

#641
Posted 03 March 2021 - 12:01 PM
"Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices" Voltaire
#642
Posted 03 March 2021 - 01:00 PM
Traveler, on 03 March 2021 - 12:01 PM, said:
Politically that's going to be a tough one. "So you mean we did everything right and came out of this by scraping and scratching but there are other states that didn't so they get free money?" I look at the distribution of that money as a political minefield. Not that I disagree that it should be very much needs based, just that it's likely to be a shit show.
"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."
"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer
""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer
#643
Posted 03 March 2021 - 01:46 PM
LFC, on 03 March 2021 - 01:00 PM, said:
I understand the anger about it, but the people living in the states are going to suffer. While you can blame them for electing contemptible people I don't think that punishing them is going to change a thing in terms of who they vote for next time. And maybe, just maybe we need to get away from the Calvinist thoughts about who is "deserving" and who isn't, particularly when the "undeserving" always seem to be people of color.
#644
Posted 03 March 2021 - 01:54 PM
"Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices" Voltaire
#645
Posted 03 March 2021 - 05:02 PM
LFC, on 03 March 2021 - 10:47 AM, said:
The thing is, those restaurants, etc. that are still shuttered in lots of places[1] soak up food, supplies, adult beverages,...
Concur re the housing-related stuff, up to a point. Real estate seems to be flying, and so does the stuff associated with home maintenance. Roofers seem to be in high demand such that we can't get the outfit that did ours a few years ago to take a look at something -- they're too busy with re-roofs or new construction. We had our walks & patio pressure-washed about 2 months ago, and that took some doing to get scheduled. I'm not so sure about what I would call the "interior frou-frou" -- things like re-decorating, re-upholstering couches, carpeting, that involves workmen entering dwellings for lengthy stretches.
[1]Not so much here in Flori-DUH...BUT the theme parks here (Disney, eg) aren't operating anywhere near their usual seasonal levels, meaning the ancillary hotels, restaurants, shops, and entertainment venues, limo services, ad infinitum, are operating at well below their usual levels, too.
(About fame) Living for likes, shares and follows is a form of validation. The question is whether it is also the source of our self esteem. If it is, we’re screwed. And, culturally, it seems as if it’s become more and more our shared value. ... Meringue is no longer a sweet and pretty topping but the body itself. ~Charles Perez
The trouble is that editors and their journalists are simply employees of large profit-seeking corporations whose executives have no idea of what "truth" is; only "ratings" or "clicks" or share price. ~Rich T Bikkies, 10/1/2020
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." --Thomas Jefferson to Charles Yancey, 1816. ME 14:384, via LFC, 12/1/2016
Competent people go in one of a few directions. But incompetence is infinite. ~David Brooks, NY Times
#646
Posted 04 March 2021 - 11:48 AM
Quote
Moderates like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) have been insistent on “targeting” the checks more, to make sure the aid goes primarily to low-income people that need it badly.
“We’re just looking for a targeted bill, want it to be very targeted, helping the people that need help the most,” he told reporters earlier this week when asked if anything in the COVID-19 relief package needed to be changed to clinch his vote.
There are no senators to spare in a 50-50 Senate, and the Biden administration has to cater to Democrats like Manchin to get the bill passed. But the compromise means that some people who got checks from the Trump administration now seemingly won’t get them from the Biden administration.
Now, as in the original version of the bill, single people who earn up to $75,000 will receive the full $1,400. Those who earn between $75,000 and $80,000 will receive a partial amount of that money. But those earning more than $80,000 will get nothing. Previously, people earning between $75,000 and $100,000 would get some partial amount.
For couples who file taxes jointly, those who make up to $150,000 will still receive the full amount. Couples earning between $150,000 and $160,000 will get a partial amount. But those earning more than $160,000 will get nothing. In the original bill, couples earning between $150,000 and $200,000 would get a partial check.
Those new exclusions mean that about 12 million fewer adults and 5 million fewer kids will get the direct aid checks, according to the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Some of those people got checks under the Trump administration and will be boxed out this time.
To many observers, the politics of the change are incomprehensible. It risks angering or alienating people who got checks last time, and for what? The cuts save about $12 billion, one Democratic aide told the Washington Post — out of a $1.9 trillion bill. That’s 0.6 percent of the whole package. Democratic aides told Slate that the maneuver may also help keep the Senate Finance Committee’s part of the bill under the budget cap allowed by the reconciliation process.
But progressive Democrats and political observers questioned whether these seemingly minor trade-offs were worth it.
“I don’t like that this is being narrowed,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) told reporters. “I feel like the survival checks are the easiest, simplest, most popular, populist, proposal.”
"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."
"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer
""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer
#647
Posted 04 March 2021 - 11:53 AM
LFC, on 04 March 2021 - 11:48 AM, said:
It is a performance of independence. I suspect most bills need to have room in their provisions for such performances because otherwise the whole bill could fail. Bills are the results of negotiations both before they are introduced and in the hearing and voting process.
#648
Posted 04 March 2021 - 05:39 PM
Quote
First up is a reading of the freshly released 628-page Senate version of the bill. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) requested the reading of the bill, and he has predicted that the stunt will drag things out for additional 10 hours. (The clerks who are actually in charge of doing the reading think that they will be able to get through it much more quickly.) Once the reading is done, there will come another 20 hours of floor debate.
Then the Senate will move on to what’s known as “vote-a-rama.” During vote-a-rama, lawmakers can put up as many proposed amendments to the bill for a vote that they want. Republicans are talking a big game for how many amendments they have planned and are promising that this vote-a-rama will last longer than the last one, which clocked in at about 15 hours.
After the vote-a-rama, the Senate will get to take the vote to formally pass the legislation. Then the bill will have to go back the House for a vote, because of the tweaks the Senate has made to it, before heading President Joe Biden’s desk.
"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."
"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer
""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer
#649
Posted 07 March 2021 - 06:01 AM
Traveler, on 03 March 2021 - 12:01 PM, said:
LFC, on 03 March 2021 - 01:00 PM, said:
Then just cut aid to states that don't want it. Have every governor come right out and say whether they want this aid or not. The old "put your money where your mouth is" adage.
How can I be expected to distinguish BS from reality when so much of my reality is utter BS?!
#650
Posted 08 March 2021 - 08:22 AM
"Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices" Voltaire
#651
Posted 08 March 2021 - 08:43 AM
Then the Senate will move on to what’s known as “vote-a-rama.” During vote-a-rama, lawmakers can put up as many proposed amendments to the bill for a vote that they want. Republicans are talking a big game for how many amendments they have planned and are promising that this vote-a-rama will last longer than the last one, which clocked in at about 15 hours.
After the vote-a-rama, the Senate will get to take the vote to formally pass the legislation. Then the bill will have to go back the House for a vote, because of the tweaks the Senate has made to it, before heading President Joe Biden’s desk.
Nice try Senator but you stepped on your poncho !!
The GOP thought it was over when the reading was finished at 0200. BUT...they left the Democrats in charge
The Senate was originally set to begin 20 hours of debate on the bill Friday, but at the end of Thursday's session, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., motioned for the chamber to reduce the debate time to three hours. With no Republicans left in the chamber shortly after 2 a.m. ET on Friday, Van Hollen succeeded.
Got that? Once Senate Republicans left. Maryland's Chris Van Hollen stuck around, asked to shrink the floor debate on the relief package from 20 hours to three. Republicans intended to use as much of the 20 hours as possible, in part to drag this out, and in part to attack the popular legislation.
Why the debate on the relief bill will be shorter than the GOP hoped (msnbc.com)
Rev Martin Luther King Jr.
Obamacare took my guns away and put me in a FEMA reeducation camp
Anonymous
If you've got public schools paid for by taxpayers, you're in a socialist nation. If you have public roads paid for by taxpayers, socialist nation. If you've got public defense (police, fire, military, coast guard) paid for by tax dollars, socialist nation. If you're in a nation that has nationalized or localized delivery of services that are not paid for by users alone, you're in a socialist nation- the only question is how socialist. As I see it, we pay the military pay to protect the shipping lanes for our fuel needs which makes us very socialist. In a capitalist nation, the people supplying the oil would pay for their own defense force.
DC Coronata
“I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.”
Margaret Thatcher
(Select anyone who gets blind loyalty from followers/voters) "...is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life."(Manchurian candidate)
"I can't go out because of the virus" sounds whiny and boring. I'm going with: "I've sworn an oath of solitude until the pestilence is purged from the lands." because it sounds more valiant and heroic. As a bonus, people might think you're carrying a sword.
FB posting
Its theorized if you put enough monkeys together with typewriters, eventually they'll write Shakespeare. But first, they write Trump speeches.
FB Posting
Calumny is only the noise of madmen. — Diogenes
When you have no basis for an argument, abuse the plaintiff. Marcus Tullius Cicero
What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate.
Donald Trump"... I will tell you that the future of this country has never been better."
Pres Donald J Trump, Joint Base Andrews 1/20/21
I get it. They had a guy ratf**k the post office. They filled the courts with hacks. They spent a ton of money. They filed so many lawsuits. They even started a riot ! It’s so unfair that they went to all that trouble and still lost. Anonymous
#652
Posted 08 March 2021 - 10:20 AM
Traveler, on 08 March 2021 - 08:22 AM, said:
Since federal tax dollars come mostly FROM blue states my reaction is, so what?
"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."
"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer
""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer
#653
Posted 11 March 2021 - 06:17 PM
Quote
Over the past month, lawmakers in Kansas, Michigan, Florida, Georgia, and other states have all suggested that $350 billion in aid to state and local governments could be used to finance state tax cuts.
Mississippi and West Virginia are pushing outright elimination of the state income tax, with legislators around the country tying the push to the Biden stimulus bill.
“You would be looking at a very large tax cut for businesses that are trying to reopen in this state, which I think would be very stimulus in nature,” Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson ® said in a March 2 press conference.
But last-minute legislative maneuvering in the Senate may have rendered that impossible.
The American Rescue Plan now stipulates that states receiving the money cannot use it to “offset a reduction” in tax revenue due to any law passed during the time that the funds are available — from now until 2024.
That provision aims to ban the stimulus money from financing new tax cuts.
“In most cases, these were the same income taxes being proposed last year and the year before that,” Richard Auxier, a senior policy associate in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, told TPM. “But now, there’s an infusion of cash that could offset them.”
He added that the stimulus package had provided a brief window for many states to fund the deep tax reductions, apart from the usual justification of rapid growth thanks to low tax rates.
“What’s troubling is that the tax cut stays around, and this is a one-time infusion of funds,” Auxier added.
The move has already enraged some state legislators who were banking on billions of dollars financing deep cuts.
"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."
"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer
""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer
#654
Posted 12 March 2021 - 02:35 PM
Quote
But in sending a letter to the country’s governors and mayors, Scott created an enemy that he didn’t expect: Gov. Ron Desantis ® of his own state, who on Monday lashed out at Congress for failing to give Florida enough.
“The Senate didn’t correct the fact that Florida is getting a lot less than what we would be entitled to on a per capita basis,” DeSantis said.
Scott, as head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is charged with ensuring his party’s fortunes at the Senate level in the 2022 elections. But the American Rescue Plan, Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID package, has broad public support.
Instead, Scott appears to be trying to convince states and cities to undermine the plan itself by rejecting $350 billion marked for them. He demanded that the money only be used to reimburse specific pandemic-fighting measures, and not for any deeper investments in infrastructure or economic development.
Scott pivoted to an austerity-based argument that has been widely debunked but which Republicans have wielded in the past as a cudgel against Democratic priorities.
“By rejecting and returning any unneeded funds, as well as funds unrelated to COVID-19, you would be taking responsible action to avoid wasting scarce tax dollars,” the letter reads. “After all, every dollar in this package is borrowed.”
Yeeeahhhhh, sure. Austerity. Now THERE's a Republican value ... right up until it means giving piles and piles of deficit funded payola to their wealthy donors. Spending it on a large swath of actual Americans? That's socialism!!!
I can hardly wait to see how that plays out in Florida.
Quote
"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."
"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer
""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer
#655
Posted 12 March 2021 - 02:58 PM
LFC, on 12 March 2021 - 02:35 PM, said:
Yeeeahhhhh, sure. Austerity. Now THERE's a Republican value ... right up until it means giving piles and piles of deficit funded payola to their wealthy donors. Spending it on a large swath of actual Americans? That's socialism!!!
I can hardly wait to see how that plays out in Florida.
Is it ideology or just a desire to own the libs that leads to this sort of proposal? He's certainly not taking care of the state by urging rejection of money to help them.
#656
Posted 12 March 2021 - 03:37 PM
golden_valley, on 12 March 2021 - 02:58 PM, said:
Both.
And DeMinimis was all set to use the stimulus $$ for...wait for it...TAX CUTS!
(About fame) Living for likes, shares and follows is a form of validation. The question is whether it is also the source of our self esteem. If it is, we’re screwed. And, culturally, it seems as if it’s become more and more our shared value. ... Meringue is no longer a sweet and pretty topping but the body itself. ~Charles Perez
The trouble is that editors and their journalists are simply employees of large profit-seeking corporations whose executives have no idea of what "truth" is; only "ratings" or "clicks" or share price. ~Rich T Bikkies, 10/1/2020
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." --Thomas Jefferson to Charles Yancey, 1816. ME 14:384, via LFC, 12/1/2016
Competent people go in one of a few directions. But incompetence is infinite. ~David Brooks, NY Times
#657
Posted 12 March 2021 - 06:01 PM
Bact PhD, on 12 March 2021 - 03:37 PM, said:
As I noted up here the Dems put in provisions to head that off at the pass. Republicans howled because the money would actually have to go to projects that help the people rather than mostly just their wealthy donors. If there's one thing that passes as a Republican principle it's that money must flow upward. Tinkle down economics cannot fail and if it looks like it has then we just aren't tinkling enough.
"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."
"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer
""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer
#658
Posted 12 March 2021 - 10:49 PM
It should be clear who the beneficiaries should be.
#659
Posted 13 March 2021 - 07:45 AM
I'm sure you've heard it all by now: "Only 9% is earmarked for COVID. The rest is pork"
Harking back to The Carson Show: "Not so fast, man in the moon breath !!"
From the article:
No. While a very small part of the bill is actually labeled for things like COVID testing, protective gear, treatments, vaccines and distribution, a large portion of the bill goes to stimulus programs addressing the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which itself has been highly critical of the bill, estimates a little more than 15% of the package “is spent on long-standing policy priorities that are not directly related to the current crisis.”
That would mean almost 85% of the bill’s funding is toward projects related to COVID relief, a far cry from the 9% made in claims.
www.wkyc.com/article/news/verify/covid-relief-bill/507-1af72abc-696c-408c-afae-034b5692d10d
Rev Martin Luther King Jr.
Obamacare took my guns away and put me in a FEMA reeducation camp
Anonymous
If you've got public schools paid for by taxpayers, you're in a socialist nation. If you have public roads paid for by taxpayers, socialist nation. If you've got public defense (police, fire, military, coast guard) paid for by tax dollars, socialist nation. If you're in a nation that has nationalized or localized delivery of services that are not paid for by users alone, you're in a socialist nation- the only question is how socialist. As I see it, we pay the military pay to protect the shipping lanes for our fuel needs which makes us very socialist. In a capitalist nation, the people supplying the oil would pay for their own defense force.
DC Coronata
“I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.”
Margaret Thatcher
(Select anyone who gets blind loyalty from followers/voters) "...is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life."(Manchurian candidate)
"I can't go out because of the virus" sounds whiny and boring. I'm going with: "I've sworn an oath of solitude until the pestilence is purged from the lands." because it sounds more valiant and heroic. As a bonus, people might think you're carrying a sword.
FB posting
Its theorized if you put enough monkeys together with typewriters, eventually they'll write Shakespeare. But first, they write Trump speeches.
FB Posting
Calumny is only the noise of madmen. — Diogenes
When you have no basis for an argument, abuse the plaintiff. Marcus Tullius Cicero
What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate.
Donald Trump"... I will tell you that the future of this country has never been better."
Pres Donald J Trump, Joint Base Andrews 1/20/21
I get it. They had a guy ratf**k the post office. They filled the courts with hacks. They spent a ton of money. They filed so many lawsuits. They even started a riot ! It’s so unfair that they went to all that trouble and still lost. Anonymous
#660
Posted 15 March 2021 - 04:35 PM
Quote
"Thanks to the pandemic, the tendency of the wealthy socking away their money appears to be getting worse," reported Dion Rabouin. "A recent survey from Pew Research found that Americans have cut back on spending, especially at upper-income levels, over the past year. 32% of 'upper income' adults said they were saving more since the pandemic began, compared to 23% of all respondents and 17% of 'lower income' adults."
The report also found the trend in the business sector: "Cash holdings for S&P 500 companies rose to a record $1.9 trillion, while cash and investments held by U.S. nonfinancial companies rated by S&P Global rose 30% to a record $2.5 trillion in the first half of 2020."
For a variety of reasons, lower-income households save a far lower fraction of their money. This is a key reason why there has been strong support in polls for ensuring that the relief in the just-passed American Rescue Plan is means-tested, with more money going to lower-income households.
"That's the problem with being implacable foes - no one has any incentive to treat you as anything more than an obstacle to be overcome."
"The 'Road to Serfdom' is really all right turns." --Progressive Whisperer
""The GOP ... where every accusation is also a confession." --Progressive Whisperer
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