I am asking because I honestly don't know that the majority of the Trump supporters out there know what he is proposing at all for America. That in itself would give a normal person pause. I get that Hillary is Beelzebub and her crabs carry the Zika virus.. but what is it about Trump that makes him a viable presidential candidate? I'm sincerely interested in knowing. Because what I have been reading for months implies most people don't know or don't care about what this man is proposing for our country.
Policy #1 - Just a smidge less govenrment than Hillary's team.
That's about as vague as the typical Trump response. He's gonna fix it.. better..
Quote:That's about as vague as the typical Trump response. He's gonna fix it.. better..
It wasn't a positive comment.
Wasn't an answer either, if we're being honest.
Quote:Wasn't an answer either, if we're being honest.
I don't care what his policies are, I'm not voting for him. Her either.
Quote:I don't care what his policies are, I'm not voting for him. Her either.
I spend a lot of time attacking trump because he's such a dangerous candidate, but its not like the Clinton presidency is moving us toward progress either... It's gonna be 4 years of malaise at best, or 4 years of disaster at worst, I fear. No matter who wins, I think workers lose.
Quote:I spend a lot of time attacking trump because he's such a dangerous candidate, but its not like the Clinton presidency is moving us toward progress either... It's gonna be 4 years of malaise at best, or 4 years of disaster at worst, I fear. No matter who wins, I think workers lose.
Hillary is more dangerous because she is already compromised. Trump is dangerous in his own way, but I don't believe he despises America or the People like Hillary does.
Quote:Hillary is more dangerous because she is already compromised. Trump is dangerous in his own way, but I don't believe he despises America or the People like Hillary does.
I disagree. I think Hillary is status quo. And that makes her pro free trade and pro walstreet.
But I think trump truly hates America and the workers of the nation. It's smeared in every word he says, every contractor he stiffs, every tax he skips out on, every city he denigrates, and every dictator he admires. (Just to name a few things)
But I think we see things differently based on our ideological beliefs. What's comforting is that at least neither of us see either candidate as ideal. That's somehting, right?
Quote:Hillary is more dangerous because she is already compromised. Trump is dangerous in his own way, but I don't believe he despises America or the People like Hillary does.
He despises anybody not named Donald Trump.
The wall just got another metre higher...
Quote:The wall just got another metre higher...
It will be a cold day in hell before the god emperor trump moves the USA to the metric system.
Also, he just said in his rally today in front of a group of French librarians that in his first hundred days he's outlawing the Dewey Decimal System and will burn all books in any library that uses this terroristic system.
What a time to be alive!
Captain's Log: It has been less than 12 hours and so far the Trumpettes are avoiding this thread like a meth addict avoids the dentist. The discussion predictably strayed off topic from the onset which has been a staple for this campaign. I can only hope my fears are not confirmed and some brave and informed soul can come forward and prove they have a clue what this would-be president plans for America and show how it would truly be great. Because so far, it looks like they are just blindly following a man whose greatest strength thus far is talking over people with insults and making generalizations about how terrible everything is through his eyes. The Borg may have competition.
(Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?)
I.)Tax reform:
a.) Personal income taxes: Lowering rates accross the board, streamlining the rate system.
b.) Corporate tax reform: Right now we have the highest corporate tax of any country in the world. That is one of the key drivers in our nearly 800 billion dollar (unsustainable) annual trade deficit. Trump proposes lowering that rate from 35% to 15%. This will make America vastly more competitive in the growing international race for industry.
c.) Repatriation of funds: They estimate that there is some 2.5 Trillion dollars in profits being held overseas. It stays there largely because it would be taxed at nearly 35% to be brought back to the country. If you drop that rate to 5-10% you can have a massive influx of capital for private sector expansion and more revenue to the treasury.
II.) Immigration reform.
a.) Finishing the physical border with Mexico: Right now there is an unmetered flow of illegal migration and contraband across the southern border. We are now seeing gang, cartel, and hard drug activity reaching the northeastern parts of the country. It makes no sense for us not to finish the strategic border wall that congress has already authorized.
b.) Enforcement of current immigration law:
1.) Visa Overstays: 40% of illegal immigration happens when people enter the country illegally and then overstay their Visa. Had we enforced Visa Laws properly, then there is a chance that we could have stopped or severely mitigated the 9-11 attacks.
2.) Deportation of criminal aliens: The first priority is to remove those here illegally that pose a threat to society.
c.) Criminalizing Defiance of Deportation: Trump rose to prominence based on the Kate Steinley shooting. In that case you had a criminal alien who had been convicted of multiple aggravated felonies and had been deported from the country some 4 times. Mandatory minimum sentencing for those who defy deportation along with the wall from above will drastically curtail this threat to our communities.
d.) Path to normalization: In reality, the angst from the right on this issue comes from the fallout of Simpson Mizoli. We were promised a Wall and enforcement in exchange for amnesty for 3 million people. We got the amnesty, we never got the enforcement or the Wall. If we have real border security and real enforcement then we can have a conversation about a humane way to integrate non criminal aliens into society devoid of citizenship.
III.) Trade reform
a.) renegotiating current agreements: The general purpose of a Trade agreement is to provide a generally reciprocal environment for the flow of Goods and services between two sovereign nations. As Trump pointed out, in far too many cases we sign agreements with countries that don't address key issues:
1.) Currency Manipulation: Countries cannot be allowed to manipulate their currency to make their goods artificially cheaper than ours.
2.) Administrative Barriers: Far too often countries like China will impose burdensome regulations, quotas, etc. to hinder American products from having access to their markets
3.) Subsidies: In Some countries the central government pays for the healthcare for the workers, builds the factories, and even supplies some or all of the utilities free of charge. When that much overhead is taken from a companies balance sheet its impossible for our companies to compete.
4.) Tariffs: As Trump pointed out in the last debate, in Mexico they have a VAT TAX in China they have a TARRIFF WALL to keep our goods out of their country.
b.) See section (I) on Tax reform
c.) Regulatory reform: Right now the annual cost of compliance for our current regulatory structure runs in the trillions of dollars, and we keep writing roughly 70 regulations a day. Those that make sense should be kept, those that don't (and just protect special interest) Should be scrapped and we should only adopt new regulations that pass the test of being more beneficial to the health and safety of consumers/workers than they are burdensome to industry.
d.) Bilateral Trade Agreements: The current regime wants large scale multinational Trade agreements (TPP) that can't take into account the of idiosyncrasies of each nation and are notoriously hard to enforce. It's more advantageous to deal with countries one on one with concrete mechanisms for enforcement and provisions specific to Trade with each country.
IV.) Education reform:
a.) School Choice: No child should be trapped in a failing school because of their address.
b.) Local Control: Each community should make their own decisions about how to educate their child. Different regions of the country may have differences in expression, custom, values, and prospective industry for a student to matriculate to. This also gives a means of escape to families and students that may want to choose a different educational experience for their child and it allows different educational systems to compare and contrast their results with different locals to advance the general pool of educational knowledge.
V.) Subsidizing Maternity:
a.) Child Care Tax Credit: Making it more affordable for low income families to work and care for their children at the same time boosts the labor force and allows them to maintain skills relevant to the evolving economy making it more likely for them to climb the social ladder.
b.) Maternity leave (Through unemployment reform): It's possible to use the existing unemployment system to provide Paid Maternity leave (6 weeks) to employees not currently covered through their employer.
VI.) Budget Reform
a.) Eliminating baseline budgeting: For most government programs, there are automatic annual increases generally around 8%. Robust growth for the economy would be 4%. This naturally lends itself to the kind of perpetual deficit spending that has plagued this country in the modern age. Every year, every dollar of every program should be justified and debated by our elected representatives.
b.) The Penny Plan: If you cut 1% from every non defense department of government the budget comes to balance in 6 years... 6 YEARS! Everyone on this board has had to make that kind of adjustment at one time or another.
c.) Common Sense: You just can't tell me that the only hammer we could find cost $200
VII.) General
a.) The Federal Reserve: This is someone who has had to borrow and manage interest rates and lending policy in many countries across the globe. I think that he would be uniquely qualified to pick the next Fed chair.
b.) Financial regulation: Most of the people that we elect as president or congressman have little to no experience in the financial arena. Lindsey Graham famously admitted he had to be told what a derivative was before voting on TARP. We need someone who actually knows the ins and outs of certain financial instruments and services to have an effective federal regulatory system.
Quote:I am asking because I honestly don't know that the majority of the Trump supporters out there know what he is proposing at all for America. That in itself would give a normal person pause. I get that Hillary is Beelzebub and her crabs carry the Zika virus.. but what is it about Trump that makes him a viable presidential candidate? I'm sincerely interested in knowing. Because what I have been reading for months implies most people don't know or don't care about what this man is proposing for our country.
Trade reform, tax reform, and border security are his top policy positions (in my opinion). We have this discussion a lot, actually. JJ laid it out pretty well. If you wan't it from the horse's mouth, here ya go:
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies/trade/
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies/tax-plan/
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies/immigration/
Don't worry guys, Kotite will be back (again) to ask why no one will discuss Trump's policies (again) any minute now.
Quote:I disagree. I think Hillary is status quo. And that makes her pro free trade and pro walstreet.
But I think trump truly hates America and the workers of the nation. It's smeared in every word he says, every contractor he stiffs, every tax he skips out on, every city he denigrates, and every dictator he admires. (Just to name a few things)
But I think we see things differently based on our ideological beliefs. What's comforting is that at least neither of us see either candidate as ideal. That's somehting, right?
Is it ideal if you're voting for one of them anyway? I have to question that action, you should vote what you're for, not what you oppose.
Thank you for providing this.. it lays the foundation for an actual discussion on the policies and not the noise. Unfortunately, I am about to board a flight for a business trip, but will try to tackle these one at a time.
First, his economic plan. It's terrible. People who are experts are almost unanimous it will stunt growth and take away jobs. What evidence can you point to that Forbes, Moody's, etc. are wrong and Trump is right?
Quote:Don't worry guys, Kotite will be back (again) to ask why no one will discuss Trump's policies (again) any minute now.
Contrary to popular belief.. I have a job. I don't duck or disappear for long. You know this by now.
Quote:Thank you for providing this.. it lays the foundation for an actual discussion on the policies. Unfortunately, I am about to board a flight for a business trip, but will try to tackle these one at a time.
First, his economic plan. It's terrible. People who are experts are almost unanimous it will stunt growth and take away jobs. What evidence can you point to that Forbes, Moody's, etc. are wrong and Trump is right?
The same experts that said we would save 2500 a year on healthcare premiums? The same experts that said we could keep our doctors and our plans? The same experts that said unemployment wouldn't get above 8% if we passed the stimulus? The same experts who said solyndra was a good idea? The same experts who thought dodd frank was a good idea? The same experts who said Fannie Mae only needed 1% cash on hand because new loans were so safe? The same experts that sold credit default swaps like water (emmelt was on the jobs council for crying outloud!!!) and had the taxpayers pick up the tab? The same experts that designed the NK non proliferation treaty? The same experts that used that same model, already a proven failure, as the outline for the or an deal? The same experts that advised the withdrawal from Iraq? The same experts that planned lybia? The same experts that counted the ransom money? The same experts that signed secret side deals with Iran? The same experts who lied about negotiating with hard line elements in Iran? The same experts who said social security would always be solvent? The same experts that said Medicare would always be solvent? The same people who said that the federal income tax would only apply to the super rich? The same experts that have lead us to 20 trillion in debt, the lowest labor force participation rate since Carter lowest home ownership rate in a half century and 8 years of economic stagnation? You mean those experts?
Well if they say it...