3/25/14

Wismer petitions approved

Roger Larsen of the Huron Plainsman gets today's news nod: he highlighted Rep. Susan Wismer.
“Our voters are the ones who are out there on the edge of survival,” Wismer, a six-year legislator from Britton said at Thursday’s Beadle County Democratic Forum. While many Democrats are among South Dakota’s low-income population, they must also understand how important it is for them to vote if their lot in life is to change, Wismer said. But it’s tough to do that because voting is the furthest thing down on their list of priorities. With Republican control of the administration and Legislature, there have been education and Medicaid cuts, bankrupt projects using state-sanctioned dollars and swelling budget reserves at the same time schools and nursing homes are fighting to keep their doors open, she said. Wismer is calling on her party to rebuild the county organization structure, and for Democrats to get more involved. [The Huron Plainsman]

Four years after Obamacare was enacted, and more than 50 House votes to undo it, Republicans remain dedicated to destroying the law. But they're still lost on what they'd put in its place if given the chance. For one, the project is greatly complicated by election year considerations. Many Republicans would rather hammer Obamacare than do the hard work of crafting and defending a bill of their own. And even if House Republicans coalesce around a bill -- a big if -- it'll invariably carry its own set of tradeoffs and disruptions. That'll be tougher to defend while Republicans are raising hell about cancellations and other disruptions caused by Obamacare. [Sahil Kapur, Talking Points Memo]
Wismer left a comment at Bob Mercer's Pure Pierre Politics:
Your comments regarding lack of public notice are on point, but if you haven’t heard from someone else in the administration already, I don’t think it is fair or even accurate to put the Board of Regents and the technical institutes on the same plane regarding the tuition actions and the representations made during the session. It took me a few minutes to find and confirm my memory, but slide 26 of the Governor’s budget address from December, here: does NOT refer to a tuition “freeze” for the technical institutes. They do refer to a tuition “buy-down” and the Governor verbally refers to a buy-down of $5 per credit hour for them. In comparison, he DOES refer to a tuition “freeze” for in-state students only for the Board of Regents institutions.




Recall Larsen's report about a conference call with Rep. Kristi Noem (earth hater-SD). This stuck out:
While the president’s proposal does start the discussion on entitlements, Noem said she’s also concerned about tax increases and a lack of meaningful spending reductions. Obama also seeks to cut areas critical to South Dakotans like the federally impacted school district program and energy assistance for low-income people, she said.
Right, let Republicans cut assistance to schools and old people because the GOP is so good at ending gun violence.

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