RFKjr picked ultra liberal Nicole Shanahan as his VP candidate. This reminds me of John Kerry marrying into the Heinz fortune -- kind of a gigalo move. RFKjr picked her because her money can finance his campaign.
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Anyhow he's cemented his campaign as leftist. This will lessen the chance that potential Trump voters will see RFKjr as some sort of alternate candidate. On the other hand, this will bring more leftists disgusted with Biden for whatever reason into the RFKjr fold. So this is good news for Trump.
I'm betting the would be Biden spite votes, (because they will vote for "anyone as long as it isn't Trump") will go to RFKjr.
That's good news for democracy and bad news for the non common sense-ers.
Lester makes a good point there. Her selection as VP will be more attractive to Dem voters than Republicans. He will still pull off some past Trump voters, especially the populists who were very upset by vaccine mandates and Trump’s support of Fauci.
He has been in contact with the Libertarian party to run on the Libertarian ticket. That would be interesting considering Libertarians already are often blamed for "stealing" votes from the Republican candidate. But when Trump did win Libertarians were blamed for stealing Dem votes, so it is always the blame game. If RFK cut out half of all of the policy mandates he wants to implement I would be more supportive of his candidacy.
It would truly be a Siren song ending for the LP to select RFKjr. It would probably get them their highest vote total ever, but at the cost of abandoning core principles and becoming a skin suit for future celebrity candidates.
Kind of baffling to me.
He has talked about reducing the deficit. I’m going to look into that.
Smaller government, less taxes, more individual liberties. Beyond that let local government take care of it.
AKA: LEAVE ME ALONE.
I previously posted, in particular about the Repubs who were running for the nomination to be the Rep candidate for POTUS, that the Fed gov can't be run like a State gov. All of the Rep govs were campaigning on "I cut taxes! I cut services! Money, money, money!" But when hurricanes and tornadoes and health crises hit FL, NJ, Alabama, TN, MS, ... the Feds are there to pay for what the states REFUSE to pay for.
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Very few states can pay for Infrastructure. In the 1950s, the Feds built the interstate highway system which helped the economy to BOOM. 75 years later, roads and bridges need MAJOR repairs. A $10 million bridge built up in vacant land in the 1950s is now a major, complicated project, snarled in a web of other roads, utilities, and other restrictions. Old, lead pipes and other water pipes are often way past their expiration dates. Those are HUGE undertakings that no local gov can afford on their own.
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When the overhead highway in Philly collapsed after a fiery accident a while back, the FEDS were there to have it fixed in less than one month. The FS Key Bridge in MD was just taken down by a ship collision. Yeah ... let the local (Baltimore only? MD only?) govs take care of it. That bridge has an impact ALL OVER THE PLACE. It will affect shipping and commerce in one of the busiest ports in the country. Travel to-from and in-out of Baltimore will be screwed up for months or years. Only the FEDS have the money and the authority to raise money to solve those problems. (Rebuild the same bridge? Dredge the harbor while you're at it? Add public transit (rail) to any new bridge? Make a tunnel instead? ...)
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Gov DeSantis: "Cut, cut, cut!" Hurricanes. "Help! Help! Feds, please help us!"
Gov Christie: "Cut, cut, cut!" Hurricanes. "Help! Help! Feds, please help us!"
Gov Hutchinson: "Cut, cut, cut!" Tornadoes. "Help! Help! Feds, please help us!"
(AR education ranked #32.)
Gov Burgum: "Cut, cut, cut!" Severe Winter Storms. "Help! Help! Feds, please help us!"
(ND has a TOTAL population of 779,179 -- less than 1 million people -- so, yeah, that's a great model for Fed governance.)
Every Republican: "Cut, cut, cut!" Any problem. "Help! Help! Feds, please help us!"
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The states can cut, cut, cut because the Feds are their emergency piggy bank. The Fed gov doesn't have a piggy bank. The Feds ARE the piggy bank. You can't run the Fed gov as if it was a state.
Smaller government, less taxes, more individual liberties. Beyond that let local government take care of it.
AKA: LEAVE ME ALONE.
Transportation expenditures account for less than 3% of the total federal spending. Over 4% is being spent right now on just interest on the national debt which is currently 28+ trillion dollars. I very much appreciate your very lengthy response, but the Fed gov. is NOT a piggy bank, tax payers are the piggy bank and right now we are in debt up to our eye balls. National disasters funding is built into FEMA and is part of the mandatory budget, not discretionary. FEMA is broken up into regions, but no, the Governers are not begging for federal funding for national disasters. If it meets the criteria for a national disaster then they are funded on a federal level. And yes, interstate roads are maintained on a federal level by federal funds, so yes, the feds are the ones to fund the rebuild. The bridge in MD is also an interstate bridge, so yes, that falls back on repairs and such on the federal level, it is not a state owned bridge.
When I am talking about smaller government I am talking about cutting the fluff and nonsense on all government levels, not things we all can agree on are necessary and mutually beneficial to everyone.
Points taken. I have lived and worked in areas where the (non-highway; city street) US Route X ran parallel to the State Routes (city streets) Y and Z. Every few years, the US roadway, still pristine, was scraped and repaved while the parallel State roadway deteriorated and you could sometimes find a nice patch of asphalt between the potholes. Locals would loudly complain, "Don't fix X again, repave Y and Z!!" and I had to explain that is was Fed money for X and zero State money for Y and Z. (Some local govs do NOT cut their budgets and DO repave state roads when necessary.)
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As I understand it, before it can kick in, some Fed aid must be officially requested by the local gov and, almost always, relief is provided. (Local official photo op press conference: "I have requested the Fed Department to declare this an Emergency and they have done so. Aid is on the way.") I'm sure there are some cases where the plea for help didn't meet various criteria and the locals were left on their own. "If only the disaster had been 10% worse, we would have qualified for Fed aid! Rats!"
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The Flint Water Crisis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis arose from the need to "Cut! Cut! Cut!" expenses followed by mismanagement. (As it happens, it was pretty much all Republicans involved, from Gov Rick Snyder on down.) Eventually, Snyder asked Obama for help and Obama declared Flint to be in a state of emergency and that released additional Fed aid. (As it happens, "Governor Rick Snyder and eight other officials were charged with 34 felony counts and seven misdemeanors—41 counts in all—for their role in the crisis.")
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You wrote: "When I am talking about smaller government I am talking about cutting the fluff and nonsense on all government levels, not things we all can agree on are necessary and mutually beneficial to everyone." which is a great sentiment. The problem is getting to agreement on "fluff and nonsense" and "necessary and beneficial to everyone."
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Trump eliminated (or "dispersed") the Pandemic Response Team established by the forward-looking Obama and withdrew US Researchers from China. That saved a whopping 2 or 3 million dollars!! If US researchers had still been embedded in Chinese research centers (Wuhan and central HQ in Beijing) we would have known about Covid several months earlier and been able to (even if Trump wouldn't have actually done so) activated the response plan drawn up the Pandemic Response Team much earlier. Pandemic planning: fluff? nonsense? or necessary and beneficial to everyone?
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Several Reps want to eliminate the Dept. of Education: fluff? nonsense? Rick Perry campaigned (2016) on eliminating the Dept. of Energy that he eventually headed under Trump.
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There IS, absolutely IS, a lot of waste. There might be more waste due to matters criminal (fraudulent billings, etc.. E.g., FL Sen Rick Scott. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Scott "During his tenure as chief executive [of a health care company], the company defrauded Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs. The DoJ won 14 felony convictions against the company, which was fined $1.7 billion in what was at the time the largest healthcare fraud settlement in U.S. history.") than on fluff and nonsense.
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I agree that it is desirable to lower the debt. There are two ways to do that: (1) decrease spending (2) increase income (mostly via taxation and fees) or BOTH. Let me fall back on the Interstate Highway system begun in the 1950s. They began as roads through "nowhere" empty spaces between major metro areas. But it allowed for GROWTH in those areas. Towns and cities popped up; new businesses could grow and build in those "barren" areas. The Feds are the only gov able to create new large infrastructure that can create new opportunities for economic growth.
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There is disagreement on what should be built and where. E.g., the chip factory, the wind turbine manufacturer in Boebert's district, ...: Fluff? Nonsense? Affordable health care: Fluff? Nonsense? (The "trickle down" benefit of affordable health care benefits the people AND the companies they work for.)
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We agree that taxes to fill the Fed piggy bank does come from taxpayers. There is disagreement on tax POLICY. (It should be noted that the deficit rose by ~$8T under Trump and has fallen by ~$1.4T under Biden.)
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Dems do not want to increase the personal tax burden on low and middle income households. They want to shift the burden to high income, high wealth parties and to get corporations to pay more.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/corporate-taxes-fortune-100-companies
"19 of America's biggest companies paid little — or zero — income tax: "The tax code is broken" "
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"Pay more" doesn't mean "increase the corp tax RATE," it means remove many loopholes or establish a minimum corporate tax. I know what's coming: "But if companies pay more taxes, they will pass it along to the individuals!!" Yes, if Apple (not on the above list) pays more taxes, the price of an iPhone 15 Pro will jump from $1500 to $1525. But only high income users will be buying an iPhone 15.
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Reps want lower taxes on corporations to get "trickle down" to help the lower and middle classes.
http://itep.org/corporate-tax-avoidance-trump-tax-law/
Corporate Tax Avoidance in the First Five Years of the Trump Tax Law (Dateline: Feb 2024)
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Long before wikipedia came along http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickle-down_economics , I had read numerous works on "trickle down economics," a theory that predates Ronald Reagan and was around long BEFORE the income tax (16th Amendment, 1913). It has never worked, never accomplished what its proponents claimed it would do. Every "tax cut for the wealthy" has benefited the wealthy and little more.
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... I could go on. I will agree that smaller government is preferred. I will agree that fluff and nonsense should be eliminated. (I will add that fraud and theft should be eliminated and to greater effect.) I will agree that money should be spent on things that are necessary and mutually beneficial to everyone.
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Now, we just have to come to agreement on (1) fluff (2) nonsense (3) necessary (4) beneficial (5) mutually (6) beneficial and (7) everyone!
Transportation expenditures account for less than 3% of the total federal spending. Over 4% is being spent right now on just interest on the national debt which is currently 28+ trillion dollars. I very much appreciate your very lengthy response, but the Fed gov. is NOT a piggy bank, tax payers are the piggy bank and right now we are in debt up to our eye balls. National disasters funding is built into FEMA and is part of the mandatory budget, not discretionary. FEMA is broken up into regions, but no, the Governers are not begging for federal funding for national disasters. If it meets the criteria for a national disaster then they are funded on a federal level. And yes, interstate roads are maintained on a federal level by federal funds, so yes, the feds are the ones to fund the rebuild. The bridge in MD is also an interstate bridge, so yes, that falls back on repairs and such on the federal level, it is not a state owned bridge.
When I am talking about smaller government I am talking about cutting the fluff and nonsense on all government levels, not things we all can agree on are necessary and mutually beneficial to everyone.