Biden / Harris Focused Discussion

[Breccia]

My money is he didn't want to have any face to faces with the other justices

I was 50/50 on saying the same thing. I ended up flipping tails and just assumed he didn't care. 8-1 decisions speak for themselves.

But then you said

cause they may ask him to resign.

It's a good point. He may not care what they think, but he's rich, old, possibly sick, and facing a hostile work environment he personally caused.

Thomas has to be looking towards his future -- who wouldn't after a life-saving hospital stay? He has to be looking at 2024 and asking "will the GOP replace Trump?" Thomas probably believes Trump can't win again. He knows the evidence of voter fraud is smaller than Trump's penis and also knows Trump is a single-issue candidate. If the GOP can get someone else to run -- DeSantis for example -- Thomas will ride it out and resign in 2025, either way. If the GOP signals that it's Trump or nothing, Thomas will decide he wants to spend more time with his family.

[Kaleredar]

I was 50/50 on saying the same thing. I ended up flipping tails and just assumed he didn't care. 8-1 decisions speak for themselves.

But then you said



It's a good point. He may not care what they think, but he's rich, old, possibly sick, and facing a hostile work environment he personally caused.

Thomas has to be looking towards his future -- who wouldn't after a life-saving hospital stay? He has to be looking at 2024 and asking "will the GOP replace Trump?" Thomas probably believes Trump can't win again. He knows the evidence of voter fraud is smaller than Trump's penis and also knows Trump is a single-issue candidate. If the GOP can get someone else to run -- DeSantis for example -- Thomas will ride it out and resign in 2025, either way. If the GOP signals that it's Trump or nothing, Thomas will decide he wants to spend more time with his family.

I would like to believe that republicans are capable of the introspection and reflection you state here and working for the common good, but I’ve seen nothing from them indicating that’s the case.

[Breccia]

I would like to believe that republicans are capable of the introspection and reflection you state here and working for the common good, but I’ve seen nothing from them indicating that’s the case.

Republicans are. Party of Trumpers are not. There's a difference, and Thomas is old-school.

Think about this: can you find a single question the GOP members asked Jackson, about Jackon's Trump cases? Jackson was the one who wrote "Presidents are not kings". You can find it here. Who challenged her on this? She was asked about it...once?

Bear in mind, Trump was personally vocal about this recently.

And I understand the fact that she’s very proud of the fact that she never once voted to support Trump on anything, she always voted against me and she brags about it. ’I always voted against Trump.’ How about that? Is that nice?

-- Trump at the Georgia rally almost nobody attended

And yet, the questions she got were about critical race theory. Not "Are you sure Presidents aren't Kings? Because the Constitution clearly spells out they are. We were ruled by a king back in 1776 so it's clearly allowed".

[Canpinter]

Ok dumb civics question but who actually runs the day to day operations of the supreme court, like hiring cafeteria workers and computer techs ect? Aka who could make Thomas' life a living hell of minor inconveniences if he actually came back to a court he shouldn't be on anymore.

[NED funded]

Ngl Biden kinda basef with the minimun tax. Hopefully it becomes a reality

[Kaleredar]

Republicans are. Party of Trumpers are not. There's a difference, and Thomas is old-school.

Think about this: can you find a single question the GOP members asked Jackson, about Jackon's Trump cases? Jackson was the one who wrote "Presidents are not kings". You can find it here. Who challenged her on this? She was asked about it...once?

Bear in mind, Trump was personally vocal about this recently.


-- Trump at the Georgia rally almost nobody attended

And yet, the questions she got were about critical race theory. Not "Are you sure Presidents aren't Kings? Because the Constitution clearly spells out they are. We were ruled by a king back in 1776 so it's clearly allowed".

Again, I’d like to believe that they have a shred of moral scruple. I really would.

While they might not cleave to trump on backing up his batshit insanity, that doesn’t mean that they don’t view him as a useful, if embarrassing, idiot.

I doubt Thomas would essentially hand Biden a Supreme Court justice, nor would the likes of McConnell or other GOP leadership.

The GOP would rather maintain control of the court and have trump embarrass them and the country for four more years than have Biden install a liberal justice. I have very few doubts about that.

[Breccia]

I doubt Thomas would essentially hand Biden a Supreme Court justice, nor would the likes of McConnell or other GOP leadership.

True, but Thomas is the one that has to live with the decision. If he's really a Trumper, he might selfishly decide it's not worth it.

[Edge-]

Manchin’ll stand in the way.

Probably, yes. But "at least Biden is trying", and it's weird seeing centrist Biden proposing fairly progressive tax policies.

[Fugus]

Manchin’ll stand in the way.

And the real question is, is Biden only supporting it because he knows Manchin will block it? Would he support it if he knew he could pass it?

[Fugus]

Biden has been doing a decent job so far, we need to stop expecting him to be Bernie. It’s very much incremental. And Biden, of all people, pushing ANY of these policies(even if it’s just because he knows they’ll fail) is beneficial. It helps move that needle a little more so the next Dem President does even more for the people. We just need to stop letting the GOP regress us every so often because that’s what is truly slowing progress.

Oh, I agree that he is doing more than we thought he would. He has overall ended up better than I thought he would.

Just pointing out and wondering how much of the failed stuff was stuff that was pushed because they knew it would fail.

Wasn't expecting him to be Bernie, if he was, the DNC would start fighting him.

[Edge-]

Oh, I agree that he is doing more than we thought he would. He has overall ended up better than I thought he would.

Just pointing out and wondering how much of the failed stuff was stuff that was pushed because they knew it would fail.

Wasn't expecting him to be Bernie, if he was, the DNC would start fighting him.

It depends on where they take it. Is there the possible for "compromise" to get Manchin (and Sinema, and maybe a few others) on board with some kind of tax like this? Possibly, and any movement would at least be a step forward.

Alternatively if it's killed entirely in the Senate, it very much could be leveraged as a mid-term issue to try to get a few more Democrats in the Senate so they can ignore Manchin - who can still go home and say he voted against it while it passes.

Or it goes nowhere and is another disappointment, but "at least he tried". Which will quickly fall into, "He didn't try hard enough." and "He knew it was going to fail from the start so it didn't matter."

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/bid...ns-2022-03-28/

U.S. corporate buybacks are being targeted in U.S. President Joe Biden's 2023 budget plan announced Monday, which seeks to discourage corporations from using profits to repurchase stocks in order to benefit executives.

Under the plan, company executives would be required to hold on to company shares that they receive for several years after taking them, and they would be prohibited from selling shares in the years after a stock buyback.

Such legislation "would align executives' interests with the long-term interests of shareholders, workers and the economy," according to the proposal.

Share repurchases are one way that companies use cash. They account for a big part of corporate earnings growth by reducing the number of outstanding shares. Apple (AAPL.O) and other market leaders have led the action.

For instance, Apple had bought back $348.3 billion in the five years to the third quarter of 2021, reducing its share count by 22.9% over that period, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices data.

Eyyy, good shit. Should include limitations on using any tax breaks or federal dollars for buybacks at all, but that's more difficult to police. So this is at least not a bad start.

[Ivanstone]

And the real question is, is Biden only supporting it because he knows Manchin will block it? Would he support it if he knew he could pass it?

https://www.newsweek.com/what-patrio...pay-it-1643164

Manchin has stated he would support a 15% minimum tax rate.

[Edge-]

https://www.newsweek.com/what-patrio...pay-it-1643164

Manchin has stated he would support a 15% minimum tax rate.

A "Patriot Tax" sounds pretty awesome. Thanks for the branding, Manchin!

[Endus]

A "Patriot Tax" sounds pretty awesome. Thanks for the branding, Manchin!

Not so fast; Manchin's not supporting the billionaire tax. He doesn't want to "target different people who contributed to society and create a lot of jobs and invest a lot of money".

What he's proposing is essentially a 15% flat tax as an alternative to Biden's billionaire tax.

Which is a far-right position that's necessarily regressive.

Fuck Manchin in both ears with a chainsaw.

[Edge-]

Not so fast; Manchin's not supporting the billionaire tax. He doesn't want to "target different people who contributed to society and create a lot of jobs and invest a lot of money".

What he's proposing is essentially a 15% flat tax as an alternative to Biden's billionaire tax.

Which is a far-right position that's necessarily regressive.

Fuck Manchin in both ears with a chainsaw.

https://www.newsweek.com/kyrsten-sin...ercent-1642938

More on the propsed tax Manchin (and Sinema) apparently support. It very much seems like it's specific to large corporations with >$1B in profits, not a flat tax for everyone.

Which I think we agree is setting the bar a bit too high and all, but is at least a step forward.

[NED funded]

https://www.newsweek.com/what-patrio...pay-it-1643164

Manchin has stated he would support a 15% minimum tax rate.

Under this measure, billionaires who escape paying taxes by earning small salaries and borrowing off their assets would find themselves paying taxes to the federal government at a fixed rate. Anyone with more than $1 billion in assets or more than $100 million in income for three consecutive years would see a 23.8 percent tax on their capital gains.

I mean this kind of defeats what Biden is trying to achieve with his proposal.

Manchin wants to tax capital gains, Biden wants to tax increases in the value of wealth because capital gains are easy to avoid for billionaires

[Ivanstone]

I mean this kind of defeats what Biden is trying to achieve with his proposal.

Manchin wants to tax capital gains, Biden wants to tax increases in the value of wealth because capital gains are easy to avoid for billionaires

The point is that Manchin is willing to have some form of minimum tax for wealthy people. The details of which are subject to change.

[wunksta]

So seems like Sinema will be the deciding vote for KBJ, right?

[Shadowferal]

So seems like Sinema will be the deciding vote for KBJ, right?

I don't believe that Sinema is against kbj

[bladeXcrasher]

It depends on where they take it. Is there the possible for "compromise" to get Manchin (and Sinema, and maybe a few others) on board with some kind of tax like this? Possibly, and any movement would at least be a step forward.

Alternatively if it's killed entirely in the Senate, it very much could be leveraged as a mid-term issue to try to get a few more Democrats in the Senate so they can ignore Manchin - who can still go home and say he voted against it while it passes.

Or it goes nowhere and is another disappointment, but "at least he tried". Which will quickly fall into, "He didn't try hard enough." and "He knew it was going to fail from the start so it didn't matter."

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/bid...ns-2022-03-28/



Eyyy, good shit. Should include limitations on using any tax breaks or federal dollars for buybacks at all, but that's more difficult to police. So this is at least not a bad start.

I feel a great disturbance in the force meme about libertarians crying out in pain.