Whoa: Dayton Caves; Will End Government Shutdown By Dropping Demand For Tax Increases

I haven't followed this at all, so I'm mainly interested in the broader lesson here: If you have them up against it, they'll break eventually.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton sent a letter Thursday to House Speaker Kurt Zellers and Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, saying he “reluctantly” agrees to accept the Republican budget proposal from June 30 if it will end the government shutdown.

Dayton said accepting the offer would bridge a $1.4 billion gap between him and the Republican leadership. The governor says he has “serious reservations” about the GOP plan, but Minnesota’s government shutdown must end.

“If this gets resolved and gets Minnesota back to work in the next few days, then it doesn’t matter what people say about me,” Dayton said.

Powerline has the same idea:

As I read Governor Dayton’s letter to the Republican leadership in the legislature, the most notable fact is that Dayton has given up on imposing tax increases as a condition of ending his shutdown of state government. Why did Dayton agree to end his shutdown now? This is pure speculation, but my guess is that he is looking at poll data that are not supportive of his position.

Will the result of Minnesota’s shutdown (assuming the Republicans agree to Dayton’s terms, or something very close to those terms) be a harbinger of what happens at the federal level? I hope so.

What If They Called a Shutdown And No One Came? Commenters from Minnesota are saying that the public hardly even noticed the shutdown -- so Dayton's big play wasn't so big.

Another possible lesson for the federal crowd.

posted by Ace at 01:11 PM

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