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Rus Schultz

Sain Paul Park, MN
Commenter for
2 years 3 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 05/09/13 at 09:30 am in response to Listen to Minnesotans: 66% support raising tobacco price $1.50 a pack

Why not just raise it to $200 a pack and be done with it? If the goal truly is to stop people from smoking, then set a rate that stops people from smoking. Stop treating smokers as the go-to scapegoat for revenue raising with one of the easiest to raise taxes in the history of taxes under the guise of wanting to improve health. That may be a side effect, but the reason you see the small increase is about money, not about health.

Posted on 04/25/13 at 10:05 am in response to Legislators should rethink costly renewable-energy mandates

Nuclear has infinitely more upsides than down, especially when you look into the latest in nuclear technology, like Gen IV nuclear reactors which should be ready to go in the next decade that create 100x more energy from the same amount of resources and waste that lasts only 100 years rather than thousands, and because of the smaller quantities needed the waste can be stored safely on the nuclear sites rather than looking for another Yucca Mountain type place.

Or Thorium nuclear,...

Posted on 02/11/13 at 04:19 pm in response to Rick Nolan calls for campaign-finance constitutional amendment

Wanting to remove the idea of corporate person-hood would have a huge effect on law and precedent going back to the 1800's, people act like this is a new thing since Citizen's United, and it's not. To say individuals have free speech, but a group of individuals do not seems to be counter to the right of freedom of speech and association, and would have far reaching effects. Would groups like labor unions then not have the constitutional right to protest? Or groups not have the 1st...

Posted on 02/11/13 at 09:06 pm in response to Rick Nolan calls for campaign-finance constitutional amendment

It would greatly benefit a corporation not to have personhood. A corporation would owe nothing in taxes then, they would have no liability, instead the owners could be sued (which would be almost all of us with 401k's), What responsibilities additional responsibilities would you like corporations to take on?

Example, if BP wasn't considered a person, instead just a business like any standard one, what motivation is there for the board of directors to pay any damages? the company...

Posted on 02/11/13 at 12:35 am in response to Home care workers should be allowed to form a union

What law is stopping home care workers from being able to form a union? If anyone wants to unionize they can, that's constitutionally protected under the right of association. That's a private contract that is between you (and your co-workers in the union) and your employer though, any employer can make their place a closed shop if they chose to.

Of course, I believe the opposite as well, that forcing someone into a union that doesn't want to be violates their constitutional rights...

Posted on 02/04/13 at 03:19 pm in response to Terrestrial radio is losing listeners — and the industry war

Radio has been dead for me since podcasts honestly. They're infinitely more convenient since I can stop and start them on my schedule as I get through a workday, usually no commercials, and such a huge variety that I cannot get no matter how big the local market is. Plus no FCC, so they can say whatever, which is great for the comedy podcasts.

No more hard breaks at the top of the hour for traffic, traffic, traffic, weather, traffic and weather. It's just a great freedom.

Posted on 02/04/13 at 03:28 pm in response to Study confirms Minnesota's tax system is unfair

This is a never ending debate until we implement a flat tax in all honesty. We have a huge number of regressive taxes that the state depends on, like the sales tax, cigarette and gas taxes, all state fees, etc... As sales rise and fall with the economy, these taxes go up and down, but it's always true that these will always impact the poor and middle class the most. Why not just get rid of all of these and have a flat tax of 9% across the board? It would be great for tourism, have people...

Posted on 02/04/13 at 03:40 pm in response to Study confirms Minnesota's tax system is unfair

Just because tax rates were that high, doesn't mean much. The effective tax rates were still much, much lower in the 1950's, and revenues were about the same as they were during the 80's with the top marginal rate at 28%. Hauser's law of economics, it's been true since the 1950's, that the government will only bring in about 18.5% of GDP in revenues regardless of the marginal rates.

Tax rates don't really solve much in regards to revenue, what matters is economic activity. The only...

Posted on 02/04/13 at 03:50 pm in response to Study confirms Minnesota's tax system is unfair

The flat tax would be a great replacement for regressive taxes at the state level. Most of the federal taxes are progressive in nature, so yes, by that comparison, a flat tax is more regressive. At the state level though, a flat tax would be ideal since the state depends on so much regressive tax revenue; sales tax, cigarette tax, gas tax, etc... That would be a better system.

A flat tax would be the best system for the state.

Posted on 01/12/13 at 02:14 pm in response to How the mortgage interest deduction hurts our cities

Banks don't take any taxes or credits into account when looking at eligibility for a mortgage. All mortgage approval follows the same process, and it's all done on net income.