While MNCD1 Republican candidate Allen Quist spent last week mired in explaining his opposition to the Farm Bill, Congressman Tim Walz was out pushing for better job opportunities for veterans.
In addition to serving on the Ag and Transportation Committee, Walz, who retired at the rank of command sergeant major in the Minnesota National Guard and is the highest ranking enlisted soldier toserve in Congress, sits on the Veteran Affairs committee.
Recent visits to district manufacturing plants helped Walz highlight the need for good jobs for veterans returning from Afghanistan, Iraq and other deployments.
In Walz promotes jobs for vets, New Ulm Journal staff writer Fritz Busch Reported on September 7:
First District Rep. Tim Walz toured the Parker Hannifin Corporation plant Thursday and talked about ways to make sure veterans returning home from wartime deployments can find good-paying jobs."I am here today to see first-hand the work Parker-Hannifin is doing and to discuss ways to ensure our veterans are finding good-paying jobs they can be proud of," Walz said.
Earlier this summer, Walz and Rep. Jeff Denham from California introduced the Veteran Skills to Jobs Act to address high veteran unemployment rates. The act seeks to streamline the federal certification process and cut through bureaucratic red tape for more than 70 jobs that require licenses or certifications in industrial, energy, maritime and aerospace sectors, among others. . . .
. . .Parker Hannifin, which refers to itself the world's leading diversified manufacturer of motion and control technologies, for a variety of commercial, mobile, industrial, aerospace and military markets, has a number of jobs open at its New Ulm facility located at 2101 N. Broadway. . ..
Check out the whole story at the Journal.
On September 8, Winona Daily News staff writer Mary Juhl reported in Walz tours Peerless, touts hiring veterans:
U.S. Rep. Tim Walz stopped by Peerless Chain Friday to discuss ways to improve the training and hiring processes for Minnesota veterans.
Walz congratulated businesses like Peerless for going out of their way to hire military personnel, and to gather input from employees on policies that aim to make federal and state certification for veterans entering the workforce more efficient. Walz also stressed the importance of locally-owned southeast Minnesota businesses like Peerless have on economic growth. . . .
. . .In July, President Barack Obama signed into law the Walz-supported Veterans Skills to Jobs Act, which will give veterans seeking employment a more streamlined training certification process at the federal level. Next, Walz said, he’d like to tackle the issue at the state level. . . .
Read the whole thing at the WDN.
So far, Quist seems rather quite about federal veterans's issues, which are important in the Fighting First, given the recent history of deployments to Iraq and Bosnia of Red Bull units based in New Ulm and other cities in the district. The cost of medical care for older veterans from peacetime and the Vietnam, Korean, and Second World Wars will also continue to grow as the population ages.
While Bluestem admires Walz's mastery of tactical superiority in both political and military campaigns, we can't attibute his opponent's bad week to anything the Mankato Democrat did. Nope, Allen Quist pinned himself down with his anti-Farm Bill stance at a time when traditionally Republican-leaning groups like the Farm Bureau organized for its passage.
We can't wait for the next time the Norseland farmer outflanks himself.
Update: It's not just Allen Quist who outflanked his own self here by playing the welfare card with the Farm Bill. Politico's David Rogers reports in House GOP has issues to resolve:
Hundreds [of American farmers] are slated to rally Wednesday at the Capitol, demanding action on a long delayed, five-year farm bill. But August has passed with no real progress, and coming out of Tampa the overwhelming sense is that the fix is in — for what could be described as a monumental legislative failure by this Congress.
The Senate passed its farm bill in June. The House Agriculture Committee followed within weeks. But two months later, the GOP leadership is paralyzed, torn between doing something for the rural economy vs. trumpeting the party’s attacks on food stamps as a new form of welfare under President Barack Obama.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) seems most intent on stalling for time until after the election and then pushing through a one-year extension of current policy in the turmoil of the lame-duck session. “A ship trying to sail on yesterday’s wind” was Ryan’s artful putdown of Obama. Yet , House Republicans aren’t even allowing their farm bill out of the harbor.
Photo: Congressman Tim Walz.
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