Current Affairs General US politics (ie, not POTUS related)

Status
Not open for further replies.
dylsexicbleu said:
It'll almost certainly pass. Spending will remain eye-wateringly high for the foreseeable future. Govt spending took a massive jump during COVID. As I understand it much of this spending jump is now pretty much baked into the Fed spending cake for each future year. I don't expect the House GOP to play hardball over anything. Hold the government by the balls if you ever have the chance. You'll probably never have the same chance again.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't be so sure. We've seen that, in no universe does it get to 218 on Republican House votes.

Then, it has to get to 60 in the Senate.
 
dylsexicbleu said:
It'll almost certainly pass. Spending will remain eye-wateringly high for the foreseeable future. Govt spending took a massive jump during COVID. As I understand it much of this spending jump is now pretty much baked into the Fed spending cake for each future year. I don't expect the House GOP to play hardball over anything. Hold the government by the balls if you ever have the chance. You'll probably never have the same chance again.
Click to expand...
Just curious where you stand on military spending?
 
dylsexicbleu said:
Other than times of war military spending should be substantially cut. The US is in a major proxy war in Ukraine right now so I assume such a cut would be difficult.
Click to expand...
agreed.
I just cant see how there's little or no oversight when it comes to military spending and education, health and anything else that might help out the regular joe, gets slammed.
If they spent as much time trying to streamline the amount of money they give Lockhead Martin as they do poor people on stamps, we might be in better shape.
 
Ruairi77 said:
agreed.
I just cant see how there's little or no oversight when it comes to military spending and education, health and anything else that might help out the regular joe, gets slammed.
If they spent as much time trying to streamline the amount of money they give Lockhead Martin as they do poor people on stamps, we might be in better shape.
Click to expand...
See, much of the spending on education, health etc is entirely wasted. Education being a bugbear of mines. As long as teaching unions have as much power as they do not one effing improvement will be made in education no matter how much money you throw at it. I know it's a different subject but I read recently that San Fran has for the past few years spent a billion dollars or so yearly tackling homelessness. It's not made the slightest inroad to the problem of homelessness in the city. It's all a big box ticking scam for someone to a) make money/power for individuals and groups or b) feel good about themselves.
 
dylsexicbleu said:
See, much of the spending on education, health etc is entirely wasted. Education being a bugbear of mines. As long as teaching unions have as much power as they do not one effing improvement will be made in education no matter how much money you throw at it. I know it's a different subject but I read recently that San Fran has for the past few years spent a billion dollars or so yearly tackling homelessness. It's not made the slightest inroad to the problem of homelessness in the city. It's all a big box ticking scam for someone to a) make money/power for individuals and groups or b) feel good about themselves.
Click to expand...
Ah but making defense contractors wealthy beyond their wildest dreams isn't something worth looking into, aye?

What power to teaching unions have exactly? Teachers certainly don't get paid well. As such, your best and brightest, generally, don't go into teaching. Because you can make a better buck in corporate America. It's a self fulfilling prophecy, the fact that education is failing in this country
 
Pittsburgh Footy said:
Ah but making defense contractors wealthy beyond their wildest dreams isn't something worth looking into, aye?

What power to teaching unions have exactly? Teachers certainly don't get paid well. As such, your best and brightest, generally, don't go into teaching. Because you can make a better buck in corporate America. It's a self fulfilling prophecy, the fact that education is failing in this country
Click to expand...
Eh? Where did I say any of this about defense contractors? Maybe I'm being naive but I generally believe that a substantial cut in military spending will reduce such unwanted expenses; that military eggheads will insist on only the most necessary expenditure but I fully realise some waste will probably still get through.

Having said all that I don't believe a substantial cut in education spending would see a similar cut in waste. The unions and their Dem allies would see to it. So maybe I am wrong in assuming a cut in military spending would reduce waste or contractors enriching themselves. See the teaching unions dragging their heels over schools reopening after COVID as an example of their power. Oh, and if teaching doesn't attract the best and the brightest then further reason to cut their power.
 
dylsexicbleu said:
See, much of the spending on education, health etc is entirely wasted. Education being a bugbear of mines. As long as teaching unions have as much power as they do not one effing improvement will be made in education no matter how much money you throw at it. I know it's a different subject but I read recently that San Fran has for the past few years spent a billion dollars or so yearly tackling homelessness. It's not made the slightest inroad to the problem of homelessness in the city. It's all a big box ticking scam for someone to a) make money/power for individuals and groups or b) feel good about themselves.
Click to expand...
Right, much like cops, it seems like it's pretty hard to fire a really bad teacher. Unions need to act responsibly and work with the communities in both cases but unlike defense, education seems to be primarily locally funded.

And homelessness is a huge problem but is the direct result of raw capitalism.
The only way to reduce the homeless crisis is to spend on public healthcare, education, and affordable housing.
Most homeless in our city suffer from chronic addiction problems and there is little or no systems in place to deal with the revolving door system.
They end up overdosing on the streets, using the ER, then the hospital has to pick up the bill so everyone elses bills go up so insurance premiums go up because the shareholders of the hospital and insurance company need their dividend.

So the addict gets booted back out on to the street because the GOP have cut any social spending and the right wing neighbors have objected to safe injection sites. And people like the Sacklers pay next to no tax and have zero accountability because they're buying off the politicians.

Basically, the main job of the new GOP politician is to convince Americans that the poor are to blame and not the rich because the rich are paying for their new boat.
 
Ruairi77 said:
Right, much like cops, it seems like it's pretty hard to fire a really bad teacher. Unions need to act responsibly and work with the communities in both cases but unlike defense, education seems to be primarily locally funded.

And homelessness is a huge problem but is the direct result of raw capitalism.
The only way to reduce the homeless crisis is to spend on public healthcare, education, and affordable housing.
Most homeless in our city suffer from chronic addiction problems and there is little or no systems in place to deal with the revolving door system.
They end up overdosing on the streets, using the ER, then the hospital has to pick up the bill so everyone elses bills go up so insurance premiums go up because the shareholders of the hospital and insurance company need their dividend.

So the addict gets booted back out on to the street because the GOP have cut any social spending and the right wing neighbors have objected to safe injection sites. And people like the Sacklers pay next to no tax and have zero accountability because they're buying off the politicians.

Basically, the main job of the new GOP politician is to convince Americans that the poor are to blame and not the rich because the rich are paying for their new boat.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the measured reply. I would say homelessness is primarily a mental health problem not primarily a problem of resources. I would be foolish to suggest these type of issues are significantly better in Republican run areas but it appears to me the problems are especially high in areas where they throw the highest resources at these problems. Again, maybe I am wrong. A few more years of Dem cities and states spending more money will see things like mental health, drug addiction and homelessness problems alleviate. However, I suspect not.
 
dylsexicbleu said:
Thanks for the measured reply. I would say homelessness is primarily a mental health problem not primarily a problem of resources. I would be foolish to suggest these type of issues are significantly better in Republican run areas but it appears to me the problems are especially high in areas where they throw the highest resources at these problems. Again, maybe I am wrong. A few more years of Dem cities and states spending more money will see things like mental health, drug addiction and homelessness problems alleviate. However, I suspect not.
Click to expand...
of course it wont because it needs to be a universal approach.
If you're homeless and suffer from mental illness and have chronic addiction issues, are you likely to want to live in a republican city with zero support structures and heavily armed and overzealous law enforcement or a democratic one that at least seems to want to set up some sort of support structure and the cops are less heavy handed.
One of the main factors of major homeless problems in US cities is the other cities cracking down.
There needs to be a federal approach to homelessness that deals with funding mental health issues, helping the undocumented communities, provide proper health care for those who fall through the net.
There has to be some sort of system that circumvents the credit system and there needs to be an end to for profit prisons and any felon who's served their time needs to have full rights including voting.
 
dylsexicbleu said:
Thanks for the measured reply. I would say homelessness is primarily a mental health problem not primarily a problem of resources. I would be foolish to suggest these type of issues are significantly better in Republican run areas but it appears to me the problems are especially high in areas where they throw the highest resources at these problems. Again, maybe I am wrong. A few more years of Dem cities and states spending more money will see things like mental health, drug addiction and homelessness problems alleviate. However, I suspect not.
Click to expand...
Talk about not understanding correlation vs causation.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Welcome

Join the Everton conversation today.
Fewer ads, full access, completely free.

→ Log in 🔑 Register
🛒 Visit Shop

Support Grand Old Team by checking out our latest Everton gear!
Back
Top