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  1. #3276
    กงเกวียนกำเกวียน HuangLao's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CalEden View Post
    Truthfulness and objectivity. As you displayed here you are blinded by your demagoguery.

    Appears to be the extended and conventional cabal class that most subject [and accept] themselves to.
    Unaware of any alternatives that question or challenge their desperate predispositions of how things should be.

  2. #3277
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    fvck off jeff




    A recent wave of surprisingly solid economic data reveals that the U.S. economy is in a far stronger position than most economists expected.

    Friday’s stunning jobs report, coupled with a surprising jump in job openings, has forced experts to recalibrate their expectations for an economy being slowed by the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes.

    Here’s what we learned about the U.S. economy over the past week:

    Companies are still eager to hire

    A hiring sign is displayed in a window of a store in Manhattan on December 02, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
    The U.S. added 517,000 jobs in January, blowing away analyst projections, while the unemployment rate dipped to 3.4 percent, the lowest in 54 years. Economists had expected unemployment to rise.

    Several sectors that had been seeing an apparent slowdown, including retail and construction, added jobs at a faster rate than last year’s monthly average. The average workweek totaled 34.7 hours, the highest since March 2022, indicating massive demand for workers.

    That means the nation clearly isn’t in a recession, despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to weaken the labor market by hiking employers’ borrowing costs.

    “For now, it’s a good sign that the Fed hasn’t broken the economy yet. The best-case scenario is a soft landing, and it’s still in play,” Callie Cox, U.S. Investment Analyst at eToro, said in a note.

    In another surprising figure, Labor Department data released Wednesday showed that the U.S. had a near-record 11 million job openings at the end of December, up from 10.4 million the month prior. Economists expected openings to fall on a month-to-month basis.

    The shortfall of workers, driven in part by 2 million early retirements during the pandemic, boosts workers’ leverage over wages but also reduces the supply of certain goods and services, leading to higher prices.

    Lisa Lighter, 52, told The Hill she struggles to find workers for her small business, A Day In Our Shoes, which helps Philadelphia-area parents secure critical services for their disabled children. The labor shortage forces countless parents with a disabled child who go without those services, Lighter said.

    “I work long hours myself because finding qualified help to do my administrative work is challenging. Many never even return emails, and I pay above market rate,” she said.

    Friday’s booming jobs report comes with caveats. Economists expect the jobs number to be revised down because companies added fewer holiday employees this year and the U.S. experienced an unusually warm January. The Bureau of Labor Statistics usually accounts for a rush of post-holiday layoffs and lower economic activity during a cold but uneventful month by adjusting January jobs gains higher.

    “The BLS jobs report for January was VERY strong. So strong, I don’t believe it. The BLS is likely having measurement issues. Most likely, difficulty seasonally adjusting the data, which is especially important in January,” Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi wrote on Twitter Friday.

    Layoffs are lower than the headlines make it seem

    Some of the nation’s largest and most well-known companies, including Google, Microsoft and FedEx, announced mass layoffs in January, fueling recession fears.

    But the data shows that most companies aren’t letting workers go.

    The number of Americans filing unemployment claims dropped to a nine-month low last week, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. That’s an indicator that the economy is still growing amid the highly publicized job reductions.

    The persistent shortfall of workers means that those who are laid off can typically find employment elsewhere, and quickly.

    A survey from tech recruiting and staffing firm Andiamo found that 74 percent of tech workers who were laid off between September and November have already landed new jobs. Thirty percent of those fired workers jumped over to new industries such as finance and media.

    “Despite the large layoffs and firings in the tech sector over the past year, the data strongly implies that these workers with in-demand skills are quickly finding employment,” Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at auditing firm RSM, said in a note.

    Fed rate hikes are making a serious dent on inflation

    Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell can finally exhale.

    After six straight months of declines in both the consumer price index and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index — the two primary ways of tracking inflation — Fed officials are willing to acknowledge that their rate hikes are working.

    “We actually see disinflation in the goods sector,” Powell said Wednesday, after the Fed issued its smallest interest rate hike since March 2021.

    “We note that when we say inflation is coming down that this is good,” he continued.

    Powell’s remarks may seem like little more than a basic observation. But his willingness to acknowledge progress against inflation — however slight — is a sign that the Fed feels increasingly confident in its fight to bring down price growth.

    The Fed has been reluctant to declare victory with the PCE price index still up 5 percent on the year in December, well above the Fed’s annual inflation target of 2 percent but down from a peak of 7 percent in June.

    Powell added that while prices for goods have fallen steadily, prices for basic services are still rising and may continue to do so as long as the labor market holds strong.

    The staggering January gain of 517,000 jobs might be a cause for concern for the Fed, even though wage growth continued to slow down. While Fed officials are optimistic they can quash inflation without derailing the job market, they could face pressure to keep cranking up rates.

    “If the central bank thinks that the low unemployment rate will necessarily push up wage growth and inflation moving forward, this strong report may darken the economic outlook. But if instead, Chair Powell and colleagues are heartened by tempering wage growth, then the odds that the economy can avoid a recession increase,” wrote Nick Bunker, head of economic research at Indeed Hiring Lab, in a Friday analysis.
    Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

  3. #3278
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CalEden View Post
    Truthfulness and objectivity. As you displayed here you are blinded by your demagoguery.

    So basically fuck all and you're just being a stupid trumpanzee as usual.

  4. #3279
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by HuangLao View Post
    Appears to be the extended and conventional cabal class that most subject [and accept] themselves to.
    Unaware of any alternatives that question or challenge their desperate predispositions of how things should be.
    Jeff, you could just say "off topic", then you wouldn't sound like such a stupid c u n t.

  5. #3280
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    So basically fuck all and you're just being a stupid trumpanzee as usual.
    What a convincing argument.

    Well-spoken from a political racist/hate speech bigot. Dehumanize anyone with different views. The question is how far does this type of hatred go? History is littered with examples of how far blind bigoted hatred goes. the final solution comes to mind.
    Last edited by CalEden; 07-02-2023 at 02:21 AM.

  6. #3281
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    Harry to bring you up to date, Bob Woodard is one of the Journalist that broke the Watergate break in story. Bob Woodard is a journalist employed at Jeff Bezzo's owned Washington Post and he is criticizing the Washington Post.

    Nixon may have survived Watergate. But in the end the cover up and lies doomed Nixon. Ironic at that time Nixon won the presidency by the largest margin to that date.

    Biden is incapable of being truthful and transparent. And now we have a slow-motion train wreck in progress. The lies and cover ups are creeping up on Biden.

  7. #3282
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    President Joe Biden is planning to use his second State of the Union address to paint the broad strokes of a likely campaign ahead, contrasting his notion of steady leadership with the newly elected, likely chaotic Republican House.

    Privately, aides are hoping the GOP lawmakers in attendance will help him achieve the contrast.

    The president will command his biggest audience of the year for Tuesday night’s address to Congress when, aides said, he will extend his hand across the aisle while also warning that extremist voices on the right pose a threat to liberties both in Europe and at home.

    Though Biden won’t mention them by name, aides believe the presence of newly prominent House Republicans in the chamber will underscore his arguments. A year ago, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) heckled Biden during his speech, and photographs of their shouting went viral. White House aides privately admit that they wouldn’t mind that happening again this time, creating a contrast between rabble-rousing in the crowd and steady leadership on the dais.

    “The theme of a State of the Union is always ‘Who are we, who do want to be? What do we stand for, what do we want to believe?’” said Jen Psaki, Biden’s former press secretary. “That is not to ignore or deny huge problems in the country but to say ‘I will work with people to take them on.’”

    But the subtext of the address will not be the lawmakers in the seats but the campaign ahead. Biden has not yet declared his candidacy but the State of the Union could very well double as a soft launch for a 2024 bid. The president has said he intends to stand for re-election, though some of his closest advisers caution that a final decision has not yet been made. In somewhat classic Biden fashion, the timeline for an announcement has shifted, according to four people familiar with the decision.

    Originally pegged to March or April, in part for fundraising purposes, there had been talk of moving an announcement up to late February. That now may have slipped again as the White House grapples with the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the discovery of mishandled classified documents at Biden’s Delaware home and former office.

  8. #3283
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CalEden View Post
    Harry to bring you up to date, Bob Woodard is one of the Journalist that broke the Watergate break in story. Bob Woodard is a journalist employed at Jeff Bezzo's owned Washington Post and he is criticizing the Washington Post.

    Nixon may have survived Watergate. But in the end the cover up and lies doomed Nixon. Ironic at that time Nixon won the presidency by the largest margin to that date.

    Biden is incapable of being truthful and transparent. And now we have a slow-motion train wreck in progress. The lies and cover ups are creeping up on Biden.
    This has nothing to do with Biden. It belongs in the Fox News thread or the Russiagate thread.

    Silly trumpanzee, stop drinking the koolaid.

  9. #3284
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    More than 100,000 climate-friendly jobs were created in the months following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, a new analysis from an environmental group has found.

    The legislation, passed with only Democratic votes as part of a unique budget process that prevented the bill from being filibustered in the Senate, included tax credits for the production of carbon-free energy technology.

    The tax credits were widely expected to spur significant investments in renewable energy.

    The analysis released Monday by a group called Climate Power showed that companies announced 101,036 new jobs in carbon-free energy and more than 90 new clean energy projects since the passage of the legislation.

    The new jobs are being created by the wind, solar, batteries and electric vehicle industries and include electricians, mechanics, construction workers and technicians.

    “There is a clean energy boom happening in every part of this country,” said Lori Lodes, Climate Power’s executive director. “It’s because of the certainty the companies have … because of the Inflation Reduction Act that these jobs are happening.”

    Climate Power analyzed publicly announced or reported projects and the jobs that companies project they will bring. Lodes said that because the group monitored only public announcements, it is possible additional jobs were created that were not analyzed as part of the report.

    Climate Power was founded by a group of left-wing and environmental organizations: the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club.

    While it’s not directly comparable, a group called Environmental Entrepreneurs found that in the year 2018, 110,000 new jobs were added in the clean energy sector. Climate Power’s analysis documents about an equal number of jobs in half the time.

  10. #3285
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post

    Silly trumpanzee, stop drinking the koolaid.
    Great argument Archie Bunker. You're a real-life bigot and racist (routine ethnic slurs TD).

  11. #3286
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Tonight’s soft launch




    President Joe Biden will call for quadrupling the levy on corporate stock buybacks and renew his calls for a minimum tax on billionaires during his State of the Union address Tuesday.

    “This minimum tax would make sure that the wealthiest Americans no longer pay a tax rate lower than teachers and firefighters,” the White House said in a preview Monday of the economic aspects of Biden’s speech.

    Neither of the tax proposals is likely to gain much support in Congress, where Republicans now control the US House.

    The 1% stock buyback tax that was part of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act went into effect at the start of this year, but it isn’t expected to tamp down corporations’ plans to repurchase their own shares, because the 1% rate is too low to act as a deterrent.

    Democrats had hoped that increasing the cost of stock buybacks would prod companies to use their cash on hand to raise workers’ wages or invest in new endeavors, bolstering the economy.

    Biden will also announce efforts to make certain that construction materials for projects funded by his infrastructure investment law are made in the US. The administration is issuing proposed guidance “to ensure construction materials from copper and aluminum to fiber optic, cable, lumber, and drywall, are made in America,” according to a White House fact sheet.

    The president will recap his efforts over his first two years in office to help the US economy recover from the pandemic, reduce the federal deficit and bring down inflation that last year hit a four-decade high.

    Biden also will call for expanding a $35-a-month price cap on insulin that he championed to all Americans, not just Medicare recipients.

  12. #3287
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    I hope Joe does not run again. He achieved the main goal of getting rid of Trump. Now time to hand over to a younger man. The last thing the world needs is another Trump presidency.

  13. #3288
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Little more on the soft launch




    President Joe Biden will use his second State of the Union address on Tuesday to remind Americans of how their lives have been improved over his first two years in office, as he tries to confront pessimism in the country and navigate the tricky politics of a newly divided Washington.

    Rather than laying out major new policy proposals, Biden was expected to devote much of his speech to highlighting his efforts over the past two years to create jobs, fight inflation and improve the nation’s infrastructure. The speech comes as Biden is honing his pitch to voters ahead of his expected announcement in the next few months that he will seek another term in office despite voter frustrations about the direction of the nation.

    “Next week, I’ll be reporting on the state of the Union,” Biden said Friday after a stronger-than-expected jobs report that saw the unemployment rate drop to the lowest level in more than 53 years. “But today, I’m happy to report that the state of the Union and the state of our economy is strong.”

    Biden’s remarks from the House rostrum will take place in a sharply different context from a year ago. Republicans now control the chamber, rendering it unlikely that any significant legislation reaches Biden’s desk. The newly empowered GOP is itching to undo many of Biden’s achievements and raising the specter of persistent investigations — including into the recent discoveries of classified documents from his time as vice president at his home and former office.

    “Jobs are up, wages are up, inflation is down, and COVID no longer controls our lives,” Biden told the Democratic National Committee on Friday. “But now, the extreme MAGA Republicans in the House of Representatives have made it clear they intend to put it all at risk. They intend to destroy it.”

    The president, meanwhile, is shifting his focus from legislating to implementing the massive infrastructure and climate bills passed in the last Congress — and to trying to make sure Americans credit him for the improvements.

    “These things don’t sell themselves,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday on NBC. “And it’s one of the reasons I’m really looking forward to that State of the Union address. I will say that there have been so many accomplishments under this administration. It can be difficult to list them in a distilled way.”

    While large-scale bipartisanship remains unlikely, Biden was set to reissue his 2022 appeal for Congress to get behind his “unity agenda” of actions to address the opioid epidemic, mental health, veterans’ health and cancer.

    Biden will also call on lawmakers to responsibly raise the debt limit and keep the government funded. The president has remained opposed to negotiating to avoid default, while Republicans are pushing for unspecified deep spending cuts to reduce the deficit.

    Biden, according to two administration officials who requested anonymity to preview the speech, was also expected to discuss his decision to shoot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon Saturday, as part of a broader section on countering China’s more assertive economic and military actions around the world.

    His address last year came just days after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine and many in the West doubted Kyiv’s ability to avoid a swift routing. Now the war is on the cusp of entering its second year, and under Biden the U.S. and allies have sent tens of billions of dollars in military and economic assistance to bolster Ukraine’s defenses. Now the president must make the case — both at home and abroad — for sustaining that coalition as the war drags on.

    Meanwhile, inflation, which rose precipitously last year in part because of soaring energy prices from the war, has begun to ease.

  14. #3289
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    The State of the Union is strong

    Excellent speech – (not in the transcript) Stand up for Seniors – We all agree not to cut Social Security and Medicare Medicare






    Transcript - President Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address
    Last edited by S Landreth; 08-02-2023 at 10:36 AM.

  15. #3290
    กงเกวียนกำเกวียน HuangLao's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hugh Cow View Post
    I hope Joe does not run again. He achieved the main goal of getting rid of Trump. Now time to hand over to a younger man. The last thing the world needs is another Trump presidency.

    They all derive from the same club.
    Too many are being played....

  16. #3291
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    I did enjoy this part of the speech




  17. #3292
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    Quote Originally Posted by S Landreth View Post
    The State of the Union is strong
    He was on point last night. Loved when he called out the GOP on SS and got them to basically flip.


  18. #3293
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bsnub View Post
    He was on point last night. Loved when he called out the GOP on SS and got them to basically flip.

    He and his team must have set that up. He was great!






    President Joe Biden, at the ripe age of 80, came out with ample vim and vigor in Tuesday night’s State of the Union address and proceeded to mop the House floor with the howling, discombobulated remains of the Republican Party.

    Preaching populism and leaning hard on his noted skill as the empathizer-in-chief, Biden bounded through a speech that acknowledged the nation’s struggles while remaining unerringly optimistic. He went off script regularly, parrying Republican lawmakers who heckled him, at one point backing the whole party into a corner and getting them to swear to protect Medicare and Social Security benefits.

    I’ve never seen anything like it in a State of the Union speech – they ran at him like a pack of lemmings and, with a wink and a grin, he politely directed them to the cliff.

    Joe Biden's State of the Union pep shows a reelection run may be coming

    Whatever the White House cooks are feeding Biden these days, I’d like a plate of it myself. It’s like he’s Benjamin-Buttoning all of a sudden. And as he ponders running for reelection and nervous Democrats eye a younger candidate, Tuesday’s speech suggests he’s still got it when it comes to retail politicking.

    Biden, of course, will never be mistaken for a great orator. But his address relentlessly hit notes most Americans would cheer, putting the Republican lawmakers in a bind.

    How do Republicans not applaud democracy?

    Biden said, “Our democracy remains unbowed and unbroken.” Republicans kept quiet.

    Bided talked about a boom in infrastructure projects. Republicans kept quiet. Biden quipped, “I’ll see you at the groundbreaking.”

    Biden said the unemployment rate is the lowest it has been in decades. Some offered tepid applause while others kept quiet.

    If you don’t cheer for democracy, improved infrastructure and a low unemployment rate, people are going to wonder whose team you’re on.

    Kevin McCarthy's State of the Union experience was one long squirm

    The Republican lawmakers’ unwillingness to applaud popular accomplishments that help people, coupled with repeated acts of childish heckling that Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, seated behind Biden, tried and failed to shush, showed how weak and devoid of ideas their party has become.

    Throughout the speech, McCarthy gave a clinic on squirming uncomfortably. At one point, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shouted “LIAR!” at Biden. When the president was speaking about a man who lost his child to a fentanyl overdose, Republicans began shouting Biden down, one yelling, “It’s your fault!”

    Dark Brandon deflects Republican heckling with policy

    Biden responded by asking Republicans to join him and launch “a major surge” to stop fentanyl production and provide border agents with “more drug detection machines to inspect cargo.”

    That, of course, shut the Republicans up, because they don’t want to consider a solution, they just want to have something to holler about.

    Americans have rejected Republicans' performative outrage

    The midterm elections showed clearly that the American people are not buying the kind of performative outrage Republicans are selling. But on Tuesday night, while the older guy they routinely describe as “senile” was energetically promoting hope and ideas that might make the country a better place, performative outrage was, again, all GOP lawmakers had.

    You could see it in McCarthy’s face as he tried to silence the please-put-me-on-Fox-News loudmouths in his caucus. He looked defeated. He looked like he was going to race home after the speech, write mournful poetry and enter a lengthy goth phase.

    At SOTU, Biden showed America who's normal and who's crazy

    You don’t have to love Biden or even like him to see why he was feeling peppy Tuesday night. The 80-year-old kid from Scranton, Pennsylvania, was facing opponents who couldn’t stop punching themselves.

    C’mon, folks. This ain’t fair.

    In the Republican rebuttal to Biden’s address, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said: “The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left. The choice is between normal or crazy.”

    She’s not wrong. But I don’t think she understands which side the American people see as crazy. (Hint: It’s the side that let itself get outfoxed on live TV by a president they keep calling old and incompetent.)

    Live fact-checking Joe Biden's State of the Union 2023



  19. #3294
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    Quote Originally Posted by S Landreth View Post
    He and his team must have set that up. He was great!
    I have a feeling that that will haunt the GOP for a long time.

  20. #3295
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    Quote Originally Posted by bsnub View Post
    He was on point last night. Loved when he called out the GOP on SS and got them to basically flip.

    Wrong! McCarthy has publicly stated several times SS/Medicare was off limits for Budget Cuts. Cutting SS/Medicare is political suicide and a sure formula to lose. This lie is perpetuated for the naive low information voter. The mainstream media doesn't cover this type message. The only place I could find copy of the video with McCarthy saying SS/Medicare was off limits was on a Fox News clip.

    Kevin McCarthy Speaker of the House outlined his Budget objectives several hours prior to President Biden's State of the Nation Speech. I booked marked the video segment where he states SS/Medicare is hands off (2.44 minutes). For anyone that is objective enough his full speech is there to listen to.



    House Speaker Kevin McCarthy delivers an address on the debt ceiling and more - YouTube





    It was Biden caught in a lie and called on it in front of a National TV audience. As displayed in this thread, this completely blew over the heads of the partisans, ignorant and less objective.
    Last edited by CalEden; 09-02-2023 at 04:48 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by CalEden View Post
    It was Biden caught in a lie and called on it in front of a National TV audience.
    Bullshit! He said it was not the majority of the caucus. There are more than a few who want to defund SS. Stop watching fox news.

    Scott doubles down on sunsetting all federal programs after Biden’s jab | The Hill

    List of Republicans Who Have Suggested Cutting Medicare, Social Security

  22. #3297
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
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    ^Good job. Wonder if it’ll convince it? I had this prepared for the MAGA group.

    ____________

    Quote Originally Posted by CalEden View Post
    It was Biden caught in a lie and called on it in front of a National TV audience. As displayed in this thread, this completely blew over the heads of the partisans, ignorant and less objective.
    Wrong!

    Just in case any republican doubts Biden’s assertion that some (not all) the Republicans want to cut SS and Medicare, look no further than here.....

    Rick Scott is the architect of the plan that would sunset Social Security and Medicare.

    Or look up……. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has suggested that Social Security and Medicare be eliminated as federal entitlement programs.

    Extra

    Or look up what Mike Lee said about SS and Medicare.

    "It will be my objective to phase out Social Security, to pull it up by the roots and get rid of it"

    _______

    Edit

    Scott and other MAGA Republicans will hold SS and Medicare hostage in the future, if the plan was ever made law.

    Scott doubles down on sunsetting all federal programs after Biden’s jab
    Last edited by S Landreth; 09-02-2023 at 05:51 AM.

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    Republicans Turn Themselves Into Props for Biden

    For four decades, since Ronald Reagan re-invented the modern State of the Union address, television audiences have become accustomed — arguably to the point of tedium — to presidents putting the spotlight on ordinary Americans invited to the House chamber to be hailed for some extraordinary act.

    At last, in 2023, came a new twist on the old ritual. This time, it was ordinary Republicans putting the spotlight on themselves — through extraordinary rudeness. With boos, taunts, groans, and sarcastic chortles, the opposition party effectively turned themselves into prime-time props for President Joseph Biden.

    The performance definitely broke through the tedium. Let’s remember to check Biden’s next campaign disclosure forms — the Republican honking amounted to an in-kind contribution, one he sorely needed.

    The gift paid dividends at both the stylistic and substantive levels.

    In terms of pure theater, the jeers helped Biden come alive.

    At the beginning of the address, Biden ambled through the House gallery, an 80-year-old president who didn’t look a day over 80, nor a day under. A politician who overcame a boyhood stutter, yet who has never been particularly strong with formal speeches, had his usual mix of garbled phrases and you-know-what-he-means sentence fragments. Would this be a painful evening?

    Soon enough, it became an entertaining one. At least, Biden was having fun, looking at booing Republicans with a smile. He accused “some of my Republican friends” of wanting to “sunset Social Security and Medicare,” even as he acknowledged that, “I am not saying this a majority” who backs a proposal last year from Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.).

    Amid shouts of “liar!” Biden responded, “Anybody who doubts it contact my office and I will give you a copy of the proposal.” As audible protests continued, Biden returned the volley, in seemingly spontaneous fashion. “So folks, as we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare off the books now, right? All right. We got unanimity.”

    Beyond enlivening the evening, the boisterousness in the gallery was a reminder of something more consequential. Even in a polarized era, the modern presidency gives its occupants unmatched ability to define and hold the political center. This might be easy to forget, after years in which Donald Trump — practicing a politics of contempt aimed mostly at mobilizing supporters — seemed indifferent to this reality.

    Biden, formed by a different era, and advised by veterans of Bill Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s presidencies, was plainly using the speech to achieve more traditional aims. He sought to present himself as a common-sense realist, in touch with the everyday concerns of voters — inviting the opposition to choose between joining him to solve problems or risk being portrayed as obstructionists and extremists. It may not be the most novel of strategies, but for the past couple generations it has been the one that most two-term presidents have followed — typically using State of the Union addresses as major events in making the case.

    Biden also showed that it is not such a difficult feat — at least not with the presidential platform — to unify different wings of his party, despite some commentary asserting they are irreconcilable.
    No reason they need to be. On policing reform, for instance, Biden introduced the parents of Tyre Nichols — killed in a beating by police in Memphis last month — and trumpeted his proposals to reduce police violence. But he steered far clear of the anti-police rhetoric embraced by some on the left, and exploited by Republicans, after the George Floyd murder in 2020: “I know most cops are good, decent people — the vast majority.”

    Biden congratulated new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, joking that, “I don’t want to ruin your reputation, but I look forward to working with you.” At the same time, he well knew Republicans would have little interest in working with him on proposals to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy, and to expand government rules on business from everything from drug prices to airline fees.

    It’s little wonder that Republicans in the crowd were irritated. The whole evening was evidence that even a president with low approval ratings has a much louder voice and more potent ability to frame the debate than they do.

    For the historical-minded, it was also evidence of how standards of decorum are highly fluid. Recall the big fuss in 2009 when Republican Joe Wilson of South Carolina interrupted President Obama’s speech to Congress by shouting, “You lie.” Even many Republicans were embarrassed, and Wilson apologized.

    This time, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shouted out at least nine times, by the count of a POLITICO reporter in the gallery, that Biden was a liar. No one was surprised — certainly not Biden, who recognized an opportunity when it is delivered gift-wrapped before a nationwide audience.

    Republicans Turn Themselves Into Props for Biden - POLITICO

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    President Joe Biden-327151726_698337405355063_2310389073877024857_n-jpg

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    Quote Originally Posted by bsnub View Post
    Republicans Turn Themselves Into Props for Biden
    And still crying about it today

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