Today in Fascism

watfly said:
True, but Musk and Trump couldn't care less. That having been said, I like Mike Johnson, but he's in a tough spot and will likely will lose his speakership. I liked McCarthy too.
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Only a tough spot as he has no convictions - the people's work or not. If he was all about managing the budget, bringing down the deficit etc. then this would have been a non starter. Raises for congress and $100B+ in add-ons (the latter could have been done separately and likely would have passed) was just amateur hour stuff and he owns it.
 
whatithink said:
I did think it was funny yesterday from Trump yesterday, with the "kill the bill" in one breath and then "raise the debt limit because I don't want to be the one doing that" in the other.
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Trump's turning into a politician. How's Biden's lobbying for the bill going?

Like I said many times before, Trump isn't my favorite, but he is on an incredible winning streak...like nothing I've seen before.
 
watfly said:
Trump's turning into a politician. How's Biden's lobbying for the bill going?

Like I said many times before, Trump isn't my favorite, but he is on an incredible winning streak...like nothing I've seen before.
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Biden is a lame duck, as every President is in their final term from Nov through Jan. I've not seen anything about him lobbying for it. I do think Vivak's version of the CR (in 75 words) is "better" versus the House GOPs 1547 page one, ;) .
 
whatithink said:
Only a tough spot as he has no convictions - the people's work or not. If he was all about managing the budget, bringing down the deficit etc. then this would have been a non starter. Raises for congress and $100B+ in add-ons (the latter could have been done separately and likely would have passed) was just amateur hour stuff and he owns it.
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Fair, but what should he have done to accomplish that. Speculative that it could have been done separately, remember it takes two to tango. Did you want him to pull a Newt and shutdown the government? (which I'm actually not totally opposed to).
 
watfly said:
Fair, but what should he have done to accomplish that. Speculative that it could have been done separately, remember it takes two to tango. Did you want him to pull a Newt and shutdown the government? (which I'm actually not totally opposed to).
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The CR could have been a one pager. The rest, which obviously was written up, could have been put to the floor separately. He gets to dictate the session and could have done his job. He's obviously inexperienced and it shows. Not sure he should be #3, but hey ho.
 
whatithink said:
The CR could have been a one pager. The rest, which obviously was written up, could have been put to the floor separately. He gets to dictate the session and could have done his job. He's obviously inexperienced and it shows. Not sure he should be #3, but hey ho.
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You make it sound like the Dem's have no culpability. Your partisanship is showing. At least I admitted Republican's culpability.

Like I said, Trump doesn't care if its D's or R's in many cases, which is refreshing.
 
watfly said:
You make it sound like the Dem's have no culpability. Your partisanship is showing. At least I admitted Republican's culpability.

Like I said, Trump doesn't care if its D's or R's in many cases, which is refreshing.
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The GOP run the house so Johnson gets to own this. The need for the CR isn't new, its not like it snuck up on everyone! He could have passed something on the floor with GOP support that the Senate rejects and now he has cover. He got played, but both the Dems and by his own party and leadership! The fact that he allowed himself to get into this predicament shows how he is unsuited for the position he's in, but that's hardly news to anyone given he got it as the least worse choice that his own party could just about agree on!

As the GOP run the House, they own if the government shuts down or not. You may be fine with that but a lot of Americans will be impacted through no fault of their own.

All good though, let's "move fast and break things".
 
whatithink said:
The GOP run the house so Johnson gets to own this. The need for the CR isn't new, its not like it snuck up on everyone! He could have passed something on the floor with GOP support that the Senate rejects and now he has cover. He got played, but both the Dems and by his own party and leadership! The fact that he allowed himself to get into this predicament shows how he is unsuited for the position he's in, but that's hardly news to anyone given he got it as the least worse choice that his own party could just about agree on!

As the GOP run the House, they own if the government shuts down or not. You may be fine with that but a lot of Americans will be impacted through no fault of their own.

All good though, let's "move fast and break things".
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Yes, heaven forbid the administration hit the ground running.

You try to have things both ways, like claiming Musk has no power to implement DOGE and then when he influences a wasteful bill you imply he has too much power. I may be wrong sometimes, but at least I try to be consistent.
 
watfly said:
Yes, heaven forbid the administration hit the ground running.

You try to have things both ways, like claiming Musk has no power to implement DOGE and then when he influences a wasteful bill you imply he has too much power. I may be wrong sometimes, but at least I try to be consistent.
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No, I am consistent. DOGE has no legislative power which was my specific point. That's a fact. Musk has a huge amount of power, that's now obviously another fact. They are not mutually exclusive.

As for the admin hitting the ground running, that would be great. I look forward to an actual budget, that we can afford, on Jan 21.

As an aside, I noticed GOP members quoted on X wanted the $2T in cuts "so that they could pay for the tax cuts" 🤔. Interesting, cutting expenditure to cut revenue means that we continue to spend too much, or so I would have thought, but I'm just doing Math so I guess that doesn't count.
 
whatithink said:
No, I am consistent. DOGE has no legislative power which was my specific point. That's a fact. Musk has a huge amount of power, that's now obviously another fact. They are not mutually exclusive.

As for the admin hitting the ground running, that would be great. I look forward to an actual budget, that we can afford, on Jan 21.

As an aside, I noticed GOP members quoted on X wanted the $2T in cuts "so that they could pay for the tax cuts" 🤔. Interesting, cutting expenditure to cut revenue means that we continue to spend too much, or so I would have thought, but I'm just doing Math so I guess that doesn't count.
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DOGE is Musk, Musk is DOGE.

Yes, both sides spend too much. Cutting capital gains would be beneficial for our economy and investment, and potentially would increase tax revenue.
 
watfly said:
For 4 years? See WSJ article above.
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This is what a real leader sounds like...

"What are you going to do when the other guy goes out there bragging about accomplishments under you?" Ben Meiselas of MeidasTouch asked in a new interview.

"The Medicare $2,000 cap, its going to kick in in 2025. He’s going to be out there saying, 'I did this.' How’s that going to make you feel when that happens?" he asked.

"Look: I’ve invested more in red states than in blue states with all these programs we just talked about," said Biden. "The reason for that was that the red states didn’t operate very well, and they really hurt their constituents so those factories closed and the like."

"The fact is that I represent all of America, not just Democrats," the president continued. "And I think what it’s going to do is bring the country more together than separate it."

"And for example, you already have folks like Marjorie Taylor Greene and others saying, 'Don’t eliminate the factory,' after talking about how the proposal to build it was the worst idea anybody’s ever had," Biden continued. "She didn’t vote for it."

"So I think there’s going to be a bit of a comeuppance here but the bottom line is I'm convinced that over time the American public will respond to what is the intention of the party to try to help ordinary people," he went on.

"And the fundamental change I made — and I made a speech at Brookings Institution about it recently — was on the economy," said Biden.

"The fact is that we had a long time this idea of trickledown economics," he said. "Let the wealthy do very, very well. They'll have so much money it'll trickle down on people's kitchen tables and coffee tables and the like and everyone will benefit. I never bought that theory!"

"And so what I've decided to do is to change it to build the economy from the middle out and the bottom up," explained Biden. "The wealthy still do very well but the middle class and the working class people do much, much better.

"And that's exactly what's happening and so I think the long term prospects for the country are very good," he added.

Please like and share!
 
watfly said:
DOGE is Musk, Musk is DOGE.

Yes, both sides spend too much. Cutting capital gains would be beneficial for our economy and investment, and potentially would increase tax revenue.
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Vivek started the whole thing yesterday, Musk amplified.

There's no shortage of money to invest. Capital gains tax rates are 0%, 15% or 20% depending on your tax bracket - they are not high, nor a barrier to investing the gains (80% or more) in something else.

Whenever someone says something will "potentially" do something good to justify something, it means that they read it on the internet where all things are true 😘 ... and it won't.

While you may have been more concerned with SMBs or individuals, think on this, (just) the top 20 companies in the US currently hold $1T in cash or equivalents ... there is no shortage of money for the economy or investment.

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whatithink said:
Only a tough spot as he has no convictions - the people's work or not. If he was all about managing the budget, bringing down the deficit etc. then this would have been a non starter. Raises for congress and $100B+ in add-ons (the latter could have been done separately and likely would have passed) was just amateur hour stuff and he owns it.
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Johnson is just another slippery, jellyfish, contortionist of a flip-flopping windmill. No backbone, no convictions, no ideas. Just another guy that attempts to use the Bible as a shield against scrutiny. “I can’t be wrong I have this book!”
 
whatithink said:
Vivek started the whole thing yesterday, Musk amplified.

There's no shortage of money to invest. Capital gains tax rates are 0%, 15% or 20% depending on your tax bracket - they are not high, nor a barrier to investing the gains (80% or more) in something else.

Whenever someone says something will "potentially" do something good to justify something, it means that they read it on the internet where all things are true 😘 ... and it won't.

While you may have been more concerned with SMBs or individuals, think on this, (just) the top 20 companies in the US currently hold $1T in cash or equivalents ... there is no shortage of money for the economy or investment.

View attachment 24100
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Corporate cash is a strawman. Nevertheless, small business represents nearly 50% of our economy.

BTW your claim that Johnson could have presented a successful stripped down CR has already proven false. Dem's chanting "hell no" and expected to vote against stripped down bill. Not saying I agree with the original bill, but Johnson did what he could to get bi-partisan support.

You and Husker, please continue to double down on why Trump and his administration are so bad (and denial about Biden administration), its just feeding Trump's winning streak and the destruction of Dems.
 
watfly said:
Corporate cash is a strawman. Nevertheless, small business represents nearly 50% of our economy.

BTW your claim that Johnson could have presented a successful stripped down CR has already proven false. Dem's chanting "hell no" and expected to vote against stripped down bill. Not saying I agree with the original bill, but Johnson did what he could to get bi-partisan support.

You and Husker, please continue to double down on why Trump and his administration are so bad (and denial about Biden administration), its just feeding Trump's winning streak and the destruction of Dems.
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How is Corporate cash a strawman? That table represents $1T of unproductive capital held by only 20 companies. Laws can be crafted to include and help SMBs only - zero chance of that though for obvious reasons.

I said Johnson got played. You can't blame the Dems for Johnson's failures, that's just silly.

I've laid out my thoughts on Biden previously. The narrative was that Obama had crushed the GOP for a generation in 2008, it lasted 2 years.

The GOP has 18 months before electioneering in earnest for the midterms, that's not a lot of time and expectations have been set sky-high
- food prices will go down to 2020 levels!
- inflation will go down
- economy will be awesome
- deficit will be under control / going to cut govt spending
- border under control

No excuses with a GOP trifecta, and I'm fine with it, but you break it, you own it; irrespective of party.
 
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