Resignation, Early Retirement

Beerman, BSN · Mar 12

subee said:

For what, exactly? Don't you remember Gore talking about the "lockbox?" Ronald Regan was the first president who used SS for a money grab so this has been a long time coming. Gore ran on the position of stopping the transfer from SS to pay other debts. He was a Democrat in case you don't remember.

Oh, I remember. I voted for him.

Anyway, it's easy to propose things. And next to nothing has been done about it in the quarter of a century since. So, yes I still blame career politicians from both sides for letting it get so bad.

toomuchbaloney · Mar 12

Beerman said:

Gosh....how did it get so bad? It certainly wasn't Musk and Trump's fault. You should be blaming Pelosi, Schumer, McConnell, and the like.

Sure.

Meanwhile,

don't expect a report, just expect DOGE to get rid of what they call waste. It's better that we go bankrupt from tax giveaways to the wealthy. Meanwhile, don't expect any kind of timely service from the government. That's could be wasteful.

Beerman, BSN · Mar 12

toomuchbaloney said:

Sure.

Meanwhile,

don't expect a report, just expect DOGE to get rid of what they call waste. It's better that we go bankrupt from tax giveaways to the wealthy. Meanwhile, don't expect any kind of timely service from the government. That's could be wasteful.

LOL....how much taxation of the wealthy would keep us from going bankrupt?

toomuchbaloney · Mar 12

Beerman said:

LOL....how much taxation of the wealthy would keep us from going bankrupt?

You could review the tax rates that were associated with growth in the middle class, and increased investment in schools and infrastructure in our history. That might give you some clues. Hint, those tax rates would be found before the introduction of the "trickle down" economic policy of modern Republicans. That's when America was great, right? We're going to do that again?

subee, MSN, CRNA · Mar 13

Beerman said:

LOL....how much taxation of the wealthy would keep us from going bankrupt?

NO ONE said that more fair taxation of the wealthy would solve the problem. No. one. It's only part of the multiple adjustments that need to be made. I think a good start would not be adding another 4.5 trillion to the deficit that Trump created in 2017 and wants to repeat now. Tax cuts and tariffs seem to be the entirety of his secret sauce.

brandy1017, ASN, RN · Mar 13

subee said:

NO ONE said that more fair taxation of the wealthy would solve the problem. No. one. It's only part of the multiple adjustments that need to be made. I think a good start would not be adding another 4.5 trillion to the deficit that Trump created in 2017 and wants to repeat now. Tax cuts and tariffs seem to be the entirety of his secret sauce.

I agree and the tax cuts in 2017 may have caused a temporary economic boost but at the effect of worsening the debt by trillions at a time when the economy was good and they should have been conserving in case of an economic downturn like what is happening now and what happened during the covid "emergency" lockdowns! Those lockdowns harmed a lot of small businesses and restaurants and largely benefited the big corporations while worsening our deficit!

We've been in a recession since Biden, but he changed the definition to try to hide it and now I would say we are in a stagflation and on the cusp of a great depression. This is the worst time to lay off federal workers, government programs and social benefits. Made even more egregious by the reality that it is to give tax cuts to the rich especially the millionaires and billionaires! They are the ones who already have plenty of money and will come out of this depression fine! That Musk was put in as an unelected oligarch to destroy our government and its social benefit, economic and political programs to enrich himself is disgusting! He is reaping billions in government contracts that he hasn't earned. Personally, I'm glad to see Tesla suffering from the boycott!

subee, MSN, CRNA · Mar 14

brandy1017 said:

I agree and the tax cuts in 2017 may have caused a temporary economic boost but at the effect of worsening the debt by trillions at a time when the economy was good and they should have been conserving in case of an economic downturn like what is happening now and what happened during the covid "emergency" lockdowns! Those lockdowns harmed a lot of small businesses and restaurants and largely benefited the big corporations while worsening our deficit!

We've been in a recession since Biden, but he changed the definition to try to hide it and now I would say we are in a stagflation and on the cusp of a great depression. This is the worst time to lay off federal workers, government programs and social benefits. Made even more egregious by the reality that it is to give tax cuts to the rich especially the millionaires and billionaires! They are the ones who already have plenty of money and will come out of this depression fine! That Musk was put in as an unelected oligarch to destroy our government and its social benefit, economic and political programs to enrich himself is disgusting! He is reaping billions in government contracts that he hasn't earned. Personally, I'm glad to see Tesla suffering from the boycott!

I'm not sure about blaming Biden for the economic consequences of a pandemic. And I am not aware of any bone fide recession since the term seems to be variable. However, the fact is that we suffered much more during the first Trump administration economically. I don't blame him for the US pandemic but I do blame him for making it much worst economically than it had to be by vitue of being coy about getting people vaccinated. He should have made a PSA of he and Melania (if they could find her) rolling up their sleeves to get vaxxed but he was too cowardly to do that and created conditions under which many doctors and nurses just left their jobs. Those unnecessary hospitals cost up billions of dollars further tanking the economy. There is no way to make chicken salad out of the chicken s:&T that the pandemic was. Musk backed up a post on X that Hitler and Mao didn't murder millions of people; public workers did" so I would like to supervise him in hell. Can you have multiple help wanted ads during a "depression." I don't think we are in one since we don't have any labor in my city. Restaurants are open but not to the extent that they were. We don't have enough construction workers because they can't afford to live here. They all left after 2008. But we DO have the jobs for them.

toomuchbaloney · Mar 14

brandy1017 said:

I agree and the tax cuts in 2017 may have caused a temporary economic boost but at the effect of worsening the debt by trillions at a time when the economy was good and they should have been conserving in case of an economic downturn like what is happening now and what happened during the covid "emergency" lockdowns! Those lockdowns harmed a lot of small businesses and restaurants and largely benefited the big corporations while worsening our deficit!

We've been in a recession since Biden, but he changed the definition to try to hide it and now I would say we are in a stagflation and on the cusp of a great depression. This is the worst time to lay off federal workers, government programs and social benefits. Made even more egregious by the reality that it is to give tax cuts to the rich especially the millionaires and billionaires! They are the ones who already have plenty of money and will come out of this depression fine! That Musk was put in as an unelected oligarch to destroy our government and its social benefit, economic and political programs to enrich himself is disgusting! He is reaping billions in government contracts that he hasn't earned. Personally, I'm glad to see Tesla suffering from the boycott!

Biden changed the definition of "recession"? That is certainly what the media messaging said even though the economists largely didn't agree. When Trump says that this economic downturn (recession) is just a transition, that is changing the definition. Gas lighting is Trump's strong suit. The media is complicit.