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Bill Coleman

Mahtomedi, MN
Commenter for
4 years 17 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 02/21/11 at 01:19 pm in response to Here's why Dayton and GOP start out $4 billion apart on how big Minnesota's budget should be

The last biennial budget totaled $34 billion from a variety of income sources. PERIOD!

Last week of MidDay, Matt Dean and Amy Koch kept repeating the $30 billion, 22% number in spite of the moderator's attempt to keep them honest.

My email inquiry to Matt Dean on this topic went unanswered. You have to give them credit for keeping their lies straight or what they would call staying on message!

Posted on 02/22/11 at 06:16 pm in response to What's the cheapest way I can watch the cable-only Twins?

A couple of points -
First to all of the people in Hennepin County - please understand that most Twin Cities residents pay plenty of sales tax in Hennepin County in downtown or the Mall of America or elsewhere. Please remember that we pay lots of income and sales tax to support Minneapolis' local government aid and now threatened public pension costs. The positive impact of Twins Field is supporting your downtown and generating significant cash for Minneapolis.

Second, if...

Posted on 02/17/11 at 10:52 am in response to Dayton and GOP leaders spend the day crisscrossing the state, touting their differing budget approaches

All across the country, GOP governors and legislators are saying "we can't raise taxes on the well-off because they will quit working and/or move to other states. So almost every state is in financial crisis and infrastructure investments and maintenance cancelled.

Where will this lead?

Will it hurt the lifestyle of our well-off , especially those with taxable incomes over $500,000 to pay an extra $30 per thousand of income?

Please do not tell me that this will hurt S...

Posted on 01/25/11 at 01:45 pm in response to Bachmann proposes $423 billion in federal budget cuts

Getting rid of the farm subsidies and the department of education is something that many folks might get behind. Beside cash, I cannot imagine that the federal bureaucracy does much for education in MN.

Farm subsidies go overwhelmingly to large corporate farms engaged in monoculture agriculture. I understand that Bachmann even gets some of that cash herself from her husband's family farm in Wisconsin.

I would love to see votes on these measures and watch fiscal hawks on both...

Posted on 01/25/11 at 10:03 am in response to St. Paul Chamber backs $27 million in state bonding for Saints ballpark

The St. Paul Chamber's wish list from government seems to be adding up. A Saint's ballpark and rail transit. Did any of the candidates they endorsed run on public sector investment? I wonder?

Posted on 01/25/11 at 10:08 am in response to Bill would water down smoking ban in bars

This would be terrible. Several places had this concept in place prior to the ban. The live music is always in the smoky section. The smoke billows out from the smoking section every time the doors open and close which in most places would be non-stop.

I would hope that Majority Leader Dean (Mr. Health Care) would stop this bill from moving forward. I assume Governor Dayton would veto this legislation if it passed both houses.

Posted on 01/25/11 at 10:13 am in response to Republicans not excited about Dayton's order speeding up permitting processes

With this executive action, it seems curious that Governor Pawlenty did not enact it himself. Pawlenty had 8 years to reform our regulatory process; seems everyone agrees that it is a problem.

As for Majority Leader Dean, nothing is stopping them from proceeding with their legislation. The GOP idea of moving permitting directly to the courts seems like that could make things worse. There never seems to be a shortage of lawyers ready to file cases and appeals.

Posted on 01/25/11 at 10:26 am in response to Bachmann wants Medical Assistance expansion rescinded; Dayton labels it 'presidential politics'

I would like to see Bachmann and her "pro-family, pro-values" crowd take on the responsibility for providing food, clothing, shelter and health care for those who cannot afford it. They criticize the government for working to address these obvious community needs, yet seemingly do nothing to help those in need. They could take their anger and fear-mongering and use that energy for something positive.

Instead, the right wing's effort in this area is to get "faith-based" government...

Posted on 01/14/11 at 01:17 pm in response to Tyranny, TPaw, and a tired Jon Stewart

In retrospect, Pawlenty's description of schools to Steward as "doing a crummy job" is quite an indictment of his leadership for a primary state function.

Dennis, the "believe what they say" discussion was related to the GOP leadership's characterization of Obama as far left, tyrannical, etc. We know that the GOP leadership believes in their message of reduced taxation for the richest Americans, no regulation of business and eliminating government spending on the old, poor and sick...

Posted on 01/13/11 at 12:53 pm in response to Tyranny, TPaw, and a tired Jon Stewart

Stewart's question was the essential one missing from all of the 2010 election debates. "Does the GOP leadership really believe the things they say or are they just engaging in theatre?"

Pawlenty never did answer that question and I suspect that no one from the GOP ever will. Or maybe Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh and Roger Ailes will spill their guts in a honest tell-all sometime down the road. They could call it "We really are big fat liars!"