|
This is a very important question - believe me, it is not because I need a good job!
And I will tell you something else: One does not go door to door asking for a vote without some self-examination of feelings, thoughts, and motives!
After attending Neighborhood Meetings, watching City Council activities, and reading the newspaper I sensed there was a void of people serving in elected office with views like mine.
I am fiscally conservative, I think we need less and smaller government. Yet our population continues to grow - so the objective becomes maintaining what we have without growth in government that corresponds to private sector growth.
I am especially concerned about small, vocal minorities who cloud the issues many working Americans may have concerns about, but are just do not always able to express those views. Most of us, myself included, just don't have time to participate in the groups that seem to dictate what policy should be to our elected representatives.
I am frustrated by the lack of responsiveness by elected officials. I think elected officials could provide more information about how and why they reached the conclusions they did. Very few government officials respond to inquiries from citizens.
Many of the 'services' government provides are not services at all - They are little empires not dedicated to the what I see a governments primary purposes: Provide security from crime and catastrophy, care for those who cannot care for themselves, and maintain an efficient infrastructure.
Regulatory Services, Civil Rights, and other Minneapolis Departments create tremendous costs. The services that these Departments provide often go beyond basic services - Police, Fire, and Public Works. The work of every City Department must be reviewed and prioritized.
It is not that some services are not important because many of them are, but it may be that the cannot City maintain all of them at the current level of funding. A refocus of some City Departments may have to be made, people may have to be reassigned, and create a framework for an economic recovery that supports the size of government we currently have - hopefully without personnel cuts now and absolutely without growth later.
Last but certainly not least, government must be mindful that we are living in a era of ever-decreasing natural and economic resources. Scarcity and compromise will be an ever increasing way of life - the disabled, the poor, and the disadantaged cannot be the only ones who have to make compromises - and they do when other self-promoting entities are allowed to grow uncontrolled.
One of the first people to create the entity we recognize as social security was the German Emperor William I in about 1883: "Those who are disabled from work by age and invalidity have a well-grounded claim to care from the state", and "....by positively advancing the well-being of the workers". (The Tyranny of Dead Ideas, Matt Miller).
JUST WHAT ARE MY ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES DOING AND HOW ARE THEY SPENDING ALL THAT MONEY THEY COLLECT IN TAXES!! |
