I'm starting to wonder why Democrats raise taxes

[Making Chimichangas]

I'd rather see our politicians work to cut spending. They talk a lot about it. Make all sorts of campaign promises. But at the end of the day our politicians just can't bring themselves to cut spending.

 

Pork barrel spending: Spending thought to be frivolous, unnecessary, wasteful, and needs to be cut.

 

What is pork barrel spending? Spending done in someone else's district.

[JJ Husker]

 

This is why I very seldom make claims that programs need to be dismantled or done away with. I constantly preach that the government needs to constantly be working to be more efficient.

 

The more efficient and less wasteful the government can be, actually the more good it can do.

 

I want up to date infrastructure, I want social safety nets, I want healthcare that works, I want improved education....etc. But, the more our government is LESS efficient in doing these things, the less of these things we can actually do.

 

I agree with you on this. I know you have a hard time saying positive things about Trump, but can you at least appreciate that he is focused on making the government more efficient, and will be having his team examine every contrage/agreement with the government to make sure the American people are not getting ripped off. The Boeing example is just one of many that Trump will deliver as POTUS. He is setting a tone to all government contractors that the days of making a killing off the government are over.

 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12/21/boeing-ceo-vows-to-build-new-air-force-one-for-less-after-trump-complaints.html

I'm sure there are some making a killing off the government but, it's been my experience dealing with state and federal contracts that they require you to charge those entities obscene amounts more than you would have to on a normal business deal. They put so many extreme and unnecessary requirements on things that you have to allow for a bunch more real and anticipated costs. It really is absurd. I actually refuse to even look at federal projects anymore because I simply can't charge enough to meet their BS. I actually did a small residential project for free for an elderly handicapped veteran. It was about a $350 job but since the veterans administration was involved they required all kinds of reviews and inspections and ridiculous specs. My price to them for that $350 job was going to be about $3200. When the guy told me it had to be that way since he couldn't afford even the $350 and the government was paying the bill, I told him I would do it for him for free as long as he kept the government out of it. So anyway, most of the people that you think are "screwing" the government are doing so because they make you screw them. Most of it appears to be an out of control "make work" scheme to keep themselves fully employeD and constantly expanding. Hopefully Trump gets after that huge part of the problem.

[Danny Bateman]

So it sounds like whatever money we save elsewhere might be shuttled towards new nuke spending.

 

So....

[BigRedBuster]

 

 

This is why I very seldom make claims that programs need to be dismantled or done away with. I constantly preach that the government needs to constantly be working to be more efficient.

 

The more efficient and less wasteful the government can be, actually the more good it can do.

 

I want up to date infrastructure, I want social safety nets, I want healthcare that works, I want improved education....etc. But, the more our government is LESS efficient in doing these things, the less of these things we can actually do.

I agree with you on this. I know you have a hard time saying positive things about Trump, but can you at least appreciate that he is focused on making the government more efficient, and will be having his team examine every contrage/agreement with the government to make sure the American people are not getting ripped off. The Boeing example is just one of many that Trump will deliver as POTUS. He is setting a tone to all government contractors that the days of making a killing off the government are over.

 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/12/21/boeing-ceo-vows-to-build-new-air-force-one-for-less-after-trump-complaints.html

I'm sure there are some making a killing off the government but, it's been my experience dealing with state and federal contracts that they require you to charge those entities obscene amounts more than you would have to on a normal business deal. They put so many extreme and unnecessary requirements on things that you have to allow for a bunch more real and anticipated costs. It really is absurd. I actually refuse to even look at federal projects anymore because I simply can't charge enough to meet their BS. I actually did a small residential project for free for an elderly handicapped veteran. It was about a $350 job but since the veterans administration was involved they required all kinds of reviews and inspections and ridiculous specs. My price to them for that $350 job was going to be about $3200. When the guy told me it had to be that way since he couldn't afford even the $350 and the government was paying the bill, I told him I would do it for him for free as long as he kept the government out of it. So anyway, most of the people that you think are "screwing" the government are doing so because they make you screw them. Most of it appears to be an out of control "make work" scheme to keep themselves fully employeD and constantly expanding. Hopefully Trump gets after that huge part of the problem.

 

I've seen both situations.

 

I have bid on projects where the way the specs were written, I would have had to put a ton of money into it to cover my ass. If I get it...great. If not....I didn't care.

 

However, on the flip side, I did a very large project at a military base in Mississippi for their residential area. The project was going to go on for several years. So, I was able to bid it, then ever 6 months adjust my price according to current costs. That allowed me to bid it fairly normally and adjust as time goes on.

[zoogs]

America is updating/maintaining its nuclear arsenal anyway. This is Trump trying to find a macho thing to take credit for with no regard for the international consequences.

 

The unthinking masses who kneel at the altar of his manly virtue will undoubtedly swoon with a "More Nukes? Hell Yeah! Make America Powerful Again".

 

Whether there will be a concrete change here is less clear, I think. But this is a dangerous position he's putting himself in. He's creating the pressure to substantively follow through and I'm worried that he'll have elevated people to power who will hold him to that.

[zoogs]

From The Post: Why the white working class votes against itself

 

The sentiments expressed in these focus groups are all too familiar sounding to me.

 

We’ve known for a long time, through the work of Martin Gilens, Suzanne Mettler and other social scientists, that Americans (A) generally associate government spending with undeserving, nonworking, nonwhite people; and (B) are really bad at recognizing when they personally benefit from government programs.

There is a perniciousness here that I think often goes unrecognized. We don't usually connect these sentiments to the political megaphone of the nation's power concentrate. That they are so pervasive and particularly so often repeated is no accident. It is a learned truth, one which we were all vulnerable to believing anyway, and not reality.

[84HuskerLaw]

For many decades, Democrats portrayed themselves as 'for the working man' and representing the interests of the common every day folks. In reality they implemented program after program and adopted new laws and regulations which did not benefit the people they claimed to be helping. Instead, we have seen the demise of the great majority of labor unions and their jobs. Regulations and laws burdening the companies who once employed those union workers were basically driven out of the country to other places or even worse simply driven out of business altogether. The American car industry and steel industry are prime examples. At one time, American car companies were the primary producers of the millions of cars and trucks Americans chose to buy and drive proudly. But, over time, countless EPA and myriad safety and other government mandates made American cars more expensive relative to non American made vehicles, making the car companies and their well paid workers less and less competitive.

 

While we all can praise all day long the many benefits of safer cars that get better gas mileage, etc. But, when many of those laws and workplace rules particularly were not required to be complied with by foreign competition, then cheaper imports came in and undermined the market. Eventually, those foreign products caught up with the American models in both price and safety and etc. But in the meantime, Americans lost high paying lifetime jobs which will be almost impossible to bring back. Unless, Trump is successful in making "Americans and Americans first". Can he do it? Who knows for sure but one thing we do know for sure is that Obama was certainly NOT making America and Americans first! It is time to put America's interests first, just as all other nations of the world do in almost every international political issue that arises.

 

It is not 'protectionism' (which historically was a Democrat party platform staple) to insist that all competition for Americans' spending dollars is FREE AND FAIR! This is exactly what Trump is saying and I believe he will focus on. Will he meet with resistance from people inside and outside the USA? Of course. There are many Americans and many nations around the world who have enjoyed incredible economic advantages over their American competition. This has to be fixed. No more giveaways and no more 'one way trade' deals that send American dollarsout of the country to bring foreign products in without reciprocity. Countries that enjoy massive trade surpluses with the United States will have to start buying from us as well as selling to us - that is - "trading" which of course means exchange of goods, etc. China will need to start buying from us instead of stealing our technology and other products and designs and selling knock offs and patent violations will stop.

 

Make our tax code competitive with the rest of the world and not a huge disincentive to doing business here. It is not complicated and should have been done decades ago.