# My 30-minute one-on-one discussion with US Congressman Joaquin Castro **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 8, 2018, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654 "2018-06-08T01:35:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654/21 "2018-06-08T14:23:34Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > **JohnT** , if all goes well, have you decided what Cabinet post you want? Kitchen pantry. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654/22 "2018-06-08T14:24:21Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > That is an interesting conversation. I like how you reframed the terms of the debate to “Invest and Build.” That’s good and could be devestatingly effective. I also think you are right about Putin which is why I wouldn’t be surprised to see more pro secessionist movements in the liberal democracies. Have you thought about running for office? What additional pro-secessionist movements can there be? At this point I assume that any pro-secessionist movement is and will be bankrolled by Putin because the vast majority of them have been, and I assume a lot of other people will be assuming this as well so I do not think it will be _as_ useful a tactic as it has been in the past couple of years, but other than perhaps Quebec, I can’t think of a region ripe for secession that hasn’t been tried already. There is Puerto Rico but the numbers that want true secession are tiny and have already had their voice so I don’t think that has a lot of potential. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654/23 "2018-06-08T14:30:03Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Kitchen pantry. 😉 Good thinking. > [@Ludovic](#): > > What additional pro-secessionist movements can there be? At this point I assume that any pro-secessionist movement is and will be bankrolled by Putin because the vast majority of them have been, and I assume a lot of other people will be assuming this as well so I do not think it will be _as_ useful a tactic as it has been in the past couple of years, but other than perhaps Quebec, I can’t think of a region ripe for secession that hasn’t been tried already. There is Puerto Rico but the numbers that want true secession are tiny and have already had their voice so I don’t think that has a lot of potential. California? ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654/24 "2018-06-08T14:30:36Z")
Pretty cool. On the one hand he probably didn’t want to talk “business”, but on the other he was probably glad you weren’t a flaming right-winger. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654/25 "2018-06-08T14:33:56Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > California? Already done a couple years ago, and bankrolled by Russia. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654/26 "2018-06-08T15:34:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And the filibuster is already dead, anyway. The Republicans stopped pretending otherwise when they passed the tax cuts. Huh? They used their once-a-year budget reconciliation free pass on the tax cuts. That’s nothing new; it’s been kosher for decades. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654/27 "2018-06-08T15:50:55Z")
Except that reconciliation can only be used on measures that decrease the deficit, which they conveniently ignored for the tax cuts. ---
**Author:** ![Itself](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d07c76/32.png) [@Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654/28 "2018-06-08T16:16:34Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > “Entitlements” is another one. I’ve been paying into Social Security and Medicare for over 40 years, so I feel I’m “entitled” to those benefits much in the same way that I’m entitled to the money in my retirement accounts. The accounting for Social Security is complicated, but Medicare takes hundreds of billions of dollars each year out of the general fund. The problem with Medicare is that you (and your cohort) haven’t paid enough into it. You earned the money in your retirement accounts; Medicare is like putting a down payment on a house and then claiming that that makes you entitled to the house in full. If you’re trying to defend it on the grounds of the advantages of a “increased productivity of a healthy and secure work force” (I’m not sure if that was related or a separate topic in your post), it’s hard to tie that in to Medicare, which is mostly (but not exclusively) for the elderly. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654/29 "2018-06-08T16:27:34Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > I literally do not think you read what I wrote. Where in God’s name did you get the idea that Castro “changed the subject to Russia” because a “Republican accuse(d)” him of tax and spend? > > 1. I’m not a Republican. That would require me to support pedophiles, environmental rape, and Nazis, so no, thank you. > 2. I wasn’t “accusing” him of anything. I was offering advice on how to counter the anti-civitas mantras of the Republican party. > > May wish to reread it again, this time with an eye towards what it says, not towards what you wish it says. I read it the first time. I got the part about Republicans accusing them of tax and spend from this part - > [@](#): > > JC: “One of the problems we have as Democrats is that we always get hit with the ‘tax and spend’ label. For example, the tax cuts. Everyone is asking us ‘are you going to repeal the tax cuts?’, and we are, but as soon as we propose something, the Republicans are going to hit back with their ‘tax and spend’ message, so we have to fight against that, which is extremely difficult because **we are, in fact, raising taxes and increasing spending**.” Emphasis added. Then when you suggested trying to change the terms by re-labeling the admitted fact that Democrats do want to raise taxes and increase spending, the Rep then made what you termed an “interesting pivot” and started talking about Russia. And I agreed. It was indeed interesting, although probably not for the same reasons as you. From my POV, he knows as well as he might that Dems really do want to “tax and spend”, and didn’t think your suggestion on how to rephrase that would make it more palatable to the electorate, so he trotted out another response that he might want to make. It worked with you, but you are a Democrat. But even with an already convinced audience, the Rep did not seem interested in going further into the issue of how “tax and spend” is a good idea, even if you call it something else. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654/30 "2018-06-08T16:35:47Z")
Hey, call it what you will, but “tax and spend” is better than the Republican policy of “borrow and waste”. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654/31 "2018-06-08T16:45:09Z")
The above is a narrative retelling of a conversation I had 6 days ago, not a word-for-word recounting of the entire conversation. If you read the above aloud, it may take 5 minutes to run through… trust me, Shodan, he didn’t pivot from an uncomfortable point of view, no matter how much you wish to see it that way. But thanks for trying you may collect your parting gift at the door. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654/32 "2018-06-08T16:57:58Z")
**Shodan** ’s posts brought to mind the bolded part of this quote: > [@Kang (as Clinton)](#): > > My fellow Americans, as a young boy I dreamed of being a baseball. But tonight I say we must move forward, not backward! Upward, not forward! **And always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom!!!** ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654/33 "2018-06-08T17:00:57Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Except that reconciliation can only be used on measures that decrease the deficit, which they conveniently ignored for the tax cuts. That’s irrelevant. No matter what they do in that once-a-year exception to needing 60 votes for cloture, the filibuster is still there the rest of the time as long as the ‘once-a-year’ part still holds. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654/34 "2018-06-08T18:19:08Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > The above is a narrative retelling of a conversation I had 6 days ago, not a word-for-word recounting of the entire conversation. Is this - > [@](#): > > Also, he brought up Trump/Russia as the first topic he asked to discuss, which I found interesting. an accurate representation of the conversation? As mentioned, we both found his eagerness to discuss Russia and Trump rather than re-labeling his desire to tax and spend as “invest and build” to be interesting, but for probably different reasons. > [@Snowboarder Bo](#): > > Shodan’s posts brought to mind the bolded part of this quote: > > > [@Kang (as Clinton)](#): > > > > My fellow Americans, as a young boy I dreamed of being a baseball. But tonight I say we must move forward, not backward! Upward, not forward! \*\*And always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom!!! \*\* This is either one of the most insightful things I have read recently, or it isn’t. Please tell me you aren’t going to go off on Abraham Lincoln again. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654/35 "2018-06-08T21:49:54Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > **JohnT** , if all goes well, have you decided what Cabinet post you want? John, be prepared for hard confirmation questions about what a drunk President Castro must be. No one uses Uber to get home unless they have a serious problem with alcohol… :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654/36 "2018-06-08T21:56:43Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > John, be prepared for hard confirmation questions about what a drunk President Castro must be. No one uses Uber to get home unless they have a serious problem with alcohol… :dubious: Are you serious with this? I (and many others, I’m quite sure) use Uber and Lyft like taxis… when we don’t want to worry about parking, when we want to have 2 or 3 drinks, or when we don’t want to wait for public transportation. I don’t think these services would survive if they were only used by drunks. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654/37 "2018-06-08T23:33:40Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Are you serious with this? I (and many others, I’m quite sure) use Uber and Lyft like taxis… when we don’t want to worry about parking, when we want to have 2 or 3 drinks, or when we don’t want to wait for public transportation. I don’t think these services would survive if they were only used by drunks. No. Just sounds like a question some clueless Senator might ask. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2018, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654/38 "2018-06-09T02:06:53Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > That is an interesting conversation. I like how you reframed the terms of the debate to “Invest and Build.” That’s good and could be devestatingly effective. I also think you are right about Putin which is why I wouldn’t be surprised to see more pro secessionist movements in the liberal democracies. Have you thought about running for office? Democrats have been trying to call it “investments” since the Clinton years. It worked once: when Clinton did it. Since then, voters hear “spending”, because the government is a terrible investor. Almost all actual federal spending is pure consumption. Very little of it is investment and every little of it is good investment. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2018, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654/39 "2018-06-09T02:21:38Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Democrats have been trying to call it “investments” since the Clinton years. It worked once: when Clinton did it. Since then, voters hear “spending”, because the government is a terrible investor. Almost all actual federal spending is pure consumption. Very little of it is investment and every little of it is good investment. I would say that a lot of that (like when talking about Social Security and Medicare) can be called consumption, but it is an investment to avoid social decay. IMHO it is also to avoid the growth in the number of desperate people deciding to take torches and pitchforks. It was common to see many well to do that were aware of what their taxes and what they were being invested for. But many Republicans nowadays think that there is no need to invest in the security of our society. Or, since they are deciding that progress is not needed, then a lot of investments that are good will be on the chopping block, after all very little of it is good, no? :rolleyes: > **[Infrastructure and Transportation | Congressional Budget Office](https://www.cbo.gov/topics/infrastructure-and-transportation)** > > CBO analyzes federal policies regarding the nation’s highways, airports, water supply systems, and communications and technology infrastructure. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2018, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654/40 "2018-06-09T02:52:24Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > From my POV, he knows as well as he might that Dems really do want to “tax and spend” So does literally everyone involved in politics except for the hardest-core of libertarians. If you don’t tax and spend, you don’t have government. I teach this to third graders, and would be happy to pass along the third grade lessons to you if they’d be helpful, explaining how governments function via requiring taxes and then spending the funds raised on government functions. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-30-minute-one-on-one-discussion-with-us-congressman-joaquin-castro/815654.md?page=3)