Why Ventura Isn’t "The Mind"

Jesse Ventura, the rasslin’ governor of Minnesota has vetoed the state legislature’s budget which would not include a tax increase. Ventura wants to see a budget which includes tax hikes as well as spending cuts. From the article:

"Unfortunately, our legislators do not seem to understand that taxes and personal sacrifice are the price we pay for freedom," Ventura said.

This is the most idiotic thing I’ve heard Ventura say in a long time, and Ventura has said some pretty amazingly idiotic things. Taxes are at best a necessary evil. In the case of providing for the protection of the citizenry, roads, economic development, and education, taxes are indeed necessary to do the business of the state. Rasing taxes for such boondoggles as a light rail corridor that no one will use is not a necessary sacrifice for freedom. It’s a waste of money. More government doesn’t create more freedom, it erodes it.

Ventura is at least half right. Making budgetary sacrifices is necessary in the current economic climate. However, raising taxes will only continue to dissuade investment in Minnesota, hurt those who are trying to make ends meet, and discourage the kind of economic activity that will lift this state out of it’s current economic woes.