My Point of View by Ebenezer Howe

I hope Freeborn County does not catch the “let’s save the kids from smoking fever.” The city of North Mankato has passed an ordinance to raise the age to buy smokes to 21 years of age. Four municipalities around the Twin Cities have also passed such ordinances. The rationale behind this is that it will prevent some from starting to smoke. I would think this is at odds with the folks who raised tobacco taxes to increase government revenue. They need as many smokers as possible. If this catches on in Freeborn County, would that be saying to the schools, you have been doing a not-so-good job? After all, you have been teaching K-12 that smoking is bad. If this is a good idea, accompanying legislation should be introduced at the state level to increase the voting age back to 21 or maybe even to 24, since younger folks don’t have such good decision-making skills. Oh, just a thought. Maybe we will rethink our voting on city and county representation if this idea sprouts here. Every time behavior is attempted to be controlled through legislation, it fails. Remember prohibition. High tax and can’t purchase till 21 would make it ripe for the black market. Not just exactly what we would like to see here in Freeborn County.

Now that we have moved past the first stage of the election cycle, that being the caucuses, it is past time to start really looking at what legislators say and compare it to what they do.

Back on Sept. 22, the Tribune published an op-ed from Amy Klobuchar titled “Bill would crack down on crimes of fraud.” It started out with a story of an elderly Minnesota woman who was defrauded of $47,000, going from being in pretty good shape to filing bankruptcy. Then gave some stats that made it sound like older folks were hit for $40 billion a year in telemarketing fraud. Older folks do get hit more than younger people, accounting for 60 percent of the total, not all of it. Her solution was to partner with Republican Susan Collins on the bipartisan Seniors Fraud Prevention Act, which passed the Senate in August. Quoting from her op-ed. “Instead of being caught up in red tape, calls for help should move quickly to the right enforcement agency. My bill would help make that happen, starting with a stronger reporting system within the Federal Trade Commission. The bill would also set up an office within the Bureau of Consumer Protection to advise the FTC on best practices for preventing senior fraud. Since these schemes can be national in scope, the office would be well-positioned to identify patterns around the country and respond appropriately.”

She went on to explain how these extra government folks would streamline things and all would be better. Have you ever known of more government folks to streamline anything? The best phrase she used was “there are proactive steps that can help prevent fraud altogether” No, you cannot prevent fraud altogether. The crooks just invent new ways to defraud. Thank goodness this bill has not passed the House of Representatives.

The one part she had right in the op-ed was that calls for help should move quickly to the right enforcement agency. What she wants to do could be done better by fixing what is broken in the system we have now, not by adding additional levels of bureaucracy.

I heard something this last week attributed to President Trump that if implemented would go a long way toward fixing a lot of our issues. I hope he really said this: “Hire the best, fire the rest.” That would also be applicable to Freeborn County.

Alden resident Ebenezer Howe is chairman of the Freeborn County Republican Party. His views do not necessarily reflect the views of the local party members.