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Domain: novickforsenate.org

Stories and comments across the archive that link to novickforsenate.org.

Comments · 3

  1. Re:Flat Tax, Fair Tax by daigu · · Score: 1 · on Talk to This Year's Quirkiest Senatorial Candidate

    While true that Russia's has a flat tax of 13% on personal income, it also has taxes on capital income, value added, corporate and other taxes that make it a bit more complicated and mean a higher effective tax rate. See this discussion.

    I jumped to the conclusion because the guy is clearly not supporting the Fair Tax as it is typically talked about, flat (meaning single rate) taxes or taxes on consumption. So, it looked like something you were bringing to the table because of an agenda - and in reading your second post, I see I was right. You may not be for the Fair Tax proposal, but I've heard plenty of flat taxers make the same arguments you make - and neglect to consider the fact that the approach doesn't work.

    Russia has a problem with corruption and a poor tax enforcement system, so this move worked for them. Our problems are a little bit different, and a flat tax - while perhaps easier for tax filers - will bankrupt the government.

  2. Re:What Committees Interest You? by SteveNovick · · Score: 2, Informative · on Talk to This Year's Quirkiest Senatorial Candidate

    I will take every opportunity to make environmental issues a focus of my service in the Senate. Whenever anyone asks which committees I want to serve on, I list the Environment and Public Works Committee, and explain that I would list the Energy and Natural Resources Committee if Oregon Senator Ron Wyden's presence there did not make such an appointment extremely unlikely. I hope that given my background at the Justice Department and my decade of service on the Oregon Environmental Council Board, Senate leaders will grant my request to serve on EPW.

  3. Slashdot's Hive's Net Neutrality View by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Interesting · on Talk to This Year's Quirkiest Senatorial Candidate
    From your website on issues, you say:

    I would join many other U.S. senators, and the rest of what we might call Google Nation, in supporting "net neutrality." We need to prevent broadband providers from creating a two-tiered system of access to information, in which content providers with money would have an advantage over those without it, and Internet users would often find it harder to Google their way to the information they really need. Your net neutrality rhetoric rings true with this readership, for the most part. How exactly do you propose you would enforce this?

    I mean, you say yourself that the companies with money are going to want this, how do you plan to fight the opposition? If your opponent Gordon Smith opposes net neutrality, you're going to face a lot more of that in the senate. Voting to ensure it in bills is one thing but what makes you unique to any other Senator trying to keep the net neutral? What are the best things we can do to help this? I tried explaining it to my friends and family but often find I've at best confused them.

    Allow me to play the devil's advocate, argue against this point:

    The government controls too much of our lives right now, why let them control the internet with a facade of "net neutrality?" It's just another form of restricting the market to evolve naturally, why would we want that?