Before I go slapping the RW Extremists around, have to slap a little sense into a LW extremist.
Our defense spending is ridiculously high compared to any other nation and for all that money our veterans still lack adequate care from the trauma we inflict on them through unnecessary war. We are not a nation under threat. We don't have to act like constantly preparing for violence is more important than caring for our own people.
Two points here. The first is that no, we really aren't spending what we need on defense, compared to what we spent during the Cold War. We don't have the resources to fight a war against China or Russia, if we had to. Aggressors only move when they sense weakness. This is the lesson we should have taken away from WWII.
As for Veteran spending, here's the problem with that. I'm eligible for veteran benefits. I shouldn't be. Sure, I served 11 years, but I never got anywhere near a testy foreigner. We spend 325 BILLION on Veteran's Affairs. This is another area where we need to spend smart, not high.
We had a balanced budget before endless wars and tax cuts for the rich. In fact we had a surplus. And no, it's not hard to ask the rich to pay more.
We had a balanced budget because Newt forced Slick Willy to agree to spending cuts and welfare reform (and were lucky enough to have a tech boom.) Some conservatives argue it was the capital gains tax cuts the GOP insisted on as part of the Contract with America that spurred the economic growth.
But, yes, when we went to war, we should have had tax increases, not cuts.
The democratic party lost over a thousand seats in State and Federal office during Obama and Pelosi's reign and there has never been a candidate in this era as extreme as Trump and he won the first election and nearly won the second despite being blatantly corrupt and inept on live tv for four straight years.
This is a facetious claim. The out of power part ALWAYS gains seats. This was true of Trump, it was true of Obama, it was true of Bush, it was true of Clinton. Americans love to hedge their bets.
As for Trump "nearly winning" in 2020, the problem is the incumbent always has a huge advantage. The Devil you know is always preferred. This will probably help Biden if he runs again.
Where I think a lot of Republicans and Democrats get wrong about Trump is that he reflects a society that wants to see someone burn it down because they watch decades of gridlock. So let's put in a political arsonist. It's counterproductive.
Medicare for All polls at 55%
Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour polls at 62%
Paid family leave polls at over 80%
Free tution to public college polls at over 60%
Raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations polls between 60% to 70%
All those things poll well until you ask people to pay for them. Ask "Are you willing to pay an income tax rate of 50% to pay for _______?" and see if those numbers go down.
Someone should have explained to Bernie and AOC at an early age that Socialism only works until you run out of other people's money.
Now, what made Lightfoot a failure is that she was unable to solve the fiscal problems of Chicago, especially in the light of Covid slashing revenues. I'm not seeing anything that Johnson is proposing working much better. I also question how effective he is going to be with a city council of people who aren't his flavor of crazy.
The only hope I have is that the guy seems to be an effective retail politician. He was outspent by Vallas 2-1, yet was able to turn a 14 point deficit into a 3 point advantage by winning over supporters of his rivals.
