Shryke Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 What significant difference has Obama demonstrated on foreign, monetary, or drug policy. Please educate us.Drug Policy? Even giving him no benefit of the doubt at all, he's demonstrated more moves towards stopping the thing then GWB or any Republican ever did. He removed the extra penalty from crack cocaine and also told the DOJ to stop prosecuting medical marijuana shit, just off the top of my head.Monetary policy? Again, giving no benefit of the doubt, he's at least not paying lip service to the kind of insanity the GOP has been all over the past while.Foreign Policy? That new nuclear arms treaty he got done . And then there's all the shit Clinton is all over, which is so numerous I don't even know where to start. Also the whole "not trying to bomb Iran" situation. This one I can't even take you seriously on saying nothing has changed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brienne the Beauty Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 In other words, it is entirely possible that all of our choices are "bad" in the sense that they are going to force us to take a step or two back in some respect. But if you think you've got better solutions that won't do that, let's hear them.I like a policy of moderate reform. If there are terrible laws, let's hear about them, and let the lawmakers deal with them. If government strategies are bad, let's hear about them, and let the government improve them or be voted out. You don't seem to have any particular examples of terrible laws, and I have not encountered any in my brief time in this country, so I don't know where this conversation will go from here.Oh, scratch that, I know one terrible policy, the policy that places health care as a burden on business instead of managing it as an individual/societal responsibility. It leads to stupid stuff like people not leaving their jobs to start new businesses because they can't afford the healthcare. Reforming that would really help small businesses, which are the lifeblood of the country and future large businesses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shryke Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Congratulations! The non-partisan fact-checkers at PolitiFact said that Democratic claims that Republicans voted to "end Medicare" was the 2011 Lie of the Year!http://www.politifac...s-voted-end-me/Btw, if you choose to claim PolitiFact is pro-GOP, their 2009 "Lie of the Year" was the GOP claim that ObamaCare had "death panels".Except the GOP did vote to end Medicare. Polifact is utterly full of shit on this and trying to cover their asses so as not to look "partisan".Because, of course, it would be biased to point out that the GOP lies all the fucking time. :lol:They wanted to end it only for people younger than 55. So not quite a lie, not quite the truth either.No, they wanted to replace Medicare with a voucher based program.Just because you call the new program the same thing as the old one, doesn't mean you didn't end the first program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Former Lord of Winterfell Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 I think it would benefit everyone to have a comprehensive give and take discussion about how best to benefit everyone and to make the U.S. more competitive in the global marketplace in the long term while in the short term protecting the people who tend to get shafted in these sort of restructurings.No offense, but that is meaningless gibberish that avoids anything specific.I like a policy of moderate reform. If there are terrible laws, let's hear about them, and let the lawmakers deal with them. If government strategies are bad, let's hear about them, and let the government improve them or be voted out.What specific "moderate reforms" do you propose, and why do you expect them to have the desired effect?You don't seem to have any particular examples of terrible laws, and I have not encountered any in my brief time in this country....That's completely fine. I'll take your side and assume that every law/regulation/mandate out there is reasonable, and makes sense on a cost-effective basis. So leave all the laws/regulations out of this.So why are we noncompetitive, and what needs to be done to fix that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brienne the Beauty Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 What specific "moderate reforms" do you propose, and why do you expect them to have the desired effect?I did mention one, health care reform, which you ignored. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shryke Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 So why are we noncompetitive, and what needs to be done to fix that?Because Chinese labour, even factoring in shipping costs, is cheaper. It's cheaper because they have less safety regulations and a lower standard of living. Which of these are you intent on "fixing"?And, cause I swear I have to mention this every time, China is itself losing jobs to other shittier countries as their standard of living rises. Even China can't compete on this level. So unless you want tariffs or to eliminate the 3rd world or something, smokestack chasing will not get you anywhere.Manufacturing jobs these days are largely kept in the first world due to government protectionism, government aid, specialized labour or because it's more expensive to ship it from China and just deal with the lower quality.EDIT: Oh yeah, health care reform. Universal Health Care would take HUGE burdens off people hiring US labour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brienne the Beauty Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 So why are we noncompetitive, and what needs to be done to fix that?I don't have all the answers. I'm no politician. I do know what we should not do, though, which is to throw up our hands and give up saying "Let the poor and sick die! They probably deserved it!" or "Repeal industrial safety laws so we can compete with deathtrap factories in China!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lupis42 Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 This framing makes no sense.Look, either you consider SS it's own seperate thing, in which case it's solvent and the real issue is the US government has been taking all it's cash adn leaving it IOUs.Or you just consider it part of the government in which case the idea that it's "borrowing at interest" makes no fucking sense because SS isn't doing a damn thing other then spending part of the federal budget.As a larger point, SS is solvent through somewhere around 2030 (last I remember) at which point it drops to 75% of benefits and becomes solvent again. That's not anywhere near a "serious problem".Raise a bit more money and you can easily bump those benefits back to 100%.I already suggested a simple, easy one. Raise the cap on payroll taxes. The only people it will effect are those who won't be meaningfully effected by it.The cap on payroll taxes won't raise a drop in the bucket - the 25% shortfall that is looming over SS is comparable to the cost of the entire unemployement insurance benefit - you'd have to tax those rich people at upwards of 60%, which would be higher even then Denmark - and hope that few of them leave the country.I like a policy of moderate reform. If there are terrible laws, let's hear about them, and let the lawmakers deal with them. If government strategies are bad, let's hear about them, and let the government improve them or be voted out.You don't seem to have any particular examples of terrible laws, and I have not encountered any in my brief time in this country, so I don't know where this conversation will go from here.Copyright, software patents, Dodd-Frank, the National Firearms Act, the Controlled Substances act, some of the regulations from the FDA, everything done by the DHS, the laws against exporting encryption, corn subsidies, and that's just off the top of my head.Oh, scratch that, I know one terrible policy, the policy that places health care as a burden on business instead of managing it as an individual/societal responsibility. It leads to stupid stuff like people not leaving their jobs to start new businesses because they can't afford the healthcare. Reforming that would really help small businesses, which are the lifeblood of the country and future large businesses.I agree, let's move healthcare to an individual responsibility - stop subsidizing insurance as an employment bonus, require doctors and hospitals to publish their prices, and to charge the insured and the uninsured the same rates, and allow people to purchase "emergency only" coverage, rather than requiring people to insure themselves against predictable events. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Former Lord of Winterfell Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 I did mention one, health care reform, which you ignored.There are a lot of business that don't offer health coverage that are still non-competitive, so I'm not sure that's going to help you.In any case, the ACA actually encourages more employers to offer health care coverage, and taxes them if they don't. Do you think that will make them more competitive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shryke Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 The cap on payroll taxes won't raise a drop in the bucket - the 25% shortfall that is looming over SS is comparable to the cost of the entire unemployement insurance benefit - you'd have to tax those rich people at upwards of 60%, which would be higher even then Denmark - and hope that few of them leave the country.What are you basing this on? Like, what ass are you pulling these numbers from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lupis42 Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 What are you basing this on? Like, what ass are you pulling these numbers from?http://xkcd.com/980/huge/#x=-10204&y=-2956&z=5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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