Comment by ck2 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ck2 | Hacker News Reader

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Every single item you list has significant "catches" that basically void the entire reality of itself, they are all meaningless - off the top of my head:

0) simply renewed a republican tax plan that was proven not to work since they helped put us into recession and caved on the idea of people making over $250k actually paying proportional taxes to help pay back their incredible gains

1) allows people to still be imprisoned forever without being charged and/or in solitary confinement with inhumane conditions - refuses to prosecute Valarie Plame leaks that got informants killed but now wants to go after non-citizens that republish leaks that only make his administration look bad

2) allowed insurance companies to drop children entirely before policy applied

3) allowed insurance companies to radically raise rates to compensate for imaginary loss of future profits - made the IRS an (even more powerful) enforcement agency that everyone will literally have to fear for their lives

4) allowed student loans to be "recovered" far more aggressively

5) insists on "partnerships" being "good enough" refuses to recognize gay marriage, setting a national tone that it's okay to discriminate like that

6) this won't be likely be signed because it's too late and democratic led congress is over - he let it drag out since April

7) allowed credit card companies to max out rates months before policy went into effect

8) asked courts to keep DADT on the books, setting national tone, allowed massive caveats in replacing DADT, 60 day nonsense waiting period from a dead-senator - military dishonorably discharged have to apply all over again and get all records reviewed without compensation

I like to consider myself very progressive but I cannot wait for Obama to be gone in 2012 so we can endure the dumbfounding insanity of 16 more years of far right rule, so FINALLY, FINALLY in 2038 when all these ancient a-holes finally die off and the young progressives will take over for a more enlightened country.

I just hope I live long enough to see it.

0.) Dude, wrong tax cut: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/us/politics/19taxes.html. You'll laugh when you read the article, you're way off base here.

1.) Agreed.

2.) Agreed.

3.) Agreed.

4.) Strongly agreed.

5.) Disagree. Marriage is not a governmental institution and needs to be removed from our legislation and legal code in favor of civil unions.

6.) Strongly disagree. Sorry, how did he "let" that happen? Obama doesn't control Congress. He got the hard work done by, I don't know, negotiating with the Russia and writing the damn thing?!

7.) Agreed.

8.) I recognize what you're saying here, but to not support what Obama has done on DADT based on this feels like a stretch.

I'm not saying Obama has accomplished everything (my comment actually says the opposite and expresses displeasure in some parts of the job he has done). But do note that I was responding to someone who thought Obama was 100% rhetoric and no backbone, which empirically is not true. Also, I hope you realize that young people have thought the nation would be taken over by "young progressives for a more enlightened country" since the begininning of this nation. You do realize the people in power now grew up in the 60s, perhaps one of the most left-leaning decades this nation has seen?

> simply renewed a republican tax plan that was proven not to work since they helped put us into recession

Everyone else thinks that the recession was due to the collapse of housing prices and/or the credit markets.

> and caved on the idea of people making over $250k actually paying proportional taxes to help pay back their incredible gains

$250k is a pair of married mid-level individual contributors. It's also an engineering manager and a school-teacher.

BTW - what definition of "proportional" are we using? Both before and after, the marginal tax rates are progressive. (No, SSI doesn't count - it's a forced savings plan with better return for folks who contribute less.)

And, if you look at the difference between the Clinton tax rates and the Bush tax rates, you find that the Bush rates are more progressive.

Yes, compare someone who makes $300k with someone who makes $30k. You'll find that the $300k person got less than 10x the benefit from the Bush tax rate cuts that the person who made $30k.

You can play with numbers at http://www.giveitbackforjobs.org/

Curiously enough, that site's founders think that the tax rate cuts are a bad idea but suggests sending the savings to charity, which reduces tax liability, instead of sending it to govt....

Regarding 8 - Don't Ask Don't Tell was never "on the books" as a law - it was a policy implemented by Clinton and continued by Bush and Obama as a de facto way to allow homosexuals to serve in the military. The relevant law (which forbids homosexuals from serving in the military) is http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/10/654.html

Can you point me to any information regarding Obama's stance on the issue? I hadn't been following it until recently so I'd be curious to see what he's said on the matter.

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