Up to this point, I have not mentioned my opponents name anywhere on this website. I have been visiting with people in St. Cloud and have made a decision to let people get to know me and what I stand for, before I talk about my opponent.
I have made a promise to my family, friends, constituents and most importantly myself, that when I am campaigning, I will be truthful at all times. I am not a career politician, nor have I been employed by the Government in some way for most of my life. I am a hard working and honest; father, son, brother and most of all average person just like the people in District 15B. I may not know every answer to every question, but I believe I posses what is most important in a State Representative, common sense. If I don't know the answer I will find it.
Too often politicians have canned answers to questions. This is not what I feel people are looking for in their State Representative. That being said, if someone at anytime during this campaign asks me a question on a topic, I will give them my common sense and truthful answer. I will not tell the people something they want to hear just to get their vote. When this election is over I know that I can take office with the knowledge that I have told people exactly what I feel and what I will do about it.
As we approach the new year, I feel it is important for me to not only let people continue to get to know me, but for people to get to know the difference between my opponent and myself. That is why I have decided to start discussing with you things about my opponent starting with this post.
My opponent, Larry Haws has spent a large portion of his life working for the Government and receiving a paycheck from the taxpayers. I have not. Therefore, I may not always have a canned answer on political questions, but I will have the average person's answer. Why, because I am the average person. (I hope my wife would say above average, but that's another issue.)
When Minnesota's 2008 forecast came out recently and showed a deficit, I believe that I looked at it from the average person's point of view. Stop spending more than you bring in! I would love to have a great big new house, and a fancy convertible, but I don't bring in enough money to support that kind of spending. Minnesotans like myself don't have the option of requiring their bosses to give them more money simply because we want it. Why should the Government be any different.
The answer to a budget deficit isn't to raise taxes on hard working people, the answer is to stop spending at such a high rate. Larry Haws believes that "Everything is on the table." (St. Cloud Times, December 6, 2007). I don't believe everything is on the table. I believe that raising taxes on Minnesotans is not on the table. It's time for the Government to look at itself in the mirror and see where reductions in wasteful spending can be made. I'm not talking about Education, Health Care or benefits for Veterans, I'm talking about wasteful spending. Perhaps the DFL should not have increased the number of committees to the point that they have, and I guarantee they should not have raised the amount of spending in these committee's budgets. At a time when Minnesota faces a deficit, why are my opponent and his friends increasing the amount of money they spend on committees and not focusing on what can be done to help Minnesotans?
When I'm elected I will focus on things that matter. Each day it is more and more evident that we need someone at the Capital that will look out for your wallet and keep the average person's beliefs a priority.
http://www.joshuabehling.com/
P.S. Gary Gross at the blog Let Freedom Ring has more on this issue as does Larry Schumacher a the St. Cloud Times.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
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