That Biden is President is nothing to celebrate. Mediocrity remains mediocre.
That insurrectionists attack the Capitol is nothing to defend, and anyone doing it is a traitor.
I'm not doing backflips over Biden. But even mediocre is so, so much better than the unmitigated dipshittery, corruption and spectacular incompetence we've had for 4 years.
Same here. Anyone but the blob.
Candy,
I don't disagree with you often but I do this time...
I like Biden.
- Personally I think he is a fine man, he honourable and of good character.
- I think he has a wealth of experience and knows the roads
- US need to come together (not divide)and Biden is the best option from the Democrats on this.
- On Healthcare, Public Option is a very good idea (it is close to what Germany has) and allows America to closer to Universal Healthcare. Going all the way in one step would be highly disruptive and cause blowback.
- On Environment, the Green new deal is a discussion document, Biden has taken the best of it and implementing parts which he thinks he can propose without scaring the moderates who you need to get thinks done.
- Before Biden became VP he was already a trusted face in international politics with time on the Senate Foreign Committee. We can no better President for US allies.
- COVID, he has experience and already shown ability in sending a strong message back by scientists.
These are all great traits for a President, we are not the Republicans who will for a incompetent disrupter. Look at the countries that Democrats want to rob ideas from, these have leadership who show empathy and wisdom. Just look at Angela Merkel, she is running (until 2019) an economic powerhouse with solid social programs.
My problem with Biden is this: He's an incrementalist. We need massive, sweeping changes. He's appointing people to positions who have been in government for decades and will, most likely, prescribe remedies that address nothing.
Case in point, if you're like most Americans, you have a job and want to make more money. The easiest (and proven to be the best) way to do this is to invest in yourself--get more education. So common sense says get a degree or training or further your education. The problem is that if you're like most Americans, you don't have much savings to pay for this training/education. So you apply for aid. And you quickly find out that to get a grant, you have to have almost no real income. So you take out a loan and then you get into debt and you end up not advancing very far. We need to broaden the aid for those who want to expand. No more old style loans. We need upfront investment to get a greater number of educated people into the workforce immediately and unleash the next wave of inventors and entrepreneurs.
That's just one example.
I hope he does well. Anyone is better than the blob.
First off it is nice to discuss policy...
Biden lifted a good part of his off Bernie.. Which is good... Originality is way overrated.
I think Biden likes to soft cell... Biden creed is not to let the perfect get in the way of the good.
"he headline news of the proposal is that the government will cover tuition at community colleges for all students and at four-year public universities for students with family incomes below $125,000, with the financial cost split between the federal government (67%) and the states (33%). "
Seeking a better way to achieve college access for all.
www.brookings.edu
This is good and it can be improved. But get this done in 4 years is a huge step...
Biden knows the players, the senators and house members and knows what he can get through... Remember the effort and cost of Obamacare... While it won and is now popular, it took away from Education, Judicial, Immigration... reforms. And it only just got in and stayed in.
Biden I think is going for a little bit everywhere approach.. Keep the moderates happy (you need them), look at the court reforms, he is having a committee and they will make recommendations.. Let them be the cannon fodder first, then Biden can offer something reduced and he look reasonable...
The Green New Deal was perfect for Biden... It is an opening offer... Biden can now negotiate with moderates,,,
Something is better than nothing.
I just wish the something was bigger.
Like here is an idea I had for putting Americans to work...it comes in 2 parts:
Part one... every American gets $50 put into their bank account via social security; every month.
330,000,000 X $50 is $16.5 Billion a month. Less than $200B a year.
View attachment 438915
Okay. That $50 a month goes to one thing and one thing only.
Part II
Open up warehouses across the nation--20-40 of them. They will store ONLY goods that are 95-99% made in America. At the outset it will be agricultural products only made by our farmers and processed by our mills and factories. It could be name brand stuff that already exists like Chex cereal or Kraft Cheese or Budweiser beer. I know some of these companies may be owned by foreign entities and if you want to limit it to only American companies...that's cool but my point is that the wheat and barley and milk and the farms that grow them and the factories that process them and the breweries that brew them are grown by and staffed by American workers.
Anyway, the warehouses store only these 95-99% American made goods. At the outset it will be agriculture because it's the most turn-key. But eventually they can have sporting goods, furniture, electronics, books, health/beauty products etc... As long as they make the 95-99% threshold.... And, by the way, it's a hard and fast threshold. Not stuff grown here, then shipped to Sri-Lanka for assembly, then shipped back here.
Then you market it to Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, Target, Kroger, Ralph's,and so on and so fourth and set up a website for the Dept of Commerce or whatever. They have a sub-section of their brick and mortar store or their click-and mortar web presence dedicated to these items that fall under the program. You take your monies that were mentioned in step one and apply them at the point of sale. Commerce would do it for free while the other websites would get a small percentage of each sale. They would not carry the inventory so they don't have more workers to pay; all shipping would come out of the warehouses. Or there could be partnerships but 100% of the goods would have to come from US warehouses where Americans are employed.
The funds would roll over but at no point would you be able to have over $300 in your account. Meaning that if you haven't used it in 6 months, it tops out at $300. The subsequent payments will be used by the Commerce Dept to simply buy food items and have them donated to local food banks.
After about 3-5 years, then you start steering it toward more healthy foods, smaller suppliers (not General Mills or Anheuser Busch) and will (hopefully) get more buy-in from other industry like Goodyear or Bridgestone. You can use your monies to buy tires for your car as long as they are 95-99% American made and are installed by American workers.
Now, I'm not saying my plan is bug-proof but my point is that nobody who Biden is leaning on would ever conceive of something like the above. And I'm sure that if they could, they could improve on it if they removed the special interests and those considerations from the equation--which they won't do. I'll send a copy of this to Gina Raimondo (Biden's Commerce Secretary nominee) when she is confirmed and see that it will go nowhere. Again, I'm not saying my plan doesn't have flaws but it seems to me that the old FDR adage of "priming the pump" is something we could use right now with the benefit of earmarking every penny for stuff that is nearly 100% beneficial to Americans. Americans get the money and can only use it to buy goods that were made by other Americans.
The COVID stimulus checks are fine but that money can go anywhere. This closed system benefits Ameicans only. So I think it is superior.
www.yahoo.com
