By Jason Sethre
Publisher
Fillmore County Journal &
Olmsted County Journal
Cell: 507-251-5297
jason@fillmorecountyjournal.com
This past week has been full of so much positive energy it makes me proud to do what I do. Yeah, sure, I get to work
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"Where Fillmore County News Comes First"
Online Edition
Thursday, June 20th, 2013
Volume ∞ Issue ∞
- 8:58:04, Jun 18th 2013 - cabraden1 - I salute you Colonel Overland. Your were my c.o. at Rockville Naval Air ... [Read More]
- 7:10:46, Jun 13th 2013 - chipperlee - Seems to be a well written article, except maybe Silica Sand is used in ... [Read More]
- 12:02:15, Jun 9th 2013 - getthefacts - The problem here lies in the fact that girls were repeatedly told "if y ... [Read More]
- 10:45:32, Jun 7th 2013 - Jo mom for 6yrs - Mr. Ehler hit the nail on the head. I agree with the religious con ... [Read More]
- 2:47:58, Jun 7th 2013 - hello - Hello, it's time you wake up. There isn't a community nearby that doesn't offe ... [Read More]
- 9:06:21, Jun 6th 2013 - hello - Hello, it's time you wake up. There isn't a community nearby that doesn't offe ... [Read More]
- 2:05:29, Jun 6th 2013 - Kim Wentworth - The number one rule in a debate: 1) if the person from the opposite si ... [Read More]
- 12:42:18, Jun 4th 2013 - EW - For someone that is always spouting religious rhetoric, you try to come off as a ... [Read More]
- 11:32:18, May 31st 2013 - JO PLAYER - This is unfair to us girls. Morrie Miller is not getting canceled but J ... [Read More]
- 8:25:34, May 29th 2013 - RP - Why is Mr. Ehler involving himself with non-school activities? Is he going after ... [Read More]
The Invisible Lawmakers
Fri, May 17th, 2013
Posted in All Commentary
Posted in All Commentary
Comments
Want to know what’s causing a lot of people in Washington to work long hours right now? Here’s a hint: it’s not immigration reform or gun control or, for that matter, any other legislation coming down the pike. Instead, it’s a pair of three-year-old laws.
The Affordable Care Act (known to most Americans as Obamacare) and the Wall Street reform act known as “Dodd-Frank” both became law in 2010. Most people consider these major pieces of legislation old news, but that’s because their civics teachers misled them back in junior high school. In the How-A-Bill-Becomes-A-Law version of Congress that many of us were taught, the story ends when the bill is signed by the President. It doesn’t. In fact, the President’s signature is more like a starter’s pistol.
Because after a bill becomes law is when legislative language — which is often deliberately vague and imprecise, in order to wrangle as many votes as possible — gets interpreted and turned into regulatory language. In other words, Congress drafts a rough blueprint; only then does the federal government decide how the machinery will actually work.
And that’s where money — lots of money — stands to be won or lost. A few years ago, a group of academics studying tax disclosures related to a single 2004 piece of financial legislation found that firms lobbying for a particular provision made $220 for every $1 they spent on lobbying. Which may help explain why, as the Center for Responsive Government recently reported, the health care industry has spent more than $700 million on lobbying Congress and executive agencies since health care reform passed.
Indeed, the political fight that began with the drafting of legislation continues long after a bill is enacted into law — not for days or weeks or even months, but sometimes for years. Unlike the legislative process, which for all its faults is generally visible and accessible to the public, these battles tend to be invisible and inscrutable.
The first arena in which they take place is within the agency or agencies charged with drafting and enforcing the rules that give teeth to legislation. This process can be lengthy — according to one corporate law firm that has been tracking the rulemaking process for Dodd-Frank, only 38 percent of the rules required by the legislation had been finalized by the beginning of May this year. Special interests trying to have an impac .....
[Read the Rest]
The Affordable Care Act (known to most Americans as Obamacare) and the Wall Street reform act known as “Dodd-Frank” both became law in 2010. Most people consider these major pieces of legislation old news, but that’s because their civics teachers misled them back in junior high school. In the How-A-Bill-Becomes-A-Law version of Congress that many of us were taught, the story ends when the bill is signed by the President. It doesn’t. In fact, the President’s signature is more like a starter’s pistol.
Because after a bill becomes law is when legislative language — which is often deliberately vague and imprecise, in order to wrangle as many votes as possible — gets interpreted and turned into regulatory language. In other words, Congress drafts a rough blueprint; only then does the federal government decide how the machinery will actually work.
And that’s where money — lots of money — stands to be won or lost. A few years ago, a group of academics studying tax disclosures related to a single 2004 piece of financial legislation found that firms lobbying for a particular provision made $220 for every $1 they spent on lobbying. Which may help explain why, as the Center for Responsive Government recently reported, the health care industry has spent more than $700 million on lobbying Congress and executive agencies since health care reform passed.
Indeed, the political fight that began with the drafting of legislation continues long after a bill is enacted into law — not for days or weeks or even months, but sometimes for years. Unlike the legislative process, which for all its faults is generally visible and accessible to the public, these battles tend to be invisible and inscrutable.
The first arena in which they take place is within the agency or agencies charged with drafting and enforcing the rules that give teeth to legislation. This process can be lengthy — according to one corporate law firm that has been tracking the rulemaking process for Dodd-Frank, only 38 percent of the rules required by the legislation had been finalized by the beginning of May this year. Special interests trying to have an impac .....
[Read the Rest]
Quality education on individual levels
Fri, May 10th, 2013
Posted in All Commentary
Posted in All Commentary
By Eric Leitzen
The last time we met, I discussed the latest punch-up dust-up in the wild world of education, a sort of “Rumble in the Blackboard Jungle” if you will. On one side, there’s the ideas of STEM and the Common Core, who stress a Ma
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Guest Commentary: Can unions survive the implementation of Affordable Care?
Fri, May 10th, 2013
Posted in All Commentary
Posted in All Commentary
By Jeff Erding, Wykoff, Minn.
Democratic candidates enjoy overwhelming support from labor unions of all types. It is doubtful President Obama could have been elected without the votes and financial contributions of the unions. Unions may be small
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How Politics Has Changed
Fri, May 10th, 2013
Posted in All Commentary
Posted in All Commentary
By Lee Hamilton
When two senators recently got into a spat over whether the Boston Marathon bombings were being politicized, the news was everywhere within minutes. Reams of commentary quickly followed. In the maneuvering over gun-control legislat
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How Politics Has Changed
Mon, May 6th, 2013
Posted in All Commentary
Posted in All Commentary
When two senators recently got into a spat over whether the Boston Marathon bombings were being politicized, the news was everywhere within minutes. Reams of commentary quickly followed. In the maneuvering over gun-control legislation, every twist a
.....
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Murdering ourselves
Mon, May 6th, 2013
Posted in All Commentary
Posted in All Commentary
John Adams once said that “democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide”. In a book first published in 1942 economist Joseph Schumpeter asks the question,
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Impacting our communities
Fri, May 3rd, 2013
Posted in Spring Valley Commentary
Posted in Spring Valley Commentary
By Tim Penny, Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation
Recently, our Foundation (Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation) held its annual community luncheon in Spring Valley. Each year, we do this type of community visit to celebrate our accomplis
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One Moment, Please... Taking a break for some sunshine
Fri, May 3rd, 2013
Posted in All Commentary
Posted in All Commentary
By Jason Sethre
Publisher
Fillmore County Journal &
Olmsted County Journal
Cell: 507-251-5297
jason@fillmorecountyjournal.com
Probably one of the greatest things about raising our two children is that their busy lives force my wife and I to ta
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