signing the bill. This is a slight mish-mash of the past week in bonding land.

The Star Tribune has a thorough story. Something I found particularly interesting:

Pawlenty's $717 million total was smaller than what had been anticipated resulting from a line-item veto. In a generally accepted formula, state guidelines recommend that borrowing be limited to 3 percent of projected general fund revenue, a limit that makes the debt more acceptable to bonding houses. That figure was $825 million. Pawlenty said he cut additional projects anticipating a continuing downturn in the economy.

According to the Pioneer Press, St. Paul took 60 percent of the cuts, including $127 million for a Central Corridor light-rail line, a new Bell Museum of Natural History at the U of M's St. Paul campus and a gorilla exhibit at the Como Zoo.

He also cut $2 million from the Union Depot transit hub, which is a historic St. Paul building I am personally in love with, and $4 million for a St. Paul-to-Chicago high-speed rail (which is something that utilized the said Depot back in the day).

"Reducing the bill to this level reflects my commitment to fiscal discipline and an attempt to prioritize important state projects," Gov. Pawlenty wrote in a press release.

The Legislature could override any of the vetoes.

Before the vetoes, Governor Pawlenty and DFL legislative leaders had a few words for one another:

According to the Star Tribune:

Pawlenty said DFLers were "falling right into the stereotype" of raising taxes and out-of-control spending.
"It's not appropriate, it's not responsible and I'm not going to stand for it," Pawlenty said.

However, yesterday DFL Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller said this on Minnesota Public Radio's "Midday":

"He's upset because some of his pet projects, his pet spending, is being cut. In terms of revenue, other than closing corporate loopholes, no one is talking about significant tax increases here. He has to get off the campaign trail and come back and govern the state of Minnesota."

(I would call the relationship between the DFL legislators and Gov. Pawlenty less-than-amiable right now.)

And to update an earlier post, a bill for later bar hours during the Republican National Conference was dropped, so that’s a no-go.

Taking health for granted

2008-04-03T13:43:00.000-07:00

This morning I did something I haven't done for a couple years — I went to the doctor for a check-up.

As far as they can tell, I'm healthy as a horse. (Which makes me wonder which horse I'm being compared to.)

Insurance covered the whole thing. If they would have found something wrong with me, they would have been able to begin treating it now, rather than waiting until it got really bad and I end up in the hospital.

The whole thing — including a tetanus shot which is killing my left shoulder right now — took 30 minutes. I was on my to work by 9:15, glad to check it off my list of "things I need to do."

The thing is, it really wasn't that big of a deal to me. It's just something that you're supposed to do once a year. But for a lot of Minnesotans, health care is a really big deal, because they need it, and they can't afford it.

Toby Pearson addressed this issue in this week's Catholic Spirit. He's the executive director of the Catholic Health Association of Minnesota. In his letter to the editor, he presented six core values that should set the statewide health care debate:

1. The health and well-being of each person is intertwined with the health and well-being of the broader community. Access to healthcare is an essential element contributing to the common good, alongside others such as education, employment and a safe environment.

2. The measure of our society is how we treat the poor and vulnerable, who are particularly marginalized by a lack of access to health care.

3. Our societal resources are finite, and we must make wise choices for how they are allocated. Health care resources should focus on the well-being of the community and be structured to deliver the care that is most medically beneficial and promotes public health.

4. Health care is a basic human right alongside food and shelter, all of which are necessary for individuals to participate fully in society.

5. The health care system should allow and encourage involvement of the public and private sectors including voluntary, religious and not-for-profit organizations, and it should respect the religious and ethical values of patients and health care providers alike.

6. Health care is essential to promoting and protecting the inherent dignity of every individual from conception to natural death.

"If we take these core values under consideration during our debate on health care, we will have a better product at the end of the day," he wrote.

What do you think? Leave a comment and start the conversation.

Where does the stork come into all of this?

2008-03-25T12:39:00.000-07:00

It's about sex.

And babies. But babies have a lot to do with sex. Usually.

A piece of legislation concerning the regulation of "gestational carrier arrangements" is awaiting its third and final hearing in both the House and the Senate before legislators vote. And the Minnesota Catholic Conference is hoping it fails to pass.

The bill (SF 2956 / HF 3448) addresses legal parentage of children born as a result of in vitro fertilization. The church teaches against in vitro fertilization, and so local Catholic leaders oppose the bill. The problem is that in vitro fertilization (or "artificial reproduction") separates the creation of a child from the act of sex. And you just can't do that.

Archbishop Nienstedt wrote about the church's position on in vitro fertilization in his Nov. 2, 2007, column in The Catholic Spirit.

Couples who cannot conceive on their own may look to in vitro fertilization as a way to have a child. However, the process is morally problematic in two ways: 1) the aforementioned separation of sex from the act of reproduction (The couple's ova and sperm are united outside of the body in a laboratory) and 2) the process usually results in more than one embryo (read "itty bitty human being"), thus leaving the parents the decision to throw away or indefinitely freeze their offspring that they do not plan to bring to full term.

This is a tough issue, though, and one that should be handled with compassion, as couples who are engaging in his procedure are doing it because they so desire to be parents. However, Archbishop Nienstedt points out that children are a gift from God, and nobody has a "right" to them. Also, couples who desire children have the option of adopting children, which is a beautiful, selfless act.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, quoting from the Vatican document Donum Vitae, (Instruction on respect for human life in its origin and on the dignity of procreation) asserts:

"Techniques that entail the dissociation of husband and wife by the intrusion of a person other than the couple (donation of sperm or ovum, surrogate uterus) are gravely immoral. These techniques infringe on the child's right to be born of a father and mother known to him, and bound to each other by marriage…”

Archbishop Nienstedt (who did his doctoral thesis on bioethics) isn't the only one speaking out on this. Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston also addressed this same topic in a 2004 pastoral letter:

“The plight of a couple who have difficulties in conceiving a child is something that concerns the Church community. We are pleased that the scientific community has developed some morally acceptable procedures that assist the conjugal act and not replace it… and Natural Family Planning techniques that allow couples to know when they have the best chance of conceiving.

"Given the Biblical injunction to care for widows and orphans and to welcome strangers, the childless couple might in the spirit of our faith consider adopting a child. It is a decision that should be made after prayer and reflection… Those who embrace the Gospel of Life must be enthusiastic supporters of adoption.”

MCC is also concerned about the Senate's version of the bill substituting the term "partner" for "husband" and "wife." "This change would undermine not only the sanctity of marriage but the reality of marriage as we have defined it these past 2,000 years," MCC said in a statement.

A case against the 4 a.m. (public) Scotch

2008-04-02T12:48:00.000-07:00

In his Catholic Spirit column this week, Archbishop John Nienstedt questions a bill to open downtown St. Paul bars until 4 a.m. during the Republican National Convention, September 1-4. The legislation also pushes for liquor stores to be open the Sunday of the convention.

The archbishop is against both changes.

He writes that Minnesota shouldn't have to change who she is (or her policies) just for some guests. He also argues that Sunday is a day dedicated to the Lord and should be set apart, even if its something as simple as closed liquor stores.

"Please don't get me wrong," he wrote. "I like to have a cocktail before dinner and a glass of wine while dining with friends. But somehow I see the camel's nose coming under the tent."

If someone can drink until 4 a.m., why not leave the bars open until 6 a.m. to accommodate the late-shifters? Why do it just during the convention? Why close them at all? And why would we open the liquor stores for the out-of-towners, but leave them closed the other Sundays?

"[Limiting public consumption of alcohol and closing liquor stores on Sundays are] part of the cultural heritage we wish to maintain in this state of Minnesota," he wrote. "We are pleased to have our visitors with us, and we do want them to know they are welcome. But we also want them to believe that, when they go home, they have met a people who embody in their culture a respect for values that transcend themselves."

The archbishop's not saying that drinking on Sunday is wrong. He's saying that by retaining these limits on alcohol purchase, Minnesota helps its citizens practice moderation in some way.

My friends and I cap every weekend with a big Sunday night meal, and I admit, I've been known to go into a 6 p.m. Sunday rant about Minnesota liquor laws when I've been cooking pasta and suddenly realize I'm out of wine to serve with it.

But it's also a reminder that Sunday is a special day set apart, and that's why we're sharing that meal in the first place.

And, if you're curious about what MN's laws currently are and how they came to be, City Pages has a (somewhat irreverent) FAQ for MN liquor laws.

Waiting to boost wage

2008-03-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

The Minimum Wage bill passed the Senate and is waiting for its final vote in the house.

In mid-February, Archbishop Harry Flynn testified to increase minimum wage. According to the Minnesota Catholic Conference, Minnesota’s current minimum wage ($6.15 for large businesses and $5.25 for small businesses) is not a living wage, and working Minnesota families cite economic issues as their biggest concern.

The bill (HF 456/SF 875) would raise minimum wage for both large and small businesses. The large business minimum wage would raise from $6.15 to $6.90 on July 24, 2008, and then to $7.90 on July 24, 2009. The small business minimum wage would rise from $5.25 to $5.75 on July 24, 2008, and then to $6.75 on July 24, 2009.

As the law currently stands, employers can pay workers under 20 years old $4.90 for the first 90 days of their employment. This bill also repeals this sub-minimum wage category.

Back when he testified, Archbishop Flynn was asked to sign in, as all testifiers do. He signed his name, and in the column where it asked who he represented, he didn't put "Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis," like one might expect.

Instead, he wrote "workers."

Budget slashing and pregnancy help

2008-03-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the House Housing Policy and Finance and Public Health Finance Committee voted to cut $1.9 million from the Positive Alternatives Act. It was an effort to save money and balance the budget, but it also leaves a gaping hole in Minnesota's outreach to pregnant women.

The Positive Alternatives Acts helps fund services for pregnant women and their unborn babies including medical attention, nutritional support, housing assistance, adoption services, education and employment assistance, and parenting education and support.

It was initially funded at $2.4 million. The pro-life advocacy group Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life described the spending cut as a "gutting" — a word that sends shivers up my spine. When you gut something, you tear it apart and take out something vital, like the meat of a fish or deer.

But this is serious, and the legislature is voting to take something vital away from Minnesota women. MCCL is concerned that without this funding, organizations that aid women in difficult or unplanned pregnancies won't be able to offer enough outreach or necessary services. And without the support these organizations try to offer, women will turn instead to abortion.

This is most true for low-income women who can't afford medical care or may not have healthy support systems as they go through their pregnancies.

“Last evening’s action by pro-abortion representatives is purely political,” said MCCL Legislative Associate Andrea Rau in a press release. “The House must not attempt to balance the budget on the backs of women and children by plundering Positive Alternatives funds. The Minnesota House must restore the much-needed Positive Alternatives funds to make sure that pregnant women receive the support and services they need to choose life.”

MCCL also pointed out that the $1.9 million budget cut is one-fifth of one percent of the expected deficit.

Why fund private edu with public dollars?

2008-03-17T13:04:00.000-07:00

I’ve been researching a story for this week’s Catholic Spirit on the Equity and Opportunity in Education Tax Credit Legislation. As I’ve written here before, the legislation — through a tax-credit-based incentive giving program — would provide a pool of money to help low-income students bridge the education gap.

Though special foundations created to distribute the funds, the money could be used to pay for a tutor, a field trip, or even better clothes — whatever will help that student succeed. It could also help low-income students pay for private education, if their current school situations are not meeting their needs.

So, low-income kids could get a tutor in a challenging subject, or go to private school? Is private school that much better than public school, that they could skip the tutor and succeed anyway?

Maybe.

I'll disclose that I'm the product of 12 years of public education, so I was ready to challenge this. And I’m sure that the Coalition for Kids, the organization created to pass this bill in Minnesota, wouldn’t say that private schools are "better" than public schools, but there’s a good handful of evidence suggesting that when it comes to getting high schoolers their diploma, private schools have a leg up.

Each year, around 25 percent Minnesota kids attending Catholic school transfer from a Catholic school to a public school between eighth grade and ninth grade, presumably because of cost. Many of these students are from low-income families.

“If we can keep some of those poverty kids able to go to Catholic school, there’s a 99 percent chance they’ll graduate,” said Jim Field, president of the Minnesota Independent School Forum.

It also saves Minnesota money. For every kid in Catholic or private school, it saves Minnesota about $10,000 per year. Between kindergarten and 12th grade, private schools lose almost 12,000 kids. “If we kept just 1,000 of them in the [Catholic/private school] system, that would save the state almost $10 million per year,” he added.

And why, besides moolah, would want to keep kids in Catholic schools? Because private schools have that 99 percent graduation rate. In 2006, Minnesota had a 99 percent graduation rate both for white and minority students. However, Minnesota public schools graduated 83 percent of their white students, but only 44 percent of their black students.

It’s the low-income kids that drop out. This legislation will try to give them whatever it is that they need to get their diploma and not be held back by their poverty.

A little political jargon for fun

2008-03-24T07:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter Monday!

While the MN Legislature continues to enjoy a long weekend away from the capitol, I'm taking a quick side trip through the campaign landscape. Merriam-Webster online compiled definitions of commonly used politican jargon, which can be of great help to anyone following the campaigns. (Also, their etymologies are a lot of fun to read.) Check it out!

Two of my favorites:

mugwump \MUG-wump\ noun

: an independent in politics

The Story Behind the Word

A 17th-century Massachuset Indian might not recognize his people's word for "war leader" if he saw it used today. In colonial America, "mugwump" derisively implied someone who was a "big shot." The first political mugwumps were Republicans in the presidential race of 1884 who chose to support Democratic candidate Grover Cleveland rather than their own party's nominee. Their independence prompted one 1930s humorist to define a mugwump as "a bird who sits with its mug on one side of the fence and its wump on the other."

pork barrel \PORK-ba-rul\ noun

: government projects or appropriations yielding rich patronage benefits

The Story Behind the Word

You might expect that the original pork barrels were barrels for storing pork—and you're right. In the early 19th century, that's exactly what "pork barrel" meant. But the term was also used figuratively to mean "a supply of money" or "one's livelihood" (a farmer, after all, could readily turn pork into cash). When 20th-century legislators doled out appropriations that benefited their home districts, someone apparently made an association between the profit a farmer got from a barrel of pork and the benefits derived from certain state and federal projects. By 1909, "pork barrel" was being used as a noun naming such government appropriations, and today the term is often used attributively in constructions such as "pork barrel politics" or "pork barrel project."

God Bless the Troops

2008-03-20T13:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Minnesota's annual 48th Prayer Breakfast. Gov. Pawlenty asked Minnesotans to keep the military and veterans "at or near the top of your list."

As a girl in a military family (my brother's preparing to go to Iraq this summer), I appreciate his gesture of faith and support.

U.S. Representatives Jim Ramstad and Betty McCollum read from the Bible at the event. It was designed to be a non-partisan gathering in the spirit of the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. which was held in February.

Blessed Triduum to you all, home or abroad.

God said what?!?

2008-03-20T08:33:00.000-07:00

VOX POPULORUM EST VOX DEI

The voice of the people is the voice of God.

That's what's above the House chamber in the Minnesota Capitol building. It's what the Minnesota representatives see as they cast their votes, making laws. I don't know if it's supposed to be humbling or empowering. Either way, I think it's kind of terrifying.

It should serve as a reminder to the legislators of the impact of their decisions, and that they are held to a higher moral authority. However, some would argue that some legislators like to play God, and make decisions in their own interest.

Either way, they're all on Easter holiday right now. They'll be back at noon on Tuesday.

We're not alone.

2008-03-17T07:16:00.001-07:00

Minnesota isn't the only state experiencing budget woes. Today's New York Times points out that there are several states across the U.S. that are planning to make program cuts or increase taxes to compensate for their fiscal floundering.

“Good state budget managers kind of manage their budgets like a household,” Jennifer Davis, the director of Delaware's State Office of Management and Budget, told the NY Times. “When gas and milk costs go up, there are only so many ways to solve it. You don’t eat out, you stop going to movies, you cut out the discretionary stuff.”

So what's the legislative equivalent to giving up restaurants and movies? Governor Pawlenty's given his imput — what do you think?

Kill Bill . . . maybe

2008-03-14T08:50:00.000-07:00

It's a deadline day up at the capitol. All week, legislators have been hurrying to get their bills heard by committee in the house of origin. If it's not heard by the end of today, the bill's dead and will have to be reintroduced next session.

Deadlines don't apply to the House committees on Capital Investment, Ways and Means, Taxes, or Rules and Legislative Administration, or to the Senate committees on Capital Investment, Finance, Taxes, or Rules and Administration.

Not only are the session deadlines are a way to make the process clip along, they are also ways for legislators to kill bills they don't like.

However, there's no Hanzo sword involved.

Congratulations due

2008-03-13T12:06:00.001-07:00

Each year, JRLC honors a regular citizen for his or her work on justice issues. This year, it awards the Lawrence D. Gibson Interfaith Social Justice Award to Ellen Raeker, a member of St. William in Fridley. She's a member of an Office for Social Justice action team and is really top notch, according to Adam Robinson, OSJ's public policy coordinator.

She was obviously moved by the award. Her eyes were tearing as Rev. Chris Morton, the JRLC board chair, introduced her.

She considers her award shared with her parents, teachers and others who work for justice, she told those gathered in the capitol's rotunda. However, she said, "The people who really deserve this award are the people who struggle to keep a roof over their head."

I got to see Ellen in action March 3 at OSJ's legislative briefing at St. William. It was evident that she's passionate, smart and committed to social action and wants to inspire and guide others.

We'll be recognizing Ellen and her award in this week's Catholic Spirit. Look for it!

"NO MORE POOR!"

2008-03-13T10:48:00.000-07:00

She was urging everyone — all 900 of us — in the room to shout it. "NO MORE POOR!" After all, it was the main message of the day. Bishop Sally Dyck of the United Methodist Church Minnesota Conference keynoted the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition's annual Day on the Hill this morning.

As I write this, hundreds of Minnesotans are meeting with their legislators at the capitol urging them to support legislation that will benefit the state's most vulnerable citizens — those struggling to provide food and shelter for their families, those struggling to to afford health care, those struggling to make it at all.

This morning 900 concerned citizens met at St. Paul's RiverCentre to get fired up for their afternoon of lobbying. They were high school students and grandmothers, community organizers and former homeless. I talked to some students from St. Thomas Academy who were there for their social justice religion class. They said they wanted to speak with their legislators about health care and housing issues.

The Joint Religious Legislative Coalition (JRLC) works with Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities to advocate together for issues of justice. Bishop Richard Pates opened the gathering in prayer, in which he quoted Pope Benedict XVI: "Love needs to be organized if it is to be an ordered service to the community."

This organizing of love is what JRLC does, its executive director Brian Rusche told the crowd.

"As people of faith, we have a moral responsibility to make sure there are no more poor," Bishop Dyck said. Referring to Gov. Pawlenty's budget proposal, she added, "We cannot balance the budget on the back of the poor people in our state, especially when a high percentage of them are children."

In this time of economic uncertainty, those in the middle class will be tempted not to be generous because of their own self interests, she said. "Yield not to temptation!" she said. A Christian's moral obligation is to work to eradicate poverty, she said before shouting "No More Poor!" again.

"That's your message — take it to your legislators!" she said.

(The photo's of JRLC's director, Brian Rusche, at the capitol rotunda speaking to Day on the Hill advocates before they met with their legislators.)