Does anyone know whats going to happen at the end of the year now that I'm getting no Fedral taxes taken out of my check.  Am I going to have to pay in taxes??  How is the $30.00 evey two weeks I save in fedral taxes supposed to help me in this economy.  Is this a Governmant Joke?? Who's assinine thought process was this?  Just curious??

Letters like these are the sort of thing that always baffles me.  Premier among them is that the employees choice and will negates the employers.  Second, is the vague epithets and gross generalizations about people who take responsibility for companies - CEOs (aka Executives) and so on.  The politics of envy is very unlikely to produce the kind of employee/employer relationships that will build communities and strong enterprises.

While I can appreciate the rhetoric (I have been a member of three different unions over the years) I feel I can say without exception that most union administrations are more fittingly characterized as greedy and despotic than most corporations.  There are very few exceptions.  If unions could have stayed as a bargaining agent providing a single voice to speak with corporate leadership they would be a prized institution. Now they resemble little more than orchestrated extortion and the anvil on which the sword of socialism gets worked out.

http://www.mankatofreepress.com/letters/local_story_088184118.html

Just when I thought that everyone is on the same team and we have become a better community together through these tough times I read the letter by Paul Marquardt titled “Employee Free Choice Act lets workers have say” discussing the role of unions in the workplace and the ability for workers to organize.  The word that concerns me here is choice.  Usually when the word “choice” finds its way into union literature it means “the makes the choice for the worker”.

I found the letter interesting right up to the point of “Minnesota workers are struggling to makes ends meet. Paychecks are shrinking and health care costs are skyrocketing while CEOs earn millions of dollars in bonuses” Is he talking about locally in Mankato and the residents of this city or in general terms?
It’s these same talking points all of the time. 

Please Mr. Marquardt I invite you to write a positive letter that shows how your negotiations, your vision and initiatives brought increased sales to an organization to help ensure that the workers have jobs.  How your accomplishments improved relations with customers to ensure that they kept coming back to bring in sales to keep the employees employed.  Keeping those employees employed would seem to me that your focus would be on customers and sales.  Not more and more benefits for the workers when company sales are down and competition is tough.

There are different roles in companies that provide different compensation packages.  CEO’s have the full responsibility of the company on their shoulders and spend the majority of their time away from family and that is their “choice”.  Like corrupt or unethical CEO’s I am sure there are some Union Leaders that aren’t the most ethical.  I am not sure where along the lines unions started seeing employment as an entitlement.  No one is entitled to a job in this country.  You have the “choice” to go get a job and climb the ladders or to do nothing.  Employees have the freedom to go from employer to employer and find the best “offer” from the company for the values and talents that they can bring to an organization.
 
Mr. Marquardt I understand that the existence of your job is dependent on finding the absolute worst things about companies and take every advantage of “bad news” and exploit it for your own self interest but this article is a perfect example of what is wrong in our “corporate world”.  If an employee doesn’t agree with the terms of his employment, the working conditions, the benefits, he or she has the “choice” to leave that employer and find one that does. 

The employees don’t need to organize and “change” the organization.

Huh?

Shame on you Tim Walz! Shame on congress!

You said you would post the Stimulus bill for the public to view 48 hours prior to voting on it.  Less than 12 hours later you put it to a vote and pass it?  What happened to transparency? What happened to being responsible to your constituents?  What happened to honesty?  YOU LIED TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!  The sad part of this is that the media is going to give them a free pass on this entire scam!! 

Shame on you Tim Walz!  and Shame on Congress!!

It takes a small shift in mindset for this to make sense: simply, as the government, think of the money as yours to spend.  Take this position instead of the one I believe they should have - that they are spending our money to procure services for our benefit.  Once posession is taken, it is simple in their discretion according to their will and for their benefit -not ours.

Redistribution of wealth implies a plan for some form of equanimity of result: a disciplined and well considered balm for the less fortunate.  Though this is portrayed as like that, I believe it is much closer to the piquant largess of the ruling class distributed for their benefit.

THe dollars won't come back to us - they really don't see it as ours.

This Monday I attended the Mankato City Council Meeting and I can say that I was glad I did and will be attending more.  There was a great feeling of involvement seeing the newspaper talk about what I saw Monday night.  I was very impressed with City Manager Pat Hentges professionalism and his knowledge of the administration of our city.  He and others are tasked with finding ways to reduce costs and I saw some very impressive things in his proposals of reaching out for ways to do so.

One other thing I was very impressed with was Councilman Mark Frost's reference to the residents of his Ward.  I could be wrong but I believe he was the only to do so and that impressed me a lot.  There were many students in the audience and I hope they had a chance to witness Mr. Frost's great example of Representative Leadership.  Also Mr. Frost was the only one to mention anything about Budget Cuts during a meeting of spending asking for a reduction of $5000 to the arts.

We had the pleasure of talking with both Mr. Hentges and Mr. Laven after the meeting and I found it very beneficial to meet and get to know our local officials better.  Both were very courteous and gracious and I look forward to getting to know them more throughout the months and years.

I must say I was also very impressed with the turnout of the meeting.  I met a very nice gentleman named Paul that came there to discuss concerns that he had with a new sewer project in his area off of Belle Ave.  Kudos to Paul on showing up at the meeting and voicing his concerns to the council.

My hope for the future is that more local citizens will join VooGov.Com and discuss the local issues and comments on the city council meetings that they attended and not just voice concerns from behind the keyboard.  :-)

Patrick

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/congress_stimulus

From the article.

"It also preserves Obama's signature tax cut — a break for millions of lower and middle income taxpayers, including those who don't earn enough to pay income taxes."

How does one get a tax cut when you don’t earn enough to pay income taxes?

That is a signature tax cut that is a redistribution of wealth and nothing more.

Thoughts?