What Has Biden Wrought?
- Reference: 0175804883
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/12/31/0457231/what-has-biden-wrought
- Source link:
> Joe Biden spent the first half of his presidency enacting plans to steer at least $1.6 trillion to transform the economy and spur a clean-energy revolution -- only to watch those programs become afterthoughts in the 2024 election. Now the core of his domestic legacy stands unfinished, with [1]hundreds of billions of dollars left to deploy , and imperiled as Donald Trump prepares to take office.
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> A wide-ranging examination of the Biden administration's spending and tax policies reveals signs that his efforts could leave a lasting mark, but also ways in which his agenda has yet to take hold -- after unleashing money for batteries, solar cells, computer chips and clean water; luring foreign-owned factories to U.S. soil; and turning some red-state Republicans into supporters of green energy projects.
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> Throughout 2024, POLITICO's "Biden's Billions" series has documented the halting pace, uneven progress and genuine economic impact of a spending blueprint rivaling Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. With just weeks left in Biden's term, it's not at all certain his legacy will endure in the same way. Much of it remains a work in progress.
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> Solar installations have surged to record levels, but the country is not adding enough zero-carbon electricity to meet Biden's climate targets. A $42 billion expansion of broadband internet service has yet to connect a single household. Bureaucratic haggling, equipment shortages and logistical challenges mean a $7.5 billion effort to install electric vehicle chargers from coast to coast has so far yielded just 47 stations in 15 states.
[1] https://www.politico.com/news/2024/12/23/biden-spending-unfinished-business-00195256
"We're from the Government and we're here to help" (Score:3)
"A $42 billion expansion of broadband internet service...."
The US Government could literally purchase a Starlink terminal + 12 months of service for every single rural household in the United States for half the cost of this program.
Yes, that is ridiculous, but it is still highly illustrative of how wasteful these programs are.
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Sure, but "as typical of government, he wasted lots and lots of money doing things of questionable value" would not make the story long enough to get paid for.
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Pretty tough taking someone seriously, that has to refer to people with grade-school nicknames.
Nevermind the hand-wringing about "oligarchs"...or really, just the usage of that term.
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The US is firmly in an oligarchy era now, the term is appropriate. They control US media, they own the levers of power, they run the mega corps.
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How the fuck is "dark jumpy" an appropriate term for Starlink?
You're white-knighting a guy who spent yesterday complaining about "Leon" because he couldn't bring himself to type "Elon".
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> How the fuck is "dark jumpy" an appropriate term for Starlink?
It's not. It's a dig on Musk for his "performance" at a Trump rally. [1]Link [x.com]
> complaining about "Leon" because he couldn't bring himself to type "Elon".
I don't understand the "Leon" thing.
[1] https://x.com/Independent/status/1843144543790624960?lang=en
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> I don't understand the "Leon" thing.
For worshiping a demagogue, you sure don't pay attention much. It's sad how little you know.
The target of Donald Trump's most recent speech blunder was controversial billionaire Elon Musk. This past weekend, the outgoing president and current Republican nominee unintentionally called the CEO of Twitter, "Leon" at a campaign speech in Wisconsin.
According to one certain person on this site and the author of this article, just misspeaking someone's name means you have dementia. By calling Jumper, "Leon", Tr
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> For worshiping a demagogue, you sure don't pay attention much.
You're barking up the wrong tree there, cupcake
> This past weekend, the outgoing president and current Republican nominee unintentionally called the CEO of Twitter, "Leon" at a campaign speech in Wisconsin.
I've seen the "Leon" comments on here before, referring to Musk, but honestly wasn't interested enough to look it up. Forgive me for not being aware of the details of Trump's rallies. Being a dyed in the wool Democrat, you'd think that would be excusable..
> It's sad how little you know.
Fuck you too.
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> Pretty tough taking someone seriously, that has to refer to people with grade-school nicknames.
[1]Indeed. [wikipedia.org]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nicknames_used_by_Donald_Trump
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Or nationalize Starlink, that would be even cheaper.
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> Or nationalize Starlink, that would be even cheaper.
Why do you think the government would run Starlink more efficiently than SpaceX does?
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The US Government could literally purchase a Starlink terminal + 12 months of service for every single rural household in the United States for half the cost of this program.
Considering over $1 trillion of taxpayer money has been handed over to private industry for this very purpose, how about we tell them to do what they were paid to do?
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I'm pretty sure that the money paid so far was not to buy Starlink service for people without broadband connections. What did the recipients of that money fail to deliver on ("what they were paid to do")? Or are you suggesting that we tell companies to do things they already did?
You should instead look to why the government spent that trillion dollars didn't get the job done. The government is in charge of writing contracts for private entities to execute, overseeing that execution, and deciding whether
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Providers have been given taxpayer money to build out rural broadband service, among other things. They keep making excuses why they aren't doing it and in some cases stating they will not do so.
Yes, the government should be holding them to the contract, but at the same time companies can't plead they don't have the resources.
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Please be specific. Which rural broadband contacts have not been fulfilled? Where are the specific excuses that you refer to?
Re: "We're from the Government and we're here to h (Score:1)
fiber is what i want yall can keep the netflix internet
The soft landing (Score:3, Informative)
Have a job? Like having a job? Send Biden a thank you note.
Here's a video with the [1]head of the US Federal Reserve planning 3.5m layoffs with zero plans to stop there [youtube.com]. He wanted a recession. He didn't get one.
You can thank Biden for that.
Also what's with this extremely bias headline? "What has X wrought" in English implies that X did a horrible thing.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIHH5Kh2dU0
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"...and that relative is mentally more with it than Biden is. "
And you know this how? When do you speak directly with Joe Biden? Stop embarrassing yourself.
"You can read things like the recent Wall Street Journal report ..."
Oh boy, a critical thinker!
"Other long-term Democrat groupies have said that Biden was clearly worse in 2020 than in 2017."
Citations please.
"Joe Biden's personal physician has refused to give Biden a cognitive exam."
Cognitive exams are for people you suspect have a problem. Like Trump
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I know it because I see a lot of the changes in my relative in Biden, except compounded: repeating the same things over and over within one conversation, inability to hold a new train of thought, going back to old topics or generalities rather than addressing new specifics, infirmity when walking, and more. The patterns have been reported in other places, like Bob Woodward's book "War".
Lindy Li, member of the Democratic National Committee, is coming clean about the cover-up: [1]https://www.newsweek.com/joe-b. [newsweek.com]
[1] https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-shadow-presidency-lindy-li-wall-street-journal-2004992
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> In 2021, Biden was answering policy questions with "my butt's been wiped": [1]https://x.com/MollyNagle3/stat [x.com]... [x.com]
Your source, Leon's twitter isn't a source, states “Does immigration need to be in reconciliation?A pathway for citizenship?” @POTUS was asked returning to the White House “There needs to be a pathway to citizenship whether it needs to be in immigration remains to be seen,” he said (he appeared to mean reconciliation) -Molly Nagel
More lies from you. You fabricated your source, liar.
[1] https://x.com/MollyNagle3/stat
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Watch the video, you fool. It's right there.
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As if that is going to matter in three weeks. Remember Trump's first term was all about undoing everything Obama did; didn't matter why he did it, whether he was mentally competent, whether it was a Good Thing, whether all he DID with it was put a scribble on the final page of a proposal longer than War and Peace; what mattered was that Obama made it so it was Bad(tm) and had to be removed.
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It's true that almost everything Obama did was bad, but that doesn't change the fact that a bunch of Biden associates apparently made decisions for him that are reserved to the President, and so those decisions are legally and constitutionally suspect. They might stand up if Biden himself signed the actual document, but if the decider was just "the last person in the room" then the action was probably legally void.
Also, President Trump's first term was about a lot more than undoing Obama's mistakes: [1]https: [ucsb.edu]
[1] https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/fact-sheet-the-historic-results-president-donald-j-trumps-first-two-years-office
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> Joe Biden's personal physician has refused to give Biden a cognitive exam. It's not because the guy who referred to his Secretary of Defense as "the guy who runs that outfit over there" -- when Biden came up blank for the names of both Lloyd Austin and the Department of Defense -- is clearly with it. It's because he knows what the results would say, and that recognizing the President as mentally incapable would trigger a constitutional crisis.
[1]Do you ever tell the truth? You have any proof of anything you say? Or do we just take the word of some high school drop out loony Leon-loving right wing nutjob? [whitehouse.gov]
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has told reporters that the president has never been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, dementia or any similar degenerative neurological disorder. The White House says the president has undergone a neurological exam three times since becoming president, as a part of each of his annual physicals at
[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Health-Summary-2.28.pdf
Re:The soft landing (Score:4, Insightful)
"Biden benefited from Trump's efforts to blunt the effects of the pandemic. "
LOL that is the most ridiculous thing that could possibly be said. Trump's efforts were to make the effects worse for Democrats. It was the Congress that passed spending bills, and those were bipartisan. Biden not only inherited NO plan to deploy a vaccine for the pandemic, the Trump administration illegally refused the Biden team a proper transition plan. Everything Trump did was to make Biden's situation worse, and that culminate with an insurrection that Trump called for.
You are one-percenter, the top 1% of most ignorant MAGA supporters in existence.
"After that, Biden overspent on everything, in large part due to his Inflation Act."
Which has resulted in the greatest recovery from the pandemic in the world.
"The only jobs that Biden can take credit for creating or saving are those of government parasites. That's why the headline correctly implies that Biden did (multiple) horrible things."
Now it's just a tribal troll. But at least we can agree that the headline is also a troll. It should question what damage Trump will do again.
"...take Biden's refusal to admit that he has dementia ..."
You need to be put out of your misery.
"...and has had it since at least early 2021."
Citation please. The Trump campaign and Fox News don't count.
"This gave Trump a rerun of 2016 in the presidential election, except with a more disliked Democrat candidate."
It was years of nonstop claims that Biden is too old...while running the second oldest candidate in history. And a candidate that clearly had a stroke years ago in office and can not longer speak intelligently, if he ever could.
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> You are one-percenter, the top 1% of most ignorant MAGA supporters in existence.
I'm assuming you are posting on the internet from the USA, if so then you are almost certainly in the top 1% of wage earners in the world.
I do wish this class warfare would stop. If you have access to the internet then it's a good bet that you are living a pretty decent life. Maybe you aren't in the top 1% but then it's the top 5%.
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Are you sure about that? Nowadays, to be able to SURVIVE in most 'first world' countries, you are REQUIRED to have an internet connection. Without it, you can't find proper jobs, do your taxes, act on health care/insurance or manage your debit/savings/credit account. It's nowadays even more necessary than having physical money. If you have internet and banking, at least you can pay for most goods or services electronically. You have to pay extra nowadays to big corporations if you use hard currency because
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Yawn. Get talking points that haven't been debunked. Ideally, get talking points that haven't already been debunked in this thread. For example, the WSJ report I mentioned earlier describes how the White House cover-up of Biden's incapacity goes back to at least the spring of 2021: "[Biden] has good days and bad days, and today was a bad day so we're going to address this tomorrow." [1]https://www.theweek.in/news/wo... [theweek.in]
[1] https://www.theweek.in/news/world/2024/12/20/white-house-aides-covered-up-president-biden-s-mental-decline-from-day-1-of-his-presidency-report.html
It was years of... claims that Biden is too old (Score:2)
His performance at the debate v Trump was devastating; after that he had to go. The sad thing is the degree to which those around him failed to prevent his seeking reelection earlier. They are the ones most responsible for giving the world four more years of Trump...
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> Also what's with this extremely bias headline? "What has X wrought" in English implies that X did a horrible thing.
A certain Mr. Bell (of telephone fame) begs to differ.
(Unless he foresaw people yakking on cell phones on airplanes.)
A certain Mr. Bell (of telephone fame) (Score:2)
The quote "What hath God wrought" is a reference to the first telegraph message, not telephone.
(Samuel Morse)
Re: A certain Mr. Bell (of telephone fame) (Score:1)
Today's modern Neanderthal would spell it 'rawte' or 'rought,' bone apple teat and all that jazz.
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Those that can be laid off from the federal government should be laid off. The federal government isn't there to give people money for make-work. If you want welfare reform push for that.
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Yep, stimulus works. Fiscal tightening + monetary tightening is a bad time.
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Did you read his report? He summarized the possibility of that many jobs lost; he didn't _plan_ it, nor was he seeking to make it happy. He's pulling a lever to contain inflation and, in his due diligence, recognized the risk of lost jobs. He also recognized the risk of lost jobs and more if he didn't recommend pulling that lever.
Buy a Clue Already. (Score:5, Interesting)
> A $42 billion expansion of broadband internet service has yet to connect a single household.
You could have started with this statement and gotten to the Biden-wrought answer a lot faster. How many fucking times are taxpayers going to pay for that broadband expansion? Look at every other time we didn’t connect a single household, and you’ll start to understand why billions spent by Government, doesn’t mean progress. What it does mean, is Greed N. Corruption is still in charge. Milking and laundering taxpayer dollars through “expansion” programs.
Again.
But don’t take my word on it. Instead, let’s ask Forbes in 6 months what the net worth of the Big Guy is. After serving in a job (supposedly) paying “only” $400K/year.
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They keep doing the same thing over and over because they don't understand the Embedded Growth Obligation and the self-perpetuation of buracracy.
These ideas predict exactly what we see. If a bureaucrat is hired to expand broadband and he gets everybody hooked up then he doesn't have that job.
A state-level Infrastructure Department might just be able to assign "broadband expansion" to a bureaucrat and have him move on to another project when it's done.
The Federales have no business attempting this. Remembe
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Oh, Biden's spending spree does and will have a lasting impact. The Federal behemoth has gotten even bigger, we are another 7 trillion dollars deeper in debt, and we are being pushed to use even more energy from a grid that is not able to handle the load AND it is still vulnerable to hacking, EMP, and dudes with IEDs and guns. I'm looking forward to see if DOGE (stupid name) can actually find a way to give us a smaller and more efficient government. More government is rarely the solution but it is always th
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What are you doing here? You need at least 2 working brain cells to understand anything that is covered on this site. Go back to your cave troll!
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You mean the government which bailed out Tesla and which continues to provide subsidies?
Very president centric (Score:2)
It could have been Biden or Trump or Jesus risen from the grave. If you try and harm or remotely threaten the monopoly powers of oil companies or telecoms etc they will resist.
Companies supplying petrol ("gas") that cannot profit from EV sales will fight tooth an nail. A harging network across the country is like cancel for them.
Telecoms and others will always fight whoever it is. If it's via bribes AKA "lobbying" or their armies of lawyers to drown efforts in bureaucracy it's all the same.
If your emp
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> It could have been Biden or Trump or Jesus risen from the grave. If you try and harm or remotely threaten the monopoly powers of oil companies or telecoms etc they will resist. Companies supplying petrol ("gas") that cannot profit from EV sales will fight tooth an nail. A harging network across the country is like cancel for them. Telecoms and others will always fight whoever it is. If it's via bribes AKA "lobbying" or their armies of lawyers to drown efforts in bureaucracy it's all the same. If your empire relies on consumption of product/service X and some presedeint red or blue is gonna harm that what would you do? -Corporate intersts are such that they'll screw the taxpayer, the little guy and or the government and each other because that's a given. Cue big surprise on what Biden has "wrought" - bring in the other guy. He'll do so much better because...uhm...?
Delete parent please. I've reposted - because a dyslexic typing results in typos...FFS /. needs an edit option.
Sometimes the president makes little difference (Score:2)
It could have been Biden or Trump or Jesus risen from the grave. If you try and harm or remotely threaten the monopoly powers of oil companies or telecoms etc they will resist.
Companies supplying petrol ("gas") that cannot profit from EV sales will fight tooth and nail. A charging network across the country is like cancer for them.
Telecoms and others will always fight whoever it is. If it's via bribes AKA "lobbying" or their armies of lawyers to drown efforts in bureaucracy it's all the same.
If your e
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I would like to hear a research-based story on why so few charging stations have been built. If it's entrenched interests, what are their tactics, specifically? Or what is it? Tesla has built 6,700+ supercharger stations. I'm in favor of the federal program to speed up rollout but it's been a few years now, if it's not working it's past time to figure out why.
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In the neoliberal/neocon world, the purpose of govt spending is to hand out money to those who paid the campaign bill. If the telecoms paid a part of the bill, they get "broadband initiative" money. If defence contractors paid a part of the bill, they got to build Obamacare. Which as we remember basically had to be built again, because who on earth has defence contractors write web services. I guarantee you, whoever is building the charger network got their hand in the pie the same way. Look into any of the
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If wind, solar, and EV charging stations were profitable, oil companies would invest more. It's simple economics; it's simple business.
One fix that would help slightly (Score:2)
The U.S. ought to be run on two-year budgets. It would smooth out appropriations and allow DoD and other agencies to plan. Right now, they lose money with every continuing resolution in addition to allowing the pols two shots at gaming the system per every 2 years instead of one.
On a different note, they can stop with the tax decreases. When Kennedy did it, the tax rates were way too high, so he got a big bang for his buck. However, since Reagan they have been designed for the Billionaires Club as a reward
We needed more people like Andrew Yang (Score:2)
I recall the 2020 primaries for POTUS and seeing Andrew Yang say a lot of nice things about nuclear power. His comments forced other candidates to weigh in on nuclear power. Most of the candidates picked a very straightforward message of being in support or opposition of nuclear power. Then were the "elder statesmen" like Biden and Warren that tried to split the baby and make nonsense comments like a need to keep existing nuclear power plants open but build no new reactors.
It's because Japan took the pol
Re: We needed more people like Andrew Yang (Score:1)
Realistically, that would be the safest place to live...even if there is some kind of disaster, the fuel should already be underwater. Water is an amazing substance, it can prevent dangerous items like radioactive isotopes or bullets from travelling far and fast enough to do damage to something soft and squishy, like humans. I've even heard rumors that...well, this is gonna sound silly, but I hear that plants actually respond well to limited exposure as well. Now we all know that Brawndo is the preferred th
Hard to ascribe accomplishments or failures (Score:2)
Biden was slurring his words and was confused about his whereabouts when he entered the race in 2019.
Since the election, several articles in WSJ and NYT have documented how his staff cocooned him for the entirety of his term.
Who the fuck knows whose successes and whose failures were pinned on him as the titular president.
The IRA heat pump rebates start this coming year! (Score:2)
In my state we might start to see the Inflation Reduction Act heat pump rebates finally available for spring of 2025, assuming the next President doesn't just plain cancel it.
Why more than two years? Too much bureaucracy.
What he will be remembered for is runaway inflation because he decided to threaten Big Oil and they retaliated by simply taking more profits at the expense of everything else in the economy, then the dementia that was evident pre-election finally getting so bad he is now an embarrassm
Whiplash (Score:1)
We go back and forth on executive policy way too rapidly with presidential elections, causing enormous waste and getting in the way of the smooth functioning of government. I wish I knew what the solution is.
Re:Whiplash (Score:4, Insightful)
The solution is to write the important ideas into law. Those will only change if both houses of Congress and the President agree that they should change.
Some asshole fairly recently decreed that his pen and telephone should be enough to bypass a Congress that disagrees with him and the current situation is the result.
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[1]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=... [youtube.com]
[1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G6tOgF_w-yI
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That solution is exactly what happens. It's not a solution, it does nothing to address the problem at all.
Re: Whiplash (Score:1)
The solution is to write the important ideas into law. The programs and spending were wrote into Congressional bills and Biden signed into law. That is how it works in USA. Biden's implementation of the funded programs was unsuccessful.
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> The solution is to write the important ideas into law...
Unfortunately, we've had decades of laws that cede Congress's power to the executive branch. Congress writes laws giving federal agencies powers to write regulations, instead of Congress doing its job and writing those regulations as law. That's why the President can make so many sweeping changes by executive order.
Re: Whiplash (Score:2)
This is how most normal governments work.
Do you really expect a lower house of any government to deliberate on the safety of every chemical being sold or added to food, or the minutia of water infrastructure standards or road safety standards etc etc etc? That seems highly inefficient
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There has to be a balance. I think in the US, it's gone too far in the direction of executive power.
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> The solution is to write the important ideas into law.
It takes both congressional houses to create those laws in the first place, so unless a party has has a majority in both houses, or there is some aisle jumping, those laws aren't going to get enacted in the first place.
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> or there is some aisle jumping
I believe some famous American once said something about parties and partisanship being a bad idea.
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This is a pretty good sign that there is too much "power" centralized in the federal government.
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Have no worries! Musk is going to cut back $2 trillion per year. You will never have debt problems again!
Re: Whiplash (Score:2)
Maybe, but where are the incentives to make screws, toothbrushes, etc,? You know, fundamentals? Stuff we need to make high tech goods and support people who make the high tech goods?
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I have to preface this by stating that I lean more 'old school' republican; that is I believe in more control at the state level and federal intervention only where the entire country benefits.
Seems to me that the democrats are actually trying to help the majority of the country as a whole. Sure there are always going to be some far left programs but the net result seems positive. But with the rise of maga and 'trumps america', the republicans only care about dismantling or blocking programs that have any