TO THE EDITOR:

I attended the Candidates Forum at Abundant Life Church sponsored by Region 7 Area Agency on Agency Health Care Commission. Of the four candidates for State Attorney General, Lori Swanson was clearly the most qualified. The Republican candidate didnít even mention health care or seniors in his statement to the League of Women Voters for their guide, let alone acknowledge it as the other three candidates had done. Even more to my surprise were the positions of Sean Nienow. He even opposed raising the minimum wage to $6.15 per hour and when asked about the health care coverage crisis, could only read responses prepare by the Republican Party criticizing the Canadian health care system. There are more than 40 million Americans without health insurance while every Canadian is covered. Their system cost significantly less than our fragmented private system with all its flaws, e.g. huge salaries of health care CEOs, such as William McGuire of United Health Group who received over $59.5 million in compensation in 2005. He cited waiting periods for some procedures, but failed to point out that their system not only is more cost-effective; it produces better overall results. However, it is Nienowís attitude about the minimum wage that is the most compelling reason he should be defeated. This past week 650 economists including Nobel winners Kenneth Arow, Clive Granger, Robert Solow and Joseph Stiglitz issued a statement that lays out the case for increasing the federal minimum wage, now at a 40-year low when adjusted for inflation. Solow of MIT said: ìReal wages have stagnated in the United States and fallen well behind productivity growth. The minimum wage has fallen to disgraceful levels.î

Alice Rivilin, former director of the Office of Management and Budget, said raising the minimum wage is a ìpolicy no-brainer.î Nienow and other Republicans have been cutting taxes for the wealthy, providing tax-free zones for selective businesses, sort of corporate welfare, while the wages of the average worker, when adjusted for inflation and taking into account higher deductibles for less health care coverage, is decreasing.

The policies supported by Nienow and Pete Nelson have made the rich, richer and everyone else poorer. For Nienow to oppose raising the minimum wage when most minimum wage workers lack benefits such as health care is as Solow said, a disgrace. Remember most of the new jobs created under the Pawlenty administrationÝpay well below a living wage. Join me in voting for Olseen for State Senate and Kalin for State House and lets make Minnesota once again a ìState that Works,î as it did when Minnesota ranked first, not in the bottom three of all the states in the USA with a minimum wage that is different than the federal minimum wage.

Robert G. Walz
North Branch