US Politics Thread 2021-24

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

What you found is pretty meaningless babble that means they want their own sandbox to play in because they don’t play well with others. Karen philosophy and failure then.

Jeebus. You and Ostfriese asked a rather simple question and then let it be known that you didn't know the answer. Were you being facetious? Hard to tell. So I gave you an answer. And you say it is meaningless babble.

Hint. Don't ask obvious questions if you don't want obvious answers.

[Ostfriese]

Originally Posted by u crank

You are right. As of now there isn't another viable candidate. What I wonder is if you realize why they don't want him? And it isn't just for the sake of opposition.

I understand what they claim to be the reasons, but I consider these claims to be nothing more than smoke and mirrors. I'd believe them if they presented a true alternative direction, but as we have already established: this is not about offering alternatives, this is not about achieving certain goals. It's about causing chaos to gain attention.

[Ostfriese]

Originally Posted by u crank

Jeebus. You and Ostfriese asked a rather simple question...

I didn't ask a question at all, but thanks anyway.

[mapuc]

I'm picturing a kindergarten where there's no teacher in the classroom.

Markus

[Rockstar]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

Maybe so but it's still working and preventing any one person from taking power.

I think he may be projecting. Seems the new, bestest and improved not so democratic government of the European Union is involved in corruption on a massive scale, again.

https://www.politico.eu/article/wow-...-confidential/

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Ostfriese

I didn't ask a question at all, but thanks anyway.

My mistake.

Originally Posted by Ostfriese

I don't think they have any idea about what they want themselves, and certainly not anything they agree on.

You just stated that you don't think they know what they want. Turns out they do. I tried to tell you what they want.

You're welcome.

[August]

Originally Posted by u crank

My mistake.



You just stated that you don't think they know what they want. Turns out they do. I tried to tell you what they want.

You're welcome.

I don't think those are all their demands though. I've heard about putting FC members on rules and appropriations committees and a chairmanship for Gaetz for example.

[Ostfriese]

Originally Posted by u crank

You just stated that you don't think they know what they want. Turns out they do. I tried to tell you what they want.

You told me what they claim to want, I told you that I consider those claims to be smoke and mirrors, or, in other words, thinly veiled lies.

[Buddahaid]

I was thinking of what they want in this balloting not in general terms. Maybe there’s no difference but they don’t get to form another government within the current one because they don’t like the laws or the constitution for that matter.

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Ostfriese

You told me what they claim to want, I told you that I consider those claims to be smoke and mirrors, or, in other words, thinly veiled lies.

I am beginning to think that you didn't read the document.

Restore the Independence of Committees.

To balance the power between committees and party leaders so that Members can meaningfully participate in the legislative process on behalf of their constituents, committees need to reclaim independence and authority.

Instead of being selected based on loyalty towards and fundraising for party leadership, committee chairs should be elected by the members of their committee based on their qualifications and effectiveness.

Enforce Responsibility in Spending.

Restoring fiscal responsibility requires being responsible with spending decisions. House Republicans should prove we are the party of fiscal responsibility to reforming our party’s rules to incentivize the passage of appropriations bills on time without relying on continuing resolutions or omnibus bills.

End Secret Deals Behind Closed Doors.

House Rules require legislation be available for 72 hours before being considered on the floor. These commonsense, good government rules are easily waived, but it was previously considered a rare and significant departure from the norm.

In May 2020, Democrats gave themselves “same day authority” (also known as “martial law”) to get around these rules and force a vote on bills the same day they are introduced. Speaker Pelosi has kept this extraordinary power for over two years, using it to rush the passage of massive trillion-dollar spending deals so fast that no one can even read them.

Reset the House Rules.

Republicans need to undo the damage to the institution caused by Democrats. Wiping the slate clean by restoring the same House Rules as the 115th Congress as they existed before Speaker Pelosi took control in January 2019 is step one for the new Republican Majority.

Institute a Ban on Earmarks.

Earmarks .. extend Congress’s power of spending beyond items genuinely connected to the nation’s welfare. In practice, they are often used to buy votes and coerce support for bills that might otherwise not pass muster. Essentially, earmarks amount to taxpayer-financed bribery.

I'd be very curious to get your opinion on those specific points. Are they unreasonable demands to make on the people who are elected to serve the citizens of a democratic country? Please point out the smoke and mirrors and the thinly veiled lies.

[August]

Nation In Shock As Politicians Show Up To Work 4 Days In A Row


Politics · Jan 6, 2023 · BabylonBee.com


WASHINGTON, D.C. — The nation is in shock today following reports of representatives in Congress showing up to work for the 4th day in a row. Sources in Washington say this may be a new record, as most members of the House are used to showing up maybe once or twice per month while spending most of their time drinking cocktails with lobbyists and talking to CNN. Medical personnel has been dispatched to the Capitol Building to tend to any elderly reps in attendance, who aren't used to working this hard, while experts warn many of them may not last through today's grueling 5-hour workday.
The House is expected to adjourn early today for the sake of any at-risk senior citizens.

https://babylonbee.com/news/nation-i...-days-in-a-row

[Rockstar]

Low income wage earners are in shock too.

In 2022, the IRS Went After the Very Poorest Taxpayers
Despite $80 billion in new funding, the agency is living up to its reputation of hassling low-income taxpayers over rich people.

https://reason.com/2023/01/06/in-202...est-taxpayers/

On Wednesday, Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) released data provided to it by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on audits performed by the agency in fiscal year 2022. Despite the infusion of new funding earmarked for the IRS via last year's Inflation Reduction Act, the agency continued historic trends of hassling primarily low-income taxpayers, with relatively few millionaires and billionaires getting caught up in the audit sweep.

"The taxpayer class with unbelievably high audit rates—five and a half times virtually everyone else—were low-income wage-earners taking the earned income tax credit," reported TRAC, noting that the poorest taxpayers are "easy marks in an era when IRS increasingly relies upon correspondence audits yet doesn't have the resources to assist taxpayers or answer their questions."

In fact, "if one ignores the fiction of auditing a millionaire through simply sending a letter through the mail, the odds that millionaires received a regular audit by a revenue agent (1.1%) was actually less than the audit rate of the targeted lowest income wage-earners whose audit rate was 1.27 percent!"

The Inflation Reduction Act, passed in August 2022, directed $80 billion worth of new funding over the next decade to the IRS so it could hire 87,000 new workers, purportedly to better target millionaire and billionaire scofflaws. The Biden administration and credulous journalists claimed that this would in no way increase audits for those making under $400,000 annually—suspect assurances not provided within the text of the actual bill. This increased capacity meant only those at the top would be targeted, supporters insisted. But this ignores how the IRS's incentives work and how agencywide reform might be too heavy of a lift.

Correspondence audits—which are conducted via mail, and are the type frequently used when interacting with the poorest of taxpayers—are much easier and cheaper to conduct than other types of audits. Plus, the earned income tax credit is easy to get wrong. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that new hires with experience in the field will take almost three years of ramp-up time, with more junior new hires taking longer. The lag time between 2022's infusion of funding, and legitimately increased capacity, will be enormous—if the agency can even snag the best in the industry when TurboTax and H&R Block will surely be swelling their own ranks. It makes sense that, given a dearth of experienced auditors not likely to be fixed soon, the agency would rely on the easiest and least time-consuming types of audits.

But be suspicious of the idea that an infusion of cash will solve longstanding problems within the IRS. This is, after all, the agency that sent $1.1 billion in child welfare payments to the wrong people over the course of merely five months during the pandemic. It's the agency that was hacked back in 2015, resulting in the personal information of more than 700,000 taxpayers being compromised. It's the agency that has been foolishly going after Americans who hold $10,000 or more in a foreign bank since 2010, never mind the fact that many of them are middle-class expats, not folks with yachts in the Mediterranean. And it's the (leaky) agency that enabled the richest Americans' intimate financial information to be thumbed through by ProPublica readers. It will take more than a little cash to fix all this, and, as the IRS's competence and tenacity increase, so too will the tenacity of the vast infrastructure of accountants and lawyers hired by the rich to creatively minimize their tax burdens.

Though some libertarians may argue such an agency ought not to exist in the first place and cheer its relative ineptitude at going after the well-to-do, it's decidedly absurd that the agency taxpayers just fed $80 billion to has, for another year, continued its assault on the poor.

[August]

It was an "Accident" they say but, C'mon Man!

Jan. 6 committee documents share Social Security numbers of 2,000 Trump officials and allies
by Brady Knox, Breaking News Reporter |

January 06, 2023 04:08 PM



Documents released by the Jan. 6 committee shared the Social Security numbers of nearly 2,000 Trump allies and officials.
The leak is believed to have been an accident, and the data have since been removed, the Washington Post reported. The Social Security numbers were listed in the White House guest book, which was included in the Jan. 6 committee's final report. The Social Security numbers of visitors were listed next to their names and were supposed to have been redacted in the version released to the public.

At least three members of former President Donald Trump's Cabinet were affected by the leak, along with other big names such as Govs. Kristi Noem of North Dakota, Greg Abbott of Texas, and Henry McMaster of South Carolina and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson. “Whether it was a careless and sloppy handling of records or a deliberate disregard of decorum, either scenario is a perfunctory and callous display of government and a frightening reminder of the current state in Washington,” Carson told the Washington Post. “President Reagan was a savant indeed — the nine most frightening words to hear are, ‘I am from the government and here to help.’”
Those affected apparently weren't notified of the leak.
“To my knowledge, we were not notified. The governor was not notified,” Noem spokesman Ian Fury told the outlet.
The major breach in privacy, presenting a gold mine for hostile intelligence agencies and identity thieves, leaves open the question as to how an apparently prestigious government committee could have allowed for such a massive error.
A former Jan. 6 committee aide said, “Records released publicly underwent a review process to redact personal details and other sensitive information ... Any release of such information was inadvertent.”
The Government Publishing Office originally published the material, but the National Archives appeared to blame the leak on the Jan. 6 committee itself.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...curity-numbers

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by August

https://babylonbee.com/news/nation-i...-days-in-a-row

Once again the bee trying to tell a joke, but it's so close to truth that it's no joke.

[Rockstar]

SPITE

1. Malicious ill will prompting an urge to hurt or humiliate another person.
2. Injury; mischief; shame; disgrace; dishonor.
3. A disposition to thwart and disappoint the wishes of another; ill-will;
4. malevolence; malice; grudge; rancor.