Peggy Flanagan's cringeworthy interview

Friday night, Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota's DFL Lt. Gov., stopped by Almanac's studios to chat about the Walz-Flanagan budget. Suffice it to say that it was a cringeworthy interview from the standpoint of a capitalist. In response to Eric Eskola's first question, which asked if this budget would improve Minnesotans' lives, Flanagan replied "this is the budget that I have been waiting for my entire life, especially as a child advocate. One of the things that I'm most excited about is the child tax credit. It's $1,000 per child up to $3,000 per family. This policy alone will reduce child poverty in Minnesota by 25%, which I think is incredible."

Flanagan continued, saying "We also have our dependent care credit, which will make childcare more affordable for families, $1.5 billion in housing stability from a full spectrum of housing from our neighbors experiencing homelessness to first-time homeowners, indexing education to the funding formula to inflation, which is a long time overdue. And some of these investments, I think, are short-term, some short-term relief for folks..."

This is a socialist's dream budget. It tells people that they get to keep some of their money if they jump through the right hoops. The Walz-Flanagan budget refuses to overhaul Minnesota's burdensome tax code. He won't even eliminate the tax on Social Security income:

In regards to seniors and the contentious state tax on Social Security benefits, Walz would keep it in place but reduce this tax burden to the tune of $219 million.

Revenue Commissioner Paul Marquart said those actions would cut child poverty by 25% and reduce Social Security taxes for around 90% of seniors, respectively.

Walz would like to see an increase on one stream of income, however: capital gains. He proposes a 1.5% surcharge on capital gains and dividends exceeding $500,000 and a 4% surcharge on those exceeding $1 million.

No DFL budget is complete without attacking 'the rich'. GOP leaders jumped on the fact that the Walz-Flanagan-DFL budget doesn't overhaul Minnesota's tax code:

At a time when Minnesota has a $17,600,000,000 projected surplus, the Walz-Flanagan-DFL proposes raising taxes on job creators. The Walz-Flanagan-DFL budget seems to want to chase companies to Iowa or South Dakota as a goal. We should celebrate, not punish the job creators. The Walz-Flanagan-DFL budget punishes job creators.

If there was any doubt that Gov. Walz and Lt. Gov. Flanagan (and the DFL) were full-throated socialists, this budget should put that argument to rest. Here's the video of Lt. Gov. Flanagan's cringeworthy interview: