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My Point of View by Brad Kramer

I was a bit perplexed by the recent My Point of View by Joe Pacovsky. Pacovsky talked about how our community’s future was bright but was going to face continued challenges because of the worker and housing shortages and other challenges. While our community has been struggling with these issues for years, they are being greatly exacerbated by Democrat policies.

We’re watching as corporations or industries have employees walking off the job because they refuse to get a vaccination that President Biden is mandating, at the threat of fining those employers huge sums for non-compliance. Nurses, pilots and many others are walking off the job. Police departments, with their officers already leaving or retiring in record numbers squarely because of Democrat policies, are seeing more officers leave because of this mandate. Even before the mandate started, there were communities who told their residents that 911 calls may go unanswered.

I own a business and safety consulting company. I will never advise a client company to fire their employees or erode their Constitutional rights to be complicit with an utterly insane abuse of government authority through the regulatory process, such as the Biden administration is orchestrating right now. Our nation’s workers, who were forced to decide because of a complicit employer and government administration forcing them to choose their job over their personal health decision, will not soon forget this.

And speaking of business consulting, I speak with numerous business owners about our local and national business climate, and you better believe that our state and local taxes make an impact on their decisions. If Pacovsky doesn’t think the regulations and taxes don’t impact businesses because of his conversation with one executive, he’s sorely mistaken.

Democrat policies are doing as much as they possibly can to exacerbate these current worker and home shortages. While there are other factors — such as many households where one parent was laid off and lost daycare, then decided to be a stay-at-home parent with a side hustle instead of a job and a daycare contract — Democrats have kept pushing for maintaining unsustainable unemployment programs that are letting people sit home and make more than when they were working.

The eviction moratoriums are hurting landlords immensely. Certain segments of the Democrat Party openly despise landlords and advocate them losing their property. Read the comments under any article pertaining to rentals and you will find numerous comments of that nature. What they don’t understand is that when you make it difficult to be a landlord and collect rent, evict bad tenants or keep properties in good repair, good landlords sell their property, and the shortage is partially picked up by slumlords who are looking for a quick buck. Landlords must raise rent significantly to cover their risks. When there is a shortage in affordable housing, government inevitably picks it up and builds and manages housing. Most projects like this run far over-budget, have delays and become poorly managed because government can seldom operate an industry as efficiently as a private business owner.

Biden’s runaway spending bills and other policies have inflation ready to take a hefty toll on our economy. While Democrats who don’t understand economics might think this job market — where employees can demand a higher wage for less work — is a good thing, we are only starting to feel the sticker shock. There are certainly benefits when the pendulum swings back and forth in favor of employers and employees; it forces businesses to remain competitive, provide safe and clean job environments and have more respect for employees. Let it be noted that many companies make these virtues part of their way of doing business regardless of the market. The pendulum swinging this far is going to have impacts that most people do not foresee yet.

Our ports are backing up at unprecedented rates. Meanwhile, Pete Buttgieg, who was appointed Biden’s Secretary of Transportation, disappeared for weeks of paternity leave after he adopted a child with his husband. The crisis at the ports and in the transportation industry is artificially created because of poor policy decisions.

So, does Albert Lea have a bright future? I believe it does. I serve on the watershed board with Pacovsky because I think we both share a view of a vibrant community with a quality of life, tourist industry and beauty that our lakes provide. We have a beautiful community worth building. However, our residents, our employers, our nonprofits and more are hurting right now. It’s time for us to look toward the 2022 and 2024 elections and determine how we are going to come back from the ineptitude that our current administrations are showing. We need to come together to prevent the wholesale erosion of our rights that we’re experiencing right now. Don’t just vote Republican, though; please join us to actually make decisions and guide the future of your party!

Brad Kramer is a member of the Freeborn County Republican Party.