At a recent local political meeting, one of the MN House representatives made some astounding comments of how the MN DFL legislature is spending our money. Not only did the DFL give themselves a "hidden," tax-free pay raise in the form of increased per diem moneys, they also keep trying to raise our taxes. So far, the Republicans have been able to stop this nonsense. However, the DFL will continue to pursue "more money for ____" which needs to be interpreted as more money from us so they can control us. If we lose control of our earnings, we have lost, period. Uncovered recently is another hidden method the DFL has used to increase its power, perception of prestige, etc.

In 2007, the House DFL expanded the number of standing committees from 27 to 36, an increase of 33%.

To fund that expansion, the House DFL almost doubled the budget for committees, from $324,000 to $646,000.

The number is uncertain, because their make-up and titles shift. If one goes with the conservative number (98), then one might note that Minnesota has 98 legislative panels, 85 House DFLers, and only 87 counties.

This last comment means that there are now more committees, etc. than there are DFL legislators and MN counties.One has to wonder what these people are doing with our money. The actual cost will not appear until January of 2009, two months after the election. One would hope that Minnesotans would wake up to this abuse of our money before then

Like President Bush said in his State of the Union Message (I paraphrase): "If you are so eager to raise taxes, the IRS accepts checks and money orders from you. There is no reason to force others to pay for what you desire." The real issue is control, of us.

Labels: legislature