Usa Thread

[Redbaron]

I'm no expert cav but one would assume if the Dow is up, then businesses may be turning a tidy profit (otherwise investors would not buy the shares) - and may be inclined to put on more employees - they definately won't be hiring if they are losing money, and the Dow is going down... Pretty simple really

[Steve]

My question is had McCain been elected would the number of people on food stamps, unemployment rate, etc. not gone up? The fact is we were close to a financial collapse. The economy was going to get worse not better whomever got elected in '08. It was going to bottom out during whomever got elected's first term.

 

The only thing we can blame Obama for and its speculation is did he stop the bleeding soon enough and is the recovery too slow. My biggest blame for him is spending his political captial on health care. That should have been a second term issue or at least wait till the economy showed much stronger signs of recovery.

 

It wasnt necessary, the primary goal he should have had was the economy. Pursuing health care as he had was careless. Maybe he thought he'd be a one term President and needed to get it done. Either way it was a huge mistake in my opinion.

 

I have a few problems with Obama. My biggest one is that he became an establishment politician. He became no different than the rest. I am no leaving the Republicans blameless either. I truly believe that a some, not all, but some of the Republicans wanted Obama to fail (normal, both sides want the other to fail) to the point where even if it was good for America they would oppose it. I truly believe that some Republicans would and did do that and thought they'd right the wrong when they got in power. I think some are that insiduous.

 

I think Obama to some extent is as conniving. He's very, very smart but I think he has a little bit of the Bill Clinton expediency about him even if its against his core beliefs.

 

I think some of the Republicans are so far up their own asses that they believe their party IS America and that they confuse their party for America. The Dems, some of them, are weak willed.

 

I am not as much of a Ron Paul fan as I used to be. I like hiim but not as much. I am hoping the future lies with someone like Christie or Newark mayor Cory Booker. Plain spoken, integrity and could give a f*ck if even their own party is wrong, they are going to do what they believe is right. I nickname it the 'Soprano' politician since they are from New Jersey.

[dean]

I really doubt if the Republicans would have worked with the President to tackle the breakdown of the economy. Obama had his one shot in getting the TARP money passed and spent and on one was willing to try to get more trillions spent. Without the super majority that the Democrats had in Congress, no health care comprehensive package would have passed, so time was of the essence. The health care act won't be judged for another 2-4 years on its effectiveness. I'm willing to bet most of those of a skeptical nature (not the closed minded persons) might change their mind about it in the next 2-4 years.

[unit731]

I really doubt if the Republicans would have worked with the President to tackle the breakdown of the economy. Obama had his one shot in getting the TARP money passed and spent and on one was willing to try to get more trillions spent. Without the super majority that the Democrats had in Congress, no health care comprehensive package would have passed, so time was of the essence. The health care act won't be judged for another 2-4 years on its effectiveness. I'm willing to bet most of those of a skeptical nature (not the closed minded persons) might change their mind about it in the next 2-4 years.

 

 

The rumors around town are that businesses will just pay the fine as that will be cheaper then providing coverage to employees.

Not sure how this will impact the employees and the cost for each employee to purchase health insurance on their own.

[Steve]

From a PR perspective, its not a good look for a major business to do that. Small businesses, fine, but a major company will get bad press. They'll play along or use their lobbies to get exceptions.

Obamacare ended up watered down and costing the Dems their super majority in 10 off year elections. It gave Republicans something they could hammer Obama with even when his popularity was super high.

If he worked on the economy first and used the super majority to get some massive infrastructure spending and create jobs perhaps the Dems could have kept their super majority and deal with health care in the 2nd half of his first 4 years or in re-election. I thought there were some good PR stuff Obama could have done such as the TSA issue at airports. Reducing Gitmo by releasing inmates whose information would have been dated and posed little future threat.

Anyway, he's definitely more aggressive in somethings now that he doesnt have to face an election. He's seeming more left of center now.

[Steve]

Obama is gonna fck Wall Street for switching sides. First time ever, a prosecutor is nominated to be in charge of the SEC. A prosecutor with experience going after Wall Street malfeasance. Its gonna get interesting.

 

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/01/24/mary-jo-white-SEC-chairman/

 

Things are going to get real interesting. I think we are going to see a more liberal/progressive Obama.

[Flashermac]

Working with a very hostile Congress ...

[Steve]

I think we ought to re-think the electoral college system. However, the motives behind these proposed changes by some Republican led states isn't to modernize the process. Its to rig elections in thier favor. First gerrymandering districts, voter registration laws to reduce Dem votes and now this.

 

The Republican party, at least a signficant number of the party and their leadership, who claim to be what America is about truly are the most un-American.

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/25/politics/electoral-college/?hpt=po_c1

[Flashermac]

"Under the proposed alternative system, electoral votes would get divvied up by congressional districts won. In addition, Virginia's two other electoral votes -- one for each U.S. Senate seat -- would go to the candidate who won the most congressional districts."

 

This is exactly what was proposed by some Democrats years ago. So it is bad, now that Republicans propose it, but good when Dems did? At least it would be fairer to the voters. If a candidate carries a state by a handful of votes, giving all the electoral votes to him is hardly fair to the 49.99% who didn't vote for him.

 

I'm sure if the change benefited Democrats in an election, they would be doing the same thing. Just politics as usual.

[dean]

What's unfair about the Electoral College is that it divides the U.S. into Red and Blue states. The only states that matter anymore are the swing states and those are the ones that get the most attention from the candidates, both in money and time spent in those states. It tells the electorate in the other states that their vote doesn't matter, particularly if you are voting blue in a red state or the reverse. Not a good way to demonstrate how each citizen's vote is important, which is what we are told time and time again.