Mark Dayton was in St Paul Saturday afternoon.

[bvar22]

Mark Dayton hosted a Roundtable Discussion in St Paul on Saturday afternoon. The event was held at Episcopal Homes, an assisted living community for the elderly. Approximately 70 people squeezed in to listen and participate. Senator Dayton was joined at the table by representatives of the AARP, the AFL-CIO, and an Economics Professor from Macalister.




The individual presentations contained nothing that would surprise anyone who frequents DU.

Bullet Points:

* The bush* Budget full of lies and fuzzy math.

* There is certainly no crisis in Social Security.

* If there is a Social Security Problem, it can be fixed by adjusting the cap.

*(AFL-CIO Spokesman) Social Security may the best ever government program. Never missed a payment through good times and recessions.

*(AFL-CIO) SS an insurance program, not an investment account.

*(Economics Prof) Taking money out of SS by privatizing schemes will only make things worse.

*(AARP) Social Security Payments won't stop if your account runs out like Private Accounts.



The HIGHLIGHTS were comments from the crowd.

* If Social Security has problems, they would best be solved by expanding good paying jobs with benefits for Average Americans and Immigrants so they could contribute to the tax base. Every job outsourced hurts Social Security and America. (crowd loudly applauded)
(The Economics Prof waffled)

* The youth of today don't have a retirement problem, they have a job problem.

* The Working Class in America NOT sharing in recovery. (Cited figures) Corporations using profits to pay dividends and CEOs, not passing on to Labor. Wages stagnant or falling.



Mark Dayton was congratulated for Taking a Stand for TRUTH in the Condi Rice hearings. (loud applause and cheers)

The best way to fix our problems is by getting rid of bush*.
(loud applause and cheers)

While Dayton's decision to retire was mentioned tangentially several times, Dayton did not specifically address his decision or repercussions to the DFL.

[dflprincess]

1. Thanks for the report

I'd hoped to get over to this but I got bogged down running errands for Mom and before I knew it, the day had slipped away.

[katinmn]

2. Great report and photo.

Thank you!

[dpbrown]

3. Thanks for that recap!!!

Dayton is our bulldog in the Senate. We ought to do everything we can do to make him as effective as possible over the next two years.

DPB