So this
Republicans: No.
Democrats: “We would, but preserving the filibuster is more important”
Republicans: Yes (by eating 50% of you)
Thanos: Perfectly balanced, as all things should be
From an outsider perspective, the Dems may be hopeless neoliberals, but isn’t it more:
R: hehe sure we will hehehe
D: here’s a set of policies that should improve things
Voters: too complicated, just say yes.
The Dems proposals are crumbs on what we should have. Universal health and education for example, never make it out of the primaries. Very few Democrats, really the ones that are Democrats so they don’t have to start a Social Democrat party, espouse that stuff. The rest of the party thinks a minimum wage increase will be enough and they can’t even get that done.
In reality we need real cost of living counterweights. Government run grocery stores and basic retail. Private businesses literally told everyone that abnormal inflation after the pandemic was just them price gouging. And we’re supposed to take a single policy that would have been good in 2005 as proof Democrats “get it”?
Fuck no.
Free public housing. Rent is crushing us. The for profit home/apartment building corporations have failed at their job. Even if you are most gracious and say they are held back by red tape, guess who can cut through it?
This is a housing crisis. At least in the judge dredd universe they had the mega cities…
Free isn’t really realistic at the scale we need it. We can make it free for people who are that destitute, but most of us just need housing at a reasonable rate.
Luckily, if I spend 30 million dollars to build 60 bachelor or couples units I can easily reserve a few for that. And the other 50 units will easily cover the cost of the building, maintenance, and remodels, over the next 50 years. Just charging them purely “at cost” would amount to about 1,500 dollars a month. And that’s in the places where it’s expensive to build. So other rentals are going for 3,000 for bachelor’s and couples in that area and the net effect is to drop an anchor in the housing market there.
Half a million per unit? Average apartment construction cost in Shanghai is ~$52.3/sqft, that’s a bit under $50K/900sqft 2bd apartment. Elsewhere in China is cheaper.
When you centrally plan what resources will be needed at what price and what the completed apartments will sell for, you get much cheaper and higher quality apartments than the paper thin walled engineered lumber 5-over-1s we pay half a million for.
US cities have literally paid organizations more than that per year per person for tent camps.
I’m quoting from some of the most expensive real estate in the US. While we might get some savings from economies of scale, it’s important realize that doing this purely on the market could save Americans 50 percent on their rent.
It’s low hanging fruit at this point.
Well said. I think they get that things have gone too far, but just don’t care / don’t know how to make it better at this point. And Dems definitely aren’t interested in listening to good ideas from the left, so…here we are.
Not really, it’s more like Dems give 5-10% of what they promise, and everything else is robbing from the working class to further cement the established power structure. That 5-10% is normally supposed to keep a lid on open revolt, but at a time when housing prices have doubled and food costs have tripled, that’s just not enough anymore.
Yea pretty much, Rs will line their pockets in the cruelest way possible through hate and fear and won’t even bother with breadcrumbs
Ds will line their pockets, but try to make sound policies and make gradual improvements that balances corporate interests with the peoples interest.
The sound policies are “too complicated” for the average voter and the whole “gradual improvements balanced against corporations interests” piss off those on the further left (Hence the whole bLuEmAGa bullshit)
There’s no balancing. It’s the people’s interests if a corporation isn’t inconvenienced.
That’s correct. This is a rather old post when Dems had power but kept getting cock blocked in Senate Trump mostly won because he said yes and stupid people ate it up, so you version is much more apt for today.
Biden did more to help the working class than any president in my lifetime. People are too stupid or don’t pay enough attention to realize it.
You’re not wrong but their messaging was shit and Kamala did not run on Biden’s wins. She ran on his losses.
Also most progressive US president is a really low bar lol.
People are too stupid or don’t pay enough attention
Biden ended a bunch of CARES Act provisions that benefited working families and children. Medicaid enrollment was cut. The monthly paid out child tax cut extension was ended. Mandated Paid Sick Leave ended.
That’s what people were stupidly noticing.
Meanwhile, greedflation jacked up the prices of consumer goods straight into 2023. Biden Dems were angry when people refused to stop paying attention to prices that outpaced salaries, while the Feds twiddled their thumbs.
Medicaid enrollment was cut.
By Congress, not Biden, though the Consolidated Appropriations Act as a demand by Republicans.
The monthly paid out child tax cut extension was ended.
Again Republicans voted against the reauthorization because they didn’t want to hand Democrats a “win”.
Mandated Paid Sick Leave ended.
This was only ever intended to be temporary as it only applies when there was federal or state quarantine in effect. Democrats in the House introduced the Healthy Families Act which would guarantee all workers 7 sick days a year. The act was filibustered by Republicans in the Senate.
Democrats are not the problem here.
Democrats are not the problem here.
no amount of facts are going to sway the ‘but both SIDES BAD UNNHH’ no matter how much you try to rub the data in their stupid faces.
A plurality of morons voted directly against their own best interests or there was some gigantic, undetectable fraud. Either way, country’s fucked.
It’s hilarious that you replied to a comment about people “being stupid or not paying enough attenrion” and showed everyone you are one of those people.
The Legislative branch was responsible for the criticism you aimed at Biden, and guess what? Republicans controlled the House, and in the Senate, there are 49 Republicans, 47 Democrats, and 4 Independents.
Which means the Democrats had no legislative power at all in the House, and no meaningful power in the Senate.
Do you even know who introduced the CARES Act? Joe Courtney, a Democrat.
Do you even know who introduced the CARES Act? Joe Courtney, a Democrat.
Who signed it?
Biden? Are you sure it wasn’t the fuckwit Republicans in Congress? You might want to check your sources.
It’s true that inflation outpaced wages, but this was only for a period following Covid. And while everyone pointed out when inflation pulled away, no one seemed to notice when wages bounced back.
Tens of millions of deaths globally will inevitably cause supply chain issues, and no amount of fiscal policy will prevent that scarcity. So people have to pay more for the same value. But things also recovered under Biden to more than compensate for that deficit. Here’s the growth rate of inflation and wages over the past four years:
To people literally dying of corporate capitalism, Harris’s mantra was, “Look at these charts, people — everything’s pretty good!”
I would say it’s more like, “Things aren’t as bad as the right would have you believe, and we have actually done a lot to prevent it from being worse.” She didn’t pretend America wasn’t struggling. I remember her talking about the rising costs of groceries frequently, and she advertised the planned first time homeowner tax credit as something intended to make housing more affordable. Trump’s solution was instead deporting a lot of residents working jobs that generated a lot of value relative to their wage, and making pretty much everything more expensive with tarriffs.
And this is why we lost. People are screaming for help, and Democrats just said “you’re wrong, everything is actually fine. It’s all in your head. Biden actually did help you! You were just too uninformed to notice it.”
People act like Democrats were just ignoring what people wanted, while Republican politicians and judges were blocking them every step of the way. Just look at how many ways Biden’s school debt relief plans were defeated.
People act like Democrats were just ignoring what people wanted, while Republican politicians and judges were blocking them every step of the way.
Joe Manchin was a Democrat when he blocked BBB. He was a Democrat when he killed the expanded child tax credit and doubled child poverty in the US overnight. Sinema was a Democrat when she delivered the thumbs down that remains the party’s last word on the minimum wage.
We saw Democrats get in their own way over and over during this administration.
Ordering us to be happy when we saw what happened is no different than ordering someone who can’t afford groceries to be happy that the economy is working great for billionaires.
Manchin wouldn’t have mattered if there weren’t dozens of Republicans voting against it too.
Republicans voted with their party.
So did Manchin.
The Republican party is the problem. Manchin is irrelevant.
Manchin did what you wanted him to and so you’re deflecting.
Just look at how many ways Biden’s school debt relief plans were defeated.
Because Biden did it in ways the judges could block. Per the Department of Education, the executive has the authority to simply delete the debt and dare the judges to create new debt out of thin air.
He really doesn’t have that authority and the supreme court would have shut that down even faster.
He really doesn’t have that authority
He does, per Harvard Law School
supreme court would have shut that down
There’s not much the scotus can do once it’s already been deleted.
If they order Biden to just create new records of debt, he can ignore them. Even attempting that would help create political will to marginalize the SCOTUS. Not that Biden would never pack the court, because “it would make it political”
Because Biden did it in ways the judges could block
What options are available?
Per the Department of Education, the executive has the authority to simply delete the debt
That doesn’t seem to be the case as “The president … can forgive debts only when Congress authorizes it” [1].
The president has the power to order the Department of education to delete the debt…
It doesn’t matter if the courts later turn around and go “that was illegal”, the debt is already gone and watching them try to create it out of thin air would be a wonderful tool to destroy the political legitimacy of the right-wing courts.
The president has the power to order the Department of education to delete the debt…
any sources to back this up? stating it as fact does not make it one.
Absolutely fucking right.
"Your doctor won’t be able to offer you prenatal care or freeze your eggs for fertility treatment!
“I can’t afford rent or eggs and you think I have a DOCTOR? You think I can afford to even think about having a kid?”
“Look at the stock market though!”
Biden did more to help the working class…
What’s he doing right now?
Hiding under the desk?
That desk is carrying America, sir, show more respect
Biden did more to help the working class than any president in my lifetime.
Here’s how strikebreaking is actually good for the working class!
You mean the strike where Biden kept working with the union and got them what they wanted?
They wanted more than Biden took credit for.
in my lifetime.
So we can safely assume you’re at least 8 years old since Obama obviously did less somehow despite literally being more leftist and having an entire social health program named after him.
Obama was really not that progressive once in office.
That’s some complex math you did to orient the subject to the guy you obviously don’t like and want us to agree with you about…
Imo they were all trash and have been since Carter, gold-star failures all around. I dunno, that one could play the Sax alright, but that’s about it.
They all kept pot illegal, they all kept the drug trade going with negligence, they all kept wars going or ignored the warning signs of wars to come and instigated inequality. I’m not entirely certain Biden has even said the word trans despite you all shoving it in his mouth. Fuck the lot of the trust-fund wastes of space.
Decriminalizing marijuana isn’t something that the president can do through an executive action. Unless Congress does it (which was always unlikely), it requires the Justice Department to propose rescheduling followed by acceptance from the DEA (which is part of the Judiciary). The Biden administration has worked to reschedule it to schedule 3, which would make it legally available with a prescription. The DEA hearing for this was delayed to early 2025 however. It’s also worth noting that Biden pardoned and released thousands of people from federal prison for marijuana possession around a year ago.
Expecting the US to prevent other countries from going to war would require a level of intervention that could only be called imperialism, if it would even be possible. I would argue doing so would be endorsing oppression in some cases. Peace is an important goal but the price for it can only be so high.
I feel like the Biden administration actually accomplished a lot over the last 4 years against heavy resistance but no one wants to give them any credit. I was not expecting much but have been impressed whenever I look into things.
The president appoints the head of the DoJ and DEA. Just appoint someone who says “I’ll hold the hearing and we’ll have the judgement within the hour”. Instead they appointed someone who scheduled the hearing for after they’ll have been kicked out by Trump’s guy. There is no way to read that as anything but they never intended for it to be rescheduled at all.
Expecting the US to prevent other countries from going to war would require a level of intervention
Or just not sending them the weapons they’re using to carry out that war.
The president appoints the head of the DoJ and DEA. Just appoint someone who says “I’ll hold the hearing and we’ll have the judgement within the hour”. Instead they appointed someone who scheduled the hearing for after they’ll have been kicked out by Trump’s guy. There is no way to read that as anything but they never intended for it to be rescheduled at all.
I would consider that corruption. People should be appointed based on competency, not dogmatic loyalty to the person appointing them. Sidestepping the review process would open it up to challenge and set a precedent that would allow it and other drugs to similarly be casually reassigned based on the whims of whoever is in power in the future. It’s also almost certainly illegal, since the process for reassignment was part of the laws passed from Congress. Additionally, Biden first instructed the Attorney General to re-evaluate its scheduling in 2022, so it didn’t just start now. The review process just takes a long time I guess, but it’s fair to assume it hasn’t been a priority.
Or just not sending them the weapons they’re using to carry out that war.
If you mean Gaza, that started long before Biden’s presidency, and Hamas instigated the most recent conflict. If you mean Ukraine, that also started before Biden’s presidency, but I would consider leaving the country to conquest from Russia to be abandoning a responsibility to safeguard peaceful nations’ sovereignty. I would compare it to European nations appeasing Hitler by allowing him to conquer Austria and Czechoslovakia without consequences.
People should be appointed based on competency, not dogmatic loyalty to the person appointing them
People should be appointed based on what the people elected you to do, anything else is a betrayal of the constituents. If someone voted for you because they believed you would reschedule cannabis, and you don’t get it done, that is a betrayal of your voters.
Sidestepping the review process would open it up to challenge and set a precedent that would allow it and other drugs to similarly be casually reassigned based on the whims of whoever is in power in the future
And then they will face electoral consequences.
The review process just takes a long time I guess, but it’s fair to assume it hasn’t been a priority.
The review process takes as long as the head of the DEA wants it to.
Hamas instigated the most recent conflict
Israel instigated the conflict by ethnically cleansing a million Palestinians and driving them into Gaza, and then building a wall around it and responding to peaceful protests such as the march of return by shooting doctors, women, and children.
They were only able to do this and are only able to continue to do this because of American weapons and diplomatic support.
I would compare it to European nations appeasing Hitler by allowing him to conquer Austria and Czechoslovakia without consequences
The western allies who gave up Austria and Czechoslovakia were expecting consequences; they were expecting Hitler (and Poland, who also got territory from Czechoslovakia) to invade their common enemy, the USSR.
In any case, there’s a good chance we’ll get to see the consequences under the next administration. Spoiler:
spoiler
Russia isn’t going to invade Europe.
I blame bernie for the good stuff myself.
We’re still drowning, but at least he tossed us some water wings.
It’s complicated. Tl;dr: they’re both true.
What has he done for the working class?
From a 2 second google search: Biden’s policies that have helped the working class include the American Rescue Plan, which provided direct financial aid and extended unemployment benefits, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which aims to create good-paying jobs. Additionally, efforts to strengthen unions and raise the minimum wage have also supported working-class Americans.
But but Biden gave 11 billion dollars to Intel!
Name one thing the US Government has done in your lifetime that you support.
One.
ACA.
But it could have been better. Like ALL things done, they are never perfect, they are never everything I want because I’m not the only person in the country, but if it moves the needle in the right direction I support it.
I don’t believe you are interested in a fair discussion.
Okay?
