Reforming Your Town-Local Issues-Part 2-Bob Davis Podcast 803

When it comes to reform, local issues are often overlooked these days. Jason Bradley and Andrew Richter join me for the second half of our interview to talk local. Click here for part one. Learn more in Reforming Your Town-Local Issues-Part 2-Bob Davis Podcast 803.

Most Towns Have Similar Issues

I joined Andrew and Jason for the 100th Community Solutions MN podcast recently. In that podcast Andrew and Jason made the point that they’ve discovered the most pressing local issues in Minnesota are surprisingly uniform.

Unelected Government Pushing Its Agenda

Moreover what it comes down to is increasing control of local communities by state and federal government. Bike trails. Light Rail. Unelected boards and ghost written city plans. Roundabouts. Higher property taxes and local costs. You’d be surprised to see opposition to these plans from politically unpredictable sources.

Great Ideas Hidden Costs

Certainly some there are some supporters for this kind of development. In contrast support begins to fade when locals learn how much these great ideas cost. Find out about it in Reforming Your Town-Local Issues-Part 2-Bob Davis Podcast 803.

Unsuspecting Locals Forced To Accept National Will

Moreover national groups and sponsors of social initiatives often go around state and federal legislatures to force their will on unsuspecting and weak local residents. Andrew and Jason have called it the death of rural America.

Second Amendment Infringements

Especially relevant here are local infringements on second amendment rights. While state legislatures and the US Congress struggle with firearm legislation regulations are being forced on local communities.

Work Sessions To Avoid Community Action

Community Solutions MN also points out a most noteworthy tactic. Often local councils and boards will use ‘work sessions’ to debate and decide, and have a useless public hearing to take questions at the last minute before levies and initiatives are about to be imposed.

Robbing Us Blind

Finally what about subsidies and costs? Taxes? Levies? Fees? The average american has only five hundred dollars cash in reserve. Financial burdens on the middle class from local governments are more significant than you’d think.

In conclusion everyone focuses on the circus in Washington DC. However local governments are robbing us blind.

Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating, Metro wide from Saint Paul

Reforming Your Town-Local Issues-Part 2-Bob Davis Podcast 803

 

 

Toss Up House Elections 2018 Part 2-Bob Davis Podcast 754

Second in a series of podcasts detailing the so called toss up races in the 2018 midterm elections. Most noteworthy here are my observations about whether many of these elections are actually toss ups. Find out why I say this in Toss Up House Elections 2018 Part 2-Bob Davis Podcast 754.

Trump’s Future Hangs In The Balance

From Iowa, to Illinois. Kansas to Kentucky in this podcast you’ll find out why the media says the future of Donald Trump’s administration hangs in the balance. You’ll also find out whether the predicted ‘blue wave’ could be reality. Or not.

Details Without Partisanship

As I have said many times, one of the things our media loves to do these days is predict the future, The reason I am producing this series of podcasts is to give you the existing conditions in each of these districts without partisan comment or predictions. This series includes the Senate toss ups, and the Governor’s toss ups and part one of the house toss ups.

How Close Are They?

How close is the race in Illinois’ northwestern suburbs that make up the 6th district? What about all the predictions about 12th district which stretches from the working class Saint Louis suburbs across the river, all the way to the southern tip of the Land of Lincoln? Especially relevant here are predictions about Kentucky’s 6th district, which the president won by 17 points. When a candidate for president wins a state by over twenty points, is there a potential for backlash? Learn more in Toss Up House Elections 2018 Part 2-Bob Davis Podcast 754.

Telling The Voter What’s Going To Happen Before The Vote

These days it doesn’t matter whether you’re on network television or You Tube. If you have a national talk radio show or are a podcaster. Everyone wants to tell the voter what’s going to happen before it happens. If you listen to this series of my podcasts you’ll know the situation in these districts. You’ll know what races to watch on election night.

What IS The Situation?

Once the voters decides for themselves who their voting for on election night, they can sit back and watch the results knowing what races to look for. Why? Because someone looked at all the key races and without partisanship or rancor laid out what the situation is.

Fortune Tellers

Finally, many of these districts have no polling unless its done by partisan groups or political parties. Predictions are being made based on the 2016 election or because one party or another said they were ‘targeting’ that race. In conclusion our politics are too fluid for political fortune tellers to be accurate.

Sponsored by John D Scott Personal Injury Lawyer and Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul

Toss Up House Elections 2018 Part 2-Bob Davis Podcast 754

 

When Tax Reform Isn’t-What Congress Giveth It Taketh Away-Podcast 676

They call it Tax Reform. A Jobs Bill. That’s what it must be, right? Journalists and commentators are playing the same old game. Argue a proposed piece of legislation on its merits. Time to reset the boundaries in When Tax Reform Isn’t-What Congress Giveth It Taketh Away-Podcast 676.

Freedom Of Choice

While listeners to The Bob Davis Podcasts always have the freedom to choose what they think is right, I want to introduce the concept of marginal improvement. Legislators on both sides of the political spectrum talk big about ‘reform’. Usually though they make what really are marginal changes. This is especially relevant when we’re talking about the tax code.

The Real Football Game Is Congress

Team Red moves the ball back to the Blue thirty yard line. It’s hailed as a great victory. Team Blue moves the ball back to the Red twenty yard line a few years later. These are what both sides call marginal improvements. Meanwhile, as economist Milton Friedman famously suggested, they keep getting elected by making the tax code more complicated.

Budget Neutrality Isn’t A Thing

Enter a legislative concept called Budget Neutrality. The idea every expenditure must be ‘paid for’ with tax increases, or budget cuts. You think Tax Reform means lower taxes. What they’re really doing is taking away tax deductions and loop holes, and increasing our overall tax. The sad part is, it’s not their money, it’s our money. In When Tax Reform Isn’t-What Congress Giveth It Taketh Away-Podcast 676.

What Is Real Reform?

If you want real reform. The end to this kind of corruption? Then the power of the federal government to tax our incomes and our property must be permanently eliminated. Should corporations be taxed at all? Do you have property rights if you pay property taxes? How does government pay for the wonderful things both sides wants it to provide? We talk about it in When Tax Reform Isn’t-What Congress Giveth It Taketh Away-Podcast 676.

Already Socialists

So called conservatives like to argue the merits of capitalism versus socialism. It seems like I’d be on pretty safe ground if I suggested the United States has been collectivist for decades. Our economic system is not so much capitalist as it is a controlled market economy. Our elected Kings and their privy courts control our behavior and our futures with regulation and a tax code so complex, were it to be proposed as a single law in its present form, it would cause a revolution.

(Editor’s Note: While the first actual income tax in the United States was levied during the Civil War, it was later repealed as ‘unconstitutional’. Several attempts were made to establish an income tax through the late 1800’s which were unsuccessful, until the 16th amendment, ratified in 1913.)

Sponsored by Ryan Plumbing and Heating of Saint Paul and Reliafund

When Tax Reform Isn’t-What Congress Giveth It Taketh Away-Podcast 676