Jeff at MNPublius aims big. After taking his de rigeur shot at departing Governor Pawlenty (trying to portray one of Minnesota’s most significant governors of the past 100 years as “nothing special)”, Rosenberg reviews a list the Governor released of his major accomplishments, and asks:
In eight years, what would we like a similar document from the Dayton administration to include?
If I were a DFLer, I’d be hoping for “at least four years of actual credible service before retiring to Vail rather than losing the 2014 election”, as opposed to a 2014 “Look back at Governor Prettner Solon’s Year In Office”. The Vegas Over/Under on Dayton’s actual time in office is hanging around two years; bookies are betting on “alien invasion” as the trigger.
Rosenberg has a wish list:
Here are a few accomplishments I hope Mark Dayton will be able to spotlight:
* A fairer tax system in which the rich pay the same percentage of their income as the poor and middle class. [Notwithstanding the fact that “the rich” are both undefined and already overtaxed]
* A sustainable budget that’s in the black, with a significant budget reserve to cushion the blow in the next recession. [That’s one of the left’s most irritating memes; the idea that government should skim just a leeeeeeetle bit more out of the parts of our society that actuall produce wealth, to make sure that the part that doesnt’ – government – needn’t want for a thing when all of the useful people are suffering. Kinda shows where their loyalties lie, if one needed any clarification]
* A thriving economy, with new business being created and established businesses making Minnesota a destination [Ah. How would Jeff propose that “Governor Dayton” do that? Perhaps by passing a law requiring business list Minnesota as a destination? What sort of miracle does Mr. Rosenberg propose that “Governor Dayton” do to mandate this? Will it be the “fair tax system”, or the “surplus”, that’ll make Minnesota a “destination?” ]
* A fully-funded social safety net and educational system. [Both have all the funding they need, and always have. Holding the “social safety net” – aka “subsidy of poverty” – above the rest of the economy merely creates a permanent class of government service consumers, removing any motivation to get off poverty. And our education system needs reform, not more money to feed Tom Dooher’s addictions]
* Innovations in education that reverse Minnesota’s decline nationally and internationally during the Pawlenty years. [“Insert Miracle Here”. Minnesota’s “declines” are almost universally expressed in terms of “how lavishly we fund government”. To the extent that there have been declines, they’re the same ones shared by all statist societies in trying to compete with more nimble, more market-driven societies. Minnesota’s “Golden Age” happened at a time when the world was still recovering from World War II; a fat, happy, unionized workforce and a big, dumb government were survivable errors in 1970, since there was no competition; today, if we don’t change the path that the DFL and Rosenberg would put us on, they’ll merely make us a Cold California]
* Equal marriage for all Minnesotans. [Ah. So that’s what’s holding the economy back.]
What accomplishments do you hope the Dayton administration will produce? Leave your own additions in the comments.
I hope he accomplishes a graceful exit in 2014, turning office over to a good conservative governor. The media would caterwaul that the new governor is an “extremist”, but they’re too busy wondering if the DFL will become a third party by 2020.
Bwaahaahaa! Jeffy boy is smoking the bong again! But then, he’s just another trust fund baby, just like his drunken idol, Mad Mark!
And, uh, Jeffy, take a freakin’ basic math class, will ya’? Sheesh!
As the poor pay NONE of their income in income taxes but actually get a tax credit, their percentage of income taxes paid to income is a negative number. If I were rich, I’d grab that deal in a heartbeat.
Oh, you mean all taxes as a percentage of income? Well, as the poor have zero income but do occasionally pay sales tax, I guess that makes their taxes as percentage of income – let me see, something divided by nothing – yep, infinity.
Neither the middle class nor the rich pay infinite taxes on their incomes and I doubt they want to, even if it is for a Nicer Minnesota, no matter what the U of M poll says.
This is looking like an impossible task for Governor Dayton to accomplish. His own supporters are setting him up for failure when the poor schmuck hasn’t even taken office yet. Talk about your short honeymoon.
.
“* A fairer tax system in which the rich pay the same percentage of their income as the poor and middle class. ”
For Dayton to accomplish this, he’d have to convince the feds to make the federal tax code far less progressive. I really don’t think that’s what Jeffy wants.
“A system where the rich pay the same percentage of their income as the poor and middle class. The problem, Jeffy, is why stop at taxes? The rich and poor pay a different percentage of their income for a loaf of bread, a car a house, ect., ect. Shouldn’t all those be the same, using your “illogic”?
Vote for a trust fund baby who dodges his MN taxes — and hope that he will will raise taxes on the rich?
This is a joke, right Mitch? Nobody can be that stupid.
D’s raise taxes on the poor with sales taxes and sin taxes because it is easier to do that than to raise the income tax. All they really care about is the money.
When the left talks about equalizing taxes for the rich, I think they must be talking about Qualified Dividends and Long Term Capital Gains taxes, which – I believe – are at 15%. The regular income taxes rates are quite “progressive” already.
It seems to me with all of the investment/retirement products out there, that capital gains taxes reach all the way down into at least the “middle” of the middle class. They are not just a “rich” thing.
Who is Jeff Rosenberg anyway (other than a blogger)?
Jeffy (and other liberals) like to use the Minnesota Tax Incidence Study to claim that Minnesotan’s live in a regressive tax world. He purposely ignores federal taxes because then the results would be completely opposite. This myth of the left needs to be squashed.
State and local taxes are slightly regressive. There is about a 2% disparity between the middle wage earners and the top. But, if you include ALL of the taxes paid by Minnesotan’s, the results are incredibly progressive.
From the CBO for 2006
“Households in the bottom fifth of the income distribution paid 4.3 percent of their income in federal taxes, while the middle quintile paid 14.2 percent, and the highest quintile paid 25.8 percent. Average rates continued to rise within the top quintile, with the top 1 percent facing an effective rate of 31.2 percent.”
This includes both federal income taxes, and federal payroll taxes.
Federal spending in Minnesota is over $30 billion dollars. Nearly 70% of this money comes from the top 10% of Minnesota tax payers.
I assume when Jeff asks for “equal marriage for all Minnesotans” he is including polygamists and siblings, ‘cuz otherwise “all Minnesotans” would be cover for extending the right to legally marry only to an influential interest group.
Pingback: Tweets that mention Shot in the Dark » Blog Archive » From Planet Dinkytown -- Topsy.com