Alexandira Ocasio-Cortez is a result of Trump

I'm well aware you think of yourself as independent. Yet from what I see many of your opinions are very Republican.

 

It's not a mystery at all, once you see how much of a stranglehold the progressive socialism has on academia and the media. Their influence grew stronger and stronger since the 70s as they've stealthily took it over. But conservatism and the political right are also responsible for this too. For the last few decades they've been very lazy and out of touch with the younger generations of X and Y. While the left has been busy working at taking over culture through education and entertainment, conservative media has been off on the sidelines writing articles for magazines and newsletters that not many people read. Like CATO or the Mises Institute.

You're talking to a guy who's grandpa was a surgeon who used to provide free house calls for those who couldn't afford it. A doctor who'd accept hunting & fishing lessons as payments from his patients who were on skid row. The 1950s were a time when healthcare was much much much less regulated and monopolized by insurance companies and government. And the prices for healthcare was considerably less expensive too. Try telling your healthcare provider that you'll pay for your needs with fishing lessons today, and let me know how that goes. The prolonged waiting time in public healthcare countries could have dire consequences when patients aren't treated in time. So you'll never sell me on public healthcare. No way, no how.

 

I could probably just as easily say a lot of what you believe is in line with Hillary Clinton and the Democrat Party.

 

No, Trump is very smart. He knows how to play gullible people on both sides of the debate.

 

In that vein, maybe we need to move because of the environment.

 

What do you mean?

 

well, that move you're talking about to the left hasn't gone unnoticed; by me at least. Perhaps there is something behind the scenes that is happening and all because if we don't do something about the environment and fast we are going to be up shits creek with 0 paddles.

 

If he doesn't vote, he's not a republican, or a democrat. He's out of the fray, where he wants to be. Your response sounds more like when you don't agree with him, he's a republican.

 

Yeah, Trump is a goddamned genius and I'm Willie Nelson.

 

Using her as an example kind of proves my point. She is only relevant to right wing people.

Sure I am a Democrat especially if the party moves farther left as AOC wants.

Just an opinion from examining his posts. It's a 2 team system.

 

Yeah, the CATO and Von Mises Institute are busy spinning out conspiracy theories about those sneaky college professors and media types. (BTW aren't Fox, Breitbart, the National Enquirer and talk radio media?) We all know how college students hang on their professors' every word, and the profs are all lefties out use their classrooms as indoctrination centers. You must be listening to that university professor Jordan Peterson who indoctrinates his students in the myth that postmodernist Marxists run our universities. You live in a fantasy world..

Good for your grandpa, but anecdotes don't address the general issue. Our society has become more complex, bureaucratized and impersonal than it was back then, when some physicians were still making house calls, but the explanation is much more complicated than changes in health care.. What are you talking about, anyhow? Medicare? Medicaid? The Affordable Care Act? Compared with every other industrialized country in the world, we don't have much public health care, and as other posters have told you, some of those countries do better than we are. You complain about insurance companies. That's capitalism for you. We could solve that with a single payer system. If a person needs medical treatment (s)he can't afford in this country, (s)he can die, and medical bills can easily wipe out the resources of a person of limited means, leaving them vulnerable to the next medical crisis. In single payer systems, private care and private insurance is still available for those who want to pay the price.

 

Here's my major problem with this idea Mel. A 70% tax rate on all income over $10 million is estimated (by The Tax Foundation; I didn't know where else to look) to generate $51.4 billion between 2019 and 2028, or about $5 billion a year. Meanwhile, the federal budget deficit in 2018 was $779 billion. $5 billion a year is just a drop in the bucket. I am not impressed with talks about increasing tax on 'the wealthy', however we define that. I want to hear about fiscal responsibility, but I don't believe that would sell to Democrats (or most Republicans these days). They want to hang on to the idea that you can tax the wealthy and it will lead to national prosperity and I don't believe it will work.

Another problem I have is this. Do I have any rights to decide what is done with another person's money? Isn't that theft? And it's not like it's going to a great cause either; it's going to the federal government, what with their undeclared wars, graft and pork barrel spending. Why would I want to fund anymore of that, even if it is another person's money covering the bill for it?

Lest some that read this thread accuse me of being a Republican I need to point out that I do not believe that the GOP understands fiscal responsibility either. They equate the phrase with low corporate taxes and that's not what it means. It means not spending more than you take in, and I've noticed that whenever Republicans control The White House and Congress that spending is just as high as ever.

 

Except all I heave been doing is exposing the "2 team system" for the last 15 years. So you clearly do not know what the fuck you're talking about.

 

I often wonder about that. Because it really seems more like a 1-team system pretending to be 2 teams.

I do agree though that it's not democrats nor the hard left talking about Hillary so much these days. Instead her name is used as a minor scare tactic for less than savvy republicans. Or she's placed on the list with all the other democrats who pulled shady shit and were never so much as interviewed let alone prosecuted. Again a scare tactic meant to cast them as some kind of cartel when most of their crimes were not coordinated in any way.

 

So i'm a little tipsy and cant be bothered to look into this too deeply right now. Maybe you're correct but I did notice Tax Foundation is the first hit on google so would be interested in searching more in depth from other sources, but not tonight lol.

But, the main reason I am in favor of a high marginal tax rate is not neccessarily because of how much revenue it will generate for the government, although thats a plus. It is because it discourages wealth hoarding and instead encourages investing money back into the middle class.

It has worked though. There's solid proof that it worked for a large portion of modern American history

I feel you. I've said before we have fundamental political differences but I respect your opinion and I think both our thought processes are born out of a frustration with government mismanagement of our taxes. We just have two different solutions, you believe less taxation is the answer and I believe electing politicians not beholden to corporate interests who are willing to invest public funds into infrastructure and programs that both promote and benefit the American middle class is the answer

 

Donald Trump would be no better than anybody else if his daddy hadn't given him millions of dollars. He was placed in a position of prestige from which he can lie to people and influence them. It doesn't make him smart. Anybody who lacks the conscience that stops normal people from lying to people and using them can do the exact same thing he does. Any exceedingly rich person on Earth can call themselves a Republican and lie to Republicans and get them to follow step. Real intelligence is finding new ways to help people.

If it's too much to ask the wealthy to pay their fair share so that their fellow countrymen don't have to suffer quite as much as they do, then there's no point in even calling ourselves a nation and we should stop pretending that we are one. It's every man for him/herself. All people that Bernie, Alexandria, and Elizabeth Warren are asking for is for us to come together and work together towards a common good. It's something we don't do anymore. If you want to get real, America is virtually dead as an idea. If I had billions of dollars and I thought for one second I could help it so that kids can go to college, I would help out in any way I could in a heartbeat. I have no sympathy or respect for anyone who wouldn't. They are unAmerican and traitors as far as I'm concerned.

 

Not really, I'm mostly basing it off of my own experiences going to college, taking social science classes, then getting lower grades when I disagree with certain socialist professors. I did have one professor who taught my environmental policy class also worked as a democratic political scientist, but he was actually cool with me being very contrary to what he pushed on the class. I had discussions with him after class and while he disagreed with me, he still gave me high marks. Also basing it off of the way college kids riot when conservative speakers come to campus. Whereas they behave civilized when terrorists like Ahmadinejad come to Colombia university to give a talk.

Medicare, Medicaid, and the ACA didn't exist when my Grandpa practiced medicine. Those are regulatory policies that inhibit competitive pricing and quality of services provided. When he practiced medicine, he had a lot less political bullshit to deal with than doctors and hospitals have to deal with today. His willingness to be charitable with his medical practice made his business very popular within his community, and it helped his business grow to become very successful. Being charitable and offering the best services at the lowest prices are what the free market is all about. That's capitalism for you.

 

If giving “economic security for all who are unable and UNWILLING to work” isn’t socialism. Then what the hell would you consider it?

Less than 48 hours after releasing her Green New Deal, it has collapsed under the weight of it’s own absurdity. Now team Occasional-Cortex is beginning to backpedal by lying.

Ocasio-Cortez Doubles Down On 'Free-Money For Lazy People' FAQ Debacle

This broad is really bringing a lot of entertainment to woke politics and I’m loving it

 

Yeah I seriously dont know what yall are reading but I read the *actual* green new deal document, the source document, and it doesnt say anything you guys are claiming it says

https://t.co/3LxGdFbnKb?amp=1

Absolutely nothing in here is absurd, it's the exact direction we should be moving in as a country.

You can actually make this a searchable pdf and see very clearly the word "unwilling" isnt in here

 

I heard something about this discrepancy. There are versions of the Green New Deal on various websites that have been doctored to read something other than the truth. There are also versions that were basically a rough draft which were accidentally released or something.

Ocasio-Cortez forced to clarify Green New Deal details after rollout

Please be sure you are referring to the correct, current, and non-falsified version of the document.

Apparently there is an FAQ. I haven't read through it, and haven't seen it in this thread, but I think it'd be interesting to see.

EDIT: I can't find the FAQ online. There was one link that went to her website but it said 'page not found' or something when I followed it.