Sharing Thoughts and Ideas - 2019 and newer

 A Thoughtful Approach to Cutting MN State Expenditures Rick Olson April 1, 2025 One message voters last November 5 sent is that they are greatly concerned about their own pocketbooks. Polls have also revealed that many people believe that there is "waste, fraud and abuse" in federal and MN state spending. In reality, in MN, this can be broken down into three categories: Expenditures on things that some voters do not like on policy reasons, but the legislature has approved. Spending on things that most people support but may differ on levels of spending on those initiatives. Ineffective or insufficient oversight on expenditures approved.  Costs in the third category are not favored by few if any elected officials, as shown by the bipartisan efforts to provide better oversight of programs such as the massive fraud we saw with the Feeding our Future fiasco. I am hoping my financial and business background will assist the legislature make more effective constraints on future mis...

  Why would a former Republican like me run as a candidate of the DFL Party? Rick Olson April 1, 2025 That’s a valid question. I grew up in an era when rugged individualism was the culture, where through hard work and persistence people hoped to go from rags to riches in America where opportunity abounds. Then too, we were taught that the results you achieved were primarily caused by the choices you previously made, good or bad. In other words, if you failed or suffered misfortune, it was mostly your fault. In other words, your fate was your personal responsibility. Through my undergraduate and graduate school study of economics, I strongly believed in private enterprise/capitalism as the economic system that was most efficient and would produce the most goods and services for the most people. Capitalism has raised more people out of poverty than any other system. For example, look at China once elements of capitalism were allowed there. This set of beliefs fits well into the tradi...

  Why I am running for MN State Senate District 54 Rick Olson April 1, 2025 Why I am running: I love our country. My dad died when I was two months old. My mom was left at the age of 39 with six kids to raise on welfare in the economically depressed Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Her mantra was, “Work hard and get an education.” All six of us ended up getting a college degree and all have done reasonably well in life. The opportunities that America gave my wife and me have allowed us to prosper. We have lived the American Dream. Thank you America! We have faced obstacles and hardships along the way but have tried to model the saying, “The measure of a man is what he does when things go wrong.” I.e., when adversity strikes, evaluate your options, choose and move on. We have worked hard and seized the opportunities to get a LOT of education. We have had great opportunities and challenges in our careers but have had the opportunity to raise our two boys and see them prosper as we...

In my March 1 post below, I itemized individual challenges Trump had posed to the U.S. Constitution. As valid as it is to oppose each and every one of these challenges individually, we MUST NOT miss the forest for the trees. Taken together, they constitute a broadside challenge to our very democracy by pushing against the constraints established in the Constitution. This is the same playbook Putin in Russia and Viktor Orban in Hungary have used to establish autocratic dictatorships. We MUST oppose this! Do We Have a Constitutional Crisis? Yes! By Rick Olson March 1, 2025 Our founding fathers who drafted the U.S. Constitution did not wish our country to have too powerful an executive, having just fought the Revolutionary War to free themselves from a King. The Constitution is based on the concepts of separation of powers among three co-equal branches and “checks and balance of power” between those three branches (as well as the 10 th Amendments reservation of powers to the states ...

  Below are the Principles listed by the Principles First organization at https://www.principlesfirst.us/principles/   Isn’t it amazing that these would be deemed controversial or simply “flexible guidelines”. For more explanation of each, go to the site in the link. 1 Integrity, character, & virtue matter. 2 Every person has dignity, quality, and worth. 3 Truth, honesty, rationality, & facts are non-negotiable. 4 The Constitution and the rule of law are paramount. 5 Our government is a limited one with enumerated powers. 6 Congress writes laws, the executive executes laws, and the courts interpret laws. 7 Government closest to the people is most accountable. 8 People reach their full potential when they are free. 9 Free and functioning markets deliver prosperity. 10 Equality of opportunity, not equality of outcomes. 11 Government must responsibly steward resources for the next generation. 12 Civic associations, faith communities, and families ...

  Statement on Impeachment Vote in the U.S. House of Representatives 12/15/2019 In this post, I showed my commitment to the Rule of Law and the U.S. Constitution and not loyalty to the party I was then a member of. A MN Republican State Representative commented that "I did not have very good political instincts" when I neither lied or dodged the question posed by the reporter. But, that is not how I roll! Republished March 1, 2025 Prepared and paid by Olson Senate Committee, P.O. Box 15, Prior Lake, MN 55372 Statement on Impeachment Vote in the U.S. House of Representatives Rick Olson Sunday, December 15, 2019 – For immediate Release This morning a Star Tribune reporter informed me that Angie Craig had decided to vote “yes” next week on the motion in the U.S. House of Representatives to impeach President Trump, and asked me if I were in her shoes, how would I vote. When I took office as a State Representative in Michigan in 2011, I swore an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitutio...