Really?
Josh Behling? Is the Republican Party in 15B so weak and feeble that it cannot find anyone even remotely capable of defeating
Larry Haws? Well, if it is the weak and feeble they wish to bring forward, let us see what new and amazing things Josh has to offer District 15B that will bring Haws to his knees.
Taxes and Spending
• Government should live within its means, just as Minnesota families have to do every day.
• Minnesota families should decide how to save and spend their money, because they know what's best for their needs.
• Taxes should be fair to all people.
• Property tax reform
• Reduce taxes on small businesses and encourage them to stay in Minnesota. (Minnesota places in the top five highest for all 50 states in it's business tax rate.)
*I am not going to take all of these because for the most part they are platitudes that few people would argue with (as we all know the devil is in the details!). However, the last bullet caught my eye. I could not find the statistic mentioned about the business tax rate, but I did find a few tidbits that seem at odds with Mr. Behling's contention that Minnesota is bad for businesses.
Check it out:
http://www.deed.state.mn.us/whymn/bestInBus.htmHow about Health Care?Josh believes...
Health Care
• Patients and doctors should make ALL health care decisions, not the Government.
• Reduce/eliminate governmental mandates on our health care system.
• When purchasing insurance allow additional pooling of small businesses to achieve more economical health care premium rates. Therefore reducing the costs employees’ pay for health care insurance.
• Eliminate fraudulent lawsuits against doctors therefore reducing the cost of medical malpractice insurance, and saving EVERYONE more money.
*My first thought, what government mandates are you proposing we eliminate? My second thought, if you feel additional pooling is a good idea, why not have the entire state of Minnesota in a state pool thereby achieving the maximum reduction we pay for health insurance?
How about Education?Josh believes...
Education
• Children are our future. A strong understanding of core academics is essential to educating our children.
• Reform the education funding formula to make sure ALL Minnesota children have an equal opportunity to learn.
• Schools are a place for learning, let's make sure the money we pay to fund education goes to the classroom first where it can most positively effect our children's learning.
• Good educators deserve to be paid well. I support pay plans that encourage educators to teach our children to succeed to their highest potential in school.
• Eliminate excessive ascetics on schools and focus bond money on building a functioning educational environment.
• Do not extend "in-state" tuition breaks for illegal immigrants.
*Not to be a grammar Nazi, but if you are going to discuss your goals for EDUCATION, shouldn't you be able to write in grammatically correct sentences and be able to use the proper form of 'affect'?
- "core academics ARE essential" not "core academics 'is' essential"
This is reminiscent of the Bush line: "Rarely is the question asked, IS our children learning?"Anyway, Josh also seems to support the
70% Solution of
Governor Pawlenty. Someone really ought to tell Josh that Minnesota Schools on average spend 69.2% "in the classroom" and that people deemed "outside the classroom" include librarians, social workers, and psychologists. If Josh is prepared to tell the people of District 15B that these positions are unnecessary his candidacy will be even less successful than we could possibly imagine. One last thing, we already have
ATPPS (Alternative Teacher Professional Pay System) in Minnesota so it seems you missed the boat on that issue.
Josh believes...
Life
• Innocent human life, born and unborn, must be protected from the time a baby is conceived.
• Stop any public funding of abortions.
• Allow families to make decisions for loved ones when a living will is not present, not the Government.
• Partial birth aboortions should be banned.
• I support parental permission laws, that would require parental permission before a minor can receive an abortion.
*I don't know what a partial birth
aboortion is so I am afraid I cannot address it. However, if he means partial birth abortion, I am pretty sure the
United States Congress has already addressed the issue. Also, Larry already addressed public funding for abortion with
HF0992. He certainly cannot be hit with the rabid Pro-choice label so you may have to do better than running on a strictly Pro-Life agenda.
Do you have anything new to set you apart from a guy who received the Legislator of the Year Award from the VFW?
HAWS RECEIVES LEGISLATOR OF THE YEAR AWARD FROM VETERANS
ST. PAUL – The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. Department of Minnesota presented the 2007 Legislator of the Year Award to Representative Larry Haws in recognition of his outstanding support of Minnesota Veteran issues. The award was presented to Rep. Haws at the State VFW Convention by Tate Doom, State Commander of the Department of the Minnesota Veterans of Foreign Wars.
"We, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, took great pride in honoring Rep. Haws for his diligence and dedication to the Veterans of Minnesota," said State Commander Doom. "We gave him what to some may seem a small honor but to us he gave us the gift of hope and excitement. It was only right we honored him as Representative of the Year."
"As far as Larry is concerned, we were extremely grateful for the hard work he put forward on the Veterans Committee," said Al Loher, State Legislator Chair of the VFW. "He was the person who brought us the needed approval for legislation supported by the Governor."
State Commander Doom final words of praise concluded, "I think Rep. Haws put it best when he said, 'veteran’s issues are not and should not be a partisan issue'. Thank you Representative Haws for your unselfish dedication to the veterans of this state."
June 27, 2007
*
Good Luck, Josh, you're going to need it! Oh, and fix your website so you can at least have a modicum of authority on issues of education.
In District 15A, the incumbent is Republican Steve Gottwalt vs. DFLer Joanne Dorsher. There is little doubt in my mind that Joanne Dorsher would serve the people far better than the hyper partisan Gottwalt. While Steve and his supporters would like to pretend that he has been good for education and has worked well across the aisle, the reality is that if he doesn't agree with you his response is little more than scorn and dismissal. As always, in my mind, education is the top issue and time after time Gottwalt has been an abject failure.
In District 15B, the incumbent is DFLer Larry Haws vs. Republican Josh Behling. Larry tells it like it is and has been nothing less than straight with me about where he stands even when that position is counter to my own. On the other hand you have Behling who appears to be little more than the ultra conservative drone who has little independent thought of his own (apart from perhaps a strong hatred for Hillary Clinton but that too is probably authorized by the "everything is Clinton's fault" wing of the ultra conservative coalition).
