Who is to blame for the Depression that we find ourselves in?  Some bloggers blame the economic stimulus program of Obama, despite it starting before he became President.  Others like to point to Bush, on whose watch the big downturn started.  Neither of these pat answers sounds all that great when you think about how much influence a President has on the economy, however.  Does a nation this big really turn so quickly?

A little bit of analysis shows that if you have to blame policies from Washington, the best place to go is back a full generation – to Ronald Reagan.  There are two distinct inflection points in both National Debt and Balance of Trade – what Democrats like Mike Dukkakis used to call the “Twin Deficits” – that clearly point to policy changes from that time.

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On Monday, Mark Dayton officially became Minnesota’s Governor.  He joins many new governors around the US who started this week with their swearing-in and are likely to end it with a swearing-at.  The job isn’t easy with the river of red ink confronting nearly every state, and we are no exception.  The size of the gap for the next two year cycle (2012-2013) is 6.2B$, which is to say about 16% of the total General Fund Budget for the same time period.

The festivities surrounding the new Governor’s official acceptance of this responsibility are probably the last time we’ll have a chance to reflect back on what might have been before every politician in the state rolls up their sleeves and gets to swinging their fists … er, gets to work.  It’s as good of a time as any to remember that 12 years ago we started handing out what would be known as “Jesse Checks”, the sales tax rebate that totaled $2.6B over a three year period.

What would the Legislature do with that money now?

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