Audio: Rush Limbaugh Praises North Dakota’s Measure 2
Measure 2, which would abolish property taxes in North Dakota, got some praise from Rush Limbaugh who was scornful of fears that the tax relief would cost the state too much money.
“They’re worried that the government might run out of money some day. That the boom may not last,” said Limbaugh of people opposing Measure 2. He goes on to say that people have been indoctrinated to believe that the government can’t ever do with less.
A reader sent along this audio from the show, which I missed:
Limbaugh brought the issue up again later in the show when a caller mentioned it, reading from a Wall Street Journal article about the measure and noting that North Dakota should, like Wisconsin, be a model for the rest of the country. The caller wondered if President Obama’s threats against energy weren’t stoking fears in North Dakota about being rid of property taxes.
Rush is right about Measure 2, but I don’t know what the North Dakota “model” would be for the rest of the country. North Dakota’s political leaders haven’t done anything all that special outside of refraining from interfering with energy production. In fact, North Dakota’s political leaders have done a lot of bad things, like double the size of the state government on the back of oil tax revenues while squandering millions on an out-of-control higher education system and marginal, if not downright fraudulent, economic development boondoggles.
The “North Dakota model” is to find oil and then spend all the revenues. Which is why we need Measure 2 which would, as Limbaugh puts it, “starve the beast.”
Update: A reader sends along this transcript of Limbaugh talking about Measure 2 earlier in the show as well:
Tags: measure 2, North Dakota News, rush limbaughRUSH: I’ve got the story in the stack here. As you know, this area of the country, the Dakotas and Montana, is booming because of the oil that has been found there, literally boom times. And, in fact, some of the cities and towns in this area are so flush with money from taxes that there is a ballot initiative that will soon be voted on to eliminate property taxes because there is enough money already in city coffers to handle the needs of the community.
Here’s the shocker. Preelection polls indicate that the citizens will not vote to eliminate property taxes. How about that? If you had a chance to write off to eliminate your property tax, would you vote to do so? Wouldn’t even think about it, would you? The reason they say that they are reluctant is because they don’t think the boom times might last, and they are afraid — this is what we’re up against; it’s a great little lesson — they’re afraid that this won’t last and at some point the government will run out of money. They don’t want that to happen, and so they’re going to vote to maintain property taxes even though they’re not necessary. And these are conservative people for the most part. That is how successful the left has been at inculcating people with the notion that government should never be deprived of revenue.
This is not good. I mean they’re free to do what they want to do, obviously. All I can tell you is, if I had a chance, if I had a chance to wipe out — well, I’m not gonna tell you how much. If I had a chance too wipe out my property tax, I wouldn’t think twice about it. I’d want to move the election up to today and go in there and vote “yes,” get rid of it. And I wouldn’t have any second thoughts. We’ll get to the story as the program continues to unfold.
