First off I believe we need to raise the debt limit and at the same time get our spending under control. Defaulting on our debts would be a horrible thing for the country, and may very well send the world economy downwards. So let’s raise the debt ceiling.

Now let’s fix the problem at the root.

The budget that President Obama submitted to Congress would have the nation spending $3.456 Trillion (source).  I think that’s too much. Let’s cut that by 11%. That’s a budget of $3.075 trillion. It shouldn’t be too hard. I’ll also point out that the proposed budget in 2008 was $2.9 trillion.

Second let’s fix the problem of tax loop holes and companies not paying their “fair share”. (Hang with me on this one, conservative friends.) Let’s institute a 16% flat tax on all corporations. Based on a $14.66 trillion GDP (source) that equates to roughly  $2.345 trillion in tax revenue. That lowers the corporate tax rate from 35%, and closes all of the loop holes. This makes us very competitive on the world scale for tax rates.

Third let’s fix the problem of tax loop holes and citizens not paying their “fair share”. (Yes deductions are “loop holes” so there goes mortgage interest deduction and the charitable contributions deduction.) Let’s have a flat rate of 15%. Individuals will still pay less than businesses. That would bring in roughly $848 billion in tax revenue (Taking number of households in US times the median household income as provided by the US Census Bureau).That also means any single person making more than $34,000 a year would see a tax cut. Married people making more than $68,000 a year would see a tax cut. Those making less than $8,375 would see a tax increase of 5% (that’s $419 per year). Married couples making less than $16,750 would see a tax increase of 5% (or $837) per year.

This brings us to a total US Revenue of $3,193,915,773,111.  My budget proposal was $3.075 trillion. So we have a budget surplus of $118 Billion. That would allow us to retire the national debt that much sooner. Putting away $118 billion to paying off debt would (on top of what we are budgeted to pay off each year already) would help straighten out the financial ship of the United States.

It’s easy to see that the numbers speak for themselves. Unfortunately there’s no political will for this kind of drastic reform.

Disclaimers: Due to rounding and the like my numbers may be off a little bit, but they should be generally accurate.

All opinions are my own and not that of my employer.

That is all.

It’s kind of fun to see these updates, and you might even comment or “like” a few of them.  But, if you’re like me, the majority of these updates you just glance at and move on.  You might do that for several months and think nothing of it. I know I have.

So, my question is, at what point do these people, whom at one point you considered yourself a “friend” with, stop being a friend but more of just someone you observe in the virtual world from time to time?  It’s similar to those of us that read blog posts from our friends (which seem to happen with great irregularity these days) and never comment.  You just observe them and keep moving on with your life like nothing really happened.

At what point do these “friends” become “just some guy I know” or “some person I had a class with” and not really a friend?  And, when it reaches that point, is it really fair to have them counted as your “friend” on facebook?  To those that have several hundred, or even thousands, friends I say are you really “friends” with them all? (I’m included in that.)  Or does the term “friend” mean something in the facebook (and virtual) world that is different from that of the real world?

So get out and go golfing! And if you’re around Wells let me know! We can go golfing together.

Enjoy your favorite green beverage today!  (And might I suggest that if you’re at work it be Green Tea.)

I’m very exited that the snow is pretty much gone. There is just a small pile of it left in the yard. The weather has been nice and I’ve gotten the the grill out. I bought it last year on a great clearance price, and was finally able to use it this spring. It’s really nice to have some burgers done on the grill. It makes me wonder how I went so long without one!

The back yard is pretty much snow free, except for the giant ice pond that is the pool.  Although I think that’ll be ice free before long.  So then we’ll have the grilling and the pool up and running. I’m super excited for that.

Otherwise life is good. Work is fun, and it has slowed down just a bit.  The big project is over and I’m looking over some other projects and deciding which one to pursue next. It’ll be kind of interesting to see what will happen.  I love the freedom I have in this job to really choose some of fun projects that I want to go after and see it through from start to finish. It’s a lot of fun.

I’ve got some meetings in the cities this week, which means I’ll be back in Blaine for a while. We’re going to do a house project or two, which will keep us out of trouble. We’re going to be tiling the Master Bathroom, thanks to the tile we bought from my brother and sister-in-law who bought too much when they redid their bathroom. So that’ll be a fun project. It won’t be too bad, as the bathroom really isn’t that big of a space.  But it’ll be nice to get it done.

For now that’s about all. Keep on a rocking blog readers!

Flash forward to 2010. You have blogs that are in most cases free, or relatively cheap.  All political parties have blogs that are the standard bearer for that party, or even the party in a certain geographical area. New ones spring up all the time.  Of course these blogs can be read by anyone in the world. They are more advanced than the news papers of the 1800′s. But the general idea is the same. They convey the same messages.

People evolve and use the new tools that are out there to reach the people just the same as they did back then.  It was interesting to read that, because it is so easy to just gloss over it or not even realize how things used to work. We’ve come so far since the 1800′s, but essentially it isn’t anything new.

I guess I didn’t blog about it a lot.  It was dominated by work, I would say.  It started out with another Legislative Session.  That was what it was.  A year of budget deficits, and craziness.  In March I was appointed to the Blaine Planning and Zoning Commission.  That was a great experience.  I really enjoyed working with the great folks there, and I learned a lot about the Planning and Zoning laws.  Come June my time at the House came to an end.  Some what unexpected, but for the best.  I had been looking for a new job, something to utilize my Master’s Degree, that I was working on.  I already had an internship lined up with the City Administrator of Oak Park Heights.  So I interned there and got some great skills and experience.  During that time I had a few interviews at various places.  I was offered the job of Community Development Director for Wells, MN. I took the job, and it’s been a lot of fun.

One of the big projects I’m working on is utilizing state, county, and local funds to help get a meat processing plant into town.  The plant is working on moving into an old meat packing plant currently.  They should be up and running, with a small crew to start, in a few weeks.  Within about 2 years it should be up to 250 jobs.  It’s been a lot of fun to work on.  The other parts of the job, Planning and Zoning and Housing Redevelopment, have been a lot of fun as well.  I’ve learned so much.  The P&Z stuff I learned during my time as a P&Z Commissioner with Blaine has been very valuable.  It’s been interesting bringing what I learned in a town of 55,000+ to a town of about 2,500.

Other highlights included a week away at Lutheran Island Camp, which was fun.  The whole family was there and we were able to hang out.  We did some fishing, and had our own mini-fishing contest.  I’m proud to say that my boat (consisting of me, Beth, and my brother-in-law Barry) caught 7 fish while the other boat (my mom and dad, brother-in-law Jeff, and nieces and nephews) caught 1.  Go us!

Looking back through the archives of my blog for this past year I remember I did some house stuff.  That was kind of fun.  Being a “handy man” of sorts was interesting. Some worked well, some not.  In August and September we really spiffed up the house more.  Of course that was to sell it.  We really like what we did with the place and it’s kind of fun to be able to enjoy it still.  We have more stuff that we want to do, and we’ll probably be able to do some of it.

So, my friends, after much waiting, that is what I will call the year in review.  This coming year should be more interesting.  I’ll try to be better at getting pictures up for y’all to see.  In the mean time, enjoy life!

If you want to see me walk across the stage and get my Masters Hood you can do just that! There should be a link on Walden’s site that you can click on to watch commencement live online.

I love you Beth!