Republican gubernatorial candidate Dr. Scott Jensen announced at a Thursday press conference his comprehensive plan to fight inflation.
Jensen’s “FIT” plan — “Fight Inflation Together” — comprises a variety of reforms and policies pertaining to taxes and spending. These include but are not limited to investigating wasteful government spending, vetoing tax increases and initiatives that increase the cost of living, eliminating social security taxes, and enacting deregulatory measures that allow businesses to obtain permits and licenses with less hassle.
Another notable part of Jensen’s plan is to gradually eliminate Minnesota’s income tax.
“Increase the pay of working class Minnesotans by phasing out the Minnesota individual income tax over time by growing the private sector economy, cutting wasteful government spending and utilizing the budget surplus,” the plan reads.
At Thursday’s press conference, Jensen’s running mate Matt Birk called the plan’s proposals “long-term, forward-thinking solutions that will not only see Minnesota through the current crisis, but put us on a path to sustainable prosperity.”
The former NFL lineman pinned the blame for runaway inflation squarely on the shoulders of the U.S. government’s monetary policy.
“The federal government prints trillions of dollars, and they enact irresponsible energy policies. And when you have a fragile global supply chain with inevitable bad actors, the government can only manipulate the market [for] so long before it corrects itself,” he said.
Birk also criticized the “tax and spend mentality of our leaders,” especially the administration of Gov. Tim Walz, for inherently exacerbating the problem and making it more difficult for Minnesotans to endure.
“Scott and I have been all over Minnesota talking to people, and most of them right now are just trying to survive,” he said. “And they’re nervous. They’re nervous because they know this is not going away anytime soon, and they’re also nervous because they don’t believe Tim Walz and [Lt. Gov.] Peggy Flanagan can pull us out of this. You don’t send arsonists to put out a fire.”
Before describing his plan, Jensen called Walz and Democratic leaders “out of touch” for their proposed plan to send Minnesotans $1,000 checks, a cost of $4 billion out of Minnesota’s estimated $10.5 billion budget surplus.
“How can [they] be talking about ‘giving back’ … this overpayment and then say we’re going to give it back not to the people who paid it in, we’re going to do the Santa Claus thing, we’re going to do it across the spectrum,” he said. “People that didn’t pay a dime of that overpayment are going to be included just as much as anyone else, and people that did pay and provide that overpayment, many of them will be excluded.”
WATCH:
Evan Stambaugh
Evan Stambaugh is a freelance writer who had previously been a sports blogger. He has a BA in theology and an MA in philosophy.
