Liberal in the Land of Conservative

Olson Promises Working Families Bill of Rights; Challenges Bachmann to Tax Debate

ANOKA—Bob Olson, a DFL candidate in the 6th Congressional District, said he will introduce a Working Families Bill of Rights when he takes office next year.

“Michele Bachmann and her allies view taxes from the perspective of big business and the super rich,” he said. “Facing a recession? Cut corporate taxes. Want to stimulate the economy? Give the rich more. Working families are struggling? Defend the big oil companies. Bachmann-Bush policies are decimating the Middle Class, but nobody is fighting back. Our campaign is about forever ending that mindset.”

Olson, who owns St. Stephen State Bank and has practiced tax law for 35 years, said it’s time Congress extend the same tax benefits to working families that it grants to the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations.

Rewarding Investment in Families

“When an oil executive flies first class to a retreat at a fancy resort, his company gets to write it off as a business expense,” Olson said. “When a CEO buys 50-yard-line tickets to entertain a client—business expense. When parents invest in their families—nothing. It’s absolutely wrong.”

Olson said families making less than $100,000 a year in taxable income should be able to deduct on their taxes up to $10,000 a year of child-care and education-related expenses (supplies, activities, tuition).

Fair-Share Taxation

People who earn their income through work, Olson said, shouldn’t be taxed at a rate higher than people living off capital gains and dividends. Under Olson’s fair-share taxation plan, a teacher in St. Cloud would be taxed at a rate lower than Warren Buffet or George Soros. As it now stands, however, the typical public school teacher falls into the 25 percent tax bracket while many billionaire investors are in the 15 percent tax bracket.

“We’re not giving families something for nothing,” Olson said. “Nobody I’ve met over the course of this campaign is looking for a handout. But what I will do is ensure that government helps make it a little easier for you to do good things for your family. If it’s good enough for Bachmann’s supporters at the ExxonMobil PAC, it should be good enough for working families in Monticello, Big Lake, Oak Park Heights and Blaine.”

America can invest in working families when it stops subsidizing Iraq’s inept government and ends needless tax breaks to multi-millionaires and billionaires, Olson said.

“We’re going to end tax breaks for Exxon and we’re going stop spending billions of dollars on an Iraqi government that won’t take responsibility for its country,” Olson said. “That money can be put to far better use and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Issuing a Challenge

As a candidate in 2006, Bachmann regularly played up her brief stint as a federal tax attorney. Olson, on the other hand, helps small businesses and families navigate a tax code that’s increasingly stacked against them.

"Voters in the 6th District shouldn’t have to wait until the fall to hear where Mrs. Bachmann and I stand on taxes,” Olson said. “When the congresswoman is ready to debate, she can name the time and place. I know a neutral location is out of the question, but if the Jason Lewis Show works for her, fine. I’ll be there.”

This is a candidate who is not afraid of a challenge and is willing to meet Bachmann anywhere and at any time to prove that his ideas are more mainstream and make far more sense than the ideas of Michele Bachmann bought and paid for by her corporate sponsors.