"More Blame GOP and Trump than Democrats"

Why wouldn't The Party of Responsibility welcome this responsibility?

"Gingrich balanced the budget."

Do you call it The Reagan Revolution? Or the Tip O'Neil compromise? For better or worse, Presidents get the nod.

And regardless who balanced it, Republicans chose to unbalance it, and give tax cuts to the world's wealthiest instead.

Bush II was the most lopsided tax code I'd ever seen: 27% went to the wealthiest 1%. By comparison, 83% of Trump 1.0 went to the wealthiest 1%. In fact, more went to FOREIGN investors than to American workers.

Why don't you put the blame on the authors, for getting exactly what they wanted???

"The rich aren't just earning it, they're collecting it from public debt."

IOW, instead of taxing the rich enough, they're undertaxing the rich so they have to borrow from them.

Sounds like a circular problem.

"Much of this hoarded wealth is the direct result of the government going so deeply in debt."

Then you should blame the authors of that debt.

Clinton handed true surplus budgets to George W. Bush. Dubya, Cheney, and the Republicans chose to alter our fiscal sights from surpluses to record deficits.

Not a single Democratic vote to reset fiscal sights from surpluses to deficits.

I'd say pick up a history book...but you LIVED THROUGH IT and still don't seem to understand.

"Snoofy will go on and on about how Pelosi isn't in the government to excuse the malfeasance of covering up the debacle."

That's probably because Pelosi's "job" was ceremonial. Just like the Senator who had the same job: Mitch McConnell.

Ever notice NO ONE who blames Pelosi EVER mentions McConnell? Whatever "blame" is due Pelosi, is equally due McConnell, yet no Pelosi-basher EVER MENTIONS McCONNELL.

Is that ignorance, or partisan hackery?

"its been on the same trajectory, its just been papered over by subsidies"

Pick up a history book, ffs.

The decade before Obamacare, inflation was 31%, while medical inflation was 131%. That's more than FOUR TIMES the inflation rate.

Add that to the fact baby boomers were virtually ALL about to be thrown into high-risk pools, since it's tough to get out of your 50s without a "pre-existing condition".

Obamacare, coupled with the Bush Bust & Bailout, altered the trajectory of medical inflation. THAT's what Health Plan Trustees were most scared of. I should know, I was a Health Plan Trustee.

And btw...if O-Care was papered over by subsidies, why did consumers (like me) get premium rebates???

"For instance preexisting conditions, you could get state coverage through Medicaid."

Only if you had no assets. Otherwise, you're in a high-risk pool.

Back the year before O-Care began, HRPs were charging $5000/mo, compared to a Cobra at that time costing ~$500-$600.

FTW, Cobra is usually equal to the highest-cost basic insurance for a 64yr old. Part of the reason is it's a catch-all, and part because it's more attractive to those who know they'll use it more.

MediCAID usually only kicks in when (almost) all other assets have been liquidated.

"They shouldn't have sunsetted them in the first place"

What a riot.

The tax giveaways for billionaires sunset as well.

Republicans had NO PROBLEM continuing what they wanted to continue.

"No reason for Democrats to not have released them"

What part of "they were under seal, by court order" did you not understand?

"And what happened?"

They were sealed under court order.

" I love it when the adorably untrained dog runs the course at the Westminster Kennel Club!"

I blame the handler, running gawkily beside, in flats.

Paging Stephen Miller!

" Many people believe the state should have never gotten into the "marriage" business in the first place."

You're joking, right? Marriage is, at its root, a legal contract, mostly about conferring superseding rights to one person.

They have first rights to your pension. They can't be forced to testify against you. They inherit your IRAs immediately, and get to treat them as their own since inception. There are no gift limits between spouses. Law defaults to them inheriting ALL your assets (unless otherwise specified). Law defaults to them having the rights to your medical decisions if you're incapacitated. (Before Oberkfell, the parents had hospital last rights over the long-time partner.) Married couples adopt children jointly. (Before Oberkfell, only one could be the LEGAL parent.) It goes on and on.

Anyone believing the state (i.e., the law) shouldn't be involved, doesn't understand the point. Without the entire canon of marriage law, it'd be chaos.

" Entertertain the idea it was equal."

But it wasn't. Not even close. Marriage confers over 1,400 rights, many of them proprietary rights, like a default first refusal of a vested pension. The law would have to slog through every single one to change them. Easier to say gay people won't be treated like second-class citizens from now on, and make marriage legal.

"you all believed GWB would do this."

Not all of us.

That said, Mother Nature will probably make her opinion known within the next three years.

As one of the protest signs said, I've never been so disappointed in cholesterol.

"Maybe give people an option of a Union or Marriage but equal in the courts."

Except nothing less than equality passes for equality.

History taught us Separate But Equal was always separate, but never equal.

"I used to defend Democrats and run down Republicans. I've really changed."

And that change coincided to the moment Democrat-appointed judges said, you could've married the love of your life.

You've never forgiven Democrats for that.

" Your opinion is just plain wrong."

I wasn't expressing an opinion, I was stating what I've observed over the twenty years we've been on this blog.

"I am WAAAAYYY independent"

Exactly!

He'll vote for stupid Republicans, grifting Republicans, or molesting Republicans. A true Catholicity of thought!

Don't forget a million dollars a week per the average billionaire.

"All needed is for 5 dem votes"

And what are the Republicans offering in exchange for those 5 votes?

Oh, right...nothing.

Back when a Dem was President, Trump said a shutdown was the fault of the President.

What changed???

"I voted for Reagan both of his terms, then switched to voting Democrat for the next couple of decades, until Trump."

No, you changed affiliations once the Democrats appointed enough judges to make gay marriage legal. Trump, at that time, had nothing to do with it.

" Why should everyone understand a law no one understands."

WTF are you talking about? Tens of millions have no problem understanding it. It's not difficult at all. I

Why should you be exempt for low IQ?

" So, who warned him? "

The written instructions, and the interview interface.

You know, the same stuff that warns everyone.

You'd have to go out of your way to purposely overlook the explicit instructions. They LITERALLY warn against using dental insurance.

" the tax software didn't know the difference."

Yes it did. In fact, the instructions EXPLICITLY STATE stuff like "dental insurance" doesn't qualify.

"Not my problem."

It is, according to the IRS. Every set of instructions points out what's acceptable, and what's not. Dental insurance, like cancer insurance, doesn't cut it.

And being stupid, or lying, doesn't cut it either.

"Bessent says he's a soybean farmer."

Using that logic, I own gold mines.