Legislative Heroes of the 2009 Session Rep. Rod Hamilton

Another speech from the House floor that really impressed me came for Rep. Abeler's "Over-Ride 6" mate, Rep. Rod Hamilton of Mountain Lake (starting at the 55:10 mark here). He starts off acknowledging the GAMC recipients in the gallery, thanking them for their courage in sharing their stories. He then turned to those guests in the gallery and said...

...you should be absolutely outraged. I hope you realize that we are passing bills off of this House floor when we have a $6.4 billion budget deficit to address invasive earthworms over you. We are passing bills to bail out the XCel Energy Center - the debt that they have - over your needs. We are "investing" in indigenous earth keepers over your needs. We are willing to build hockey arenas, bike trails and dog parks over your needs. We are willing to purchase more land for the DNR when they can't even care for the land that they have - over your needs. And we are also able to fund additionally able bodied adults over your needs...

So when the DFL, in their jettings around the state, talk about how much the Governor is hurting people I want you to remember that instead of funding GAMC, the Democrats CHOSE to spend $2.4 MILLION on invasive earthworm research! How many GAMC recepients could have been helped with that kind of money? I wonder.....