A NEW MINNESOTA THAT WORKS! BY MIKE PIPER
Republican candidate for Representative, Minnesota House District 25B in 2010
We are all aware of today’s challenges – unemployment, foreclosures, the high costs of health care and education. And on top of all those, our financial backbone has been injured. Individuals, businesses, and governments spent and borrowed too much, and often unwisely.
Here come the Democrats! If our basic problem is that we spent and borrowed too much, their solution is to spend and borrow more! To pay for this venture, they will borrow more money putting our children in debt, print money causing inflation, and raise taxes on everyone. Much of the money will be spent on programs like universal single-payer health care that won’t work and will make matters worse. We have had enough of record deficits and the unnecessarily high taxes required to fund careless government!
Republicans want Minnesotans working, living in their homes, being safe, living in a clean environment, driving on good roads, being effectively connected to the information superhighway, getting medical care from the health care provider that they choose, being educated so that they are competitive for 21st century jobs, being responsible and free and free from the punishing burden of excessive taxation, and conserving and preserving our environment which is our inheritance and our gift to our children and grandchildren.
Republicans believe in free markets operating in accordance with reasonable standards, free and independent people, and government limited by the Constitution, by statutory law and by what the people can afford. Republicans believe that life is sacrosanct.
Republicans will deliver an economy that works. A working Minnesota is the key to successful health care, education, and housing. The first priority for Minnesota Republicans is getting jobs for Minnesotans. § We support the provision of affordable education and training at all levels that will equip our students for the 21st century job market, including a significant emphasis on science, technology, engineering, mathematics, agriculture, health care, and teaching. § We support conditions that will provide for the establishment of new businesses and the expansion of existing businesses, including appropriate support for technological innovation, and tax reform for businesses so that they can innovate, grow, be productive, and create and retain jobs. Five areas of priority have been identified to reduce business tax burdens: repeal the state corporate income tax, exempt 20% of “pass through” business income from taxation, conform to federal tax write-off provisions for business-related assets, replace the capital equipment sales tax refund with an upfront exemption, and extend that exemption to businesses that provide services subject to sales tax. We also support the transparency of business taxation, and the promotion of investments in innovation, entrepreneurship, and emerging high-tech companies.[1] § Republicans believe that regulation should be protective and should generate confidence and not discourage risk. § Republicans believe that any government intervention should be transparent and temporary and should leverage private sector capital.
§ We support a contemporary infrastructure for highways, bridges, and information.
Republicans will deliver a government that works. With the federal deficit projected to be huge for many years, and the present state deficit, we need a government that sets priorities, lives within its means by spending the revenue it has not the revenue it would like to have, and that gets the job done effectively and economically with innovation and without a punishing level of taxation.
Republicans will bring efficiency, economy, and innovation to state government. Republicans will be smart about budgeting and measuring performance through the use of contemporary management tools. § Republicans support a cap on the tax rate for individuals and families.
§ Republicans support efficiency-improving and cost-cutting initiatives like the consolidation of state functions, a cost-benefit analysis concerning trimming the size of the state House and Senate, and the innovative modernization of the state’s information technology capabilities to increase safety and decrease costs.
§ We support an affordable, competitive private-based health care system that would “lower costs, cover the uninsured, and put Americans in control of their health care”[2] so that we will avoid the inevitable increased costs, price control, health care rationing, long lines at the clinics, decreased quality, and significantly increased taxes that comes with so-called single-payer programs.
§ We support effective social services as compassion, a gateway to independence, and protection for the young and elderly.
§ We encourage the conservation of our farmland, natural areas, minerals, air, and water.
§ We support efforts to make education and training, including K-12 and post high school, effective and affordable. § We support efforts to ensure clean water and effective sewage and septic systems. § We support public health including protection against pandemics. § We support public safety including protection against crime, terrorist attacks, and the hostile infiltration of communication and power networks. § We support immigration reform.
Today, on the way to tomorrow. With our abundant natural resources, the skills of our people, the innovation and energy of our businesses, and a capable government, Minnesota can meet the challenges of the 21st century. But we do not have enough to be stupid, to manage poorly, to mask mistakes, and to refuse to learn from the past. So we must be smart. We cannot spend our way out of debt. We cannot count on a forgiving nature or anticipate the wealth and wisdom of our children and grandchildren to make up for our mistakes. Our opponents are suggesting approaches that will not work and will break the bank if we try them. The Republican Party has programs that will work and that Minnesotans can afford. Join us as together we forge a new Minnesota that works!
[1] Source: Minnesota’s Millennium, 2009 Report.
[2] Kimberly A Strassel, Wall Street Journal, 5/8/09, p. A11.
Postscript: A 21ST century mindset
These are different times. We need to recognize that –with the depth of the present financial crisis; the willingness of the present government to significantly deepen the national debt ($9 trillion!) and its unwillingness to support tax policies that will enable the growth of businesses and the retention and growth of jobs; and the increasing difficulty that individuals and families are facing to save, provide for emergencies, their health care, their retirement, and their children’s education – we need to recognize that the way out may likely be more complex and longer than it was for previous recoveries. We will need patience.
We will also need wisdom and leadership. We need a government that understands what kind of businesses could thrive in our District and State; we need pro business-growth, and pro job-retention and growth policies that will put paychecks in the pockets and purses of our people and enable them to keep a significant portion of their earnings. We need a government that can set priorities, that will do the public’s work effectively and efficiently, that knows how to budget, and how to measure and report on progress. In short, we need a government that can manage and lead.
We also need a 21st century mindset that would be more frugal and Spartan and less materialistic. We need to examine whether it is reasonable that all should work 40 hours per week for 50 weeks till age 70. We need to review whether it is advisable that everyone spend all their income plus borrowed money from credit cards and perceived home equity plus money from our children and grandchildren. We need to prepare our society for a new age of innovation through education and tax policies. We should consider requiring the federal government to prepare balanced budgets, except in instances of national emergencies.
We need to renew our commitments that all are significant; that all should have the opportunity to use their talents; that all should be educated and receive health care, that none should be hungry; that our limited resources of land, minerals, air, and water are strategic resources and should be protected; that government is the servant of the people, not the other way around; that government should act efficiently and economically; that its budget should be balanced and carefully defined; and that its doings should be reported clearly and frequently to the public. We need to renew our commitment to freedom, liberty, intelligence, integrity, and responsibility; knowing that such virtues are the path to peace and prosperity.
This is the way out of our present difficulties. It will be challenging, but we can do it. It will take wisdom, leadership, and hard work. That is the way. And at the end, there is freedom, peace, and prosperity.
Vote Republican in 2010 – let’s get Minnesota working again!
