A very strong night for Hillary. Maybe the best I’ve ever seen her.
Still wish someone asked Bernie point-blank, “Are you a Democrat?” Came across as too wound-up - almost angry.
O’Malley didn’t make a vivid-enough impression, although his closing was very good. He was smart to emphasize his experience actually running a city and a state, and getting stuff done. He still has my support.
Webb was stiff, sometimes tongue-tied and just didn’t seem to belong up there.
Chaffee didn’t do himself any favors. Blaming a bad vote on his dad’s recent death and being new to the Senate was particularly cringeworthy.
Vilsack, Terry Mac, Howard Dean are my top 3 if Clinton gets the nomination. Vilsack and Terry Mac are longtime friends and supporters and ready to be President on day 1. Dean is all of those things as well plus would create the same excitement among liberals as Sanders, without the “socialist” baggage.
I don’t know the percentage of undocumented immigrants who have fake documents, but it may not be as high as you think. In my wife’s extended family there are some who’ve been here for decades without documents of any kind working in restaurants and in construction. Yes, I know, anecdotes schmanecdotes, but it’s a data point.
That’s pretty much all we have. Statistics are pretty unreliable with that population for obvious reasons.
It’s actually the easiest thing in the world to go after employers, the government just doesn’t want to. E-verify takes care of the well meaning employers and employee file audits takes care of the criminal ones. When I worked for Pizza Hut our files got audited twice a year. $10,000 for each missing document. Find a factory with 400 employees, all undocumented? That’s a cool $4 million. Bet that shuts 'em down.
Health care isn’t free. Nobody expects it to be free. I want universal healthcare just like every other citizen of every other developed nation on this planet has. I want protections for workers and mandated maternity and paternity leave like every other developed nation on this planet has. I want us to stop thinking that American Exceptionalism means that America must constantly be the exception to the rule because “we’re different” and “things just won’t work here like they do in other countries.”
I would much rather pay $1,000 a month in additional taxes if it means a regulated health care market, with no paperwork, no fighting insurance companies over coverage, no worrying about out of network costs, and a host of other useless things our system creates.
But to get to your point, the $1,000 would be in place of the money spent with an insurance plan. Universal healthcare would increase costs to the federal government. It would increase taxes. But it would NOT NOT NOT increase overall healthcare spending on an individual level. If anything, it would decrease it significantly. That’s the key.
I want healthcare to be run by the most efficient means possible: the government. It works. It works everywhere else but the USA. And Bernie Sanders gets it.
If single payer was his only thing, then there’s your money: tax the middle class instead of them paying for health care.
But child care, free college, increased SS benefits? Can’t do it with the revenue he’s talking about. Plus he essentially admitted he’ll blow up the deficit by saying it was a lower priority than getting Americans working. Even though unemployment is 5.1%.
Most business, especially small business, are never audited. As long as they pay their taxes, they’re good for the most part. I believe, if enacted, there will be spotty compliance with E-verify by employers, especially by small businesses that shelter undocumented family member employees.
My point is it is unrealistic to believe once E-verify is in place everywhere, they’ll all go home. If the only crime :dubious: they have committed is being here undocumented, they will continue to remain beneath the radar and, if necessary, find suitable and relatively safe employment.
It won’t be Bill, but the 22nd Amendment prevents anyone from being elected to the office of President more than twice. It doesn’t say you can’t become President by some other avenue after having served two terms.
So for purposes of the 12th Amendment, Bill can be VP because he’s not “constitutionally ineligible to the office of President.” Because being Constitutionally ineligible for election to the office =/= Constitutionally ineligible to succeed to the office.
The two amendments don’t form a closed loop, especially since the authors of the 12th Amendment didn’t have the 22nd Amendment in mind. But it’s unlikely that anyone will take advantage of this loophole.
There’s also the same state problem. I realize that we expect shenanigans from Clinton, but trying to tell us that they can be husband and wife and live in different states is just stretching credibility to the breaking point.
I suppose. Bill can’t be elected but that doesn’t make him ineligible to be president, he just can’t be elected. Then of course to each get NY’s electoral votes, one would have to declare residency elsewhere.
Meh. Vilsack doesn’t have much to show for his time at USDA, Terry Mac is too slick and not as appealing as Mark Warner if you need a Virginian, and Dean is 'way past his sell-by date, I’d say.
It’s the VP nomination. None are credible as people who could run for President and create excitement, but Clinton is comfortable with all three and all three add something to the ticket, as well as being qualified to be President.
Clinton could go for youth and buzz, but she’s a lot like GWB in that she doesn’t really trust anyone she doesn’t know well. She has a tight inner circle. And like GWB, the likely candidates come from the Clintons’ circle of longtime political allies.
I don’t see what everyone’s so mistrustful of Hillary. I don’t think she’s changed her stance on things any more than the typical politician, and certainly not more then Mitt “Etch-a-sketch” Romney or Donald “I used to be a Democrat” Trump or even John “No I’ve never been a maverick” McCain. I trust Hillary, I think she’ll do a good job. Where others see clever manipulation, I see a command of the issues and intelligent polish. Is it just a woman thing? Everyone seems to judge how she comes across but most men I’ve seen are much worse than her in demeanor.
She changed her position on a trade agreement she supported only months ago, and cited “new” information that was not new or completely irrelevant.
Not to mention, we haven’t had a President against trade agreements since Herbert Hoover. Any mainstream candidate that says they oppose a trade agreement the PResident of their party supports is a liar. Be honest, is there any doubt in your mind that Clinton is a supporter of TPP?