The Trump Presidency | Biden Inaugurated

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Organic Potatoes said:
Intel chiefs say Trump suggested they renounce the Russia investigation publicly, but did not feel he was pressuring them to do something improper per CNN.
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So basically saying it's dodgy as feck but he's the President so we have to be nice about it?
 
Can't see this going anywhere. The Senate bill will have dismantled the "meanness" of the House bill so even if they do pass it (which is up in the air), the Conservative house members won't like the changes and will once again go back to square one.
 
Raoul said:
Can't see this going anywhere. The Senate bill will have dismantled the "meanness" of the House bill so even if they do pass it (which is up in the air), the Conservative house members won't like the changes and will once again go back to square one.
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And Trump will blame Dems for blocking it! :wenger:
 
Neutral said:
What should she have done differently?
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She should have stepped down after the disastrous midterms. The buck stop with the leadership and when your party suffers that badly, you should do the honourable thing and step down.

The fact that Republicans keep using her in their attack ads is partly because she comes across very negatively in focus groups and feedback.

The Democrat congressman is being blunt and truthful when he says Pelosi is toxic in a lot of areas in the country.

She's seen as being out of touch, elite, wealthy and a corporate stooge who doesn't understand the working class who have traditionally supported the dems
 
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Raoul said:
Rand Paul already throwing his toys out that the bill isn't conservative enough.
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I wonder if Rand Paul can cite any example of total free market healthcare systems that actually work. Libertarians like to point to Austria (Austrian economics) and Switzerland as beacons for their rhetoric, but those countries have universal healthcare or something close.
 
SaintTresano said:
I wonder if Rand Paul can cite any example of total free market healthcare systems that actually work. Libertarians like to point to Austria (Austrian economics) and Switzerland as beacons for their rhetoric, but those countries have universal healthcare or something close.
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They'll just cry "socialized medicine" and Obamacare is failing.
 
This is not a good week for Democrats... well, at least until the WasPost comes up with a big story to raise the morale.
 
Fergies Gum said:
She should have stepped down after the disastrous midterms. The buck stop with the leadership and when your party suffers that badly, you should do the honourable thing and step down.

The fact that Republicans keep using her in their attack ads is partly because she comes across very negatively in focus groups and feedback.

The Democrat congressman is being blunt and truthful when he says Pelosi is toxic in a lot of areas in the country. She's seen as an out of touch leader who has wealthy and a corporate democrat.
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People can blame Pelosi all they want.

Forget all the useless chatter, this is what the Dems face in 2018 -

SENATE -

1) The Senate looks out of reach: There’s an obvious reason Democrats are focusing so much on the House of Representatives this year — the Senate map is horrifically bad for the party.

Republicans hold 52 seats in the Senate, and in theory, Democrats only need a net gain of three seats to take back the chamber. Their problem, though, is that the group of Senate seats up in 2018 is overwhelmingly their own members. The party will be defending a massive 25 seats, compared with just eight for Republicans.

Even more frighteningly for Democrats, 10 of their seats at risk are in states Trump won, and five of those are in states Trump won by 18 points or more. In comparison, only one Republican senator in a state Clinton won (Dean Heller in Nevada) is on the ballot.

Overall, Democrats would need an extraordinary amount of good political fortune to retake the Senate. If they manage to hold all their seats, including all those in those very Trump states, and pick off Heller, Jeff Flake in Arizona, and Ted Cruz in Texas, they can retake the Senate — but that’s a big if. Considering how dismal the map is, the party would likely be thrilled to even maintain their current number of 48 seats. (Democrats will have a better shot at the Senate in 2020, when mostly Republican seats will be on the ballot.)

HOUSE - GERRYMANDERING AFTER 2010 LANDSLIDE

2) The House map is also tough for Democrats: In the House, all 435 seats will be up, as they are every two years. If there are no changes of party control in the special elections that have yet to be decided, Democrats’ magic number is 24 seats — that’s the net gain they need to retake control of the House.

Still, Democrats have a pretty big problem here with the map as well. Partly due to gerrymandering — the GOP’s 2010 midterm landslide let the party draw the lines for House districts in many states — and partly just due to where voters of different demographics have chosen to live, the House map is overall tilted in favor of Republicans.

  • Hillary Clinton won the national popular vote by 2.1 percentage points. However, she lostthe median House district by 3.4 percentage points.
  • Overall, 230 House districts voted for Trump, and just 205 for Clinton.
  • There are 23 House Republicans representing districts Clinton won, which provide solid pickup opportunities. However, there are also 12 Democrats representing districts Trump won who would have to play defense.
So yes — to retake the House, Democrats wouldn’t have to just slightly improve on Hillary Clinton’s performance. They’d likely have to have their own supporters come out in force, Republican turnout be depressed, and a significant number of voters newly converted to the Democratic cause.

VOTER TURNOUT -

3) Republican-leaning demographic groups have been more likely to turn out in midterms: Finally, a key challenge for Democrats in the midterms could be demographics.

The Democratic coalition has been increasingly reliant on younger and nonwhite voters, and historically, those groups have been less likely to turn out in the midterms than the older and white voters who make up the core of the Republican coalition.

This is particularly stark when it comes to age. “Voters under the age of 30 were 19 percent of all voters in 2012, but just 12 percent of all voters in 2010,” David Wasserman wrote in 2013. “Likewise, voters 65 and up were 17 percent of all voters in 2012, but 21 percent of all voters in 2012.”

An analysis by the Upshot’s Nate Cohn prior to the 2014 midterms calculated that the age and racial differential turnout could cost Democrats a net 3 point’ worth of support compared with a presidential race.

Perhaps the vulnerability of an incumbent president’s party, Trump’s low approval ratings, and the energy of the opposition will be enough to overcome all this — and indeed, Cohn sees some signs that Democrats’ turnout chances could be improving. But we don’t yet know for sure whether that’s the case, and we won’t know for many more months.
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Red Dreams said:
Collins, Johnson, Murkowski, Heller.

Hopefully that is enough to stop it.
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The problem is it's unlikely all of them will hold and the ones who do will face extraordinary heat from both Trump and the base. McConnell can afford two defections so it's likely Johnson who won't be up for re-election until 2022 and Murkowski being from a deep red state will vote in line with leadership.

If they choose to go the with the budget reconciliation path, the bill will pass. Democrats then will face a tough choice, accept it with a few scraps being thrown their way or fight it through threatening a government shutdown on the omnibus spending bill.

Guess this will be the litmus test on whether the liberal base is as combative as the conservatives.
 
InfiniteBoredom said:
The problem is it's unlikely all of them will hold and the ones who do will face extraordinary heat from both Trump and the base. McConnell can afford two defections so it's likely Johnson who won't be up for re-election until 2022 and Murkowski being from a deep red state will vote in line with leadership.

If they choose to go the with the budget reconciliation path, the bill will pass. Democrats then will face a tough choice, accept it with a few scraps being thrown their way or fight it through threatening a government shutdown on the omnibus spending bill.

Guess this will be the litmus test on whether the liberal base is as combative as the conservatives.
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Going by past history - not a chance. But, these are extraordinary lives we live in, so one can *hope*.
 
InfiniteBoredom said:
The problem is it's unlikely all of them will hold and the ones who do will face extraordinary heat from both Trump and the base. McConnell can afford two defections so it's likely Johnson who won't be up for re-election until 2022 and Murkowski being from a deep red state will vote in line with leadership.

If they choose to go the with the budget reconciliation path, the bill will pass. Democrats then will face a tough choice, accept it with a few scraps being thrown their way or fight it through threatening a government shutdown on the omnibus spending bill.

Guess this will be the litmus test on whether the liberal base is as combative as the conservatives.
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I would rather face a government shutdown.
make them reverse it.
 
Red Dreams said:
I would rather face a government shutdown.
make them reverse it.
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They will cry obstruction and the GOP base will rally around them.

The gov shutdown route is basically a Hail Mary. Asking the base to go along with you and hope independents won't be put off by the turmoils. Worked well for the Republicans but no guarantee to be the same for Dems.
 
So as expected then; some sort of weird mob style threat to make sure Comey didn't lie. Reveals the extent of his "everyone is out to get me" mindset if he thinks the former FBI chief would make things up about him.
 
InfiniteBoredom said:
They will cry obstruction and the GOP base will rally around them.

The gov shutdown route is basically a Hail Mary. Asking the base to go along with you and hope independents won't be put off by the turmoils. Worked well for the Republicans but no guarantee to be the same for Dems.
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We are talking about the destruction of millions of lives. Not an ideological fight about national debt.

Worth the sacrifice and fight.

the details of this bill will then be debated fully and the Dems will actually gain votes.

They wont have the stomach for it.
 
Carolina Red said:
My wife literally just said that same thing when I showed her those tweets from Senator Murphy
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There are millions who got health insurance or the first time through Obama Care. Although not perfect, it is something at least. Now a lot of people might be losing that when they really need it. The Republicans have taken money from lobby groups to change the healthcare bill in order to suit them. When people realize what is going on, a few will take the path of that Alexandria shooter.
 
ghagua said:
There are millions who got health insurance or the first time through Obama Care. Although not perfect, it is something at least. Now a lot of people might be losing that when they really need it. The Republicans have taken money from lobby groups to change the healthcare bill in order to suit them. When people realize what is going on, a few will take the path of that Alexandria shooter.
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Especially considering the point Murphy made about mental health coverage added to Trump's executive order removing restrictions on mentally ill people buying guns.
 
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