The Politics Thread

[DramatistDreamer]

Over and over and over.

 

[Khan]

And the more the coronavirus outbreak spreads throughout this country, the more volatile the markets will become, as recessions, bankruptcies, job losses, foreclosures, etc. are now all but done deals.

 

Now, granted, Donald Trump did NOT create the coronavirus (although, his administration could have done a much better job minimizing its' effect on us, if not keeping it at bay).  But, in a way, @marceline was right yet again.  The Republicans always wreck the economy.  Always.

 

And while I never want to be accused of being a conspiracy theorist or of knowing what God is thinking, I don't think it should be ignored how the coronavirus is affecting disproportionately one segment of our population -- namely, the baby boomers and their elders -- who have backed this administration from day one.

Edited March 18, 2020 by Khan

[Vee]

 

[DRW50]

The cultists are eating that up. They're also spending lots of time and energy telling us how badass Trump is and how Pelosi has ruined the Democrats. Oh and of course reminding us how terrible Obama was. 

 

 

They are desperate for Trump to win. They know most of this is a mirage and they are still peddling it. 

[xtr]

I see a lot of people are understandably upset about the stimulus plan not getting passed right now. Many of them are posting on Twitter under the #PeoplevsPelosi trend. They are blaming Nancy Pelosi for reportedly being against a cash transfer for Americans, because it's being reported she wants to do means testing. I do agree that means tested is not the best way to try and get the payments to people, for lots of reasons. Here are some of the reasons that were highlighted by this post on Twitter:

 

 

 

 

 

Most people could definitely use the extra money especially right now with people losing jobs and a lot of uncertainty going on in the economy due to the coronavirus:

 

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/18/refusal-pelosi-consider-universal-cash-payments-response-coronavirus-pandemic?amp&__twitter_impression=true

Edited March 19, 2020 by xtr

[DRW50]

I'm glad you brought more details into this whole conversation because I don't really understand how it works. I think Democrats know they can't get away with "free money" (as that's how it would be spun if Pelosi were pushing the idea) so are being extremely cautious. I wonder if Trump is saying all this never planning to give money because he knows it will make Democrats look bad. I'd certainly appreciate some money but I have a hard time believing it will ever happen, and if it does, there will be a kick in the ass coming at some point after. 

 

You're really doing a great job trying to frame this for us - I can only contrast to the idiots on Twitter who help us lose elections every 2 years.

 

 

[Roman]

Khan Noonian Soong was the tyrant that started the Eugenics Wars on earth  in the 23rd century, before being defeated and...

oh. you're not talking about that Khan are you?

sorry.

[xtr]

Thanks.

 

I think that Nancy along with some other people who support means testing are worried that money will be "wasted" on the rich people in this country if universal income is supplied to everyone.  But I think that if the best way to make sure most Americans get some extra (and often times much needed) financial help is to also to give the rich a check,too, so be it, IMO. In the grand scheme of things there are way more people who could use this money than there are rich people. And the rich can always donate their money to Charity or put it back into the economy if they choose. (And I believe that some of them will do that.) Means testing could help a lot of needy people fall through the cracks and will take more time, than distributing checks for Americans.

 

One of the suggestions that I saw it was reported Nancy suggested would be to do refundable tax credits. That could benefit people in the future, but that's not going to be of much help right now for a lot of people. A lot of people have already filed their taxes this year, especially people with families. And usually tax returns with refundable credits taken longer to process, because often times the IRS is holding them over long due to checking for things fraud. For example the IRS didn't really start processing returns with Earned Income Credit, Additional Child Tax Credits/Education Credits until February 15 this year. (Returns that fall underneath the PATH ACT) 

 

Even if people with these types of returns filed them as soon as the IRS opened on January 27th. And not too long ago, the IRS told people that they were holding some of these types tax returns for at least an additional 45 days, after the Feb 15th date.. (And I've heard as high as 60 additional days from people. I've seen reports about these things at work). It could be quite a while before people get a refundable tax credit due to this. And if they have those other credits, it could prolong their refund even more. 

 

If Nancy wants to do a refundable tax credit for next year's return in addition, to cash payments, I think that would be fine. (And I did see somewhere on Twitter, she was open to that, but still wanted to do means testing.)  But I think think it's best if people aren't means tested for this. 

 

I hope they can get this passed, I think they could if people are more cooperative. It actually seems like Trump is in favor of this. I read that Andrew Yang was actually in contact with him about this. (Which I think makes sense, given Andrew was one that was really pushing for this earlier when he was running for president.)

Edited March 19, 2020 by xtr

[DramatistDreamer]

Sounds like Bernie had something of a McCain moment with that response to Raju.

[Vee]

She's learned fast.

 

 

[Vee]

 

[Roman]

NOW the word on the checks say they'll take 3 weeks.

[xtr]

 

Yeah, I just read hey would like to get checks out within the next three weeks I also read that the Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is saying right now they are looking at plan to possibly give every american adult $1,000. If people have children they could get an additional $500 for each child. And then six weeks from now if this still a crisis there could a second disbursement of $1,000 for each adult/another $500 for each child. Here is an article talking more about this. And also what financial help may also be given to some businesses/industries:

 

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/488412-mnuchin-americans-could-get-two-coronavirus-stimulus-checks-within-9

 

 

[Faulkner]

 

[Roman]

thank you so much. what is The idiot saying on tv? i refuse to watch.