Posted on 03/03/2011 12:24:54 PM PST by Son House
A former DFL state lawmaker is sponsoring a "Tax the Rich Forum" this weekend aimed at firing up Democrats as the budget debate intensifies at the state Capitol.
"It's a forum for Democrats I put together to try and get out of the malaise of last fall's election and to try and focus on what is certainly going to be a tug of war at the Capitol to solve the budget crisis," said former state Rep. Ken Tschumper of La Crescent, who served one term in the Legislature.
Tschumper invited Democrats from Houston, Fillmore and Winona counties to the event, which will be from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Stumpy's in Rushford. The forum will feature six to 10 speakers talking about how state budget cuts could affect government programs and services. Tschumper's campaign committee will provide pizza and coffee.
The La Crescent Democrat argues that if Republicans try to balance the state's projected $5 billion budget deficit through cuts alone, it would have a devastating effect on critical areas such as education and health care.
"People will be shocked in this state if we try to balance the budget with a cuts-only approach. We're talking about tremendous cuts," Tschumper said.
Tschumper served in the Minnesota House from 2007 to 2008 after a narrow election victory in 2006 over longtime incumbent GOP Rep. Greg Davids, R-Preston. Davids beat Tschumper in 2008 to reclaim the seat. Tschumper didn't run in 2010, but he said Tuesday that he is mulling another run for the Legislature in 2012.
Tschumper criticized Davids for supporting a proposal to phase out the corporate income tax at a time when corporations are sitting on large piles of cash.
"If we're going to use a pain index, it seems to me the pain is much less raising taxes on the rich than cutting services for the poor," Tschumper said.
Davids said that if anything, Tschumper should back Davids' corporate-tax phase-out proposal because it means more funding to pay for union pensions. He said the taxes also mean higher prices that hurt low-income people.
"It's unfortunate that Mr. Tschumper wants to attack the job providers, the philanthropists and the taxpayers," he said. "The Tschumper class warfare game is getting old."
Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester, is slated to attend the forum and talk about what is going on at the Capitol. She said she is not a fan of the "Tax the Rich" title for the event, but she does support the idea that people who can afford to pay more should contribute more to help solve the state's budget woes instead of passing the burden on to those least able to pay.
Tschumper said some other Democrats have been critical of the name. Still, he said, that it is the platform that DFL Gov. Mark Dayton ran on, and he won. He said now is the time to fire up Democrats to get behind the governor as he pushes his $3.2 billion tax proposal.
"We need to do something to get people feeling like they need to fight back," Tschumper said.
I agree. We need to tax rich liberal Democrats. 100% over $10,000.
For those not familiar, DFL= Dumb For Life or Dumb Fn Leftists, whichever you prefer.
If we’re going to tax the rich. Lets tax hollywood, entertainment, advertisement, news, electronics, internet and the financial industry. The bastion of where most left wingers make their money. Let them sacrifice for the rest of us
Funny thing about the rich: They’re usually pretty smart, which is maybe one of the reasons why they’re wealthy. If they think a certain state is screwing them, many will probably move to another state that won’t. Or is the DFL calling for forcibly keeping people in that state?
Drop all government support for all degrees except, medicine, engineering, science. We don’t need more lawyers or ppl with art degrees supported by tax payers
Well, I guess the forum name is better that “Eat the Rich”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eat_the_Rich_(film)
Thank you for that.
I was going to ask for a clarification.
I'll take the latter, Bob.
My congressman did get $20 million cut from arts and humanities funding last week. All the funding would have been better but 20 million is a start.
we need a windfall profit tax on google, microsoft, apple
Pssst! Lets all cut out to Flordia, while the queer-bait libs are debating how to screw us. It’s too cold here anyway.
In 2007, the CEO of Countrywide Financial’s salary was $140 million. In 2008 it was lowered to a puny $100 million. Same years, CEO of Lehman Brothers, $52 million to $72 million. 2009 both companies dead as doornails. Sometimes market forces work. On the other hand, same years, Goldman Sachs CEO, $37 million to $74 million. And sometimes influence works. However, in 2009, GS CEO down to $26 million. And sometimes a stockholders revolt works. [In spring, 2008, 43% of GS stockholders voted for a Stockholder’s Advisory on Executive Compensation when they discovered that the top 3 executives all had over $65 million salaries.] I have not been able to find a figure for GS CEO salary for 2010, I think it is in hiding. Sometimes fear? works.
Remember, these figures do not include stocks, options, and other perks. For more information about your favorite major industry, Google: Forbes CEO Compensation, for the individual dates: 5/3/07, 4/30/08, 4/22/09, 4/28/10. If you find anything interesting, please share.
He's a "tax and spend" Democrat all right! He has a great idea; just does not have a clue about how the economy works. To his ilk taxing the "rich" simply means redefining the rich to mean anyone with a job. He does not understand what "broke" means to a state.
Just like unions do not understand why the steel mills closed down, why there is no longer a "Pittsburgh Press" newspaper, why there are no "A & P" stores. Unions do not create wealth like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates created wealth, a writer of a popular novel creates wealth, the inventor of Amazon.com created wealth, as did entrepreneurs who built steel mills, chains of grocery stores, and newspapers. What have unions built?
Class warfare, greed, jealousy, anger, hostility, hatred.
Now who is supposed to be the party trying to join the nation together again? You know, the “good guys” that just want everyone to be equal.
Neighboring South Dakota has NO state income tax and would welcome wealthy Minnesotans fleeing the state as tax refugees.
“We’re talking about tremendous cuts,”
Yes, we are! The result of tremendous amounts of careless,
wasteful spending on tremendous, wasteful programs.
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