Shot in the Dark

Mulligan

Reacting t0 the news that the Minnesota Department of Revenue found that Mark Dayton’s original budget “plan” came in about $3 billion light in its attempt to close the budget shortfall by “taxing the rich” (Minnesotans with adjusted gross incomes greater than $150K for a family or $130K for an individual), the Dayton campaign is apparently going to try to get it right this time:

Democrat Mark Dayton’s campaign spokeswoman says the campaign will release an updated budget plan [today]. The campaign has been crunching the numbers after the MN Department of Revenue released an analysis that Dayton’s proposed income tax hike on Minnesota’s top earners wouldn’t generate the money he predicted.

So what’s going to change?

No idea.

All we do know is what we heard from a source who told conservative bloggers that someone overheard Dayton in his campaign HQ bellowing “Plug the damned hole!” last week after the wheels came off the first version of his “plan”.

More as developments warrant.

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Mitch Berg

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14 responses to “Mulligan”

  1. Dog Gone Avatar
    Dog Gone

    Good morning Mitch! I assume you are enjoying your first cup of black coffee at this hour as I am enjoying mine.

    At least Dayton, unlike Emmer, has been far more detailed about the HOW of his proposals. This is hardly a case of the wheels coming off.

    Remembering how you got after Flash about sources during the waitergate event that Emmer cut short — do you have any proof of the rumor you’re helping circulate here about Dayton having said “Plug the damned hole”? No recordings? I would hate to see you applying double standards, or degenerating into gossip mongering and idle rumor milling….

    And at least Dayton, unlike Emmer, has actually had his proposals evaluated by the MN Dept. of Revenue. Am I correct that this has NOT been done by Emmer for his proposals to fix our state finances?

    And isn’t it true also that Emmer has not been as transparent in providing his own financial information to voters compared to Dayton?

    I haven’t fact checked the claims much lately, while writing about how thoes tax cuts to upper brackets fail to actually provide jobs – the investments in new business apparently correlates much more to the stock market than to tax rates, as I wrote about on Penigma, “Tax Cuts for the Rich Won’t Do What the Right Says They Will Do”, referencing the interesting Moody’s Analytic’s Inc. study – Moody’s is no ‘lefty’ bunch.

    Job creation is the main issue – which is why I wrote about the comparative national economic growth under dem and repub presidents – where the democrats presided over much greater growth for all income brackets, including the wealthy in “They Are Not Your Friends’.

    I am impressed at the fact checkable performance of Emmer over the other candidates, unlike your darling Bachmann, as always. But the financial assumptions on the right that drive their policy propositions? (shudder) Those would put us back into debt and poverty, as a state, as a nation, and as individuals.

    Have a pleasan Tuesday – doesn’t look like you will be bike riding this morning from the weather map – stay warm and dry!

  2. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    At least Dayton, unlike Emmer, has been far more detailed about the HOW of his proposals

    No, he has not. Dayton’s original proposal was a four-page, dozen-and-change point paper that tossed a bunch of suggestions out there. Its’ “details” had clearly not been vetted.

  3. Troy Avatar
    Troy

    According to some Dayton campaign material I got in the mail, Dayton will:

    1) increase funding to education every year (no exceptions, no excuses)
    2) raise teachers salaries so they rank among the top 10 states in the nation
    3) protect the teachers union cartel with arbitrary standards and licensing *
    4) throw money at state colleges and universities, because he thinks that will make it “more affordable” *

    Yeah, Dog Gone, this guy has a really, really tight grasp on budgeting concerns.

    (* Rephrased to clarify the “intent” of the campaign promise, hehe)

  4. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    DG you are the absolute poster person for what is wrong with this state!

  5. Troy Avatar
    Troy

    Just saying the words “Tax Cuts for the Rich” makes her a silly person. When will people learn that class warfare is not a successful economic strategy? For some the answer is never, I guess. *shrug*

  6. Ben Avatar
    Ben

    Troy, look at Obama, he hasn’t got the meme that class warfare doesn’t work.

  7. jpmn Avatar
    jpmn

    If Dayton wins it doesn’t matter that his numbers don’t add up. If Brave Sir Mark wins he will almost certainly have the State house and Senate solidly in DFL control. Unless Dayton delivers how we pay off a 40-50 Billion dollar budget his numbers based upon a 32-36 Billion dollar budget don’t mean anything.

    My trip to the Range was interesting. I saw quite a few Craavatz lawn signs almost zero Oberspends, and many more Emmer, and other Republican signs than I would have thought possible. Based upon the lawn signs I could have been in Eagan. I’m not making predictions based upon lawn signs along I-35 or MN 53 but I think Mark is going to have to spend more time than he wants to up there.

    DG my dog hurt her front foot pads running about looking for birds. Any suggestions on how I can prevent this?

  8. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    jpmn;

    Interesting observation on the Range. I suspect that Oberspend really took a shot after he proposed that idiotic idea to put GPS devices on everyone’s cars so that he and his country clubbers could squeeze more money out of the unwashed masses. Notice that it never resurfaced.

    On another note, I have heard from people that I know work with the mining industry, the Polymet people are watching this election closely. From what they have observed, they feel like Polymet will close their operations if either Dayton or Horner are elected.

    Any thoughts/observations from your end?

  9. bubbasan Avatar
    bubbasan

    Yes, trust funder Dayton wants to tax earned income up the wazoo. This would surprise us exactly why?

    What would surprise me is if Dayton, who apparently has never held an honest job in his life (unless he actually proves he was a teacher), realizes that taking money out of the hands of those who are likely to employ you isn’t exactly a good job creation strategy.

  10. jpmn Avatar
    jpmn

    I don’t have any inside info on Polymet, boss. However, I wouldn’t be terribly surprised to see any MN business close provided Dayton was elected.

    The mines and/or any heavy industry are just an environmental impact study away from being closed by any Democratic administration Federal, State or local. Maybe people are starting to wake up to that realization.

    bubbasan, I still expect to find out Dayton was in fact a NYC teacher. I also expect to find out he was among the first residents of NYC’s teacher rubber rooms.

  11. Dog Gone Avatar
    Dog Gone

    Troy Says:

    September 21st, 2010 at 9:45 am
    Just saying the words “Tax Cuts for the Rich” makes her a silly person. When will people learn that class warfare is not a successful economic strategy? For some the answer is never, I guess. *shrug*
    ________________________
    So, Troy, are you accusing Moody’s of ‘class warfare’ in their analysis? Do you have any idea what it was they analyzed, over what period of time?

    I’m guessing not. It doesn’t appear you are willing to expose yourself to any ideas or statistics or data that don’t support your ideology. That is having a closed mind.

    I mentioned the wrong title of the Penigma post earlier; it was “Tax Cuts for the Rich Won’t Do What the Right Says They Will Do”.

    I’m guessing you also want to ignore class being invoked by Mitch McConnell in the Senate when he pleads the wealthy have suffered the most in the recent economic disaster that officially lasted from 2007 to mid 2009? Not very smart of McConnell when the data came out about the number of people in poverty.

    Or, perhaps you feel CBO director Douglas Elmendorf in his presentation to Congress was guilty of this? I’m making the argument that there is clear and convincing evidence that tax cuts do not produce jobs, because that is not how the upper couple of percentile wealth holders spend it. Sheesh, I would hate to confuse your ideology with oh, FACTS, for a change instead of assumptions.

    You might start with this:http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-13/rich-americans-save-money-from-tax-cuts-instead-of-spending-moody-s-says.html?source=patrick.net

    You might – if you keep an open mind – also check out this:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/11/AR2010081105864.html

    The analysis proves pretty effectively that tax cuts to the upper income / wealthy do NOT result in job creation; that investment tracks with other market factors, particularly the stock market.

    Someone explain how these tax cuts are supposed to help balance the budget or reduce the deficit — just how are they going to be funded? Yeah — just crickets and lots and lots of silence.

    Meanwhile under Obama the deficit is down 8%.

    ______________________________ Dog advice:
    jpmn – what kind of dog and on what kind of terrain? There are a couple of options; there are some excellent kinds of foot protection for dogs that come in a pretty good assortment of sizes. They are typically used by certain kinds of working dogs – sled dogs, search and resche dogs, in particular. Another option that is sometimes used in certain athletic competitions for dogs involves wrapping with vet wrap, but there is a bit of a knack to it that still allows full range of movement and to be sure that it is not too tight. Wet will not cause it to unwrap, but does affect the amount of tension / pressure.

    One of the best things you can do to naturally toughen up pads is to road work a dog over gravel roads to gradually build them up – something a bit like developing a human callous — and it is also a good way to prep for the rigors of hunting season. If you contact me through the penigma2@hotmail.com email, I can direct you to some specific sites that have the right kind and assorted sizes for the foot protection, as well give you more information about toughening up pads, and dealing with foot-soreness. Just put attention DG in the subject header.

  12. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    DG,

    In re the recent email thread: Run, don’t walk, to start your own blog.

    Just saying.

  13. jpmn Avatar
    jpmn

    DG, thanks for the dog info. Will contact you on the sites later.

    But seriously, “Meanwhile under Obama the deficit is down 8%.” where on earth is this number coming from? Are revenues up or is Government spending down?

  14. Troy Avatar
    Troy

    Dog Gone said:

    “So, Troy, are you accusing Moody’s of ‘class warfare’ in their analysis?”

    Did Moody’s mention “Tax Cuts for the Rich”? I’m guessing not.

    Am I not supposed to notice Penigma’s framing of the argument to pit rich against poor? He says “Tax Cuts for the Rich” when he discusses “tax cuts for everyone who pays taxes”, and you dutifully repeat the words here. That’s either ignorant or disingenuous.

    I’m not rich, but I think even rich people deserve to be treated fairly under the law. Punishing success is a stupid policy, for many reasons.

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