Learning where to set priorities and work within our system

The city council has historically spent unprecedented amounts of taxpayers’ dollars on pet projects and bad brokered deals to the point they have successfully legalize unlawful use of the public money. This problem is rooted in a general mindset of most of the elected officials in this town that the taxpayers’ money is an unlimited pot to dip in for all their high ideals rather than look upon the money as a public TRUST. We as the owners of the government have a responsibility to pay for it, however the “elected” have the responsibility to spend the funds wisely. Most of the blame for this occurring falls on the majority of the general public for allowing it to occur. Shame on you voters for not being informed and educated enough to see what you are electing for what they really are, thieves.
The city council members, like Paul Ostrow, whine about situations like the one they are currently facing with the federal government not fully reimbursing the city for all of the costs related to the bridge collapse as they had requested. It will be interesting to hear the results from the hearings on this matter, and the reasons the full requested amount isn’t being reimbursed. Given the city’s habit of asking for more than it needs, spending control issues, and general lack of respect for the taxpayers; I would expect that the findings would fall into one of those categories. Instead of sucking it up and cutting back on spending they will either; fight it out until they get what they want or run into a brick wall, raise our taxes to cover the expense, or try to steal it from somewhere else. Here again, we the citizens get the government we ask for. We keep electing these people and promoting them to higher office. For example, Diane Loeffler gets elected to the state house of representatives after working in the financial office of the city of Minneapolis, which is riddled with financial problems costing the taxpayers millions. Way to elect someone we can trust with the state coffers! We have elected officials and citizens running around singing the praises of the James Oberstar (not even elected from Minneapolis) who is promising to use Federal Highway funds to build bike paths in Minneapolis. Do you think maybe we should use, or should have used, that money for bridge repair, inspection, and reconstruction? Does anyone think along these lines? NO! They want it both ways. This type of government mentally may work in other countries with other forms of government, but not here in the USA. Our government, regardless of party, have gotten away from basic principles that work for the way our government is setup. Like in football you need to play to your strengths. The strengths of this country is our freedom to pursue our personal goals, an economic system that allows for the feeding the basic human desire to achieve, and a government serves the people not the other way around. The government is setup to service the citizens for which they can’t do for themselves, and the government ceases to function properly when working outside of that charge. Clearly our government at all levels has gone beyond that charge and no longer functions properly. We the citizens need to recognize that fact and make the proper corrections.