A Rat's Butt....

 

 

"Excuse me! I think you have mistaken me for someone who gives a rat's butt about this issue!"

I am sorry to start out the work week like this. But I do have to say this. I really don't give a rat's butt on some of the issues being addressed in St. Paul right now. Period. We have HUGE fish to fry, and I would like to see the focus on those issues first. EVERYTHING else can take a back seat. So let's get going.

Here are the no-brainers which should be dispensed of immediately:

• Blue Laws - Get rid of them. Should be a landslide with bipartisan support. If you want to sell liquor on Sundays, go for it. If you want to sell cars on Sunday, go for it. If you want to stay closed on Sundays and any other days, go for it.
• Teacher Tenure - What a pile of manure. First off, eliminate the teacher unions. Next, make school choice the law of the land - NOW! That will take care of this silly and superfluous discussion of tenure. It simply won't exist anymore.
• Transportation Funding - Those in favor of the mileage tax feel the more you use the roads, the more you should pay. Okay, I will bite. Then using the same logic, the people who ride the trains should pay for what the ride really costs. Currently it is estimated the fare to ride on the Northstar covers only 15% of the expense. The other 85% is picked up by the taxpayer. We have plenty of transportation funding already in this state. Stop funding trains and bike trails and we should be fine. If trains cannot fund themselves, they need to go the way of the streetcar.

Then after the House and Senate take care of the above, tackle the surplus. DO NOT DARE to put a penny of our surplus into the University of Minnesota system! In fact, they could do with less. Not after seeing what their salary structure looks like. And then ZERO DOLLARS for Pre-K. Funding all-day Kindergarten was enough, thank you! FIX THE TAX CODE! Our state taxes are way out of line with reality as well as our neighboring states. Then STOP TAXING OUR SENIORS! Eliminate state taxes on Social Security and Military Pensions. If we wanted to really be bold, be like South Dakota - don't tax ANY pensions!

Here is what I am looking for. I am looking for the Speaker of the House, who is from my BPOU, to be bold and courageous on these issues. Be the Progressive's worst nightmare. Lead the charge in taking back our state. Fix the fixable, and don't listen to all the psycho-babble that goes on within the DFL. THESE are the issues worth fighting for. The hill worth dying for. The people of Minnesota need to know the state takes in an extraordinary amount of money every year. The government does not any more - they can do just fine living on quite a bit less.

So to my good friends in St. Paul, it is "go time". No more games. No more shenanigans. No more posturing. Fix the tax system. Return the surplus. Eliminate teacher unions. Eliminate the Blue Laws. Eliminate all subsidies for trains. Then come home. Your work will be done, and you will have earned your stripes as well as your paychecks.