Let's Put This State on Kruse Control!

My favorite Oregon State Senator got his Friday newsletter out to me a bit early this morning and believe you me it is a gem. Not a gem so much in execution, but it in that it a long and detailed gripe about what a bitch it is to be in the minority party. Get this, even if you offer the most reasonable amendments to health care bills, in the end, the majority party can ignore all your proposals and just do whatever it is they please. And they call this a democracy.

Unfortunately, Jeff doesn't post his e-newsletters right away, so I am forced to give you last week's scraps. But my God, they are delicious.

First of all the Tea Parties held all over the nation did not get much media attention, but should be a wakeup call for Congress and all state legislative assemblies.

Boom! The tea parties did not get much media attention. Jeff and I live in very different worlds, apparently.

Jeff then tells us he's a farmer and, therefore, a business man. He can't understand why the Legislature is not run more like a his business. He gives us an example:

We will be looking at those activities which have shown a profit as well as those that have not. We are continuously looking for ways to become more efficient and cost effective in our operation. We are always experimenting with new varieties of seed, different crop applications, different types of equipment, whatever we can find to make our operation better. Our goal is to be able to give our customers the best quality products at the best price.

When we are planning for the next year we never assume the status quo. We know there are some crops that make us money and some that don’t. We also know we will continue to grow many of those we lose money on simply because our customers expect it, which puts additional pressure on our profit centers. I could go on for a long time about my business, but the point is to show the perspective which I use to create my budget. I think one of the unfortunate realities is very few members of the Legislature have any real business experience.

Exactly. Experimentation, trying new things. Give the customers what they need at the lowest prices. I'm down. Some government programs will make money, some won't. We can't know which. Some government programs will continue to exist, even though they lose money, just because the customers (that's you and me Russ) expect those crops services to be there. Look, we could talk about this all day, but talking never put hay in the barn.

But wait a tick.

There is a way to create a balanced budget for the next biennium without tax and fee increases...We should be prioritizing core government services and funding only those determined to be essential. We should not be creating new programs or any other type of government expansion.

What happened to the experimentation? The growing crops just 'cause that's what the customers want? What happened to the somethings will work and some won't, but you got to keep plugging away? Well, as Jeff says, government is big business.

The Governor is the CEO and the Legislative Assembly is the board of directors. It is time we stepped up and did our job. As of now we are not operating in the best interest of our shareholders.

And if there's one thing Jeff knows about it's running a large company being a rural farmer.