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This blog is reposted from the Land Stewardship Project, one of our key allies in our work to make sure Minnesota’s Health Benefits Exchange is built with people at the center, not insurance industry profits. You can view it in its original form here. 

For the past year the Land Stewardship Project and our allies have been organizing to make sure Minnesota moves forward, not backward, under the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare). It’s clear that our current health care system is failing working people across the state—including urban people, rural people and farmers.

In fact, lack of access to affordable care is one of the major impediments to beginning farmers getting started. And in farm families it’s very common for one spouse to take an off-farm job to get health insurance benefits. This makes it more difficult to build an economically viable family farm—a situation that’s particularly challenging for livestock operations.

The other options are hardly better: purchasing expensive insurance on the corporate-dominated private market, which is often inadequate to meet people’s needs; or joining the 9.1 percent of Minnesotans who take the risk of going without health insurance coverage.

A Health Insurance Exchange Governed by the People

That’s why LSP has been organizing with allies across the state to win changes in our health care system that start to put the power back in the hands of the people.… Continue reading »

An important campaign that many Minnesotans don’t even know about is rapidly coming to a conclusion. The vote is likely going to take place early next week, if it happens at all. Most of us know the Senate is broken. The current Senate rules enable obstruction and block progress on a range of issues key to America’s future. In past years, our nation was able to move forward on landmark legislation that put in place workers’ rights, civil rights, retirement security for seniors and so much more.

We know it’s no longer a question of a majority vote making decisions on critical legislation. We know gridlock rules the decision making process in the Senate. The filibuster used to be an important tool that gave the minority a real voice in the Senate. Not anymore. For too long now, this tactic has been misused and abused. Congress has stopped legislating effectively, with Senators using ridiculous dodge tactics to block real progress. Today, majority rule in the Senate is the exception, not the rule.

We know we can do better. 70% of Americans agree and think substantive change is needed in the Senate rules.

This is our chance to reform the Senate rules so that Senators debate and vote on critical legislation.… Continue reading »

Throughout the summer and fall, TakeAction health care team members pounded the pavement and called thousands of voters, asking them to vote no on November 6th. Last week, we saw the result of all that work as two hateful amendments were defeated in our state. Saying no to those amendments felt great. And seeing them both defeated felt even better.

But now, a week later, we’re ready to say goodbye to no and move on to yes. And as we look to the health care work TakeAction Minnesota will be doing this legislative session, we feel a sense of that “yes” most clearly in the opportunity we have to improve and expand our MinnesotaCare program.

This session, our newly elected legislature will have the chance to make major and long lasting changes to our state’s health care system through the creation of what’s called a Basic Health Plan. A key part of the Affordable Care Act, the Basic Health Plan would mean maintaining, improving and expanding the current MinnesotaCare program in our state.

It would mean saying yes to a healthier Minnesota – the Basic Health Plan will provide affordable, high-quality health care to 120,000 people in our state, some of whom are currently on MinnesotaCare and some of whom would be newly covered.… Continue reading »

Eighteen months ago, TakeAction Minnesota organizational member OutFront Minnesota joined Project 515 to launch Minnesotans United for All Families, the campaign to defeat the amendment.

Together, they built the largest grassroots campaign Minnesota has ever seen: close to 700 coalition partners, 27,000 volunteers, 67,000 donors and 1.3 million voters who said no to amending the state’s constitution. Their work led us to make history as the first state in the nation to defeat a constitutional amendment to limit the freedom to marry for same-sex couples.

At the same time, the tireless OutFront joined us in the campaign to defeat the Voter Restriction Amendment and worked to elect a pro-LGBT equality majority in both the house and senate.

But they’re just getting started. OutFront is ready to move from no to yes — yes to the freedom to marry and legal recognition for same-sex couples in Minnesota.

We can’t wait to join them in this fight in 2013. Be a part of this amazing campaign from the start, take a deeper look at the issues facing the LGBTQ community, and celebrate our amazing Election Day victories on December 1 at OutFront Minnesota’s Equality & Justice Summit on December 1.… Continue reading »

Last Tuesday our political system moved one step closer to representing America’s emerging majority.

Our political system improves when our electorate more closely matches our population.  In other words, when growing populations like young people, people of color, women, and progressives vote, we get a government more responsive to our needs.  This is what happened in 2008 and 2012.  It is what did not happen in 2010.

The challenge for political leaders going forward is to make sure this emerging majority has a reason to vote in 2014, 2016, and beyond.  This is more than a messaging problem.  It is a governing problem.  Elected officials that fail to respond to the needs of these growing populations will likely find themselves subject to the see-saw ‘wave’ elections the country has been experiencing since 2002.

Like our political system, our tax system is most effective when it responds to our lived experience.  Unfortunately, our tax system is currently out of sync with the economy we live every day.One of the key messages voters sent at the ballot box last week was that they firmly support making our tax system more fair.  In a nationwide AFL-CIO exit poll, 62% of voters said their message to the next president and Congress was: “We should make sure the wealthy start paying their fair share of taxes.”… Continue reading »

When I was 11 years old, a teacher from another classroom decided that the whole school needed to have assigned seats in the lunchroom. We weren’t asked about it, we weren’t consulted, we weren’t told why, were simply assigned seats at someone else’s whim.  As luck would have it, we had just been learning about the U.S. Constitution and the right to freedom of assembly in social studies.  Outraged by the blatant trampling of our rights and liberties by an unjust and undemocratic authority, and burning with the righteous desire to sit next to my friends at lunch, I organized a petition and a walk-out.  I couldn’t believe it when dozens of my classmates follow suit.  After a cruel loss of recess privileges and further organized protest, the administration relented.  We won the right to sit where we pleased.  6th Graders of the World Unite! 

It may sound small, writing about my first collective organizing victoy well over twenty years later.   But for me, it was the point of no return.  Once I knew what it felt like to change the world in a way that directly affected me and the people I cared about, once I knew that it was possible, there was no going back.… Continue reading »

On Monday morning, November 5th, Arthur Cunningham was working on his resume in the computer lab next to the TakeAction Minnesota Northside “Get out the Vote” Action Center. Arthur is 21 years old, African American, and lives in North Minneapolis. Until Tuesday, he had never voted before. He had no idea what the Voter Restriction Amendment was about or how it would have impacted him if it had passed. 

After a ten minute conversation about the amendment (and some quick help with his resume), Arthur was ready to hit the phones and volunteer his time to defeat the amendment. On Election Day, not only did he continue to work the phones and wave signs in the street, he also got a ride from our action center to the polls and filled out his first ballot.

Arthur helped Minnesota make history. He voted to re-elect the first African American President, and said NO to both marriage discrimination and voter suppression. When I asked him why he had never voted before, he said he felt like voting didn’t make a difference. After voting this year, I am pretty sure Arthur changed his mind.

Here’s the best part: Arthur wasn’t alone. Leaders from the Justice 4 All program spent months on the phones and knocking on doors talking to voters about the Voter Restriction Amendment and its impact on our community.… Continue reading »

SuperPACs are old news.  As we near November 6th, the trendsetters in corporate electioneering are drafting a disturbing new tool: a letter from the boss. 

A growing number of C.E.O.s are setting pen to paper to warn their employees of the dire consequences of voting for President Obama.  Some, such as David A. Siegel, the head of Westgate Resorts, have resorted to outright threats writing, “If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current president plans, I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company.”

While election year bullying is nothing new, these letters are having unexpected impacts on places and people in Minnesota.

On August 21st Georgia Pacific announced it would close its woods product plant in Duluth.  Workers there manufactured a hard board wood that is used in car interior components like visors and rear shelves.  For decades these jobs had been a livelihood for 141 people and their families.  On October 19th they picked up their last paycheck.

This closing has been a hardship for these families and the City of Duluth.  It is one in a series of six large wood-manufacturing plants to close in Minnesota in the last 5 years. … Continue reading »

As we enter the final three weeks of the 2012 election season, take a moment to consider your letter carrier. 

If you live in one of Minnesota’s suburbs, your letter carrier is likely to be getting a workout over from now until November 6th. If her mail bag looks a little bulky, it’s likely the avalanche of negative mail that right-wing front groups are releasing to mislead & discourage voters.

This tried & true tactic was used in 2010 by groups like the right-wing Freedom Club State PAC. This corporate-backed outfit spent $294,000 to take over the Minnesota House of Representatives. This year they are at it again.

As of late September, the Freedom Club State PAC and four other corporate groups (the Coalition of Minnesota Businesses PAC, the Minnesota Business Partnership PAC, Minnesota’s Future, and Pro Jobs Majority) had nearly $1.2 million left to spend in the election.

They are getting a boost from energy industry billionaires Charles and David Koch whose Americans for Prosperity have spent at least $500,000 in Minnesota so far. The American Action Network, led by Wall Street heavy-hitters, has committed another $1,000,000 to the state.

They are spending to defend the majorities that brought us the school shifts, the shutdown, and two divisive constitutional amendments.… Continue reading »

Some decisions are difficult.  What to do with the expiring Bush Tax Cuts is not one of them.

Immediately after the election the U.S. Congress will meet in its ‘lame duck’ session.   Between November 7th and December 31st it will have some thorny issues to sort out.  From implementing ‘sequestration’ cuts to dealing with the expiration of both long-term unemployment benefits & a 2% payroll tax reduction, this Congress will make decisions that affect Americans for generations.

While many of the policies are complicated, many of the decisions are simple. We should let the Bush Tax Cuts expire for the top 2%.

Our federal government, its budget, and its representatives should serve the people.  Tax cuts for the top 2% serve the few at the expense of everyone else.  The cost of extending the Bush Tax Cuts for households making over $250,000 is almost $1 trillion.   That’s one trillion dollars that will not pay for health care, retirement, schools, roads, or anything else we all need.

Look at the numbers for people living in Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District.

• Less than 2% of those in Minnesota’s 8th are in the top 2% (i.e. make over $250,000 per year.)
• 17.8% are enrolled in Medicaid.

Our economy gets shaped by the rules we make.

We decide who’s in and who’s out: who gets to participate and who doesn’t.  The rules we make for voting define who has access to power in Minnesota.  There are great advantages to being included: from access to the safety net to periodically getting to ‘throw the bums out’.  Likewise, exclusion from the vote has great costs: from ‘taxation without representation’ to weakened civil rights.

The Voter Restriction Amendment is Minnesota is part of a nationally orchestrated assault on voting rights in the U.S.  According the Brennan Center for Justice, in 2011: 

“Legislators introduced and passed a record number of bills restricting access to voting this year. New laws ranged from those requiring government-issued photo identification or documentary proof of citizenship to vote, to those reducing access to early and absentee voting, to those making it more difficult to register to vote. In total, at least nineteen laws and two executive actions making it more difficult to vote passed across the country…”

This attack on our voting power is alarming.  When paired with the assault on our tax code, though, an even more troubling picture emerges.

In a democracy, power comes with responsibility. … Continue reading »