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June 29, 2005
This is how the Governor spends our money?
The article I selected for Monday was Pawlenty calls for meeting at Camp Ripley. On Sunday Pawlenty announced he would be leaving on Monday to fly to Camp Ripley to work on the looming budget deadline. He believes he can do more work at Camp Ripley. “No staff, no press, no lobbyists”, he said. He invited party leaders to go along with him. He intended to leave on Sunday night but was angered to find that DFL leader Dean Johnson was in Louisville, Kentucky on National Guard business.
The reason I selected this article was to highlight a very hypocritical situation. The state is in a huge budget deficit and the Governor decided to fly to Camp Ripley at the expense of the taxpayers. There are two simple solutions if the Governor does not want to be disturbed by the media. He can simply not take calls or appointments from the media and lobbyists. If he still thinks that isn’t enough he can take a van full of party leaders to Camp Ripley and save a few thousand dollars. It isn’t a ton of money but every bit helps. Unfortunately we ran out of time in class to have a small group discussion on the articles.
Comments
I agree. That was not a very smart choice for the governor about flying to Camp Ripley. To me it showed that he either wasn't thinking what he was actually saying or he doesn't care much about the budget because there should be no reason why they need to fly and not take a bus. Why couldn't he just suggest to go to his house in the first place? No one can get in there then and interrupt them. I am glad they didn't spend money on the airplane ride.
Posted by: Dianna at June 30, 2005 10:05 AM
I agree with Matt and Dianna. This idea was absolutely ridiculous and if I was Gov. Pawlenty I might want to check my staff to see why they didn't point out the flaws in this idea before it hit the press!
Posted by: Debbie at June 30, 2005 11:03 AM