Last updated on 2017-05-03
Dakota Free Press Podcast #004 is ready for your ears!
After our Veto Day conversation, Republican Representative Drew Dennert was willing to sit for another 20-minute chat about some bills that did pass during the 2017 Legislative Session. In addition, my co-host Spencer Dobson and I talk about Medicaid expansion (open again thanks to the failure of Trumpcare!), Kristi Noem and school lunch, the New York Times at Mount Rushmore, and immigration and South Dakota’s workforce shortage.
Enjoy… and if you do enjoy, send some jingly love via the Dakota Free Press Tip Jar!
Resources for this week’s podcast:
ACA Repeal Fails—Time to Expand Medicaid!
- Governor Daugaard said he supported Medicaid expansion last June.
- John Tsitrian, “Okay, Back to Medicaid Expansion in South Dakota,” The Constant Commoner, 2017.03.28.
- Medicaid expansion good for South Dakota’s budget!
- Medicaid expansion also means huge economic stimulus and job creation!
Kristi Noem Hates School Lunch
- USDA National School Lunch Program Fact Sheet
- CAH, “In Opposing School Lunch Standards, Noem Threatens Academic Achievement,” Dakota Free Press, 2017.03.28.
- Rep. Noem seeking changes to school lunch rules, 2015.03.19.
We Love Mount Rushmore!
- The article that got us going: Sam Anderson, “Why Does Mount Rushmore Exist?” New York Times Magazine, 2017.03.22.
Foreign Workers in South Dakota
- CAH, “SD Tourism Prefers Foreign Labor and Gov’t Favors over Paying Free Market Wages,” Dakota Free Press, 2017.03.27.
Interview: Rep. Drew Dennert!
- House Bill 1088: require motorists to yield to on-track equipment in addition to trains
- Senate Bill 128: allow manufacturers and wholesalers to serve alcohol at charity events
- Senate Bill 54: reform campaign finance
- Senate Bill 35: school funding and use of the 2016 half-penny sales tax hike
Join your political friends at Progressive Happy Hour, Fridays 5–7 p.m. at the Ward Plaza Bar and Grill, 104 South Main Street, downtown Aberdeen!
A worker shortage is fixed by simply raising wages. Importing workers suppresses wages.
…and whom do we have to blame for that, OldSarg? The ag and tourism industries? Mike Rounds?
Cory, you can blame whoever you would like. I simply stated a simple common sense fact. I would simply like people to realize that our stagnate wages are due to the importation of foreign workers. simple. . .
If businesses cannot find employees to work for the wages they are presently offering they have a choice; pay more to attract employees or convince politicians to allow foreign workers, willing to work for less, to take the jobs. Yo was a voter have a choice as well: vote for those willing to give poor paying jobs to foreign workers or vote for politicians willing to support the people in the very communities that elected them which would result in higher wages.
No, OldSarg, you’re not just stating a simple fact. You’re making an argument about whom to blame, and you’re laying that blame on foreigners. At a time when xenophobia is running rampant, we need to check such superficial accusations. You blame the “imports”; why not blame the importers who make those imports possible?
Your second paragraph is interesting, but it seems to pair disjoint alternatives. Those who pay low wages to foreigners are the business owners; are you saying we shouldn’t vote for those business owners? Are you saying we should boycott Wall Drug and the dairies who rely on immigrant workforces? If so, tell me which grocery stores carry milk from dairies that only hire U.S. citizens.
As for politicians, well, you appear to be telling us not to vote for Mike, John, and Kristi, who have supported industry’s demands H-2B visa cap exemptions. Who are the politicians you say we should support to create a purely American workforce? And how will those politicians conjure up local American workers out of a shrinking demographic pool?