Smackdown.....

Yet another "gimme-gimme" liberal group who thinks we can tax our way into prosperity.

From here:

ST. PAUL — Think of Minnesota as suffering from a vitamin deficiency, growing weaker and still resisting a balanced diet. And think of taxes as spinach, broccoli and peas — not exactly everybody’s first choice on the table, but the stuff we need to reinvigorate our state.

One month from legislative adjournment, all indications are that election-year pressures will deny Minnesota the state revenue “vegetables” and the responsible, long-term budget solutions it needs.

Time is running out in the face of projected chronic shortfalls — as much as $1.7 billion in the red a year from now — and so are the accounting gimmicks and the reserves. So voters choosing leaders this fall for 2009 and beyond need to ask them to face up to a glaring fiscal reality: We can’t go on like this. Our experiment with tax cuts and short-changing vital public-sector investment is not working.

More than a decade of tax rebates and tax cuts during good times, and the no-new-(state)-taxes straitjacket of the past six years, have left our communities and our economy in worse shape than they have been in decades. (The 2008 Legislature deserves credit for overriding a veto and pushing through a modest gas-tax increase, but that’s a dedicated tax that only begins to address two decades of deterioration in our transportation infrastructure.)

That’s because this disinvestment has been accomplished by a gradual slide into economic mediocrity in the private sector. The scrimping and corner-cutting, the idea that draining our common pool of resources will benefit everybody, is most assuredly not producing the general prosperity that was promised when tax cuts were enacted.

I thank God that we have the likes of Steve Gottwalt representing us:

Ellen:
Think of taxes as the food on working people's tables. Think of it as their hard earned cash. Think of it as their means of providing for themselves. Think of it as THEIR money; not the government's! Now consider what an insatiable hunger for those taxes does to prosperity and opportunity in Minnesota.

We remain among the highest taxed, most generous social services states in the entire nation. We cannot afford more of your "better living through more taxes." Just ask your neighbors and those who work to pay taxes. They're struggling to make ends meet in some of the toughest economic times we've seen -- and the last thing they need is more taxes. On behalf of my constituents: Please stop raising our taxes! We're already doing more than we can afford in terms of government services!

Let's try a balanced "diet" of setting real, sound priorities, and living within our means instead of raising taxes -- no second helpings, junk food or "super-sizing" on our government "meals." Thanks!
-Rep. Steve Gottwalt