Our elected officials have had one response since the beginning of this pandemic and it's the wrong response and will cost us tremendously down the road. Since March, our dependence on government has grown to outrageous levels while government spending is skyrocketing. In St Paul, a massive budget surplus has been depleted in record time.

But growing government is the exact opposite of what we should be doing. Instead, we should take this opportunity to finally make long needed cuts to government and provide tax relief to Minnesotans - let them keep their money. Why aren't Republican leaders talking about this?

Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka now has abandoned course on repealing the state tax on social security benefits. According to the Star Tribune, he believes that funding for COVID-19 takes priority over letting seniors keep their money. 

Politicians in St Paul aren't completely tone deaf to the ploys of families struggling in this economy though. But they've punted the "problem solving" to the feds who have a printing press and the illusion of a solution. Take a look at the federal budget this year; or better yet, don't. Federal spending has increased by nearly 50% and we're likely to run a $3 Trillion budget deficit (over twice as much as the deficit at the height of the Great Recession). National debt is now approaching $25 Trillion and debt-to-GDP is well over 100% - which many experts warn will lead to economic disaster.

When this pandemic is over, countless small businesses will be closed down, jobs will be lost and publicly held debt will balloon to unmanageable levels. And one can only imagine the purchasing power of our dollars with all the newly inflated money circulating in our economy. It seems clear to us that the cure will be far worse than the disease.

But there is a better way to go about this. Total government spending (local, state, federal) is about 43% of GDP. The size of our governments were already strangling the private sector before this pandemic began. But now it's more important than ever to reduce our dependence on government so capital is kept in the hands of businesses and families.

We didn't emerge out of the Great Depression until government spending drastically fell. That's a story your history teacher most likely didn't tell you. Government gets in the way of progress and they are the great destroyers of wealth. Just look at how many bloated agencies, incompetent projects and fraud/waste/abuse exist in the government sector.

Now is the time for our elected officials to make some fundamental changes that favor liberty instead of government control. It's a pivotal time in our nation's history. We can continue to expand our reliance on government and go the direction of every failed state in history that's tried it, or we can go back to our roots of limited government and freedom. 

Elected officials should start slashing programs, cutting budgets and repealing regulations. As spending decreases, large tax cuts should be passed that ease the pain on our private sector and let families keep their money. Our government should shrink down to the size of our Constitution like it was originally intended. And freedom should be returned to We the People.

Nothing would Make America Great Again better than that!

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