Election Thoughts
I’d like to give a few thoughts on some election results that are a little closer to me. In my home state, one of the big races was the race for U.S. Congress between the incumbent Earl Pomeroy and challenger Duane Sand. I voted for Sand. He lost.
There were two measures in ND that dealt with the tax surplus that the state has. It’s rather large. The first would have created a oil trust fund that would have been used for budget defecits in the future. It was a borderline measure and I voted against it. It lost. I think that’s good. The second measure would have given a 50% tax reduction of personal income taxes as well as a smaller reduction of corporate income tax. I voted for it and it lost.
I must admit that both the Sand loss and the Measure 2 loss disturb me. Pomeroy voted against the first bailout bill that did just the bailout. He then voted for the “sweetened” bailout bill. Why? Special Interests. The day after the vote for the second bill, he received nearly $100,000 in campaign contributions from the very same companies that he voted to bailout. Why a company in need of a bailout is giving campaign contributions is another arguement. The obviousness of the reasoning isn’t.
The loss of Measure 2 disturbs me because it was a very cut and dry measure. There is way too much tax surplus right now. And it’s only logical that if there is too much surplus, we’re taking in too much in taxes. So, rather than find a way to spend that surplus, we should give it back to the people from whence it came. Unfortunately, the people would rather have that money go towards social welfare programs and other pet projects. Many used the excuse that by defeating the measure, they could then push harder for property tax reductions. We’ll see if that materializes or not.
The problem with much of this state and much of this country is that too many of the people believe that they are entitled to something. Because they are US citizens, they are entitled to good health care. They are entitled to a secure retirement. They are entitled to a good paying job. What they forget is that those things existed before the government stepped in. They still exist for people willing to work for them. Unfortunately, we spend too much time trying to get what we are “entitled” to, and not enough time doing any honest work.
What we should have done with this election is to cut back on legislators who feed the entitlement and cater to special interests. I believe Duane Sand would have done that. We should also have cut back the taxes that the government is taking from us. The government shouldn’t take any more in tax revenue than they need to operate. They have done that, and as a result, that money should be returned or they should reduce the amount that they take in future years.
Instead of doing those things, we gave Earl Pomeroy a ticket to continue with the same old corruptive practices that he’s been doing. And we gave the government yet another chance to hold on to our money and find a way to spend it rather than give it back to us.
Just plain stupid.