Thank you for sharing why most don’t take you seriously, Mr. Wayne Thorson. Calling folks names and repeating PolitiFacts are tools of education?

Thorson says Republicans have ruined Wisconsin. Other than give individual workers a chance to choose if they want to be part of a union or not, he gives nothing to support this silly assertion as fact. Illinois Policy Institute published Bureau of Labor Statistic numbers for all states in August. Wisconsin created 11,000 private sector jobs in the first seven months of 2014; Minnesota 1,300. Does that sound like Wisconsin is ruined to you?

As Yale political scientist David Mayhew pointed out for PolitiFacts’ truth-o-meter, conclusions drawn from a relatively narrow data set — in this case, just 12 postwar presidencies — need to be taken with a grain of salt. It is not just a Republican-versus-Democrat fairy tale that Thorson interprets it as a recent article in The Economist points out it has more to do with luck. “Timing is everything,” Aug 9, 2014.

The Economist article points out: “Much of the growth under Democratic presidents has been the result of private-sector investment and increased consumption. They have been blessed with lower oil prices, larger increases in productivity and better global economic conditions. The timing of Democratic presidents appears impeccable compared with Republicans — Bill Clinton took office just as the technology sector began to boom, whereas George W. Bush could not get out before the financial crisis.”

To be blunt, Mr. Thorson’s rhetoric on taxes as welfare is nonsense. Taxes are not the government’s money; it’s your money, your neighbor’s, the small business on Main Street. Taxes are not welfare. That simplistic statement means if you are successful you don’t spend money in your community. The Minnesota DFL Party used this same tactic to explain its tax-and-spend bonanza of the last two years — “We taxed the rich.” But that is not what happened in reality. The DFL taxed everyone, not only on income taxes but raised taxes on business to business transactions, warehouse storage, Internet sales, farm repairs, cigarettes and more. In fact, those at the lower end of the income spectrum were negatively affected the most.

I think most people understand that success is their achievement, but we don’t succeed when we deny others their success; when we tear others down to build ourselves up. We won’t rebuild our economy if we keep pitting ourselves against each other. That’s not the American way. The American dream achieved by so many.

I challenge Mr. Thorson to ask a small business owner, a farmer, a business on Main Street, a resort owner, a body shop, a pizza place or thousands of others who risk all for their dream if they aren’t paying enough? Are they the 1 percent, aka the rich the DFL keep taxing?  Because that is who they are taxing!

Want more taxes? Keep voting for Democrats! I, for one, have had enough and hope you have, too!

 

David Anderson

Lonsdale