Politics The 2016 US Presidential Election

Trump's pageants are Miss USA and Universe, not Miss America, Ace. Just thought I would point that out for you.

 

If we take into consideration their methodology and assumptions there is nothing wrong with the CBO. However, the pattern is that when the CBO publishes a headline favorable to the point of view of a politician they run with it, when the CBO publishes a headline unfavorable to the point of view of a politician they run from it. I find it hard to follow and to know when and when are not using CBO numbers. Either way I tend to take the little extra time to understand the numbers and when I do take that time in most cases they are forced into unrealistic assumptions. The numbers are subject to constant revision and their intial projections are wrong 100% of the time I have looked into it. If, now you want to go through the exercise of reviewing the CBO numbers related to the deficit and the ACA - please understand that I will not take their projections at face value.

The repeal votes have been purely symbolic. We have always known there was/is no way the ACA will be repealed while Obama is in office. The serious proposals will come under the next President and may simply be major modifications and fixes to the existing law. The strategy of just getting the law passed, no matter how bad, worked. And please honestly acknowledge that was the strategy - get people comfortable with the goodies, backload the costs and potential problems and fix them later...I can not argue with the effectiveness of the strategy, I just think it is not a good way to do things.

Not true. Everyone acknowledged there is/was a problem. More leadership was needed for a bipartisan bill.

The current system is regressive. It is not possible to have a tax system that is not going to be regressive in one form or another when there are elements of social programs to help the low income - because as income grows and benefits decrease the marginal costs are very high. Taxing consumption is the fairest system because as people spend more they are taxed more and we can develop a system where basic items are not taxed, i.e. food, rent, education, work related transportation, etc.

To me it is interesting that a business owner can deduct business related transportation costs (costs that generates income) but a common worker can not deduct the costs he/she has (commuting) to earn his income. Our system is screwed up.

That is not totally true - rich people exploit loopholes in tax policy. So, yes it may be true that on the income subject to income tax they pay a higher effective rate - but on total wealth generation they do not. Warren Buffet can pay himself a relative low salary while generating billions in wealth that is not taxable income. Until everyone in DC understands these simple truths - we will never have a tax policy that does what they want it to do. Taxing consumption (live like a billionaire get taxed accordingly - live modestly get taxed accordingly) is the simplest, fairest and best way to reform our tax code. However, I do agree it is likely never to happen. Liberals are fixated on the percentage thinking that is the problem and the rich will protect a complicated tax code full of loopholes. Eventually, people like me will give up and just play the game. After I make my first billion, yes I too will complain about how I pay a lower tax rate than my secretary knowing that if I simply reported more income as income as defined by the IRS that would not be the case.



Or think how history might have changed if Sarah Palin won the Miss Alaska pageant instead of first runner up!




Lindsey Graham wont be sitting at the big kids table at the debates, but Marco Rubio will and he helped write the 2013 bi-partisan (gang of eight) Senate immigration reform bill and then voted against it when faced with backlash from the Tea Party.[/quote]
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Thanks, I am not into pageants. I found it odd that Trump owns Miss USA and Universe -I would have thought pageants like that would be set up as nonprofits.

 

The Republicans installed their own man as the head of CBO earlier this year and revised the manner in which they "score" legislation by now using "dynamic scoring" or more conservative (supply side) assumptions and yet they still could not hide the impact of repealing the ACA.

Lots of revisionist history in your post, ace. The Republicans in the Senate made it absolutely clear that they would not vote for an Obama health care reform bill under any circumstance, despite having many of their amendments included.

A recent example came to light again this week. It was a Republican proposal, based on a Republican-sponsored bill in 2007 (two years before the ACA) that enabled Medicare to cover end of life counseling and was included in the ACA....a provision that resulted in Sarah Palin screaming "Obama wants death panels and to kill my baby" and the provision removed.

That provision is back again in the form of a White House initiative and a bi-partisan Senate bill.

With Palin Death Panels' Debunked, Congress Pushes End-of-Life Planning

--- merged: Jul 10, 2015 3:06 PM ---
More from a 2009 interview of Republican Senator Johnny Isakson who proposed the end-of-life provision in the ACA only to face the ignorance and wrath of Sarah Palin and all those who ignorantly jumped on her bandwagon!

Ending the BS: Republican Johnny Isakson talks about end-of-life amendment he helped sponsor.

 

The republicans don't get to be upset at Trump when their people have done the same thing to other veterans.

Jeb Bush defends McCain, but supported Swift Boat attacks against Kerry - CNNPolitics.com

 

Oh, it gets so much worse:

The flagship magazine of Republicans everywhere just called Bernie Sanders a Nazi....

 

Hopefully the field has been determined for the 2016 election, and the primary season has heated up fast in the media. How do you think the primaries are going so far? Have you volunteered for a candidate yet? Have you been contacted by one of their campaign volunteers at an event?


Confirmed Democrats:
Hillary Clinton
Bernie Sanders
Martin O'Malley
Lincoln Chafee
Andrew Caffrey
Willie Carter
Doug Shreffler
Micheal Steinburg
Robby Wells
Morrison Bonpasse
Brad Winslow
Willie Wilson
Lloyd Kelso
Harry Braun


Confirmed Republicans:
Jeb Bush
Ted Cruz
Rand Paul
Donald Trump
Marco Rubio
Dr. Ben Carson
Scott Walker
Chris Christie
Carly Fiorina
Lindsey Graham
Mike Huckabee
Bobby Jidal
Rick Perry
John Kasich
George Pataki
Rick Santorum
Skip Andrews
Mark Everson
Kerry Bowers
Dale Christensen
John Dummett Jr.
Mark Everson
Chris Hill
Michael Kinlaw
Michael Petyo
Brian Russel
Ole' Savior
Michael Bickelmeyer
Jim Hayden
Shawna Sterling
Jack Fellure
Brooks Cullison
Jefferson Sherman



Confirmed Libertarian:
Marc Feldman
Darryl Perry
Steve Kerbel
Cecil Ince
Joy Waymire
Derricl Reid


Confirmed Green:
Jill Stein
John Ferguson
Willita D. Bush
Kent Mesplay


Confirmed Independent:
Paul Chehade
Mark Dutter
Martin Hahn
David Hendrix
David Holcomb
Lynn Sandra Kahn
Bishop Julian Lewis Jr.
Mark Pendleton
Scott Smith
Tami Stainfield
Samm Tittle
Jeremiah Pent
Robert Steele



Confirmed Reform Party:
Ken Cross


Confirmed Constitution Party:
Chad Kopple
Scott Copeland
J.R. Myers


Confirmed Socialist:
Dean Capone



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Possible Democrats:
Joe Biden
Elizabeth Warren
Al Gore
Jerry Brown
Jim Webb
Barbara Boxer
Andrew Cuomo
Kirsten Gillibrand
Deval Patrick
Michael Bennet
Evan Bayh
Mark Warner
Julian Castro
Cory Booker
Claire McCaskill
Dan Malloy
Russ Feingold
Brian Schweitzer
Jay Nixon
John Kerry
Amy Klobuchar


Possible Republicans:
Condoleeza Rice
Paul Ryan
Bob McDonald
Rob Portman
Rick Snyder
John Bolton
Peter King
Jim Gilmore
Bob Ehrlich
Mike Pense


Possible Green:
Cynthia McKinney
Darryl Cherney


Possible Libertarian:
Gary Johnson


Possible Independent:
Colin Powell
Dennis Michael Lynch
Matt Gonzalez

 

This either underscores ignorance or shows how desperate they are to paint Sanders negatively (Godwin'd).

Perhaps both.

 

Rick Perry (among the bottom five Republicans running for president and polling at 1+ %) on Donald Trump:

The real carnival opens on Aug. 6 with the first Republican debate.

 

It's early, but be careful of underestimating Trump. Populists like Trump have a way of winning despite the ridicule and flimsy policy.

Learn from Toronto's mistakes. Rob Ford was a disaster.

 

I think Huckabee is getting paid by someone to knock Trump out of the headlines

 

Ha! I was totally about to note that that could be too much douchebaggery in one place...!