The Minnesota legislature does not create wealth. What the legislature produces is laws, including taxation and state spending. Laws can and should protect us as free citizens from the misbehavior of others. They are a necessary foundation of a free society. Taxation is necessary, but seldom welcome. State spending is tax money given to others. Much of what the legislature debates is who should get that tax money.

It is widely believed that government can create jobs by spending money. This is simply not true.

In a recent candidate forum, when discussing the economy, I made the comment that “government cannot and does not create jobs” because for every job created by government taxes must be raised somewhere else, and those taxes make it harder to create jobs statewide. The effect is to kill a job somewhere else. (View the broadcast from Town Square TV – here)

My opponent responded by pointing out that government does create jobs – for example by funding University research.

It is true that many jobs have been created by innovations from University of Minnesota research and by brilliant entrepreneurs educated at the University of Minnesota.

Isn’t it odd that anyone would suggest that “government” should get the credit for their success? Shouldn’t the University, the researchers, or the entrepreneurs get full credit for their work? The state of Minnesota does provide the bulk of the funding to the University of Minnesota. Does this mean that government was responsible for their success?

It is typical that a politician would claim credit for anything good that happens on his watch. Smart voters know that it isn’t so.

The Weyerhausers and Wallaces have traditionally funded Macalester College. Kofi Annan graduated from Macalester and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2001. I have never heard the Weyerhausers or Wallaces claim to have produced a nobel prize.

It is time to give those who work and innovate and produce the credit for what they do. At best, government can provide a stable and predictable legal foundation. At worst, it is a micromanager, taking our tax money and directing it to fashionable causes, often wasting it. Any time government gets into picking winners and losers, it undermines the efforts of those who are making real progress.

It is time to get government out of the business of picking winners and losers, and back into the business of providing a stable, predictable legal foundation for the productive, responsible citizens of Minnesota.