The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good
The best news story I’ve seen in some time is North Dakota’s House passing a law defining life at conception. Republican Rep. Dan Ruby of Minot sponsored the legislation and worked its passage. The bill passed the North Dakota house 51-41 which is somewhat disturbing since there are 61 Republicans and 33 Democrats. The North Dakota Senate consists of 26 Republicans and 21 Democrats. I don’t know if this will pass the Senate or not but if it does it will be signed by Governor John Hoeven. He has signed similar pro-life legislation in the past.

The Bad
Yesterday, Iowa’s House approved a proposed amendment that will make three-eighths of our state’s next sales tax increase be used for natural resources. My first thought is - absolutely no sales tax increase, ever. Second, the last thing we need to do with our Department of Natural Resources is to involve politicians. If they are involved in DNR policy, you can say goodbye to any sensible hunting and fishing regulations along with the potential for crippling livestock production in this state which is still hugely reliant on the health of the ag economy. If somehow the politicians can’t get their hands on this money, it is still a bad idea. We can’t continue to raise costs on our citizens. When was the last time you heard a politician in power have a plan to cut taxes and regulations?

The Ugly
California is beyond broke. Currently, moderate Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger’s state is $42 billion shy of covering their expenses. Since the budget needs to be passed by a two-thirds majority, Republicans actually have to be consulted for the bill to pass. Last night the Republicans ousted their Senate Minority Leader, Dave Cogdill, for his tax raising negotiations with Democrats. They replaced Cogdill with Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth. Hollingsworth is an anti-tax conservative from the right leaning 36th Senate District. Hollingsworth doesn’t want a tax increase passed but apparently hasn’t offered an alternative. By the way, the plan Democrats and Gov. Schwarzenegger are proposing – raises taxes by $14 billion - cuts spending by $16 billion, and increases the state’s debt by $10 billion. Some of the taxes they want to raise are increasing the gas tax by 12 cents and increasing vehicle license fees from 0.65 percent to 1.15 percent, and finally they want to raise the sales tax rate from 7.25 to 8.25 percent. Sound a little familiar? My philosophy in life so far is to do the exact opposite of whatever California’s doing. Hopefully our state legislators feel the same.

This reminds me of a story I heard a long time ago where an employee (government) went to his boss (taxpayer) one day to ask for a raise because he and his wife just found out they were expecting. The conversation went something like this.

Government: I really need a raise. See I just found out my transmission is going out of my car, my roof is caving in, and my wife is pregnant, again…

Taxpayer: Well government, I didn’t screw your wife.

This simple, somewhat crude, little story proves a great point. The employee felt he deserved a raise just because his living costs were going up. Obviously the boss didn’t think the employee was going to make more money for him just because his wife is pregnant. The government continues to offer shoddier service while asking for more money…and trust. This can’t continue in California or the rest of the country. Maybe government should just quit getting knocked up!