What to Talk About

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Clarissa

November 1, 2017

This is what the Democrats should be talking about all day and every day:

The biggest political land mine for Republicans is their proposal to prohibit people from deducting their state-and-local taxes, or SALT, from their federal bill.

The idiotic Mueller scandal will not bring any votes. The people who follow it are all already eagerly voting Democrats.

Voters clearly want populism and more of it. But the DNC is not listening. In Illinois, Democrats seem to be planning to run the corrupt and politically inexperienced billionaire Pritzker for governor. Because it’s so smart to have two dumb rich assholes fighting it out in the election. Folks, you know how I feel about Rauner. But my level of enthusiasm for Pritzker is lower than zero. I was going to go out and knock on doors for any half-decent candidate. But I’m not doing anything for some dumbass billionaire.

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26 responses to “What to Talk About”

Demotrash

November 1, 2017

I’m actually rooting for the Kennedy in that primary. Judy shows the sad state of affairs we’re in there.

Here in Ohio, Dems are running on a populist message like they always do. They may not win, but they’re not morons.

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1. Clarissa
  
  November 1, 2017
  
  I don’t see the point swapping one rich entitled dick with no experience in politics for another one. And I wouldn’t vote for anybody named Kennedy on principle.
  
  This is beyond disappointing. The first election that I can participate in and the one I deeply care about yet there’s nobody to vote for. Maybe I should move to Ohio. It’s a beautiful state, I love it.
  
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  1. Demotrash
    
    November 1, 2017
    
    There’s at least one decent candidate in the Illinois primary. Unlikely to win the primary, but I’d go ahead and at least vote for them.
    
    For the record, the Kennedy actually does have political experience and from what I hear OS a decent enough legislator. But I agree that it’s a horrible set of choices. We have great people running here in Ohio, I especially like Joe Schiavoni and Nan Whaley.
    
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Anon

November 1, 2017

The other egregious item in their tax proposal is the demise of the 401(K). Now you can save up to 18K a year in a tax-deductible manner and pay taxes when you retire; the new tax plan will reduce this limit to 2.4K!

I am just livid, and I don’t understand why more people are not. The plan punishes people who are responsible and are actively saving for retirement, instead of encouraging them!! Ever since I started working, I have been putting away as much as I can in my 401K; that is how I am going to retire. If I put in post-tax money, it is going to cost me a lot more to build up the same level of savings, and 2.4K a year is way too little.

I really don’t understand why the Democrats are not talking about this!

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1. Clarissa
  
  November 1, 2017
  “The other egregious item in their tax proposal is the demise of the 401(K). Now you can save up to 18K a year in a tax-deductible manner and pay taxes when you retire; the new tax plan will reduce this limit to 2.4K!”
  
  Exactly! This is a total disaster. And instead we hear endless arcane details about somebody named Popadoupulos who won’t be paying for my retirement, that’s for sure. Dumb fucks.
  
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2. Demotrash
  
  November 1, 2017
  
  Sherrod Brown is! Imo, he’s one of the finest senators in America.
  
  https://www.brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/brown-calls-on-congressional-leaders-to-make-good-on-presidents-promise-to-protect-retirement-savings-in-tax-reform
  
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  1. Clarissa
    
    November 1, 2017
    
    I hope Sherrod Brown runs for president. The unions like him, and that’s a big deal for me. I’m seeing him as the best bet in 2020 currently.
    
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    1. Demotrash
      
      November 1, 2017
      
      He’s low on charisma, not sure how he’d manage in a debate against Trump; feel like he wouldn’t be able to get a word in edgewise. Also doesn’t seem like he’s interested in running. Still one of my top choices though. For now though I’m just focused on his fight against that moron Mandel.
      
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      1. Clarissa
        
        November 1, 2017
        
        He wasn’t interested in being named the Veep. Until he was. 🙂 So let’s hope. A gruffy fellow with a working class voice might look great when contrasted to a slick city billionaire.
        
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        Demotrash
        
        November 1, 2017
        
        He also actually does stuff specifically to help rural areas. That’s why he heavily outperformed Obama in rural counties in 2012. Him and Steve Bullock are the only people whose names are being tossed around who have real credibility there.
        
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Shakti

November 1, 2017

The 401(k) proposal and the SALT proposal are classic wedge issues for middle class to upper middle class Americans. Not everyone has a 401(k) from their employer and only people who have deductions over the standard deduction are able to deduct state and local taxes as part of their itemized deductions.

What I don’t know is if people who just voted for Trump because they vote Republican on taxes would actually change their vote from Republicans over that. It really doesn’t matter if they’re anti-Trump but vote for a bunch of other Republicans because the whole Mueller-Russia nonsense can only be solved politically. Would it cause those people to stay home?

“You work hard, you play hard, you sacrifice to provide for your family and so that you can relax when you retire. But the Republicans don’t care about that. They’d rather raid your piggybank than go after fat cats in Washington. They want to plug a leak in their budget by draining your bathtub. Call XXXX now and vote for someone else!”

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1. Clarissa
  
  November 1, 2017
  
  “The 401(k) proposal and the SALT proposal are classic wedge issues for middle class to upper middle class Americans. Not everyone has a 401(k) from their employer and only people who have deductions over the standard deduction are able to deduct state and local taxes as part of their itemized deductions.”
  
  So what’s the solution? Forget about these voters and go after the working classes? Which are already making it very clear they have zero interest in the Democrats with their obsession with cisgender male privilege but only when it has to do with low-paid jobs and not with gubernatorial candidates? That will work just fine.
  
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  1. Shakti
    
    November 1, 2017
    
    That’s not what I’m saying.
    
    I’m simply pointing out who is affected by it. People in places with high state and local taxes will care about SALT. People in Florida (no state income tax) won’t. :-p
    
    Will people call or write their rep if you ask them? Sure!
    
    But will people change their voting behavior in general elections based on that? That’s the question.
    
    A win is 1)people who voted for Republicans who so are affected by these proposals vote for Democrats instead or 2)they stay home. Anything else is “no effect.”
    
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    1. Clarissa
      
      November 1, 2017
      
      Telling people a million times from now until 2020 “Republicans are raising your taxes” will work better than repeating “Mueller, Russians, Popadopulos”.
      
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  2. paranoid
    
    November 1, 2017
    
    For me this is absolutely a wedge issue. My family’s income is well above the U.S. median, and we’ve only ever had one or two years when our deductions just barely exceeded the standard deduction.
    
    Less than a third of filers itemize, and some people don’t make enough to even file. When I heard my Democratic Congressman talking about protecting SALT, the message I got was that both parties want to protect people richer than me, and neither cares about the average person who doesn’t make enough money or have an expensive enough house to itemize.
    
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    1. Clarissa
      
      November 1, 2017
      
      If you truly care about the Mueller melodrama, I can’t believe you are that badly off. 🙂
      
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    2. Anon
      
      November 1, 2017
      
      Actually your 401K contributions are deductible whether you take the standard deduction or not; in other words, if your income is 70K and you contribute 10K a year, then you can take your standard deduction on 60K.
      
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      1. paranoid
        
        November 1, 2017
        
        I put money in a Roth IRA. The idea of having another 10K per year after that, that I’d be willing to risk having to pay a penalty if I needed the money before retirement, is beyond my comfort level for illiquidity.
        
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        Anon
        
        November 1, 2017
        
        Good for you, I am very glad your employer has a Roth IRA option. Of course, not all employers do.
        
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        paranoid
        
        November 2, 2017
        
        What country are you from, Anon? Unlike 401Ks and pensions, IRAs and Roth IRAs are not connected to employers, are available to everyone who works or is married to someone works, and have been for decades.
        
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        Clarissa
        
        November 2, 2017
        
        All I want to know is how people learn to understand all of these IRAs and stuff. I already feel completely lost in this discussion.
        
        I really admire this sort of competence.
        
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      2. paranoid
        
        November 2, 2017
        
        A lot of what I know about retirement accounts I learned from The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias. It is a short book that also includes basic budgeting and personal finance. It’s good because it doesn’t get bogged down in details.
        
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David Bellamy

November 1, 2017

“The idiotic Mueller scandal will not bring any votes. The people who follow it are all already eagerly voting Democrats. ”

I do not believe this. I am an exception, since the nonsense going on makes me inclined to vote Green. But Mueller’s investigation makes me more inclined to vote Democratic. I suspect there are others like me.

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1. Clarissa
  
  November 1, 2017
  
  David, I’m sure you will agree that at this point in your life child tax credits and 401K are not your major concerns. You are comfortable and can enjoy the show. But for many people these are major, major issues and they have no time or energy for the show.
  
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2. Dreidel
  
  November 1, 2017
  
  “Mueller’s investigation makes me more inclined to vote Democratic. I suspect there are others like me.”
  
  Well, it might be entertaining to give the Democrats the House in 2018. If that highly unlikely victory occurs, the American Republic will relive the political nonsense of 1868 and 1998 — when two Presidents were impeached by the House of Representatives and found not guilty by the Senate, and then served out their full terms.
  
  One of the better quotes from history’s long line of stupid men (Karl Marx): “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.”
  
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Demotrash

November 1, 2017

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/11/01/democrats-add-to-better-deal-platform-with-a-slew-of-pro-labor-union-ideas/

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