Anyone want to talk issues?

[bluestateguy]

Only Policy. Dull, boring, wonky public policy.

Have at it. I'll let the responding posters take control of the thread.

[canoeist52]

1. Just a heads up for future economic policy

This morning on C-span Washington Journal I heard Economic Committee member, Carolyn Maloney D., 14th dist. N.Y., say that she had proposed to have the package issued in the form of a debit card to force the American workers to spend it quickly. She proposed having a short expiration date. It was discarded temporarily because it would take too long to implement.
This may be something our government would consider in the future. Doesn't bode well for our financial freedom. TSen. Maloney, a supposed democrat, cares deeply about the lower and middle class's ability to save for it's future.
Any one else find this disturbing?

[Fresh_Start]

3. bothers me

from a cost, control, and WTF are we doing forcing people to spend new money if they can't afford to pay their existing bills

[Kittycat]

6. My thoughts exactly.

Maybe people need the money to pay their utility bills, or mortgage.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

14. Yes, that is really bothersome

shows another layer of government control that I don't like. Glad it didn't pass. Next thing you know, they'll be telling us that not only must we spend our money, but what to spend it on.

[Armstead]

2. How about the congoing and continuing monopolization of the economy?

Mergers and acquisitions continue to transform the economy from a relatively diverse and broadly based collection of big, mid-sized and small companies into a handful of monsterous monopolistic giants.

It's still happening in almost every sector you can mention.

It might be a good idea for that to become a campaign issue.....Nawwwww

[OneGrassRoot]

9. Yes. Let's start with that one!

I'm anxious to return tonight to see if anyone really runs with the discussion of issues rather than slam/bash threads. ;)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

16. Yeah. You know a monopoly on production

sounds communistic to me--after all, during the Cold War it was drummed into my little head that what made capitalism different was that it allowed CHOICE. Well, now the truth is out. Like communism, capitalism is about concentration of production--only difference is that the power isn't in the hands of government elites, but private sector elites. Guess that's why I've always felt neither system was very good-both based on greed and power. Personally, I prefer socialism. More pragmatic.

[Dogmudgeon]

4. Sure do!

(On Edit: corrected a spelling error in the last paragraph.)

Hillary is bad. Hillary is cold. She is conniving and has a huge political machine. She will say and do anything to win, anything to win, anything to win. Bill "Blow Job" Clinton is a liar and a mass-murderer of babies. Hillary is also a liar. Their every act is motivated by malice, greed, and hatred. They are crooked to the core. They are just bad people. Hillary is bad. Hillary is cold. She is conniving and has a huge political machine. She will say and do anything to win, anything to win, anything to win. Bill "Blow Job" Clinton is a liar and a mass-murderer of babies. Hillary is also a liar. Their every act is motivated by malice, greed, and hatred. They are crooked to the core. They are just bad people.

Hillary is bad. Hillary is cold. She is conniving and has a huge political machine. She will say and do anything to win, anything to win, anything to win. Bill "Blow Job" Clinton is a liar and a mass-murderer of babies. Hillary is also a liar. Their every act is motivated by malice, greed, and hatred. They are crooked to the core. They are just bad people. Hillary is bad. Hillary is cold. She is conniving and has a huge political machine. She will say and do anything to win, anything to win, anything to win. Bill "Blow Job" Clinton is a liar and a mass-murderer of babies. Hillary is also a liar. Their every act is motivated by malice, greed, and hatred. They are crooked to the core. They are just bad people. Hillary is bad. Hillary is cold. She is conniving and has a huge political machine. She will say and do anything to win, anything to win, anything to win. Bill "Blow Job" Clinton is a liar and a mass-murderer of babies. Hillary is also a liar. Their every act is motivated by malice, greed, and hatred. They are crooked to the core. They are just bad people.

(Hillary Is Bad.)

Hillary is bad. Hillary is cold. She is conniving and has a huge political machine. She will say and do anything to win, anything to win, anything to win. Bill "Blow Job" Clinton is a liar and a mass-murderer of babies. Hillary is also a liar. Their every act is motivated by malice, greed, and hatred. They are crooked to the core. They are just bad people. Hillary is bad. Hillary is cold. She is conniving and has a huge political machine. She will say and do anything to win, anything to win, anything to win. Bill "Blow Job" Clinton is a liar and a mass-murderer of babies. Hillary is also a liar. Their every act is motivated by malice, greed, and hatred. They are crooked to the core. They are just bad people. Hillary is bad. Hillary is cold. She is conniving and has a huge political machine. She will say and do anything to win, anything to win, anything to win. Bill "Blow Job" Clinton is a liar and a mass-murderer of babies. Hillary is also a liar. Their every act is motivated by malice, greed, and hatred. They are crooked to the core. They are just bad people.

Hillary is bad. Hillary is cold.

Hillary is bad. Hillary is cold. She is conniving and has a huge political machine. She will say and do anything to win, anything to win, anything to win. Bill "Blow Job" Clinton is a liar and a mass-murderer of babies. Hillary is also a liar. Their every act is motivated by malice, greed, and hatred. They are crooked to the core. They are just bad people. Hillary is bad. Hillary is cold. She is conniving and has a huge political machine. She will say and do anything to win, anything to win, anything to win. Bill "Blow Job" Clinton is a liar and a mass-murderer of babies. Hillary is also a liar. Their every act is motivated by malice, greed, and hatred. They are crooked to the core. They are just bad people. Hillary is bad. Hillary is cold. She is conniving and has a huge political machine. She will say and do anything to win, anything to win, anything to win. Bill "Blow Job" Clinton is a liar and a mass-murderer of babies. Hillary is also a liar. Their every act is motivated by malice, greed, and hatred. They are crooked to the core. They are just bad people.

--p!
Sure, it's serious. It's got a link.

[MadBadger]

5. Sure...WHat's going on with Britney today?

[rox63]

7. What happened to coverage of the war?

The economy has been in the crapper for months, and suddenly it's big news. We never hear much of anything about the war anymore. It seems to me like a planned case of media amnesia.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

18. They learned their lessons from Viet Nam

nothing did more to turn the population against that war than the nightly news broadcasts from Viet Nam. MSM and the warmongers that own it know "out of sight, out of mind". Heck, they won't even allow photos of coffins on national news, or names of dead service people listed on tee shirts. Only place you might see something about it is in the obit section of the local newspaper.

[foxer]

24. Didn't you hear,we WON that years ago (just forgot to tell Iraq)

[canoeist52]

8. so much for caring about those people who cant pay their

mortgages and can't afford health insurance premiums. This Sen. Maloney is a democrat! Maybe it's time for a third political party.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

19. Or time for the Democratic Party to make a left turn

and go back to being a populist party rather than a wanna be elitist/capitalist one.

[Jack Rabbit]

10. What a novel concept!!

Thank you.

Can we make a list of things we'd like to see the next president accomplish with the cooperation of congress?

• A complete withdrawal from Iraq.
• A serious attempt to capture Osama and his lieutenants (they're in the Hindu Kush, not Iraq).
• A repudiation of the Bush doctrine of preventive strike and perceived threats and first use of nuclear weapons.
• An end to domestic surveillance.
• Restoration of the Writ of Habeas Corpus.
• Justice Department investigations into Bush regime wrong doing.
• Legislation worked out between Congress and the White House spelling out the circumstances that the president can claim executive privilege.
• Fix the economy to allow the working poor to rise to the middle class rather than show so much concern for the investor class. This would include:
• Legislation to encourage the growth of a revitalized labor movement;
• The end of "free" trade;
• The discouragement of the practice of outsourcing.
• Universal health care.

Does anybody want to add anything else?

[Armstead]

15. Whittle corporations back down to size

When you look at how few corporations own so much, it seems to me like an issue that affects almost everything else.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

20. great list

I'd add use diplomacy rather than force when it comes to international relations.
Sign onto international treaties against torture, etc--or sign them again, with a statement that this time we really mean it.

[Jack Rabbit]

25. I'm glad you added sign them again

Or I would have had to point out that we've already signed them: the Geneva Conventions, the UN Charter and the Convention against Torture all prohibit torture, the last of these categorically, and the US is party to all of them. That makes them the supreme law of the land under Article 6 of the Constitution.

Investigating Bush regime war crimes should cover that.

[TreasonousBastard]

11. Issues? We don't need no steenking issues. We got...

handshakes to worry about.

Get your priorities straight.

[rucky]

12. Would more handshakes reduce the healthcare burden on the country?

[BlueManDude]

13. Electability is my ONLY issue...

it's all I care about. 8 more of GOPers in the WH will be the end of us.

[Armstead]

17. A Must Read Thread by Plaid Adder

If you want to talk issues, this one IMO trumps anything else posted on DU in a long time.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=4265928&mesg_id=4266006

[THUNDER HANDS]

21. Sure, let's debate the difference in health care

Edwards wants to make everyone have to buy into his plan.
Obama wants to mandate that just children be covered.

Which is more fair?

I say Obama's. I don't want to be forced to pay into any plan if I don't need to.

[bluestateguy]

22. I wish I could agree with you

But I can't.

If you leave coverage up to the uneducated "choice" of some people, they will hurt us all. Young healthy people who think they will never get sick will opt out (many of them anyway). Then they are not paying into the system and only older, sicker people are paying in. Then the program costs more money that way.

[THUNDER HANDS]

23. i agree

but I still shouldn't have to pay for health insurance if I feel I don't need it, or can't afford it.

Right now I'm an independent contractor. I don't get health insurance. I've been lucky that I haven't needed it, I don't get sick that often. When I get married, I'm going to be covered under my wife's insurance.

Why should I have to pay for my own plan then?