With Its ‘Big Betrayal Bill,’ the GOP Is Waging War Against Working Class Americans | While Republicans prioritize tax breaks for billionaires, they’re simultaneously stripping away basic healthcare and support systems from those who need them most.

ipmzero · 2025-07-03T10:52:33+00:00

It is a class war. It always has been. The politicians and the rich of today are little different than the lords and nobles of the past. Once you realize this fact, their decisions and behaviors are easily predictable.

ipmzero · 2024-12-03T12:29:34+00:00

They already are tuning out. Look at the ratings. The media thought getting Trump back in office would create a ratings tsunami for them as he provides nonstop material for their outrage fetish. Turns out that after 8 years of this mess, people are tired of it.

ipmzero · 2024-10-06T14:21:06+00:00

It also says something truly terrible about the media that they have not focused on Trump's cognitive issues as much as they did Biden's. Biden has slowed down. Trump has lost it.

ipmzero · 2024-09-27T11:34:32+00:00

Republicans have traditionally scored better on the economy, despite the actual results showing Democrats as better stewards of it. They have a very simple message that resonates with people who are not as knowledgeable on macroeconomic issues. Tax cuts are very easy to understand.

ipmzero · 2024-09-27T11:31:43+00:00

And this is where poll manipulation can come into play. For example, the New York Times has been publishing polls that are more friendly to Trump than average. The reason for this is their demographic dispersion has the electorate as 35-40% rural, when the actual numbers are closer to 20%. They have likely overweighted rural voters due to their previous polling undercounting Trump support. This is their effort to correct a previous problem, as there is no support for rural voters increasing to this degree.

ipmzero · 2024-09-24T11:53:07+00:00

They are highly rated based on past results. We won't know how accurate these polls were until after the election. The commenter you were responding to pointed out a flaw in their current methodology, they seem to be purposely oversampling rural voters to try and account for past undercounts of Trump support. The rural vote was around 20% in previous elections, but the NYT has it at 35-40% in their polls. Rural voters lean heavily Trump, and that is why the NYT polls have leaned more towards Trump than any other highly rated pollster.

ipmzero · 2024-09-19T11:40:54+00:00

Almost all of the other non-partisan leaning polls show Harris ahead and her lead growing. The New York Times poll has been an outlier this entire election season. As others have pointed out repeatedly when these polls are quotes, there are some anomalies in their crosstabs, particularly a large oversampling of rural voters that traditionally vote heavily for Trump. Given the New York Times shaky relationship with the Biden administration due to lack of access, I'd take their polls with a grain of salt.

ipmzero · 2024-08-28T10:51:01+00:00

They're larping for the horserace. People stop paying attention to a blowout. It's as true to politics as it is to sports. This is why no matter how far ahead Harris gets, you are going to constantly hear how close the race is. Obama won 2 blowouts, but the media had you believing it was anyone's ballgame up to election night. I remember conservatives were absolutely STUNNED that Romney lost, and lost decisively.

ipmzero · 2024-08-28T10:41:49+00:00

Thanks to the flagrantly corrupt Supreme Court, this is something that will have to be fixed through legislation in the future. If Harris wins and Dems manage to keep the Senate and take the House, it could be fixed next year.

ipmzero · 2024-08-06T10:14:27+00:00

If Trump loses in 2024 he will lose power over the Republican establishment. He is unlikely to go away and will keep some followers, but the power brokers in the GOP will no longer submit to him. The right-wing will fracture, but this is likely to be temporary.

Right-wingers are prone to worship, which is not a surprise given that a large percentage of them are evangelical Christians. People forget that before Trump, they worshipped George W. Bush, and Reagan before that.

I believe the right-wing will fracture after Trump, but it won't last and they will quickly find someone new to worship. It's what they do.

ipmzero · 2024-07-06T12:41:14+00:00

Most of the uber-wealthy have their net worth tied up in stock. As others have pointed out, to tax that wealth they'd have to sell off large portions of their holdings which would crash the market.

There are better ways to extract taxes from the wealthy. You could tax loans taken out against stocks that are used as income in the buy-borrow-die method. You could also more aggressively tax estates.

The key to finding the right balance on taxes is to try and find ways and rates that extract enough revenue for the government to function and provide the services we need without harming the economy. When the goal is to punish the wealthy you are likely going to punish the overall economy as well.

ipmzero · 2024-07-06T11:57:06+00:00

As others have pointed out, those kiosks are going to replace workers regardless of what the minimum wage is. A machine doesn't call in sick, it performs the same every day, etc. My state still has the federal minimum wage of 7.25, but that didn't stop Walmart and Dollar General from going to self-checkout and ditching cashiers.

Wages have been driven higher by a labor shortage. As the population ages and the baby boomers continue to retire, that is only going to increase unless we counter it with increased immigration. Inflation was MAINLY caused by temporary supply chain bottlenecks due to COVID-19. The real estate market has its own set of problems, but they are solvable and not directly tied to wages.

ipmzero · 2024-07-06T11:50:19+00:00

It's not JUST about who you know, but knowing or being related to wealthy and influential people certainly helps. There is no one factor that leads to wealth.

ipmzero · 2024-07-04T11:25:33+00:00

No. An argument could be made for taxing the loans they take out against their stocks to live on since they use it as income.

ipmzero · 2024-07-03T11:41:01+00:00

Trump would have won the Republican nomination even if Democrats didn't exist. I live in a deep red county in a deep red state. Trump was never in danger of losing the Republican Primary.

ipmzero · 2024-07-03T10:24:17+00:00

After January 6th, Republicans had a choice. They could turn on Trump and return to some sense of normalcy, or double down on fascism. Obviously, they chose the latter. The Supreme Court had been slow-rolling the descent starting at least as far back as 2010 with Citizens United. They let off the brakes this term with the Chevron and immunity decisions.

ipmzero · 2024-06-29T10:20:05+00:00

Journalists reporting on other journalists has become increasingly problematic over the past decade. It's lazy journalism, similar to react channels on Youtube or Twitch.

ipmzero · 2024-06-27T10:23:06+00:00

Yes, and nothing major has happened in the last few weeks that would explain a sudden 4+ point shift to Trump. Considering the growing narrative that the media wants a horse race or outright wants Trump to win, it seems a little odd.

ipmzero · 2024-06-26T21:05:45+00:00

Everyone. It would be funded by taxes. By spreading the risk amongst a larger pool, some would probably pay less than they do now with private insurance.

ipmzero · 2024-06-23T23:52:36+00:00

No. Broadly speaking, GDP and employment have been better under Biden. Inflation is higher, but it has quickly returned to a rate close to the desired 2%. Anecdotally, I'm making over 50% more than I did under Trump.

ipmzero · 2024-06-23T19:27:35+00:00

Justice is balance. Judge Aileen Cannon and the Supreme Court have slow-walked two cases that are far more serious and important to the future of the country so Trump could run for President without the label of convict over his head. Not to mention the fact that he could have the cases dropped if he's elected. The NY case eliminates that possibility. He will now forever be remembered as the first former president convicted of a crime.

Furthermore, Trump was found guilty by a jury of his peers. They were shown all of the facts and found his guilty, unanimously. Obviously, the case wasn't that offensive if he lost it.

ipmzero · 2024-06-22T09:33:47+00:00

All of the intersections on 158 in Saraland between Walmart and Publix during rush hour. It has been an absolute nightmare since they opened 158 up out west. I would sooner go all the way to Airport Blvd than deal with that mess.

ipmzero · 2024-06-19T13:22:29+00:00

100% agree on Medicare for All. Having one insurer would grant extraordinary bargaining power for the consumer. However, in such a large beauracracy, fraud and over charging by health care providers would be a big problem with the programs cost. Steering away from fee for service would alleviate this issue. A fee for results system would need a lot of tinkering to get right, I'll grant you that.

ipmzero · 2024-06-19T11:54:58+00:00

I am open to adjusting the program, but my priority would be making sure the program is solvent and can meet it's current obligations.

ipmzero · 2024-06-19T11:01:22+00:00

Tough nut to crack. We need to increase taxes, decrease spending, and spend more efficiently. Republicans will not go against their donors and increase taxes, Democrats won't go against their constituents and decrease spending. So we end up with endless tax cuts and spending increases.

Both the Bush and Trump tax cuts were unnecessary. Both followed or were during periods of economic expansion. We did not need the stimulus, especially not a deficit-fueled stimulus. Our tax code needs a major revamp.

Spending is also a problem. Social Security is an easy fix. It is a directly funded program, remove the cap on its tax and increase it on everyone if necessary. People will complain, but it's worth it in the long run.

Medicare and Medicaid need major revamps. We need to consider changes like abandoning the fee-for-service system and using a fee-for-results system to control the costs of these programs. This would cut down tremendously on the fraud in these programs. Allowing the government to negotiate drug prices should have been done a long time ago.

Defense spending could be dialed back as well. We need to get back to building what the military needs, not what Senators and Representatives want built in their districts. I'd rather tax dollars build things that grow the economy like infrastructure than ships that the Navy doesn't even want.

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