I generally believe in voting “No” on all amendments to our state constitution. Sometimes, it’s a “Hell No!” because I truly think it’s a bad amendment: see last year’s amendments on gay marriage and photo ID, for example. But most of the time, I vote no not because I think it’s a terrible idea, but… Continue reading Legislative Pay
Author: Nathan Hunstad
The sequestration is a failure
The sequestration was always a stupid idea. Faced with a leaky roof, Congress declared “either we fix the roof or we blow it up!” Congress even in its most functional times is not a paragon of wisdom and efficiency, but this was extra ridiculous. Nevertheless, we were told, the whole point of the endeavor was… Continue reading The sequestration is a failure
Fixing your drive size
Last weekend, my computer froze up out of the blue, and then refused to boot. Since I got the dreaded “Unmountable boot volume” error, I figured it was the hard drive. My C: drive was a 250GB beast from when I built my first computer in 2005, so it was clearly getting a bit old.… Continue reading Fixing your drive size
The Abstinence Adventure
Via Hairpin comes the story of a high school student in West Virginia protesting an abstinence-only assembly (at a public school, no less) taught by none other than Pam Stenzel. First of all, kudos to her for standing her ground even after the principal threatened her future college career. Second of all, it reminds me… Continue reading The Abstinence Adventure
Budgeting for families and superpowers
Wonkblog has a good piece about all the reasons that people hate budget deficits, and all of the reasons why they are incorrect. It’s a great piece, but it does overlook one of my favorite reasons trotted out by politicians as to why we need to balance the budget: “Families have to balance their budget,… Continue reading Budgeting for families and superpowers
Negotiating with yourself
President Obama has put forward a budget that includes cuts to Social Security in the hopes of getting a grand budget bargain with Congressional Republicans. The goal was to show seriousness in cutting entitlements in order to get Republicans to show seriousness in raising revenue. Republicans have already panned it, liberals are not happy, and… Continue reading Negotiating with yourself
Stir-Fried Random
Via Reddit, I saw this gem about a guy who essentially did a self-IPO and puts shares of himself up for bid to raise money. The result was that his investors had an outsized effect on his life, going so far as to make decisions about the gender of the people he should date and… Continue reading Stir-Fried Random
Walk A Mile
Senator Rob Portman, a Republican from Ohio, has come out in favor of gay marriage because his son is gay. Some people were less than impressed with the fact that apparently empathy starts and stops at the front door of their own house. Others cut him a little more slack. I have to admit feeling… Continue reading Walk A Mile
Minnesota Tax Incidence 2013
I’m a couple days late to this, but it’s that time of the year: the 2013 Minnesota Tax Incidence Study has come out. I post about this regularly, so let’s take a look at what is new in 2013! Let’s start with the standard picture: the overall effective tax rate. Little has changed in… Continue reading Minnesota Tax Incidence 2013
The Unkindest Cut
There are a lot of things that bother me about the “sequester”, not the least of which is the fact that it is completed unnecessary and could be fixed with a quick repeal of the law. But another thing I hate, which I hated just as much when it was used at the state level,… Continue reading The Unkindest Cut