Pawlenty Blames Middle-Class Minnesotans for His Bad Record

01/28/2008

Pawlenty Suggests Trade-Off for Middle-Class Families; DFL Party says Pawlenty Has Failed to Lead Minnesota Forward


St. Paul, MN (January 24, 2008) After Governor Pawlenty said that the state must trade our social safety net for other priorities; the Minnesota DFL Party released the following statement from Minnesota DFL Chair Brian Melendez:

“The governor’s suggestion today that our state must choose between important health-care programs, and adequate funding for education and transportation, is yet another attempt to shift the blame for his failure of leadership and his lack of vision. A real leader would never ask for such sacrifices, especially when they result from his own short-sighted policies and his own mismanagement.

“Minnesota lost 23,000 jobs in six months, our transportation infrastructure is in disrepair, and health-care costs and property taxes are skyrocketing. Yet Governor Pawlenty thinks that cutting the social safety net is the solution. But for Minnesota’s middle-class families, that solution solves nothing — it just makes the existing problems worse.

“Minnesotans want leadership, they don’t want to play politics and they don’t want to play the blame game. And they certainly shouldn’t be the governor’s patsies in his bid for national office.”