It's Dr. Jekyll and Uncle Fluffy all over again.
I'm willing to bet not a lot of you out there have been following the MN gubernatorial race between the three major party candidates, Republican Tim Pawlenty, Democrat Mike Hatch, and the Independence Party's Peter Hutchinson. You've been missing quite a show. But don't worry, because I've taken the time to reproduce selections from the gubernatorial debates for you here. This is going to be a - how can I say it? - a dramaticized reproduction. Because I can't type as fast as Mike Hatch talks, I'm very much paraphrasing, but I think I hit all the main points, and the style is more or less accurate. This has been the official disclaimer.
Question: What one reform will you propose to make healthcare more affordable?
Hatch: [obviously reading] The Blueprint for Health Reform is too complicated for me to explain... Too many proposals are made by [something having to do with a sports analogy that I don't get]... Some statistic about hospitals... Canadian drugs... something about small business plans... government appointments... non-profit boards... et cetera.
Peter Hutchinson: Eat cheerios and spam. (laughter) We have the most complicated healthcare system in the world, and as a consequence, we have the highest administrative costs... And we pay for procedures instead of outcomes... We have a concrete approach to driving these costs out of the healthcare system. They account for almost 50% of the total cost of care. We need a single admistrative system that will unify healthcare in this state, and then only buy those procedures that actually produce the outcomes we want the first time. Our plan gets the job done.
Pawlenty: Thank you all for being here today. I like debates and I hope we can do more of them. Healthcare is important. Our system is broken. Cost, quality, access... We have to control costs better. We want patients deciding how healthcare works. Patient-centered healthcare, not government run healthcare.
Hatch: I didn't say government run healthcare. Healthcare companies hire million dollar consultants and nobody knows what they are doing. We need regulation in this industry. I'm appointing people to a whole bunch of offices all starting with the word "Commissioner" and...
time is up.
Hutchinson: The governor is half right: nobody wants the government to run the healthcare system. But the people of Minnesota also know that if you leave it just up to the market place, they are outta lunch and outta luck. It really takes both. The government sets the rules of the game and then the market delivers on those rules for our citizens. It's gotta be both, it can't be one or the other. Cause there's too much risk on the one hand, and certainly we don't want more bureaucracy on the other. It's the combination of government and marketplace that will get the job done.
Pawlenty: We know what works. We need to move to performance pay and connect patients and doctors and create incentives and things. Oh and by the way, healthcare premiums are actually at a decade low because I'm awesome. Re-elect me.
Question: The Transportation Amendment will constitutionally dedicate all of the motor vehicle sales tax revenue to roads, bridges, and transit. What is your position on the amendment and should we increase transportation funding and how would you raise the revenue?
Hutchinson: My team and I have just finished driving 6800 miles around Minnesota, to 220 cities. We've been on the roads in Minnesota and we can tell you - they suck. They are in the worst condition they've been in in 20 years. Dedicating motor vehicle tax makes sense. Putting it in the constitution does not. Voting for this amendment rewards the cowardly behavior of legislators that aren't willing to get the job done. They don't need an amendment to do this. They could have done it 4 years ago, 3 years ago, 2 years ago... they could have done it yesterday, if they were willing to lead. Our plan is very simple: take the bipartisan bill that passed two years ago and pass it again. We'll sign it. We could have been two years further down the road if we'd done that.
Pawlenty: Minnesota is proud of her quality of life, and part of that is making sure people can move around smoothly, and that hasn't been the case in the last 20 years. We are 20 years behind in our transportation infrastructure. We haven't been able to make up 20 years in the last 3 years, but we've made great progress. I'm not focusing on what hasn't happened, I'm focusing on what has happened, and we've built a whole bunch of roads and other transportation things. We haven't fixed every problem, but we've fixed a lot of problems and we can fix even more by passing this amendment. We've made progress because I'm awesome. Re-elect me.
Hatch: Minnesota consumers waste lots of gas in traffic jams... statistic... statistic... statistic... Even with this amendment, we're still in trouble. According to MNDOT... statistic... statistic... statistic... Our transportation system is broken. I know we need to fund it, [but I'm going to change the subject here and talk about something no one's brought up yet, and that's the gas tax. I'm only bringing this up because it's a chance for me to say I don't support it and maybe pick up a few votes among conservatives. Unlikely, but hey - it's worth a try.] Getting back on topic, I support this amendment, even though I don't really like it. I think we should use most of the money for highways and not other stuff.
Hutchinson: The governor borrowed a billion dollars to spend on roads and then designated two and a half billion for roads. It's a whole new kind of conservative here: the borrow and spend conservative. It's a long way from what we're used to - raising the money we need to buy what we want. There's no question that debt plays a role here, but there's no balance. What's happening is, in order to pay the debt service, we've got to take money away from maintenance. That's why those potholes are out there, that's why some of them have names, they're so big! It's time to get this back in balance and create a sustainable approach to our roads and transit.
Pawlenty: About bonding, we don't want to use it exclusively, but it is one part of a comprehensive plan, and both Republicans and Democrats have agreed on that. It makes sense to save 12% which is how fast construction costs are going up to be able to leverage money at 5%. You gotta have a plan, you can't just be a critic. The Attorney General [Hatch] has criticized our approach, but hasn't said anything about how he would fund a different approach. Our plan works, because I'm awesome. Re-elect me.
Hatch: I believe there's something going on in New Jersey where they have highways and they can't maintain them... that's where we're headed with this process of bonding, of borrowing from our children to pay for roads... somewhere along the line it breaks, I understand it's going to break within the next term. That is wrong. We should get into a generational impact statement... we're putting it off on our children.
Question: How should the K-12 and higher education systems be changed so that they do a better job of meeting the needs of the state's economy?
Pawlenty: Minnesota has right to be proud of its schools. We lead the nation in objective test areas. Basically, we're awesome. Our schools do a great job of contributing to the workforce in Minnesota and we want to keep it that way. But we can't charge into the future with a 1940's one size fits all industrial model. It has served us well, but it needs to be changed. We need more rigorous and relevant curriculum and to reinvent the American high school because Bill Gates says it is obsolete. High schools should be like iPods... Like skill academies... They shouldn't aim to accommodate everyone everywhere... They need strategic alliances with the economy. We've been doing this through job skills partnerships and higher education programs.
Hatch: A friend of mine is recruiting nurses in the Philippines and Nigeria. Here, friends of my daughter are on a two year wait list for nursing programs in our colleges. There is insufficient clinical support and insufficient classroom instructors. Statistic, statistic... yadda yadda yadda, restating the question... Several proposals: lower tuition costs... mentorship... relevant courses... and time is up.
Hutchinson: Traveling around the state, I was in a bar in Deer River, talking to a young woman about education and she said - "I graduated from high school and knew I needed to get a good education, so I applied to community college, and the first thing they told me to take were remedial courses." 36% of Minnesota high school graduates have to take remedial courses when they get to college. You want to set a goal for Minnesota? Get that down to zero! Match high school graduation standards with college admission standards, and then double the amount of need-based aid so every kid can go to college. Then we'll have the workers we need.
Pawlenty: We have a plan - it's called ACHIEVE - to make sure that we try to keep and incentivize our best and brightest to stay in Minnesota and make sure that college is affordable. The plan, ACHIEVE, which stands for something obviously quite long, is working, mostly because I'm awesome. You should definitely re-elect me. Mike Hatch criticizes funding cuts, but he wouldn't have done any differently.
Hatch: When I was in college, I only paid $125 a credit and graduated without debt. Now you can't do that. This is wrong. I want that tuition reversed, and by george, I'm gonna do it! It has doubled in the last six years and that's wrong!!
Hutchinson: When I was in that bar in Deer River, I happened to see the governor's TV commercial... (laugher) You know, that commercial where the kids all shout hooray and the governor talks about the 70% solution. It's a bold stroke of leadership - we need to increase the amount of funding spent in classrooms from 69% all the way up to 70%. It's not gonna make it. It's not what we need. We need to drive the necessity for remedial courses out of the system. We need to make it possible to actually double the number of kids who graduate with a diploma. That's bold leadership.
Question: What will be your budget priorities? Will you need to raise more revenue to meet them, and how will you do this?
Hatch: The Federal Reserve Bank tells us that the financial success is linked to the University... In partnership, Minnesota businesses do good things with technology and finance and medical stuff... I want Minnesota to maintain its edge in high tech jobs. Stem cell research investment... Medical science is historically important to Minnesota, going back to the Mayo brothers and some other people. Also, tuition needs to go down... I want property taxes lowered and we'll do this by closing the tax gap and something about the legislative auditor and... time is up.
Hutchinson: Well, we know the price that people are willing to pay for government in this state - it's $16.50 out of every $100. In the past 4 years, the price of government has gone up - taxes, fees, tuition, charges - everything under the sun has increased, and yet the quality of services has either stalled or gone down. It's not a good deal for Minnesotans. We need a better deal. The only way to get that deal is to fix the price and then figure out how to allocate the dollars. Our plan is very clear: start with healthcare. We can pull money out of the healthcare system and actually improve healthcare outcomes. Then you've got the dollars to invest in early childhood education and scholarships for kids and transportation and the environment. Those are our four key priorities: healthcare, education, transportation, and the environment. You can make it work, but you have to believe that cuts or raising taxes are not the only alternatives. You've gotta be willing to reallocate.
Pawlenty: Under my watch we've completed the largest financial turnaround in the state's history. We had a huge deficit, one of the largest in the nation. But now we have a surplus, the rainy day fund is refilled, we increased government spending, AND we didn't raise taxes. [Obviously, I am some kind of miracle worker.] Mike Hatch doesn't have a plan, he just travels all over the state and promises people all kinds of things without having a plan to raise the revenue.
Hatch: You don't know what you're talking about. Minnesota has the sixth fastest growing government in the nation. We dumped it all on local governments and took money out of the tobacco fund. That's not hard.
Pawlenty: We have to get Minnesota out of the top ten in taxes. No governor has ever done it until me. I'm awesome. Re-elect me.
Hutchinson: If Sarbanes-Oxley applied to government, Tim Pawlenty would be under indictment, and Mike Hatch would be under indictment for not indicting him. There's no way that our finances are secure.
There you have it. The candidates, on the issues. Awe-inspiring, isn't it?
Question: What one reform will you propose to make healthcare more affordable?
Hatch: [obviously reading] The Blueprint for Health Reform is too complicated for me to explain... Too many proposals are made by [something having to do with a sports analogy that I don't get]... Some statistic about hospitals... Canadian drugs... something about small business plans... government appointments... non-profit boards... et cetera.
Peter Hutchinson: Eat cheerios and spam. (laughter) We have the most complicated healthcare system in the world, and as a consequence, we have the highest administrative costs... And we pay for procedures instead of outcomes... We have a concrete approach to driving these costs out of the healthcare system. They account for almost 50% of the total cost of care. We need a single admistrative system that will unify healthcare in this state, and then only buy those procedures that actually produce the outcomes we want the first time. Our plan gets the job done.
Pawlenty: Thank you all for being here today. I like debates and I hope we can do more of them. Healthcare is important. Our system is broken. Cost, quality, access... We have to control costs better. We want patients deciding how healthcare works. Patient-centered healthcare, not government run healthcare.
Hatch: I didn't say government run healthcare. Healthcare companies hire million dollar consultants and nobody knows what they are doing. We need regulation in this industry. I'm appointing people to a whole bunch of offices all starting with the word "Commissioner" and...
time is up.
Hutchinson: The governor is half right: nobody wants the government to run the healthcare system. But the people of Minnesota also know that if you leave it just up to the market place, they are outta lunch and outta luck. It really takes both. The government sets the rules of the game and then the market delivers on those rules for our citizens. It's gotta be both, it can't be one or the other. Cause there's too much risk on the one hand, and certainly we don't want more bureaucracy on the other. It's the combination of government and marketplace that will get the job done.
Pawlenty: We know what works. We need to move to performance pay and connect patients and doctors and create incentives and things. Oh and by the way, healthcare premiums are actually at a decade low because I'm awesome. Re-elect me.
Question: The Transportation Amendment will constitutionally dedicate all of the motor vehicle sales tax revenue to roads, bridges, and transit. What is your position on the amendment and should we increase transportation funding and how would you raise the revenue?
Hutchinson: My team and I have just finished driving 6800 miles around Minnesota, to 220 cities. We've been on the roads in Minnesota and we can tell you - they suck. They are in the worst condition they've been in in 20 years. Dedicating motor vehicle tax makes sense. Putting it in the constitution does not. Voting for this amendment rewards the cowardly behavior of legislators that aren't willing to get the job done. They don't need an amendment to do this. They could have done it 4 years ago, 3 years ago, 2 years ago... they could have done it yesterday, if they were willing to lead. Our plan is very simple: take the bipartisan bill that passed two years ago and pass it again. We'll sign it. We could have been two years further down the road if we'd done that.
Pawlenty: Minnesota is proud of her quality of life, and part of that is making sure people can move around smoothly, and that hasn't been the case in the last 20 years. We are 20 years behind in our transportation infrastructure. We haven't been able to make up 20 years in the last 3 years, but we've made great progress. I'm not focusing on what hasn't happened, I'm focusing on what has happened, and we've built a whole bunch of roads and other transportation things. We haven't fixed every problem, but we've fixed a lot of problems and we can fix even more by passing this amendment. We've made progress because I'm awesome. Re-elect me.
Hatch: Minnesota consumers waste lots of gas in traffic jams... statistic... statistic... statistic... Even with this amendment, we're still in trouble. According to MNDOT... statistic... statistic... statistic... Our transportation system is broken. I know we need to fund it, [but I'm going to change the subject here and talk about something no one's brought up yet, and that's the gas tax. I'm only bringing this up because it's a chance for me to say I don't support it and maybe pick up a few votes among conservatives. Unlikely, but hey - it's worth a try.] Getting back on topic, I support this amendment, even though I don't really like it. I think we should use most of the money for highways and not other stuff.
Hutchinson: The governor borrowed a billion dollars to spend on roads and then designated two and a half billion for roads. It's a whole new kind of conservative here: the borrow and spend conservative. It's a long way from what we're used to - raising the money we need to buy what we want. There's no question that debt plays a role here, but there's no balance. What's happening is, in order to pay the debt service, we've got to take money away from maintenance. That's why those potholes are out there, that's why some of them have names, they're so big! It's time to get this back in balance and create a sustainable approach to our roads and transit.
Pawlenty: About bonding, we don't want to use it exclusively, but it is one part of a comprehensive plan, and both Republicans and Democrats have agreed on that. It makes sense to save 12% which is how fast construction costs are going up to be able to leverage money at 5%. You gotta have a plan, you can't just be a critic. The Attorney General [Hatch] has criticized our approach, but hasn't said anything about how he would fund a different approach. Our plan works, because I'm awesome. Re-elect me.
Hatch: I believe there's something going on in New Jersey where they have highways and they can't maintain them... that's where we're headed with this process of bonding, of borrowing from our children to pay for roads... somewhere along the line it breaks, I understand it's going to break within the next term. That is wrong. We should get into a generational impact statement... we're putting it off on our children.
Question: How should the K-12 and higher education systems be changed so that they do a better job of meeting the needs of the state's economy?
Pawlenty: Minnesota has right to be proud of its schools. We lead the nation in objective test areas. Basically, we're awesome. Our schools do a great job of contributing to the workforce in Minnesota and we want to keep it that way. But we can't charge into the future with a 1940's one size fits all industrial model. It has served us well, but it needs to be changed. We need more rigorous and relevant curriculum and to reinvent the American high school because Bill Gates says it is obsolete. High schools should be like iPods... Like skill academies... They shouldn't aim to accommodate everyone everywhere... They need strategic alliances with the economy. We've been doing this through job skills partnerships and higher education programs.
Hatch: A friend of mine is recruiting nurses in the Philippines and Nigeria. Here, friends of my daughter are on a two year wait list for nursing programs in our colleges. There is insufficient clinical support and insufficient classroom instructors. Statistic, statistic... yadda yadda yadda, restating the question... Several proposals: lower tuition costs... mentorship... relevant courses... and time is up.
Hutchinson: Traveling around the state, I was in a bar in Deer River, talking to a young woman about education and she said - "I graduated from high school and knew I needed to get a good education, so I applied to community college, and the first thing they told me to take were remedial courses." 36% of Minnesota high school graduates have to take remedial courses when they get to college. You want to set a goal for Minnesota? Get that down to zero! Match high school graduation standards with college admission standards, and then double the amount of need-based aid so every kid can go to college. Then we'll have the workers we need.
Pawlenty: We have a plan - it's called ACHIEVE - to make sure that we try to keep and incentivize our best and brightest to stay in Minnesota and make sure that college is affordable. The plan, ACHIEVE, which stands for something obviously quite long, is working, mostly because I'm awesome. You should definitely re-elect me. Mike Hatch criticizes funding cuts, but he wouldn't have done any differently.
Hatch: When I was in college, I only paid $125 a credit and graduated without debt. Now you can't do that. This is wrong. I want that tuition reversed, and by george, I'm gonna do it! It has doubled in the last six years and that's wrong!!
Hutchinson: When I was in that bar in Deer River, I happened to see the governor's TV commercial... (laugher) You know, that commercial where the kids all shout hooray and the governor talks about the 70% solution. It's a bold stroke of leadership - we need to increase the amount of funding spent in classrooms from 69% all the way up to 70%. It's not gonna make it. It's not what we need. We need to drive the necessity for remedial courses out of the system. We need to make it possible to actually double the number of kids who graduate with a diploma. That's bold leadership.
Question: What will be your budget priorities? Will you need to raise more revenue to meet them, and how will you do this?
Hatch: The Federal Reserve Bank tells us that the financial success is linked to the University... In partnership, Minnesota businesses do good things with technology and finance and medical stuff... I want Minnesota to maintain its edge in high tech jobs. Stem cell research investment... Medical science is historically important to Minnesota, going back to the Mayo brothers and some other people. Also, tuition needs to go down... I want property taxes lowered and we'll do this by closing the tax gap and something about the legislative auditor and... time is up.
Hutchinson: Well, we know the price that people are willing to pay for government in this state - it's $16.50 out of every $100. In the past 4 years, the price of government has gone up - taxes, fees, tuition, charges - everything under the sun has increased, and yet the quality of services has either stalled or gone down. It's not a good deal for Minnesotans. We need a better deal. The only way to get that deal is to fix the price and then figure out how to allocate the dollars. Our plan is very clear: start with healthcare. We can pull money out of the healthcare system and actually improve healthcare outcomes. Then you've got the dollars to invest in early childhood education and scholarships for kids and transportation and the environment. Those are our four key priorities: healthcare, education, transportation, and the environment. You can make it work, but you have to believe that cuts or raising taxes are not the only alternatives. You've gotta be willing to reallocate.
Pawlenty: Under my watch we've completed the largest financial turnaround in the state's history. We had a huge deficit, one of the largest in the nation. But now we have a surplus, the rainy day fund is refilled, we increased government spending, AND we didn't raise taxes. [Obviously, I am some kind of miracle worker.] Mike Hatch doesn't have a plan, he just travels all over the state and promises people all kinds of things without having a plan to raise the revenue.
Hatch: You don't know what you're talking about. Minnesota has the sixth fastest growing government in the nation. We dumped it all on local governments and took money out of the tobacco fund. That's not hard.
Pawlenty: We have to get Minnesota out of the top ten in taxes. No governor has ever done it until me. I'm awesome. Re-elect me.
Hutchinson: If Sarbanes-Oxley applied to government, Tim Pawlenty would be under indictment, and Mike Hatch would be under indictment for not indicting him. There's no way that our finances are secure.
There you have it. The candidates, on the issues. Awe-inspiring, isn't it?
posted by stoerzie at
5:10 PM
