Fair point, and a seasoned politician I could maybe see that, but as usmcc said, I don’t think it was “smarts” that got Trump into the position he’s in. It’s the same way a Kardashian isn’t smart in my mind, even though they’ve been able to build an empire. Trump has been doing this stuff for years, he had a reality-TV show, he was into birthism. I don’t see it as some major ploy, I think people just responded this time (which is a whole cultural issue in itself). Basicly this:
And people (and the media) ate it up. He never started serious about the issues and hasn’t changed.
I think people tend to forget that Trump has a household name because of his celebrity so it’s really not that surprising to me that he was able to do so well in the primary. No one knew who the hell Marco Rubio or Carly Fiorina are, for example. The only big name if you will was Jeb and that was because of his last name.
It surprises me that people are surprised he won the nomination without a background in politics.
Okay I will lay out my viewpoints re entitlements and deficits
The Entitlements of SS & Medicare (I’m fine with that but it is a misapplied term) are really recipient funded programs that have several weak points in their design and execution. When SS was set up, life span was like 1 year after beginning of collection, Boomer generation (and longer lived Greatest generation) have disrupted the pay as you go design of SS due to smaller subsequent generations, and until recently their were seemingly no age or even procedure limits on extremely expensive procedures ie 88 year old getting organ procedures. Half of the increase of medical is longer life but half is increase by medical industry because fancy facilities, equipment, and stakeholders add costs.
Bottom line is government said we are taking the money out of your check before you see it and so the other party - us, is saying pay me my due per our ‘agreement’.
It wasn’t a problem to pay before Clinton because of demographics, not superior design or political skill.
All presidents will fail because they only have a bully pulpit. Blame Congress for not changing their design more than they have - older to get, higher rate taken, etc.
Medicaid is a welfare (imo our rightful obligation as a decent people) but its cost have sky rocketed also and I have no opinion in this discussion.
The debt is a beautiful example of the law of compounding. Unfortunately that blade cuts both directions. Again lay blame on the Congress as they craft the spending in excess of the collecting. Or you could blame the Judicial for torpedoing the Line Item Veto.
One tidbit is a favorite of mine - Reagan, tripled the debt even though during his run the collections/deficit ratio stayed at 88%.
Me neither. The show “Brain Games” has a really interesting take on how about 90% of people vote, based on the first 1/10th of a second of seeing the candidates. People can also reliably (90% again) choose which politician won an election based on looks alone, having never previously seen or heard of the person.
I am referring to illegal as I accept the benefit of controlled immigration.
But the article says they pay in $12BB in taxes annually. This is less than the cost of the 1.4 MM students alone.
I will just disagree with you here in my opinion, since the right leaners like FAIR say undocumented cost in 113 BB range, so it is a pissing match.
That was only state and local taxes. According to CNN (same article) illegal immigrants have paid over $100B into Social Security over the past 10 years fo which they will see $0.
True.
However , Fair seems to be missing a few things because even the Tax Foundation argues that illegals pay federal income tax through a tax ID (as opposed to SSN).
Somewhat related and I hope @therajraj doesn’t read this without sitting down
When the IRS accepts income tax payments from illegal immigrants, it ignores crimes committed by an estimated 75 percent of illegal aliens who use fraudulently obtained Social Security numbers to get jobs and pay taxes, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. It said: “Rather than turning the illegal aliens over to law enforcement authorities, the IRS protects the illegal aliens because, as a former IRS commissioner said: ‘We want your money whether you are here legally or not and whether you earned it legally or not.’"
Kind of how Arizona inadvertently legalized the sale of marijuana. They wanted to bust a dealer who was in possession beyond personal use, so the state developed a law requiring a stamp for its sale. Said dealer purchased the stamps, then sold. Upon being busted, it was established that since the state issued the tax stamp for its sale they sanctioned the sale of it, and therefore could not bust the dealer for that sale.
What the IRS is doing could very well be opening a back door for immigration.
This guy is turning into a liberal… Or just not the libertarian/conservative he portrayed himself as. From his own mouth, “I agree with 73% of what Bernie Sanders says.” He of course could just be pandering to Sanders supporters to get votes and that’s why these kind of beliefs are popping up more and more with him. According to Isidewith.com, I agree with Gary 77% while Hillary, Bernie and Jill Stein were at the bottom in single digit percents so not sure how that is possible of him to agree with Bernie that much.
I’m not a fan of this logic. Its the same when people called Kasich a liberal because he wasn’t far-right. The world isn’t made up of pure conservatives and pure liberals.
I think you’re right with the pandering, and also he generally agrees with him on social issues. Not sure how he could get to 73%.
Well, the fact that you think so inclined me to donate to Johnson/Weld today.
But, Johnson is a libertarian (if not a doctrinaire one), and so it’s not surprising to him defend against the stigmatization of immigrants, and he’s one running for national office. In this interview, he’s clearly distinguishing himself from the troglodyte Trump and his approach to attract sensible conservatives and also Bernie supporters and Hispanics (he is in tune with the Hispanic community, having served as governor of NM).
This response wasn’t designed for the ears of alt-right worms, who aren’t going to vote for Johnson regardless. It was meant for a different audience, and it was smart.
I think “undocumented” instead of “illegal” is engaging in largely worthless euphemisms, but voters that Johnson is trying to attract to get to 15% don’t feel that way.
The euphemisms are not worthless, because they change the argument. By going from illegal to undocumented lends to blurring the blame. By labeling them as not having documents, the documents they lack are legal documents, which are not obtained by jumping the border or overstaying a visa.
You have to keep something in mind, for people like Raj and myself, who came here legally, this is a direct slap in the face. By you using the arbitrary term of “immigrant,” you are not differentiating between those who came legally and those who didn’t.
Your thinking suggests that a burglar and a houseguest are one and the same.
Normally, I would be inclined to agree with your position but I took a long look at GJ getting my vote after the people chose bozo 1 and bozo 2 and what he has on paper, isn’t what is being preached lately (again, pandering?) Kind of Trump like. I mean, what libertarian would force (hypothetically during debates) a jewish baker to bake a cake for a nazi who wants a swastika symbol on it or force a christian baker to bake a cake for a gay wedding? No one has a right to tell you what to do with your goods and services and the very definition of a libertarian is freedom of choice and emphasizing political freedom, which apparently GJ doesn’t believe in.
To add to my growing dislike of the GJ/Weld campaign, I have a hard time voting for people who say rifles can be “weapons of mass destruction,” who support eminent domain, and people who want to continue to fund planned parenthood and call themselves “Libertarian.”. I personally don’t feel like paying for someone’s abortion.
Still though, the other two options are disturbing so it is quite the debacle ha.
They’re worthless because no matter what term is used, everyone understands that they came into the country in violation of the law. The only debate is over the stigma (or not) of the term.
And your analogy is absurd. There is a real and legal difference between a houseguest and a burglar, there’s not one between “undocumented worker” and “illegal immigrant” - it’s merely a difference in tone in the label.
As is, Trump is tripling down on prioritizing an issue that isn’t even in the top ten of national priorities in my view, unless you’re a nativist creeper. As has been discussed above, the nation is careening into a fiscal abyss, and Trump couldn’t string together a coherent sentence about the national debt.
Now is the time for conservatives, moderates, sane Republicans, sane Democrats, Bernie supporters, and libertarianish voters to head toward Johnson. The bombshells are mounting for Hillary, and it’s just going to get worse for her, and we all have to prepare to have someone left standing if/when she falls other than the embarrassment the GOP has delivered to us.
Haven’t seen that, could you provide a quote/article?
Here’s a quote I found:
“I am in the camp that if you outlaw guns only the criminals are going to have guns. I supported permitting the concealed carry of handguns in New Mexico. I believe there is a lot less violence in the parking lot, as they say, because the potential perpetrator of a theft or an assault is thinking twice because someone might be carrying a gun. Restrictions on gun ownership will only encourage outlaws to have heavy ammunition and high calibre weapons.”
Sounds pro-2nd to me.
planned parenthood:
“Look, they [Republicans] want to spend more money on military but they want to cut it from social programs, from healthcare. Look, it’s got to be a balanced approach when it comes to government spending with regard to everything. Am I opposed, I’m opposed to cutting the funding, or eliminating funding, to Planned Parenthood. Look, but Planned Parenthood has to take cuts just along with everybody else or we’re going to find ourselves in a really perilous situation.”
For funding it, but cutting along with all other government programs
On Keystone pipelilne and thus eminent domain:
"I completely support the Keystone Pipeline if, if it’s not an issue of the government implementing eminent domain to procure right of ways…
I really don’t understand where the regulatory hurdles are… I would certainly remove the regulatory hurdles."
, Fair seems to be missing a few things because even the Tax Foundation argues that illegals pay federal income tax through a tax ID (as opposed to SSN).
