Presidential Election Aftermath: What Now / What Next?

Also, @therealdeal, taxes are just the very simple and uncomplicated way you can identify your money going out the window.

How about your family's pharmaceutical medication being more than double the rate it should be because the pharmaceutical lobby pushed a bill through congress to prevent importing Canadian drugs, therefore preventing price competition? How about the meat you buy being grown on smaller and smaller land because corn subsidies make growing corn and putting corn in everything much more lucrative, artificially inflating the price of all sorts of food.

There are lots of ways we are getting screwed, taxes are just the obvious one. The others are much more subtle, insidious, but add up to making our live much harder because our money doesn't go as far as it could if lobbyists weren't running the government.

 

I agree with you, but I'm not sold that Sanders will fight them off. So what will happen (in my opinion) is Sanders will raise our taxes AND we'll still pay for all those other things. Except corn subsidies, I think that'll die with whatever president we get. That was one of the stupidest subsidies I can remember... I don't know what they figured would happen...

 

What would be the scenario where a president could fight them off in your opinion?

To me, it's very simple. Either the president signs an executive order preventing lobbying (which might get him/her assassinated) and reverses corporations being people (the stupidest thing ever), or small incremental steps in the right direction with a president, and a few Congress people that support the move with the backing by the citizens.

I can tell you nothing will change if we don't elect people that at least profess they want it to happen. Bernie, unlike Obama, has 40 years of historical evidence that he will do as he says, and has always done in trying to change the lobbying system, and he can because as president, he's beholden to no one except the people.

 

Honestly I couldn't tell you what it would take from me. I'm completely disillusioned with the political system. Like I said further up ^^ I think the whole system needs to be brought crashing down. It'd take a brave, brave person to stand up to billions of dollars, but that's what we need. I don't know if I trust a 74 year old politician that's been around so long that his hands by default are dirty. I know he's got legislative history to back him up, but I just don't trust people in the system anymore.

Similarly to the way you like Bernie, I like Cruz because EVERYONE hates him.

If everyone hates him, he's doing something right because the people they like, I hate.

 

I like that Sanders might fight off the lobbyists. But it's everything else that scares the crap out of me with him. I'm like Realdeal when it comes to this bulls--- rob from the rich and give to the poor nonsense cause it's not the rich they are taking from. Sure they give some, but for people like me where our household income is over 150k, I get taxed at a criminally high rate. I live in Orange County, CA where 150k is more like 75k in Lincoln, Nebraska. We get paid a little more to account for the higher cost of living here, but the government doesn't take that into account when they tax us. My wife and I work 40-50 hours a week at skilled jobs. We both graduated from college...but a significant cut of our checks are given to people who made horrible decision after horrible decision because politicians know they can secure the poor vote by making them think they are stealing the money from greedy, corrupt multi-billionaires. They don't show people like my wife and me who live in a modest house with a small backyard and don't have hardly any extra cash lying around. Sanders may fight lobbyists, but he's just using a different bulls--- tactic of lying to the poor by making it seem like everyone who is rich needs to be taken down. So what if he doesn't succumb to lobbyists? He's still a crook and a manipulative liar.

f*** Bernie and his "angelic, altruistic plan" to redistribute (steal) the money people legally earned and give it to people who probably made countless horrible decisions in life to put them in the positions they are in. So many of these poor people are in the positions they are in because they did idiotic things. And America's youth who is eating this redistribution crap up? They're supposed to be poor! When did the world decide that people fresh out of college or even high school should be making so much money or "deserve" to have the things people who are in their 40's worked their entire lives for? Bernie is a piece of s--- like all of them. He's just fishing for votes by being dishonest in a "different way" than the politicians that cater to the lobbyists. It's like all the other politicians want to kill a person using a sledge hammer while Bernie wants to do it by using a chainsaw. Yes, he's different, but he's still a bucket of dog s---.

 

Lobbyists are the #1 worst problem in this country and, behind the shadows, the real reason why you don't feel you have enough money, because your money doesn't go very far because of them artificially increasing your debt and costs of living, but....

I feel like a good part of what you're saying is buying into the narrative spin of Socialism rather than looking at the facts of what Bernie has proposed.

Fact is this country is falling behind the rest of the world and that doesn't get fixed by business as usual. Bernie's said where he will get the money for all of the programs he's promoting. Primarily reducing military spending (the big one there), making corporations that don't pay taxes like GE and Time Warner pay their taxes as they should, etc, etc. Aside from the fact that there's no way every program he wants to do get's through congress, none of that targets your tax bracket for huge increases. Will taxes increase for you? Yeah. Any and every presidential candidate will do this. Somehow that has been spun into taking from the middle class to give to lazy people that do nothing but sit around and collect money all day. I've never seen any program he's talked about raising welfare, or food stamps.

He's proposed free college tuition, which this country needs in order to compete in the world. We're sinking in world status here. Our education system is terrible compared to other countries, and part of that is loan debt being impossible for a lot of people to pay off. The countries with the highest living index all have free or incredibly affordable (in comparison to the US) schooling.

He's proposed raising the minimum wage. Yeah, if you work a 40 hour week, you should be able to pay a reasonable rent and put food on the table.

This "Bernie wan't to take my money and give it to people that do nothing" is in no way indicative of the facts of what he's proposed or even programs he's endorsed that I've seen.

What actual programs have you seen him endorse or propose that support your view?

 

Bernie thinks Climate Change is our biggest threat. Not ISIS. Not a $19 Trillion debt. Not the fact that more people are out of the work force..... more children are living in poverty.... more people are on government assistance.... than at any other time in our history. Climate Change. Sorry, I can't vote for him if that's what he thinks. Because I know where he's spending my tax dollars. Solyndra anyone?

 

This topic was brought up just a few minutes ago during the debate, and Bernie said Campaign Finance Reform is the #1 problem for the country and that is his 1st priority if he got in office.

I agree whole heartedly.

 

I'm not watching the debate. That might be the #1 issue for politicians, but I doubt he can fix that. If that's his #1 goal, or problem to fix if he's elected, I applaud him. I really do. But hungry kids, jobs shipped overseas to avoid taxes, and that ever growing debt are bigger issues, IMO. Rome wasn't built in a day. One issue at a time and hopefully he or whoever is elected, can fix things.

 

Campaign finance reform goes a long way to fixing all of that. Making decisions based on your constituency rather than your top campaign donors, changes every priority for every Legislator.

 

So you're a fan of trickle down economics? Welcome to the Republican Party.

 

In case anyone still doubts Hillary is paid off scum, check out this video of Elizabeth Warren doing the rounds...

Wait for it

 

A good example of what I was saying about lobbyists and corporate tax loop holes f***ing with your money. This should be an outrage because all of us are picking up the slack:

 

I'm not a fan of Elizabeth Warren, but that took real guts to blast Hillary like that.

 

Rubio said those exact same words last night. I like Rubio, but Christie made him look bad last night.