Today, I want to ask each of you to make 3 phone calls. In the next few minutes I will explain why and to who.

It matters not whether you are Democrat, Independent or Republican. I will tell you why it is urgent and assure you that it is not too late nor pointless. My Goal is to get each of you to help me “Hold the Salt.” Or perhaps better said, Save the Salt.

So what is SALT. State and Local Taxes, more specifically the exemption on federal taxes on the taxes we are already paying locally, and thereby avoiding Double Taxation.

As you know, Congress is trying to rewrite the tax code.

The current House Plan has many winners and losers. Some of the provisions, I like – others not so much. Personally, while I believe some corporate tax changes are needed, I see many things to dislike. But there is not time today to cover every detail.

But there is time to focus on one element that matters to Minnesotans and which we should ask our Representatives in Congress to advocate for us. And that is SALT.

Now before I go any further, let me assure you that our Representatives can advocate for us if they choose to do so. The bill, while formed in secrecy is now public and open for debate.

Changes can be and are being made to it.  As recent as Monday, the House leadership accepted a major change and there is every reason to believe additional changes can and should be made. (The Ways and Means committee watered down a proposed excise tax on foreign affiliates of multinational companies, raising the cost of the package by 150 Billion in lost revenue.)

But in Minnesota there are only 3 people that matter. They can choose to help us, or not. They are Representatives Jason Lewis, Eric Paulson, and Tom Emmer.

The good news is that means you only have 3 people you need to call.

So what is the issue?

By and large, Minnesota gets screwed…. Again!

Lets look at 3 things

• What SALT removal does
• MN tax policy and why we are different than others like Wisconsin
• How MN does overall in the national tax policy mix.

Under current and likely future tax policy should this bill get passed in any where near its current framework about 30-35% of mostly above average income earners in Minnesota will still claim exemptions.

Why does this matter?  Our more productive citizens will get a double whammy on income paid for state and local taxes, making it harder to recruit and retain top talent, and harder to maintain MN more progressive tax posture.

Starting in the early 1970’s Minnesota began a committed drive to reduce the burden of property taxes.  Recognizing them as the most hated and regressive tax strategy.  It started building a series of state aids to education and local governments aimed at equalizing support for poorer school districts and reducing local goverments reliance on the property tax.  Some will remember Wendell Anderson appearing with a borrowed pike on the front of Time magazine. The Minnesota Miracle, the focus of the article celebrated that policy change. Since then, members of both parties have strengthen the effort, albeit always squabbling about the details.

Today, in contrast to Wisconsin, which has the nation’s highest property taxes for homes, Minnesota has among the lower. This high property tax level in Wisconsin, may be why Speaker Ryan of Wisconsin got a change made to the tax bill on SALT to exempt much of the property tax portion but not other SALT taxes. Good for Wisconsin, not so good for Minnesota.

Which is why we should not be afraid to ask Minnesota’s Representatives to stand up for us as well.

So why should Minnesota get special treatment? Consider this.

For every dollar Minnesota send the Feds in Income tax, we get the 2^nd to the lowest return on a dollar for dollar basis. We are already a donor state. Only Delaware fairs worse.

The exclusion of the SALT deduction will only serve to perpetuate Minnesota’s plight as a taxpaying chump.

Now I do not begrudge sending Minnesota tax dollars where and when they are needed. For example, I fully support FEMA expenditures in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. I would point out though that when the weather gets bad in Minnesota, we call out the snow plows and pay for it ourselves. (Our winters and their cost in terms of roads is just one big reason we have higher taxes in Minnesota)

So fellow Minnesotans, heed the call, and do call. Our Representatives job is to represent Minnesota. They owe it to us to fight to protect our interests. And to those of you who lean Republican, do your guys a favor and let them know that this tax injustice is riling people up and that we will remember whether they supported Minnesota or just played dead within the Republican Caucus.

I hope each of you will take a few minutes today to make three quick calls. Just leave the recording or staffer a message that you are concerned that the elimination of SALT will hurt Minnesota businesses and people.

Call:       Tom Emmer 6^th District  (202) 225-2331    Eric Paulson 3^rd District  (202) 225-2871   Jason Lewis 2^nd District  (202) 225-2271

Suggested Message: I am concerned that the loss of the SALT deduction will hurt Minnesota and its businesses. Please work to retain that deduction for Minnesota.

Occasionally I am asked about a favorite or influential movie. I find it hard to answer as their have been many but two lesser ones occur to me today.

The first is What’s It All About Alfie.

The quintessential question. Why did God put me here?

Like most people, over my life I have answered that based on my birth circumstances.

In ninth grade, you would find me at mass every day, and also Vespers and Stations of the Cross and the entire nine yards of Roman Catholic ritual.

A half decade later, you would find me on the University of Minnesota campus, in my full dress Navy Midshipmen uniform, in an era where antiwar sentiment was hot and getting hotter.

As a Catholic, as an American my sense of purpose was wrapped up in the circumstances of my birth.

The second movie was a bit more obscure, called Stop The Earth I Want To Get Off!

While I remember nothing about the movie, I do remember its impact. Disconcerted feelings of doubt.

What if I had been born of different parents in Tehran or of Shinto parents in Japan?

How would a just and merciful God favor one over the other?

At the time, the generation gap was clearly defined.

As with many baby boomers I had seen the underbelly of America in nightly news in my youth, watching the civil rights movement giving question to the highest self image we wanted to believe our nation stood represented.

And as the Vietnam war continued other questions came to the fore.  To my generation, the US was not all it might be.

Our parents had a different view. After all, America for them was a place of pride in their own accomplishment, that of standing up to nationalist in Germany and Japan bent on world conquest. When they said they were going to “Keep the Oil” they meant it.

So the probably accurately describe Greatest Generation say America as a place of Pride. One that not only won a war, but set up institutions to keep the peace in Europe ending tens of centuries of almost constant wars.  For them the remaining ills of our society were secondary.

Thus the Boomers sought a Revolution, and our parents like Archie Bunker suggested that We Love America or Leave It.

In 1972 an image emerged.

Now they say a picture is worth a thousand words.

This picture was worth at least 4.5 billion words.

Nicknamed the Blue Marble, it was taken by
Apollo 17 on the last Moon mission.

The image pierced through the gloom of the era. The Whole Earth, Space ship Earth, the ideal of being World Citizens, of caring for the planet and its peoples.

A sense of commonality. Humankind.

The worlds poor were our poor, the world ills our ills.  Blessed were the peacemakers.

Ronald Reagan not many years later would constantly talk of America as a Shinning City on the Hill.

His vision he described as teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.

In recent months, a cloud has appeared overhead that has dimmed the shinning city.

A cloud of inward thinking, nationalism and exclusion.

I fear that cloud is full of lightening and capable of destructive tornadoes.

I pray that it will pass by without too much damage.

I want to believe it is just a historical artifact. Like a pause in the stock markets advance. A setback that will serve to refresh and lead to ever higher values, and that the time will soon come when we can once again build on a global dream.

In closing, let me answer Alfie’s question.  What is it all about. Accumulating wisdom, and then sharing it as effectively as possible. I hope I have done at least a little of that today.

Who are America’s Enemies?

Currently there are a lot of Democrats stressing that Russia is an enemy of the United States.

All of this is in reaction to President Elect Donald Trump’s apparent bromance with Vladimir Putin. His appointments have strengthened the image of his tilt to Moscow, particularly his choice for Secretary of State.

The talking heads on MSNBC and CNN appear to be leaning toward a more robustly anti Russian posture for Democrats. One that is troubling to me.

Yes, I am skeptical about Trumps pro Moscow tilt and yes, I do believe the Russian thumb on the electoral process may have tilted the scale.

But I want to stress that the enemy is not Russia, but its leadership, in the form of Trump and Tillerson’s buddy, Vlad.

Let’s not let the pain of the past election steer the Democratic party into a we against our enemies posture.

Russia under Putin is a threat.

Iran is a threat, as is China particularly in the South China Sea.

These are threats, not enemies.  Their goals, aspirations and national interest may run counter to ours. That is the realm of diplomacy, and schwerd strategies and alliances. To declare them enemies is counter productive to a goal of building a harmonious world in which our national interests can flourish.

If there is one enemy, it may well be The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. In their case, we still are at best in an armistice, with more than casual saber rattling  by the other side.

All four actors along with ISIS and the general terrorism threat all constitute challenges to the United States.

But until there is an actual act of war, they are not enemies.  ISIS is an enemy, the others something less.  And the focus should be to deal with them on a practical level, without the enemy moniker.

Trump is right that it would be great to have Russia as friend.  To ignore Putin’s encroachments and violations of international norms in the Ukraine, Syria and elsewhere is foolish on the Donald’s part.

To make Russia a rhetorical enemy, as a tool to paint Trump as bumpkin or puppet is over playing the hand.  Yes we should advocate for policies designed to counter Putin’s moves, to ensure freedom on the seas in the South China sea, and to defuse the Shiite Sunni conflict. But lets do so from a constructive framework, not that of war and enemies.

I was trying to wait.

Give the guy a chance, he may surprise you.

The “misstep” about Taiwan, – maybe it was not such a bad ploy after all…

Maybe it is a good idea to shake things up a little.

I didn’t think it right, but I could think it calculated and yeah I admit, I didn’t mind the US tweaking China’s nose  a bit.

But then the parade kept coming.

Appointment after appointment with scary implications.

I fear, it is time to say what I thought I would have to say…

to my Trump friends…

You’ve been snookered!

An oil industry secretary of state opposed to sanctions against Moscow, eager to play in Russia’s oil fields, a no minimum wage fast food, pay em peanuts head of the Department of Labor, no there no science here, climate denier as protector of our environmental health and a president who increasingly appears to be in Moscow’s pocket.

Ye Gads!

All the crap I didn’t want my lefty bomb throwers to throw pre election are coming true.

The bash on Trump and the fears are manifest!

God save us.

We may need divine intervention.

Putin has sold us the rope his predecessors prophesied and given us one of our greatest capitalists to do the dirty deed.

The CIA says the Kremlin helped.  How can we believe Trump to the contrary. His past statements have been euphemisms, a Billion dollar word for LIES.

Still weeks away, but doom is approaching for much of what the very people he said he would help need most.

The opportunity is however growing brighter. Surely the reality of this all will become evident even to his most loyal followers.

The Oil Industry and Billionaire Class have taken over the country. The liberal alliance with Western Europe is about to be overthrown by a new Moscow Washington axis.

The time to organize is upon us.

But who will be the champions? The Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warrens who can be proud of being ones of five who oppose otherwise bipartisan support on a Senate Bill that finally has bi-partisan support.

Should we be looking to the purist for leadership? To the Kieth Ellison’s whose idea of progress is to stake a line in the sand as far to the left as possible in the hopes of getting the center redefined a little closer to their ideals?

No, for even when the center is won, they turn around and attack those who made it happen as being to not good enough. Not pure enough.

That is hugely popular with the left’s elites, but unmarketable to those who see it as a game, and a game in which they are not players.

We need a new series of champions.

Good solid liberals with an ability to not only appeal to the left, but to the center and to those who don’t know what they believe.

Perhaps an Amy Klobuchar or a Jennifer Granholm? Others will emerge.

And the lay of the land looks as if there will be fertile ground to plow. Maybe not right away, but with these picks, it cannot be long before the wool falls away and the people see.

Unfortunately our emperor has clothes, the finest, and an eager group of Republican lackeys, but they will be among the first to scream when the budget goes as red as our presidents best friends in Moscow.