Mathern Spending Plans

North Dakota state senator Tim Mathern has announced his bid for the Democrat Party nomination for governor. Mathern is an incumbent senator from Fargo who many of you will recall, in the legislative session of 2007, co-sponsored the ND Senate Concurrent Resolution 4022: the purpose of this resolution was to have the North Dakota legislature direct President George W. Bush to immediately pull the U.S. troops out of Iraq. Mathern sponsored that resolution at the very time that the U.S. military was planning remedial action in Iraq. The surge, as it was called, has proven to be so effective that less than 8 months later Iraq and Baghdad are returning to peaceful commerce.
In a Nov. 30 interview with Mr. John Irby, editor at the Bismarck Tribune, Mathern proposes, as a centerpiece of his campaign, state paid health care for all North Dakota children--no matter the income, no qualifications or restrictions. There were no questions asked about who or how this would be paid for, and Mathern offered no details.
The 2008 election is nearly a year away, and the next legislative session is to begin in 2009. There is great anticipation of a “nice” budget surplus awaiting the next legislative session--Mathern has already begun to spend it.
Hal Neff