Biden officially announces 2020 run

[PartySick 174,107]

6 hours ago, ACT2 said:

isnt joe biden a pedo that touches girls when he takes pictures with them

Nah, just handsy with men and women. It's not a creepy thing, the guy just likes to touch people.

...which isn't sinister but "creepy"? That's up to each individual to decide haha

[Marilyn MonHoe 11,011]

13 hours ago, Timmers said:

Joe Biden candidate profile:

Pros: Executive experience as VP

Cons:
Against Medicare for all
Against college for all
Against legalization of marijuana
Voted for Nafta
Voted to repeal Glass-Steagall
Voted for DoMa
Voted for the Patriot Act
Voted for don't ask don't tell
Wrote the notorious crime bill
Said he has no empathy for millennials
Said Roe v. Wade "went a step too far"
Voted to go into Iraq
Against Green New Deal
Supports cutting social security
Supports cutting Medicare

Thank you, NEXT.

Jesus how can you justify cutting social security and Medicare? That would literally put older people out on the streets and kill them 

You should copy and paste this when someone says that Biden is a better candidate than Bernie 

[Whispering 18,865]

2 hours ago, Marilyn MonHoe said:

Jesus how can you justify cutting social security and Medicare? That would literally put older people out on the streets and kill them 

You should copy and paste this when someone says that Biden is a better candidate than Bernie 

Don’t believe everything you read. 

 

Biden: “Now, we need to do something about Social Security and Medicare. That’s the only way you can find room to pay for it.
Now, I don’t know a whole lot of people in the top one-tenth of 1 percent or the top 1 percent who are relying on Social Security when they retire. I don’t know a lot of them. Maybe you guys do. So we need a pro-growth, progressive tax code that treats workers as job creators, as well, not just investors; that gets rid of unprotective loopholes like stepped-up basis; and it raises enough revenue to make sure that the Social Security and Medicare can stay, it still needs adjustments, but can stay; and pay for the things we all acknowledge will grow the country.”

If you listen to the speech, you'll notice Biden is in fact arguing the exact opposite. Not only is Biden making the argument that Social Security needs to be saved, he is advocating redistributing money from top earners to pay for it. He says: 

“Paul Ryan was correct when he did the tax code. What's the first thing he decided to go after? Social Security and Medicare. Now, we need to do something about Social Security and Medicare. That's the only way you can find room to pay for it. I don't know a whole lot of people in the top 1/10 of 1% or top 1% are relying on Social Security when they retire.”

Biden is saying rich people don't need Social Security, and it's unfair they are receiving it when more vulnerable people need the money. The entire speech is in fact an argument to change the tax code in America to redistribute more wealth and give working people a stake in the economy. People like The Young Turks, etc. are framing this however, as Biden agreeing with free market militant Paul Ryan, who dedicated his life to destroying Social Security and Medicare.  

 

Don't believe everything you read...not even from people here. 

 

[Marilyn MonHoe 11,011]

5 hours ago, Whispering said:

Don’t believe everything you read. 

 

Biden: “Now, we need to do something about Social Security and Medicare. That’s the only way you can find room to pay for it.
Now, I don’t know a whole lot of people in the top one-tenth of 1 percent or the top 1 percent who are relying on Social Security when they retire. I don’t know a lot of them. Maybe you guys do. So we need a pro-growth, progressive tax code that treats workers as job creators, as well, not just investors; that gets rid of unprotective loopholes like stepped-up basis; and it raises enough revenue to make sure that the Social Security and Medicare can stay, it still needs adjustments, but can stay; and pay for the things we all acknowledge will grow the country.”

If you listen to the speech, you'll notice Biden is in fact arguing the exact opposite. Not only is Biden making the argument that Social Security needs to be saved, he is advocating redistributing money from top earners to pay for it. He says: 

“Paul Ryan was correct when he did the tax code. What's the first thing he decided to go after? Social Security and Medicare. Now, we need to do something about Social Security and Medicare. That's the only way you can find room to pay for it. I don't know a whole lot of people in the top 1/10 of 1% or top 1% are relying on Social Security when they retire.”

Biden is saying rich people don't need Social Security, and it's unfair they are receiving it when more vulnerable people need the money. The entire speech is in fact an argument to change the tax code in America to redistribute more wealth and give working people a stake in the economy. People like The Young Turks, etc. are framing this however, as Biden agreeing with free market militant Paul Ryan, who dedicated his life to destroying Social Security and Medicare.  

 

Don't believe everything you read...not even from people here. 

 

In journalist Bob Woodward's 2012 book The Price of Politics, he portrays Biden during Obama’s first term eager to sacrifice Social Security and Medicare for the sake of bipartisan compromise and achieving what would be, in the eyes of Washington, a political victory.

 

An Obama priority was to end the Bush tax cuts on top earners. Woodard reports that, to achieve this, Biden's team at one point considered dropping the poorest citizens—anyone who didn’t pay income taxes—from the Obama stimulus payments of $400 a year. Economist Gene Sperling, then a counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, strongly objected, calling the idea “immoral.” At Sperling’s urging, Biden’s team instead proposed a holiday for payroll taxes, which are used to fund Social Security and Medicare.

 

The final deal extended the Bush tax cuts, cut payroll taxes by $112 billion and met a host of other Republican demands: a lower estate tax with a higher exemption, new tax write-offs for businesses, and a maximum 15 percent capital gains tax rate locked in for two years. In return, unemployment insurance was extended for 13 months and the Opportunity Tax Credit for two years.

 

House Democrats were furious at both the estate tax provision and the Bush tax cut extension, partly because, according to Woodward, Biden had failed to mention the extension was on the table when he briefed Democratic leaders during the talks. Even conservative Democrats like House Whip Steny Hoyer had strongly opposed the extension, and the deal drew consternation from across the party. Dianne Feinstein balked at its size, and Bernie Sanders and two other senators interrupted Biden's presentation of the package. Sanders later vowed to “do everything I can to defeat this proposal,” including filibuster it. However, enough Democrats eventually capitulated, with some grumbling, for the deal to pass, overcoming an eight-hour filibuster by Sanders.

 

Biden subsequently led the debt negotiations with then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Sen. Jon Kyl and other Republicans. Biden's “opening bid” was cutting $4 trillion in spending over ten years, with a 3 to 1 proportion of cuts to revenue. Biden later proposed $2 trillion in cuts to general spending, federal retirement funds, Medicare and Medicaid, and, at Cantor's urging, food stamps.

 

At one point, Biden suddenly called for $200 billion more in cuts that had never been discussed, which, according to Woodward, led then-Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen—also involved in the negotiations—to believe Biden had gone over to the Cantor-Kyl side. Biden again crossed Van Hollen when he offered to take revenue-raising out of the “trigger”—a combination of revenue raising and spending cuts meant to be equally unpalatable to both parties, which would automatically kick in if a deal failed to be reached.

 

Later in the negotiations, Biden dangled the possibility of Medicare cuts in return for more revenue—meaning higher taxes. Soon after, he suggested Democrats might be comfortable raising the eligibility age for entitlements, imposing means testing and changing the consumer price index calculation, known as CPI. (Means testing is often seen a Trojan horse for chipping away at these programs, because their universality is one of the reasons they've remained virtually untouchable for almost a century. It’s also been criticized for imposing an unnecessary and discouraging layerof bureaucracy.)

 

At one point, Biden reportedly called the Medicare provider tax a “scam.” “For a moment, Biden sounded like a Republican,” Woodward notes. Biden’s team was forced to remind him that such a move would force states to cut services to the poor, to which he replied, “We're going to do lots of hard things,” and so “we might as well do this.”

 

http://inthesetimes.com/article/21856/joe-biden-cut-medicare-social-security-retirement-age

 

That article also talks about what he said in 2018. Obama and Biden had a history of trying to cut Medicare and Medicaid, Biden’s “adjustments” to these plans reflect this. If he didn’t want to cut them he would’ve just said so instead of being vague with his “adjustments”. 

 

And as as you can see Bernie tried to fight against the Bush tax cuts along with the other cuts that benefit the rich, which were pushed by Biden. Which further shows that Sanders has a history of fighting for the people.

@OG Gaga Stan Take a look at this