Summary of US Midterm Election Results

[Azov]

I refuse to enroll in federally subsidized healthcare, plain and simple. I'm healthy, and I only see a dentist twice a year for cleanings and I pay cash for that. I haven't seen a physician in over six years. Bottom line for me is the penalty from the IRS is cheaper; however, I only have deducted from my taxes exactly what's owing, so they will have a hard time getting it since there is no enforcement mechanism beyond taking it from your return.

[Ephemeral]

Jessup,
Give me a break, I was anti-establishment back in the 1960s. But you post makes no sense. The sweeping generalizations you make about American corporations is simply not true. Most American corporations are NOT multinational giants, they are much smaller companies of 10-100 employees who are struggling to stay alive. Sure, it makes you a rebel to lump them all into ‘the big bad corporations’ but that simply is not factual.
The truth is that America corporations pay more in taxes in America than every other country except one. From Forbes “US multinationals have a corporate income tax rate of 35%. But after deductions, the median US domestic company pays 23%, while the MNCs pay 28%. That makes the US No. 2 when it comes to be soaked by its own federal government.”

So where are the fucking ‘loopholes’ that you speak of? I ran two small corporation for 25 years, I made jobs for between 15 and 75 families and paid through the ass in taxes. No fucking loopholes. No 100% profit margins. I didn’t pay minimum wage, I paid many employees 6 figures, I covered 100% of the employees health care and 75% of their family health care costs. I put in 75-95 hours per week and at times asked the upper management to do the same. There were a few periods of hard times when I didn’t pull a pay check at all so that the employees would get paid. And the vast majority of other companies I am familiar with are far closer to this profile, not the bullshit one you are trying to paint.

Yes, there are huge multinational corps who fit your profile. But you are an idiot of you think they represent the majority of US corporations. They do not. Small corporations dominate the type of companies in this country. Know how many US corporations have more than 10,000 employees? About 950. Know how many US corporations have less than 100 employees? Over 6 million. These small corporations do not get tax loop holes, they do not fuck over their employees. They are saddled with huge taxes and over regulation. If you want to blame something ‘big’ than simply look towards the Federal Government and explain why there are more employees in the Dept of Agriculture than there are farmers in this country. Or why there is an average of 2.3 vehicles for each employee in the Dept. of Energy. Or why we fund dumbass grants like watching grass grow or watching shrimp on treadmills.

So get your facts straight and step off the ''big bad corporation" bullshit.
Eph

[Jessup]

Ephmereral, I wasn't talking about smaller corporations. I was more referring to the top 5% richest Americans who own over 60% of this countries wealth. Many of whom either inherited this money or themselves did it through their greedy business practices and ARE connected to the mega corporations I spoke of. Sounds like you were not doing that and I commend you for that but the fact remains this IS happening. To insult to injury companies such as Halliburton and Exxon and the big banks get corporate welfare while they do this crap. If you agree this happens no need to get so upset at what I posted.

[Jessup]

Oh and for the record.. I was and am still for a single payer system.. This Obama care was NOT the best choice but due to the fervor and paranoia created over single payer this was the only kick start that could be done. Look at the statistics.. health coverage is up for Americans in all but 2 states. Mine is one of those that is isn't ..Virginia.. We have an obstructionist republican lead state legislature of course.. sigh

I'd love to see a third party that works. I do not strictly adhere to all the democrat's issues but in general they are the lesser of two evils in our current silly 2 party system.

[Ephemeral]

Jessup,
Yes, it happens. And yes, there is a small minority of incredibly wealthy people in USA who hold a large percentage of wealth. But wealthy people and wealthy corporations are two different things. The vast majority, and I mean the vast majority, or corporations are NOT like Exxon or Halliburton. They do not employ the majority of people in this country, small companies do. They do not pay the vast majority of taxes, the small companies do. To hold the mega-multinational corporations up as examples of US corporations is just wrong and misleading.

But if you want to buy into the media bullshit and ignore the truth, then go for it. The media loves to blame ‘the big bad corporations’ and why not? They are faceless and easy targets. It’s like a politician rallying against drug dealers, who the hell is going to stick up for them? But the truth is that the typical American corporation is a small company struggling to even survive. They aren’t dodging taxes with loopholes, they are paying higher taxes IN US than any other company in any other country (which they have to compete with). They aren’t shipping jobs off shore, they are making jobs for us all. They aren’t faceless, they are just hard working SOBs just like you and me. The Federal government has made doing business in this country nearly impossible with it outrageously high taxes and stupid regulations. So if you want to ‘blame’ something, that it what you should be looking at, not the backbone of US business who is putting the food on our tables.
Eph

[Jessup]

Eph.. what needs to happen in this country is to stop this see saw game or blaming each other to the point of obstruction. This is why America is failing and slowly slipping into the abyss. I'm sick of seeing these party lines no one dares to cross. If you agree with me about the giant corps being corrupt we have common ground. I agree with you that Obama care is costing some middle class hard working people more than it should and did for them in the past, though as I stated much of this is due to State law. Why don't the Republicans take on these companies such Halliburton and there no bid contracts and Exxon with their ridiculously low leases to drill on the peoples National Reserves while making a profit off American oil and then selling it abroad. We all know for example the keystone pipeline in it's current state will be serving big oil and NOT the American people. We will sell much of that oil to foreign buyers. I'd love to see both sides get together.. make laws that stop this abuse.. Seize assets of these tax dodger giants and correct this corporate welfare, let some of these thieving banks fail.. make laws for example that say ALL keystone oil will HAVE to go to America.. these are the type things that could rally citizens on both sides and get things done but both sides have drawn these lines each don't dare to cross.

[Ephemeral]

Jessup,
I am on board with saying all politician are morons. They are simply always putting themselves ahead of everything else; it is just stupid that we have ‘professional’ politicians. Terms limits are desperately needed; do you civil service and get the hell out and go get a real job. Allowing these lawyers to stay in office for multiple terms is what causes them to put self interest ahead of what they should be doing. Anyone who thinks for a second there is a difference between a Republican politicians and a Democratic politician is simply kidding themselves and has been watching too much t.v. They are all the same. They are all wealthy, they all have incredible health insurance, they are all out of touch with the middle class.

Talking about multinational corporations is simply a smoke screen. Democrats somehow have a lot of people thinking that they somehow care about ‘the common person’. It’s a joke, they don’t. Here in North Carolina we just came off the most expensive senate election in the history of the USA. Over $120 million dollars spent on two morons (Tillis vs. Hagen). Keep in mind that the office pays $174,000 per year; but they spent $120 million to get elected??? There is only 10 million fucking men, women, and children in the entire state. Even worse, 1.1 million people voted. Do the math on how much they spent per vote. They could have just spent each voter the cash and probably would have won in a landslide.

And the race itself? What a joke. Hagen (Dem) ran ads saying Tillis was influenced by millionaires and did not represent ‘us’. But wait, fucking Hagen is worth 50 Million herself! Last time she ran she flamed Elizabeth Dole for voting with the President 94% or the time… but wait Hagen voted with Obama 99% of the time. Hagen said that Dole has not done anything for the state… but wait in the last 6 years Hagen had not written a single bill into law. They are all a bunch of self-serving lawyers cut from the same cloth.

And ‘fracking’ was a big election topic here. Funny, no one seems to be whining about the cost of gas being the lowest it has been in ages (which is largely due to fracking). I don’t know, fracking might indeed be a bad thing for us all. But my point is that none of us are saving gas, we are still driving SUVs like we don’t give a shit.

If you have heartburn with SOME of the multinational national corporations then boycott their products and stop buying Exxon gas. The trouble here is that everyone has blindly bought into the media crap that all corporations are the same. So legislation often does not make a distinction between a multinational and a 10 person company. The small family run 10 person company often has the same regulations and taxes overhead that a multinational does; how the fuck is that fair?

The true power is in our hands, the consumers. But truth is that consumers are all out for themselves too. You talk about greed? Absolutely. Greed lies with US, the consumers. We drive our gas guzzlers to the Exxon pump yet bitch about multinationals? Or if we do buy a better gas mileage car we go buy a Kia even when fucking Korea bans the sale of any American cars in their market. We think nothing about spending our dollars in WalMart even when the vast majority of shit in there comes from off-shore. The problem is US, not politicians and not corporations.
Eph

[Jessup]

Well put. I agree. Politicians are out of touch and people definitely are to blame in how their decision making process effects the environment around them. We were suppose to have standards on this gas guzzler crap. Jimmy Carter started it.. (the evil Devil to repubs) I remember in the 70's we had lots of small cars being made and the fact the car companies have freely been allowed to make these piece of crap SUVS is really a sad state of affairs. The problem is definitely multi faceted in why everything is so messed up.. anyways.. I would hope some bi partisan approach can be made but .. lol as I say .. prepare for more sad sack obstructionism but this time by the Dems in congress and also the executive branch(since now the repubs have majority). I can't believe when the democrats had the majority in the house and senate and executive they sat on their asses and didn't ram much stuff through. That was when I lost a lot of respect for them. Jaded and mad more often than not about politics/law making/and the functionality of ourgovernment..

[Ephemeral]

The Dems had the majority only in the Senate and of course had the president in the executive position. Repubs controlled the House. Over 375 bills were passed by the Rep controlled house but just sat in the Senate, stalled by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reed (Dem) who would never let any of them come up for vote. But it really didn’t matter because Obama would have vetoed them all anyway. Now they will get passed the Congress but Obama will veto them. This will help the Repubs next election since they will now be able to point their finger at him as the problem that nothing got done. But it is still a cluster fuck.

Sad truth is that we should throw all these assholes out of office. Demand one term limits for every office. Enough of the era of professional politicians. Obama was supposed to be the ‘new hope’; this forum was full of supporters who said Obama was going to change everything and that Bush sucked. I laughed at them and sais all these idiots were the same. I have no idea why so many people buy into the Dems line of bullshit, that they represent ‘the people’ better than the Repubs. I grew up with JFK saying the same bullshit; when the truth is that none of us would even be considered as hired help by the Kennedy family. JFK was raised to be President by Joe Kennedy. They no more represented the common man than any other millionaire. But they certainly talked a good game and dumbasses bought into it. Fast forward 45 years and we still have dumbasses buying into the party lines. Just goes to show you how stupid the American public is, they want 30 second sound bits and not real solutions. They want to take the easy way out; blame everything other then the real problem (which is ourselves).
Eph

[Jerome Scuggs]

t_p/eph - i'm actually going to do some poking around when i get home - i feel like the way the ACA is written, they charge you upfront and you receive the savings, if applicable, during tax season in the form of rebates or whatever. i might be wrong on this though, but especially in eph's case i will make the effort to do the research because healthcare costs ain't no joke and any penny saved is crucial.

i have to clarify that i dont think the ACA is the end-all-be-all solution to our problems, but i do think that we should continue to move in the direction that the ACA is pointed, as opposed to undoing it. the way i read your posts, it's like a "them or us" mentality, you'd rather your insurance be affordable as opposed to the millions who previously could not afford it. i hate that it even has to be a choice, i would of course love to see everyone have affordable healthcare and i know you guys would too which is why it pains me to even argue this point because i don't want to see ANYONE's healthcare costs go up.

but yeah, full disclosure, a family friend has been a roofer all his life, damn good at it, but last year he had a bad accident with his leg and this month he made the decision to have his leg removed. he also has fallen through the cracks of the ACA, and i am genuinely terrified about him and his future, he's got kids that aren't thru school yet and his only source of income depends on his health and he also just learned that his costs are going up 100/month for next year.

eph - when it comes to economics i agree with you 95%. basically the only thing that has changed for me is that i realized that while smaller businesses are in fact the driving force in this country, it is wrong to treat these businesses the way one treats CORPORATIONS. corporations suffer from the same problems that governments do - lack of accountability, "too big to fail", et cetera. even smaller businesses are hurt by corporations who buddy up with lobbyists to pass laws which benefits "business", however, often the only recipients of these benefits are fortune 500 companies which really don't need any more help on top of their profits, and the laws typically serve to solidify corporate control of a market while cutting out smaller business. i am not 'socialist' or 'anti-capitalist', in fact my disdain for corporations is specifically because in my opinion they hurt free markets.

"corporation" is an entirely separate legal term from a typical business. if you ever have some free time and you'd like to watch a very interesting documentary (not some crazy 9/11 t0ne type crap), there is one called, "the corporation". it lays out the historical origins of the corporation and lays out the ways in which they have served to harm our country/economy throughout history, it's pretty cut and dry.

[Summa]

Again, will repeat what I said, citizens united needs to be repealed for any of this to happen. Citizens united ruled that money = speech, which is horseshit imo. It gave a quantifiable disproportion to speech in this country. As long as individuals and corporations are allowed to give uninhibited amounts of money to politicians (as seen by the exponential growth in soft-money contributions since citizens united was upheld); the agenda of the wealthy that maintains the wealthy will be the favorable agenda. Why would you piss off the guy who gives you 20 grand every time you ask by making him actually pay his taxes? Politicians, for the most part have become mouthpieces for various corporate or individual entities. It also drives some of the stagnation and obstructionism, because a funder who contributes massively to someone will now say "hey you get on board that, i'll fund your opponent"; and while that threat used to be bothersome but not game changing; when you can give endless money, it is now a credible and fearsome threat to a politician's career. Honestly, citizens united has made shit so bad, that I have considered doing research to see if there are any successful models of publicly funded elections.

Disregarding the sensationalization and how that drives people from sensible centrist povs; which is another can of worms entirely.

[Ephemeral]

You guys don’t have to listen to me about ObamaCare and how it was smoke and mirrors. Like I said, no insurance company has ever gone out of business. Ultimately we all pay for this; there is no ‘free lunch’. You simply cannot give some in society something without the cost being passed on to others.

But if you don’t believe me, then perhaps you should listen to the guy who was the master mind behind ObamaCare; MIT’s Jonathan Gruber. He clearly states that the American public was too stupid to figure out that they simply moved the cost from the taxpayer to the insurance companies, and that of course the insurance companies will just raise rates. His exact quote is, “They proposed it and that passed, because the American people are too stupid to understand the difference.” Here is the video of just one of the three times he states this.
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/vi...tupid.cnn.html

So go ahead and keep believing that ObamaCare is a ‘good’ thing and that these costs aren’t simply going to be passed back to us all. This isn’t a Monopoly game, we ALL will pay through the ass for this tax. Only a dumbass would think that somehow we can provide insurance coverage for everyone and it not cost us all money. Yeah, put Washington and insurance companies in control by mandating insurance coverage and everyone will be happy. Fuck free market and competition, Washington politicians and insurance executives will take good care of us; I bet they will just go into a corner of the room and shit money to cover the costs.
Eph

[Jerome Scuggs]

i could understand if this outrage was directed at our excessive defense spending or our excessive porkbarrel projects or the excessive waves of tax cuts and kickbacks for the 1% or the excessive intertwining of interests when it comes to privatization of prisons or the dubious nature of government contracts and contractors

but you seem to be outraged at the fact that a government program that aims to increase healthcare coverage, does in fact cost money

i understand that people lied to get the law passed but you can't forget that while proponents might have covered up the actual funding of the law, the opponents of the law were busy talking about...... "death panels". even if the average american voter were informed, it's not like the media hype surrounding the law did any favors for these voters.

if insurance companies continue to raise rates then maybe we should look at legislation to curb this, by providing proper funding. or maybe by making healthcare single payer and taking insurance out of the equation. a common media tactic when talking about government healthcare is to say that people "dont want a beauracrat between them and their doctor", well, we already do except depending on where you live that beauracrat works for blue cross/blue shield, or CIGNA, etc

alot of liberals of the more radical type have actually suggested and also agree that the law was broken from the get-go. their hope is that the ACA will get people used to the idea of our government having a hand in providing healthcare, but it's so broken that it will force either like, nationalization of the insurance companies or of the healthcare system itself. i am not opposed to this, as getting the funds to do such a sweeping overhaul would require a real look at our budget and not the same tired conversation about 'welfare' and 'social security' as if those are the only 2 programs the u.s. spends any money on.

but that all ties back to what summa keeps bringing up about citizens united. we are so fucked.

[Ephemeral]

No, I am outraged at losing my ability to make a decision for myself. The fucking government has no business in making decisions for me, I want the choices to be mine. The government does NOT know better than me what is good for my family, and no amount of bullshit lip service is going to change this.

If you want them, after admitting that they think you and everyone else are too stupid to make decisions, making the choices for you then perhaps you ought to consider moving to a country like China. In China the government makes a lot of decisions what the general population can and cannot see and do.

But the last thing this country needs is a bigger government sticking their hands into our pockets and trying to control what we think and do. America has a bit of history on this topic going back to the very reason that people came to North America.

You can’t mandate compassion. If we have uninsured dying in the streets, then it is a reflection of how shitty people really are. And besides, this is not about compassion and being ‘kind’. The politicians don’t give a shit about any of us, they simply want to act like they are giving us something so ‘the dumb asses’ will re-elect their sorry asses. What better way than to convince everyone that they have ‘given’ us something for free? Social security? What a fucking joke. Just another way of them telling you, ‘you can’t invest you own money because you are a dumbass, so we will do it for you’. Of course they totally blew this because they never accounted for the fact that people would start living longer, so now it too is broke.

What’s the next trick? Oh wait, yes lets allow 3 million illegal immigrants into the country. A sure fire way to ‘get out the vote’ huh? Once again it’s the politicians simply generating votes for themselves. Like any of them really fucking care about a damn immigrant other than to hire one of watch their kids or do their lawn. Get a grip, this tax is nothing more than a typical Washington money grabbing cluster fuck. No one can convince me that making a bigger government which makes decisions for me is a good thing. If American public gave a shit about any of this, we would be donating time and money to poor people. There are some good people in this world who do actually give back, but to think that the Federal government (or politicians) are like this is a sure sign that you have been drinking too much bong water.

The principal here is simple. If you busted your ass in school to earn a great grade, are you then willing to give some of that grade to another person who didn’t work as hard as you? If so, than perhaps you are one of the ‘good’ people in the world. But what about if the school mandates that you do this? The school says, ‘you people are too stupid to know better and be good people, so we will force you to be.’ How will this turn out? Why would anyone give a shit after a few years about working hard at all if it is mandated? Do you really believe for a second that this will end up being good for everyone in the long run? Only an idiot would think that after many years of this all students would become smarter or more compassionate.

We already have seen that every generation in the USA thinks that they 'deserve' something more than the last one. At what point does it become, "hey I'm awake and dressed, what the fuck else do you want from me?" Oh wait, that's right... the new way to make a living is online gambling. Now there's a real career.
Eph

[Jessup]

Eph.. I understand your frustration "losing" your right to decide for yourself what you should be able to do.. but hey.. put things into perspective. This is nothing new for many many groups throughout Americas history. I find it quite revealing republicans / right wingers are so perturbed they have lost some say/sway in this country and to see how they react makes me realize they truthfully have been out for themselves this whole time. I'm sorry but I can not believe private charity is the best we can do for the poor/ minority groups who have been consistently shut out off from achieving equal justice in our system. We all know about slavery, discrimination, racism being ingrained into American culture and laws. jim Crow was "LEGAL" Prohibition was "LEGAL" Marijuana criminalization was "LEGAL" , Crack sentences being way harsher vs regular cocaine sentences and the disparity /racist reasons behind these laws were all "Legal" and took away peoples rights to decide what was (fair and good for themselves).The attacks on city blocks in philly with a bomb against black panther families was "LEGAL" Now we have this citizens united piece of crap legislation that a 2 year old could refute. Corporations are NOT people .. yet this republican lead supreme court says this and has made this law and no citizen gets the right to decide otherwise.

My whole point I'm trying to make is in general , Republican/ right wing thinkers in this country have time and time again been on the WRONG side of these issues. They tend to vote to sustain their own self interests while at the same time saying let them be damned who do not fit into our little in crowd clicks of the powerful. In short I don't trust them to fix health care nor do I trust them to make private charity groups that work for those in need of health care/the poor and honestly question their morality and values behind their "donations" So many of these fat cats do it ONLY as a tax write off.. not to really make any real improvement in the world. We all have seen what a shit show the red cross has become.. they are as bad as big government or big business now,, I don't trust private corporations, I don't trust private charities, I don't trust private prisons. I don't trust government either sigh.. but in the end.. government is what HAS to be in charge otherwise we have nothing.. no real country of equality, no laws that all citizens must adhere to, no way of checking and balancing inequality. It is not a perfect system that is for sure but in order for our country to get on a better path government NEEDS to be THE pivotal role.