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True, does have extended unemployment so that helps. Does anyone know what's in the proposed funding for schools/education? Don't think it's raises but maybe more ipads etc. for remote learning? COVID-19 stimulus: Trump holds back on $908 billion compromise deal - Business Insider Quote:
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I'm glad to see the news about Fauci. The man deserves something for the work he put in this year in the face of Trump.
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Maybe John Delany's proposal will get traction: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/03/1500...ould-work.html |
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"creating the incentive (e.g. checks) to get vaccinated". If someone is in a group that is up for vaccination, and that person doesn't want to be vaccinated ... my take is that person goes to the back of the line. According to Nov 17 Gallup poll, 58% would take it (an increase from a Sep poll where it was 50%). Dems are at 69% and Reps/Ind are at 49%. Once everyone is vaccinated that wants to be vaccinated and enough time has passed, then tell those that get sick (the 42% unvaccinated) that treatment is no longer free. FWIW, I think the poll understates willingness to take the vaccine. It should have asked are you willing to take it in the first month, second month etc. I bet many of the 42% unwilling would show up in the second or third month after they see there is no zombie apocalypse. https://news.gallup.com/poll/325208/...d-vaccine.aspx |
Supposedly a breakthrough in Quantum computing and also planting a flag on the moon.
Biden, I sure hope you take the China threat seriously vs Quote:
China is not Japan. And China has far surpassed Japan by now. Forget Russia, China is the #1 external threat to us (thanks Nixon & Kissinger). |
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While a seemingly good idea, I wonder how it would hold up constitutionally. |
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What's your reasoning? |
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6-3 conservative SCOTUS. |
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Quite honestly, isn't this similar logic to a clinical trial where people are reimbursed, but here you are incentivizing people to get vaccinated. It is still a choice though, not sure how the SCOTUS would intervene to strike it down. |
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Guessing anti-vaxxers and religious folks would claim it discriminates against them. The ACA arguments will probably be similar here. Republicans have been more or less pro-virus and I don't see any reason to believe the courts would turn against them. |
I'm sure many republicans will be encouraged to not take the vaccine so that Biden has to deal with Covid his entire term. It's under 50% nationally among republicans.
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A WP analysis on the demographics. Sorry, it's behind a paywall but I think one of the better breakout. It compares how Biden did vs Hillary and how Trump did in 2020 vs 2016.
It's pretty long so I'll summarize the graphics. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graph...ges-2016-2020/
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Trump made gains on (1) key minority blocks (2) increased the #17. 30-44 group only and (3) Trump increased the #31. $100K+.
I understand #31. Puzzled about #17, it would seem they would fall in the #30. $50K - $100K group which went to Biden. The reason for Blacks, Hispanic/Latinos and Asian increased isn't addressed in the article. Biden still won those groups by large margins but would like to understand why there was increased support for Trump. |
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for cubans and (older) asians, it's because trump is anti-china. |
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Not sure I see the Cuban tie to anti-China? Maybe the more hardline (vs Obama) against Castro-regime. But yeah, I can see Asians because of anti-China and can see south Asians (e.g. Indians) because of the strong Modi connection. There wasn't an age breakdown between the Hispanics/Latinos, Asians and Blacks. If Trump's surprising strength in FL with Hispanics/Latinos was because of his harder stance on Castro-regime, I'm guessing it's with the older folks. I do hope Biden goes the Obama path towards Cuba. I'd like to see an increased outreach, normalization & aid etc. and I would love to travel to Cuba to check it out. |
I thought this was an interesting read. It's a FB post from 7:19pm yesterday. The writer is in his early 80s. I know him because he's the father of a good friend of mine from home, and was a donor to a ministry I led in my home town. He has been a delegate at the RNC multiple times, including 2016 and, I think, 2020, and is currently an active member of the local Republican Party. (Pretty sure he was the local Party chair at one point.)
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Related to the "we lose again" bit, I just Googled him, and he is quoted on a news site from Columbus on November 8th as saying "...President Biden should be congratulated and I'm willing to do that..." He is later quoted on December 3rd, after the recount as saying he fully trusts the folks in charge of the election in Muscogee County, who had just certified that Biden won my home town by 19,000 votes. I just think this is a fascinating juxtaposition of normalcy (full public acknowledgement that Biden won, full understanding that the vote isn't rigged and that Rs should vote in the ruoff) with what many here would consider to be fringe/crazy beliefs of conservatives about the liberal agenda. (FWIW, this individual doesn't represent the Biblical conservative Christians from my home town that I've referenced previously. He's pretty much as theologically diametrically opposite of my closest friends and me as you can be and still be a Christian. Full-on Arminian, and dispensationalist to boot.) |
Fear is a powerful tool.
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Related, my mother-in-law recently sent my wife a long, sad, doom-and-gloom text that was so over-the-top that she just texted back Philippians 4:8 and told her mom that she needs to stay away from all news for a while. Lowlights of the text included how powerful the Deep State is that it could cheat its way to victory, how Biden is nominating people who believe no one should live past 75, and that they're going to sell their condo in the mountains (a retreat that brings both of them true joy,) because it will lose so much of its value when Biden destroys the economy. :( |
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Let her know I'm looking for a good deal. Assume Blue Ridge/Appalachian Mtns? :) |
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It's how we have a million different religions all fighting to dominate one another. |
And yet it seems somewhat reasonable compared to Trump's warnings that black people are going to come and steal white farms.
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It's the whole democrats = socialists/communists schtick there's been a lot of pro-trump foreign propaganda on youtube and facebook that's been popping up within the last two years |
Another maddening aspect of it is normalizing the crazy and both-sides-ism. Like when the left screams things like "putting kids in cages", "killing people through pandemic ineptitude", "violently putting down protests", and "trying to steal an election" - that's happening in broad daylight. Like it's happened in the last year and/or is happening right now - there's not really debating that these are actually happening. Oh sure, someone might try to parse "pandemic ineptitude" (but other places have people dying, too!) or whatabout "Obama with kids in cages" (except, of course, it was only done for suspected child trafficking, etc, when it was thought the kid was in danger vs clearly as a matter of course now). But when we objectively look at it - these are fears because of what we are seeing happen right now.
Whereas if we look back to the Obama administration just 4 years ago, where Biden was VP, gun control got looser, taxes went up only if you were among the richest (and they're going up in 2021 for everyone because of how Trump/GOP structured their BS tax cut by design), the Dems can't get their own caucus to agree on a Green New Deal much less get it across the aisle, and the Iran deal was not "GOP wants Iran to not have the bomb while the Dems want them to" - it was (still is) a disagreement over how best to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Maybe one or two of those things change. But, man, if Obama was half the liberal he was made out to be, the liberals would like him a lot more as a President than they do as a person and a symbol. SI |
Still too close to call (or be comfortable), but according the 538 polling both Dems are ahead.
(But who really trusts polls anymore) Latest Polls Of The Georgia Senate Runoff Elections | FiveThirtyEight |
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Nobody and hopefully Dems get out and vote. In any other time I would not mind a republican senate with a Dem Whitehouse, but that ship has sailed and I think at least one of them HAS to win, with the hope that Biden can influence 1 or 2 of the more moderate republicans to cross the aisle on important votes. Of course both winning would be ideal as it would force McConnell to play nice and Biden will not exploit an advantage as much as much as this admin has tried to. |
The problem with McConnell as majority leader is that he can just keep bills from getting debate. That and the filibuster would make it impossible for any coalition to pass bills without Mitch's personal approval.
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Yeah, I just about read that as both Republicans are up by 3. The thing that throws a monkey wrench in that is the turn-out question. Whereas in the past Dem turn out in special elections in Georgia sucks, and the GOP has the most consistent voters, I don't know if we might see the norms stand on their heads here. Dems smell blood in the water, and are highly motivated. The Republicans feel their votes didn't count in the general. |
The recent Athens(?) DA race showed good GOP turnout.
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Yeah, Des won, but the GOP turnout was good.
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Don't know anything about Austin but apparently Biden has worked with him before as VP. Good that he is adding so much diversity to his cabinet.
Tradition (?) says he should be adding a Rep to his cabinet. Wonder who and what position that'll be. Quote:
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That is a great pick for Sec of Def. I would assume he will pick a rep for a low profile cabinet pick so not AG but who knows. |
I wish we weren't going back to a recently retired General for Sec Def.
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Why?
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I fear we're eroding the concept of civilian control of the military. We don't need back to back administrations with the military running itself.
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Considering the damage Trump did, Biden is gonna have a lot of fires to put out. Plus considering Trump put all his cronies in the budgeting committee, I think a military person would have no challenge gutting them whereas a private citizen would be construed as political. |
Looking like Doug Jones, losing Alabama Senator gets the "Lucky Loser" prize-leading candidate to be Attorney General
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To me, that's the big problem. The Pentagon can't have veto power over decisions if made by a civilian. |
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He is going to have to get a waiver from both the House and Senate to even be able to face nomination. I think he might not get that waiver. Dems that stood against Mathis are already saying they are not going to agree to give Austin a waiver. I think his nomination was a mistake. |
I guess we are back to the game of chicken part deux. McConnell seems to be punting liability protection to next year as well as state & local government support. Don't know who has the upper hand right now.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/08/coro...greements.html Quote:
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Interesting:
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I like Yang but it creeps me out that so many white nationalist types seem to be his biggest cheerleaders. Is there a reason beyond UBI and his interviews with Rogan and other like minded "centrists"?
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I've come to the opinion that about the only thing that matters for the NYC mayor is if the police union will work with you.
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Rogan and Tucker led to his explosion on 4chan, who then went through his tweet history and latched onto anything the felt was a secret nod to the white nationalist movement. |
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NYPD runs the city and it would be a waste for him to be Mayor. |
Mayor Pete for Ambassador to China? That is unexpected.
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He speaks Chinese, right? (He probably speaks Chinese. Or if he doesn't, will by next month.)
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Buttigieg does not speak Mandarin (or any other Chinese languages).
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Was mostly joking, but wouldn't have been surprised.
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Dems aren't allowed to govern. |
Another cabinet position filled. Don't know much about her but the read below looks promising re: China. My sense is using WTO is long, drawn out affair full of political minefields and blah-blah whereas Trump took the more direct approach. But yes, need to get economic allies onboard with whatever strategy we plan.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/10/bide...sentative.html Quote:
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If Biden does anything, can he fix this? Auditing the wealthy would more than pay for itself instead of attacking poor people who can't afford to defend themselves for peanuts.
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Well they do have a point - wealthy folks would lawyer up and drag shit out forever. Increasing funding for the IRS would help. Adding to that and changing priorities would as well. |
This isn't an accident. The GOP has been stripping the resources away in hopes that the IRS will stop working.
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https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/09/polit...ion/index.html
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hun...-investigation https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/09/hunt...ver-taxes.html I'm surprised no one has been discussing this here? Maybe I missed it because I am only checking this forum a couple times per week now. Seems like the social media probably shouldn't have been censoring this when they did prior to the election. I don't really care to share my thoughts on all of this but I am interested to see where this goes and how the media chooses to cover this. |
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Hunter did come up prior to the election as a possible October surprise but it didn't seem to make any headway with a "corruption/illegal" tie to Biden. My guess is Hunter did leverage his connections with dad (who wouldn't), probably did something unethical, fair chance it was probably white-collar illegal. Unlikely Biden was a bad guy here. But agree. This should be investigated and let it all come out. |
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If the IRS could be self-funded, they would easily be able to handle it and have an incentive to target the biggest tax cheats. You can argue the same with the SEC. It should easily pay for itself and then some as a deterrent. This was a conscious decision to allow those in a higher income bracket to not have to abide by the same laws as the rest of us. |
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Just make them all "acting". Precedent has been set by Trump. I also can't imagine every Senator would go along with this. Romney likely wouldn't. Hard to imagine Murkowski would either. There are still some moderate Senators out there. Don't they just need a couple votes to approve? |
I'm pretty sure Dems would need 60 votes as McConnell has no reason to kill the filibuster for appointments.
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Seeing Times person of the year is Biden/Harris. Trump gonna lose it.
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Kindof was hoping for Fauci. Trump still would have lost it... just differently. SI |
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Agreed. There is a chance this will turn in to something and it needs investigated. I won’t be surprised if it ends up being more unethical than illegal, though. I think the reason the story didn’t get much traction is sort of like the boy that cried wolf. Trump and his surrogates throw such a large volume of statements and accusations out, many of them ridiculous and/or patently false, that a majority of folks have tuned it out. So when something is valid, there is no way to discern it from the rest of the BS that is out there. |
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Wise, necessary, and also some A+ trolling on multiple levels.
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I don't it matters what Hunter did unless Biden assisted/drove it somehow. That's why it didn't stick prior to the election because there was no/little evidence. Biden played it right by being a supportive/protective dad even with Hunter's stupid ass laptop fiasco. Nevertheless, IMO it's okay to have this investigation. The findings may be embarrassing to Biden, Hunter may get fined etc. and the GOP will try to tie the "corruption" to Biden, but knowing Biden (he genuinely seems to be a straight shooter), I'm not worrying too much about it. If I was the GOP, I'd start digging up Kamala Harris' past to setup for 2024. Politics. |
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True. They need a pic of that happening as well as taking out the trash bags. |
And leaving the gold toilet on the front curb for garbage pickup.
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I'll take the bait. I am not sure what there is to discuss. 1. Biden Jr. is the one who announced the investigation. That may be just good PR but there is no grand announcement from the The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware probably makes it less of a big deal. 2. I only read the FOX article because I figure they are most likely to give the most fair and balanced coverage. According to that article, the President-Elect is not being investigated. 3. Beyond 1 and 2, there is basically nothing new between the linked article embedded in the story that was published on October 21 and the article published on yesterday. Large passages of the article are almost copied word for word including the copies of documents. 4. I think the vast majority of the board believes that if the President's or President Elect's offspring is taking advantage of their parent's position for personal gain, it should be investigate to see if criminal activity has taken place. If it were not being investigated or road blocks are have been placed to prevent an investigation, well that might generated a bit more discussion, no? The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware is investigating Hunter Biden, good. To this point, the Biden team has not put any road blocks in the way to hamper the investigation. I am hoping this is an investigation about the search for illegal activity and not one meant to distract from the Biden presidency. If it is a sincere investigation of the former, then spend the government resources to gain and indictment, a conviction and dole out punishment. If it is about the latter then it is a disgrace. |
I think a lot of the board believes that whatever they find, it'll be fine, guilty or not guilty, it should be handled in the correct application of the law. The board also believes that it's rather ludicrous that given the entire nature of trump's own children living their entire lives off of his name, that the shock and disgust that the right feigns toward Hunter Biden is complete and total hypocrisy.
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Anything a not-part-of-the-administration adult child of any President does, be it criminal, charity, or anything in between, is tabloid junk that holds little/no interest to me, unless the President is personally involved or if it happens to affect my family's day-to-day life (highly unlikely.) I didn't care about Chelsea, the Bush daughters, Obama daughters, or the Trumps who aren't in the White House. Put that stuff where it belongs: in People Magazine.
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exactly. " OMG, kids with rich and powerful parents get preferential treatment based on their last name!!! Story at 11." |
There's a huge overlap between people who believe Hunter Biden's taxes should lead to prison for him and Joe and people who believe Trump should pre-emptively pardon his children for any crimes that might have been committed.
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Speaking of cognitive decline, Diane Feinstein has been in the news. Assume this is real.
If she ultimately resigns soon, it doesn't hurt Biden because Newsome will be appointing a Dem replacement? If Newsome was a Rep, this would be more interesting (and Harris for VP may not have happened). |
I guess no surprise but disappointed. Big immigration reform is not a top-top priority. I'd do big immigration and small climate change myself.
Biden Immigration Plan May Fall Short Of Activists' Demands : NPR Quote:
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The people who passionately want immigration changes by and large didn't vote for Biden. Climate change has a zillion times more impact on the world so I think that's the right priority.
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The rumor now is Mayor Pete for Secretary of Transportation.
Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk |
Based on what I have seen over the past several months Hunter is clearly the most degenerate presidential family member I can recall off hand in my lifetime. Roger Clinton and Neil Bush rounding out second and third.
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The $908B is broken out into 2 bills. Unsure why but my guess is so each can be voted separately as the second one may be the most contentious. Let's pass them and move on for now, add on if needed or if there is political will after Biden becomes President and new Congress is sworn in.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/14/coro...-released.html Quote:
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Billy Carter!
Yes, I'm old. |
It’s sad when stealing charity money from cancer patients doesn’t even land Eric Trump in the top 3. I guess he’s still young and has time to climb the list.
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If making money based on your family name and then being less than completely honest gets you on the list... |
"Based on what Newsmax and OAN are saying..."
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McConnell officially uttered the "P-E" word.
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Penis Envy? |
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At least the Trumps are winners on the most corrupt and dirty relatives of Presidents (some respect for Tiffany for being like nope on the [direct?] grift factory, though)! |
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Pink Epidermis? |
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And now getting back to the topic at hand ...
Second stimulus check doesn't look good. But I found Buffet's interview interesting. Never thought to compare it to imminent domain. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/15/kell...ck-update.html Quote:
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And we now have a Transportation Secretary. I guess a good, relatively low key, stepping stone for Mayor Pete.
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Looks like something is going to happen. Great day in the markets. Let's hope it gets done this week.
https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/...3035d547478649 Quote:
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$600 stimulus checks are in the works. I can't find details on who would be eligible but assume they will be targeted vs everyone.
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We don't have the ability to target checks very effectively. For example, it isn't possible to send out checks to people who have lost their jobs because neither the federal or state governments have that info. We could send to people on unemployment, but that misses all the people that are out of work but not on unemployment. I think targeted money would be better, but if we can't do that I'd rather give money to too many people than too few.
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The people in the top half of incomes are generally doing fine or even better than before COVID, but the bottom half is getting crushed. Weekly unemployment claims have been worse than the worst week of the Great Recession since March. The unemployment rate is still at the same point as the worst level in the Great Recession. I think this can turn around quickly in the summer, but at the moment we're converting temporary unemployment into permanent unemployment. If we don't help people get past this the results will stick with us for years.
Which, I fear, is the GOP plan/hope. |
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Right send it out. And have it on taxes for those making over $100k or something. Folks need money now. We can sort out the 'targeting' later - heck, if we could have gotten this done a month ago, we could have skipped the targeting with the knowledge that even well off people would likely use the extra funds for Christmas gifts (which would help businesses). |
I say send it to everyone. The people who truly need it will put it to good use and hopefully people who don’t need it put it back into their local economy. For example I needed reading glasses. Usually I would just get a cheap pair at cvs. Instead I bought a $200 pair from my eye doctor to support her.
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This, we basically donated our first stimulus checks to local businesses that were closed, or in the form of big tips for employees to split when restaurants could only do pick up, or buying groceries for friends on furlough. I think a lot of people that don't need the money have and will do similar things. |
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I agree with this. Renters can pay rent, people with student loans can pay their loans, unemployed won't get forgotten etc... |
No mention of Trump's payroll tax relief and making it permanent.
I guess discussions will (has to) happen sooner or later next year with Stimulus III. |
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