Recently, there was a news blog posted and someone noticed that the headline order perfectly captured the essence of Oregon and Portland.

The headlines read like this:

Portland approves $ 1.5 billion for Climate Action fund
Portland city council approves $176 million streetcar extension
Portland seeks budget, staff cuts after $27M shortfall

This perfectly illustrates Portland and Oregon's self-inflicted problems. Portland, the largest city in Oregon with the densest population, sends more senators and representatives to the state legislature than the rest of Oregon. Bend, Eugene, and Corvallis also add to the craziness. When elected officials advance through a system like Portland, where monetary problems like the ones above are commonplace, it is hard for them to understand that the rest of Oregon doesn’t think, act, or want to live that way. Add into the mix the fact that most Portland residents send liberal Democrats and progressives to the state capitol, which creates a supermajority, so that there are no brakes on the train when it begins to run away. Most Portland politicians, if not all, love to spend money trying to fix problems like climate change, homelessness, and many other things. The Portland Democrats elected to the state legislature act like adolescents with wide-open credit card accounts. Nothing is too absurd or expensive; after all, the people across Oregon have deep pockets, and the Democrat legislators have no problem picking them.

The glitch in this whole process and thinking is that on November 5, 2024, a man was elected president who then hired two people whose job is to use scissors to cut up the overused credit cards, trim $2 trillion from the federal budget, and look at wasteful spending. Oregon and Oregonians are about to be introduced to a saying they haven’t heard in a long time: “Sorry! No, we won’t fund that.”

If you think this is crazy, don’t despair. We can find you a seat with the rest of us who feel the same way.

John Woods is a Husband, Father, Conservative, Veteran, Delegate to Oregon State Republican Party.

Image: AKampfer