What Have the Democrats Accomplished?

[One Bad Pig]

I'll look for it. You've said more than once that both parties are irremediably broken and disgusting, or words to that effect, and yet none of your posts that I read bear that out. If you're not careful, you may start to give some of us the impression of being a less than honest person!





I can see how that could be confusing. I thought the word "claim" would have clarified it. Your claim to be thoroughly disgusted with both parties appears to be dishonest.

The poker of cows is more than capable of defending himself, but perhaps you just need to read more of his posts. Maybe start with those where he defends himself against the charge he's a Republican stooge.

[Cow Poke]

Okay, you never actually used the word "equally," but you have said that both parties stink to high heavens.

Ya know, you're really bad at paraphrasing. Might I suggest you find the actual quote, and stop adding your own biased spin?

Is that something that we really have to quantify?

See my prior post.

That's actually pretty easy -- I'm disgusted with the politicians, not the principles.

[Cow Poke]

Okay, you never actually used the word "equally," but you have said that both parties stink to high heavens.

You're not even catching the nuance. I would have said "stink out loud".

[Jim B.]

It's fair to say that they have passed bills in the House. Assuming that they are 'to help the American people' because of the title is the same as thinking that the nickname 'Obamacare' means Obama cares, and that this bill is good

It helped me and millions of working class Americans get affordable health care. It was far from perfect, obviously, but Republicans refused to help fix it. Remember that it was a conservative initiative. It was the product of the conservative Heritage Foundation as a market-driven solution to containing health care costs. It was only when Obama's name became attached to it that Republicans became opposed to it and the Insurance lobby began their campaign of the "Government Take Over of Health Care". I think a "public option" would have been preferable, but Obama barely had the political capital even for such a modest plan as the ACA.

[rogue06]

Whoever told you that should be ashamed.

[Mountain Man]

Not shutting down the government.

You say that like it's a good thing.

[Cow Poke]

You say that like it's a good thing.

It's kinda like when people complain about "government gridlock" -- like THAT's a bad thing..... it keeps Congress from doing stupid stuff.

[Mountain Man]

It's kinda like when people complain about "government gridlock" -- like THAT's a bad thing..... it keeps Congress from doing stupid stuff.

It's my understanding that the Founding Fathers deliberately designed the US government to be as inefficient as possible. Cynics call it "gridlock". The Founding Fathers called it "checks and balances".

[Cow Poke]

It's my understanding that the Founding Fathers deliberately designed the US government to be as inefficient as possible. Cynics call it "gridlock". The Founding Fathers called it "checks and balances".

Especially with things like impeachment which require a supra-majority, and other things that require 2/3, 3/5, 60%, 55%...

[rogue06]

It's my understanding that the Founding Fathers deliberately designed the US government to be as inefficient as possible. Cynics call it "gridlock". The Founding Fathers called it "checks and balances".

Certainly the amending process to the Constitution was meant to be drawn out. Primarily this was done to make sure that cool heads prevailed and not just anything could get passed in the heat of the moment or every passing fad makes its way into the Constitution.

[Starlight]

And yet as Lenin so succinctly put it: "The goal of Socialism is Communism."

Do you credulously believe everything Lenin ever said? Newsflash, he was wrong about stuff.

And at least here in the U.S. you generally can't detect any daylight between the Socialist platform and the Communist platform so it really does matter little which you pick.

I have no idea what you are even talking about. Is there a 'Socialist platform'? Is there a 'Communist platform'? Do you regularly read them and compare them?


As I've said before, I base my politics on empirical outcomes - what works. The countries in the Western world currently who do the best overall on multivariate measures of success are the Scandinavian countries. Their politics balances a capitalistic free market, with strong unions, strongly redistributive economic policies, high taxes, a big and efficient government sector, and strong human rights. Looking at approximately how 'big' their government is as a fraction of their total economy, government taxation/spending tends to comprise about 50% of their total economy - i.e. they are half and half: half government half private industry.

If we consider the possible extremes to be 100% government-does-everything-no-private-industry "Communism" and 100% it's-all-private-industry-no-government "Libertarianism", then the Scandinavian countries are pretty close to perfectly at the mid-point between those two extremes - in that sense, they are 'centrists'. Since I advocate for the politics that has proven successful in those countries, and for a similar equal mixture of public and private participation in the economy, you could label me a "centrist" on an international scale, as I am equidistant between communism and libertarianism, advocating neither for complete privatization nor complete government control but rather for an approximately equal balance between them.

[Leonhard]

There's been bipartisan support for a law to stop robocalls.

http://www.rollcall.com/news/congres...ng-cell-phones

Bipartisan efforts on disaster aid

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...-iowa-missouri

Aside from that its slim pickins. Right now the modus operandi of the Republicans is to block anything the Democrats are proposing, even if its perfectly consistent with conservative political ideology. This is a strategy so strengthen the Republicans in the upcoming race.

Short list of House resolution with democratic support. They were almost unanimously languishing in the senate.

HR 259 — Medicaid Extenders Act of 2019
http://House Resolution 271 — Condem...s’ Health Care
HR 986 — Protecting Americans with Preexisting Conditions Act of 2019
HR 987 — Strengthening Health Care and Lowering Prescription Drug Costs Act
HR 1520, the Purple Book Continuity Act (bill aimed at lowering the cost of prescription drugs)
HR 1503, the Orange Book Transparency Act of 2019 (bill aimed at lowering the cost of prescription drugs)
HR 1 — For the People Act of 2019
HR 5 — Equality Act
HR 7 — Paycheck Fairness Act
HR 8 — Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019
HR 1112 — Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2019

(full list would be three times longer)

[Leonhard]

The countries in the Western world currently who do the best overall on multivariate measures of success are the Scandinavian countries.

You have to understand though that Scandinavia is capitalist whenever anything good is reported around it. And they're socialist when anything negative is reported about them.

That being said Scandinavia isn't socialist. Its a social democracy with free market economics. Its not the same. The means of production are not controlled by the government, however there's an expansive welfare sector, and about half the population is working in the service of the government.

I work in the private sector, as a consultant for a government project.

[Starlight]

You have to understand though that Scandinavia is capitalist whenever anything good is reported around it. And they're socialist when anything negative is reported about them.

Or vice versa depending on the audience.

That being said Scandinavia isn't socialist. Its a social democracy with free market economics.

Indeed it's often described as a mixed market economy or a capitalist economy with socialist elements.

The means of production are not controlled by the government

Indeed, but socialism isn't defined by whether the government controls the means of production, but by whether control is distributed (e.g. among employees etc). Unions blur the separation between capitalism and socialism because they give workers significant power over the companies they work for without giving them ownership of them. By contrast, a cooperative where the company is owned by its employees, is fully socialist.

The economy of the Scandinavian countries feature large variety, including companies that are government owned (State Owned Enterprises), companies that are worker owned (cooperatives), companies where the workers partially own them through work share-holding schemes but which are partially non-worker owned, and standard capitalistic private companies (which, themselves often have unions giving workers power over the company). So the economies are a mix of a variety of company ownership systems running the full gamut from socialist through capitalist.

I work in the private sector, as a consultant for a government project.

As do I.

[demi-conservative]

It helped me and millions of working class Americans get affordable health care. It was far from perfect, obviously, but Republicans refused to help fix it.

It was and is completely unsustainable, even when trying to force people to buy into it.