Replies to post #434673 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[sortagreen]

So the clown show starts by passing a bill to cut funding for the IRS. Well, nothing says fiscal responsibility like reducing revenue by $186 billion or so.

The bill passed on party lines (so much for the Republiklan "moderates"), and was last seen heading for an ignominious death on Chuck Schumer's desk.

[lesgetrich]

Not quite true...

But Obamacare does hurt small businesses disproportionately........

Corps found a way around it by keeping people listed as part time,,, Just work them 35hrs a week, every week...They also either quit providing it or laid a big part of the cost back on the employee, and that continues.....Our teachers strike was of over just that.....

Another example of the broken social contract now its all becoming another gov subsidy. Our buddy corporate greed took hold, they are professional cost cutters now......Thats where dems dropped the ball

The working poor and poor now have Medicaid, but in between those and upper middle-class, its just plain tough to afford or impossible.....

The subject always ends with the need for the one payer system which would return us to the best in the world again if handled like all those ahead of us, who, they all use the one payer system

Small businesses with fewer than 50 employees are not required to provide health insurance for their employees but if they do offer them insurance, they must provide at least the minimum coverage required by Obamacare. Before the ACA was enacted, insurance companies would offer schlock plans that were loaded with exceptions (e.g. they wouldn't cover cancer or diabetes or some other major illnesses or would limit the amount they were liable to pay). Small companies would often be tempted to offer these policies due to their low premiums (you get what you pay for). Yes, in a sense, small companies were hurt by having to offer full coverage plans (plans that offered Minimum Essential Coverage as defined by the ACA), however, companies that continued to offer coverage were also partly subsidized by Obamacare. Low wage workers that worked for companies that discontinued coverage would find that they were now eligible for individual coverage on the ACA exchanges.

As for ACA policies being "tough to afford or impossible" a big step forward was provided by Biden with the Inflation Reduction Act which extended ACA subsidies thru 2025 and increased the benefits to make it more affordable, however, Biden wants further enhancements to include a public option and reduce the eligibility age for medicare to age 60. Unfortunately, the prospect for additional changes are grim as long as the GOP controls the House.

[fuagf]

B402, You have repeatedly been given proof Democrats have done so much more for the middle class and the poor than conservatives. That is unarguable. It's why your continual carping about dems in some part misses a larger picture. You demand a more perfect world to come for you and your wife (not surprised she is a nurse. good on her) , and others , more quickly than could ever be possible under the particular form of capitalism that is known as American capitalism. Also if you have a look at countries seen to have single payer health systems you would find many legit complaints there too .. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-with-single-payer .

See - Overworked and underpaid during COVID, nurses quitting in droves: report
The statistics on stress and depression in the survey are staggering.
Liz Braun Published May 12, 2022 • Last updated May 14, 2022
A new report from the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO) offers grim statistics on the current state of the nursing profession.
https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/overworked-and-underpaid-during-covid-nurses-quitting-in-droves-report

Oh, should also toss this in: Charles Koch, Liberal Crusader?
"Dare to declare capitalism dead – before it takes us all down with it"
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=170838237

That point put, back to good ol' USA, a better place to live for more than many others in the world.

The Rise And Fall Of Howard Dean

By Joel Roberts
February 18, 2004 / 7:03 PM / CBS

By David Paul Kuhn,
CBSNews.com Chief Political Writer

A fast month and a political light-year after Howard Dean stood poised to win the Iowa caucuses, the former Vermont governor took the stage at a rally Wednesday in Burlington and ended the campaign that once seemed unstoppable.

How did the mighty fall? The answer is complicated and the rise and fall of Howard Dean will keep political coroners busy for years.

Did Dean peak too early? Was he overconfident? Did former Vice President Al Gore's endorsement inspire Dean's opponents to play hardball? Did Internet financing fail to translate to voter turnout? Did Dean campaign on issues and forget to fight on character, too? Could he have used a little more political reticence and a little less directness?

Perhaps. But then, would he be Howard?

And would there be Deaniacs and Deaniebabies? Would there be thousands of young people (one-quarter of his contributors were under 30) running around in orange hats calling themselves Dean Storm Troopers? Would Senators Edwards and Kerry have opposed the $87 billion funding for the war in Iraq, or taken vehement antiwar stances? Would there be 800,000 people from half the counties in the United States giving Dean their own money, at an average of $77 each?

"If Howard had been less direct, less blunt, less authentic, less true to himself and more cautious, he wouldn't have made some of the mistakes," former Dean campaign chairman Steven Grossman said. "On the other hand if he had been more cautious he might never have tapped into this energy and passion."

And tap in he did. The week prior to the Iowa caucus, Dean's face brandished the covers of Time and Newsweek, an honor usually reserved for the winner of the New Hampshire primary. By mid-January, competitors trembled before his $40 million war chest and even Republicans were in awe of his groundbreaking fundraising apparatus.

The former Democratic presidential nominee, Al Gore, had endorsed Dean; so had Gore's opponent Bill Bradley. And as Iowa approached, Dean got the endorsement of the state's most admired Democrat, Tom Harkin. Conventional wisdom in the Hawkeye State said that the Iowa senator was the kingmaker. But like all conventional wisdom this election year, Harkin's endorsement was worth little.

No one can crown a king the people don't want and, in then end, they just didn't want Dean.

The week after Dean placed third in Iowa, he placed second in New Hampshire, a state he once looked sure to win, a state that borders his own.

Two years and $40 million later, the Dean campaign had nothing to show for it. They were nearly broke. All advertising was suspended. An additional $10 million earned since the New Year did not help. Dean shook up his campaign, demoting his dedicated campaign manager Joe Trippi, the pioneer of Dean's Internet fundraising phenomenon.

INSERT: Money money money. The White House is only telling you half of the sad story of what happened to American jobs
[...] One found that nonprofit organizations are more likely to submit comments during rulemaking processes that favor their corporate donors, increasing the likelihood that the final rule reflects their donors’ priorities. Another found that the philanthropic arms of Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies funnel their contributions into the districts of members of Congress who attain seats on committees that are relevant to their industries, and concluded that the amount of politically motivated “charitable” giving amounted to more than six times the amount raised annually by political action committees.
p - “Given the lack of formal electoral or regulatory disclosure requirements, charitable giving may be a form of political influence that goes mostly undetected by voters and shareholders, and which is directly subsidized by taxpayers,” the authors wrote.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/14/business/republican-democrat-ceos/index.html
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=170903523

"I think the campaign revolutionized American politics," Trippi said. "I mean there is no one that can change the fact that by using the Internet to create a grassroots network across the country, we raised more money in small donors than any Democratic campaign in history."

No one contests that fact. Dean did revolutionize political fundraising. He democratized what had become the stuff of banquets and $1,000 tables.

The Park Avenue-born Dean attempted to become a great populist, capitalizing on his insight into fevering Democratic voters and their anger over the war in Iraq.

But even at his peak in late December, after the Gore endorsement, polls still showed Dean losing to President Bush in a general election. That was at the height of Dean's popularity and before the Bush campaign had spent a dollar of their monumental campaign coffer.

Democrats became pragmatists. They went with the man strongest in the area where Republicans have always prevailed – national security. Sen. John Kerry's decorated Vietnam service, as well as his presidential demeanor, won him contest after contest.

At his resignation speech Wednesday, Dean said he would not run as a third-party candidate. He urged his supporters to unite behind whomever the Democrats choose to oppose Mr. Bush.

"We have demonstrated to other Democrats that it is a far better strategy to stand up against the right-wing agenda of George W. Bush than to cooperate with it," Dean said, to a surprisingly optimistic yet heart wrenched crowd of supporters. "I am no longer actively pursuing the presidency; we will however continue to build a new organization using our enormous grassroots effort."

This organization will attempt to bring progressive delegates to the Democratic convention. Whatever form it takes, it will be very much a la Dean. He was fond of quoting the mantra of the late and iconoclastically liberal Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota. "I represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic party," Dean often said. His organization will, too.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," Trippi said. "It is going to continue to grow and change the country in the same way that the Kennedy/Nixon debate was a harbinger of what television was going to do to change politics. I think the Dean campaign did that with the Internet."

Dean was the only candidate whose supporters referred to by his first name. He won support by denouncing political speak and instead, spoke his mind. But his nature was the bane of his success. He began to appear unpresidential. The forthright attitude precipitated unforced errors, the dreaded gaffes – and there were many of them.

There was the frenzied "I Have a Scream" speech after his loss in Iowa. He said America wasn't safer after the capture of Saddam Hussein. He admonished a Bush supporter, yelling at him to sit down. He said that he wanted to be the candidate "for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks." His off-the-cuff opinions needed to be re-expressed, such as his dissing of the centrist politics of Democratic Don Bill Clinton, the former president.

"If he had been more cautious, he wouldn't be the human being he is. But I guess one of the lessons learned is that when a campaign grows as rapidly as the Dean campaign grows the momentum can outstrip the infrastructure you put in place," said Grossman, who left the campaign Monday and caused a last minute deflation of Dean's already deeply waning effort in Wisconsin.

"But you never could have anticipated all that happened. We've never seen anything like this," Grossman continued. "He was a fresh face that energized millions of grassroots activists, giving them a sense that participatory politics matter and political fundraising will never be the same."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-rise-and-fall-of-howard-dean-18-02-2004/

This author sees salvation from Koch money in progressives getting together with evangelists

The Kochs: paying to keep America dumb
2010 - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=54094598

And thanks fro reminding me the Tea Party was not in the beginning nearly the united movement we tend to see it as:

The Tea Party Patriots, which has long touted its grassroots credentials,
has brought in a major PR honcho—infuriating the party faithful
[...]
At Tuesday's press conference, Patriots leader Mark Meckler questioned the grassroots credentials of a rival group, the Tea Party Express. "They try to portray themselves as some sort of grassroots movement, but they are a classic example of what those on the left would call Astroturf," said Meckler. "They are fake, they're not from the grassroots."

Working with Lewis isn't the only recent development that some fear is shifting the Patriots away from their citizen-powered roots. An intense distrust of Washington's lobbying culture was a key facet in the rise of the Tea Party movement last year. But the Patriots announced last week that former GOP Rep. Ernest Istook, whose office enjoyed a notably cozy relationship with Jack Abramoff, would join the group's board.

Istook received $29,000 in campaign contributions from Abramoff and his clients, and in 2003 used Abramoff's skybox to host a fundraiser at a Washington Redskins game, then later asked the lobbyist what his clients would like to see in an upcoming transportation bill the lawmaker was drafting, according to court documents filed in the case of John Albaugh, Istook's former chief of staff who in 2008 pleaded guilty to corruption charges. (After Abramoff himself pleaded guilty in 2006, Istook donated the campaign contributions to charity. He has denied acting improperly, saying at that time: "I never worked with [Abramoff] on any issue or any project and I'm appalled at what he has done.")

In reference to Istook's appointment, Martin, the Patriots' national coordinator, told the Beast that the board "made the decision that we needed to bring in a few people who could help us who have a little bit more experience navigating the political waters." (Gary Aldrich, the former FBI agent and Clinton critic, also was named to the board last week.) "The board still has a majority of grassroots members, and all of our major decisions continue to be made by the local coordinators on our weekly call," Martin added.

Although as a matter of policy, the Patriots don't endorse or support specific candidates, the group has quietly set up a political action committee, run by a former Bush White House staffer, in case it reconsiders and decides to get into electoral politics more directly by supporting specific candidates—though campaign filings indicate the PAC hasn't yet raised any money. Should it go that route, the Patriots' transition—and maybe even that of the Tea Party movement as a whole—from a grassroots citizens' movement that distrusts the political establishment, to a politically astute and well-organized field army for the GOP, would perhaps be complete.
2010 - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=55685111

One other of many since 2011 mentioning the AstroTurf nature of so many phony grass-roots conservative groups:

Context of '1979-1980: Billionaire Libertarians Defeated in Presidential Campaign, Decide to Influence Politics through Organizations'

Watching The Billionaires' Tea Party .. http://vimeo.com/20622744 .. now.

This is a scalable context timeline. It contains events related to the event 1979-1980: Billionaire Libertarians Defeated in Presidential Campaign, Decide to Influence Politics through Organizations. You can narrow or broaden the context of this timeline by adjusting the zoom level. The lower the scale, the more relevant the items on average will be, while the higher the scale, the less relevant the items, on average, will be.

1940 and After: Koch Industries Founder Becomes Influential
Right-Wing Backer, Shapes Political Vision of Sons
[...]
1977-Present: Koch Billionaires Fund Libertarian Think Tank
Cato Institute logo.
[Source: Cato Institute]
[...]
1979-1980: Billionaire Libertarians Defeated in Presidential Campaign, Decide to Influence Politics through Organizations

Oil billionaire David Koch runs for vice president on the Libertarian Party ticket. David and his brother Charles are the primary backers of hard-right libertarian politics in the US (see August 30, 2010); Charles, the dominant brother, is determined to tear government “out at the root,” as he will later be characterized by libertarian Brian Doherty.
[...]
1981-2010: Oil Billionaires Spend ‘Staggering’ Amounts of Money Financing Right-Wing Organizations

KochPAC logo.
[Source: KochPAC (.com)]

After their stinging loss during the November 1980 presidential campaign, the billionaire Koch brothers, Charles and David, decide that they need to work to inculcate their brand of hard-right libertarianism into the electorate through indirect means (see 1979-1980). Therefore, they begin spending vast amounts of their personal fortunes on what purport to be independent think tanks and other political or ideological organizations. At the same time, the brothers become political recluses, rarely speaking in public and rarely acknowledging the breadth or the direction of their donations. It is hard to know exactly how much the Kochs spend and where they spend it, though public records give some of the picture. Between 1998 and 2008, Charles Koch’s foundation spends over $48 million on political funding. The Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation, controlled by Charles and his wife, spends over $28 million. David Koch’s foundation spends over $120 million. Koch Industries, controlled primarily by Charles, spends over $50 million on lobbying efforts.
[...]
1984 and After: Oil Billionaires Found First of Many ‘Grassroots’ ‘Citizens’ Organizations

Citizens for a Sound Economy logo.
[Source: Greater Houston Pachyderm Club]

The billionaire Koch brothers, Charles and David, launch the first of a number of “citizen advocacy” groups they either found or fund, Citizens for a Sound Economy. The Kochs are staunch right-wing libertarians determined to successfully combat government regulation and oversight of businesses, government taxation, and government funding of social programs (see August 30, 2010). Between 1986 and 1993, the brothers will provide $7.9 million to the group, even as it promotes itself as a “grassroots,” “citizen-driven” organization. (Such organizations that call themselves “citizen-based” while actually being founded, operated, and funded by corporate interests are called “astroturf” organizations.) Matt Kibbe, who will go on to head a Koch-funded lobbying organization, FreedomWorks, will later say of Citizens for a Sound Economy that its driving force was to take the Kochs’ “heavy ideas and translate them for mass America.… We read the same literature Obama did about nonviolent revolutions—Saul Alinsky, Gandhi, Martin Luther King. We studied the idea of the Boston Tea Party as an example of nonviolent social change. We learned we needed boots on the ground to sell ideas, not candidates.” One organization participant will say that the brothers are “very controlling, very top down. You can’t build an organization with them. They run it.” By 1993, the organization will become powerful enough to successfully thwart the Clinton administration’s efforts to place a “BTU tax” on energy, and mounts successful “citizen protests” against Democrats, sometimes funnelling millions of Koch monies into the political campaigns of their Republican opponents. [New Yorker, 8/30/2010]

1997: Senate Investigates Front Operation Funding GOP Attack Ads
[...]
Late 2004: Oil Billionaire Founds ‘Astroturf’ Citizens Advocacy Organization

Americans for Prosperity logo.
[Source: Americans for Prosperity]

After the 2004 presidential election, the “astroturf” organization Citizens for a Sound Economy (see Late 2004) splits due to internal dissension. Oil billionaire David Koch and Koch Industries lobbyist Richard Fink (see August 30, 2010) launch a new “astroturf” organization, Americans for Prosperity (AFP—see May 29, 2009)). They hire Tim Phillips to run the organization. Phillips (see August 6, 2009) is a veteran political operative who worked closely with Republican operative Ralph Reed; the two co-founded the political consulting firm Century Strategies. Phillips’s online biography will describe him as an expert in “grasstops” and “grassroots” political organizing. Conservative operative Grover Norquist will call Phillips “a grownup who can make things happen.” In 2009, Phillips will claim that AFP has “only” 800,000 members, but its Web site will claim “1.2 million activists.” A former employee of the Cato Institute, a Koch-founded libertarian think tank, will say that AFP is “micromanaged by the Kochs” (indicating involvement by both David and Charles Koch). [New Yorker, 8/30/2010]

October 2008: ’Astroturf’ Organization Holds Conference to Battle Democratic Presidential Agenda

The conservative “astroturf” advocacy organization Americans for Prosperity (AFP—see Late 2004) holds a conference of conservative political operatives and pundits in a Marriott hotel outside Washington, DC. Right-wing blogger Erick Erickson of RedState.com thanks oil billionaire and AFP co-founder David Koch (see August 30, 2010) from the podium and promises to “unite and fight… the armies of the left!” The rest of the conference is spent planning how to battle the policies that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama might implement if he wins the November election. AFP will be instrumental in the Koch brothers’ battle against Obama administration policies (see August 30, 2010). [New Yorker, 8/30/2010]

January 2009 and After: ’Astroturf’ Advocacy Group Opposes Obama Policies

The conservative “astroturf” advocacy organization Americans for Prosperity (AFP—see Late 2004, October 2008, and August 6, 2009) launches a multi-pronged attack on every major policy initiative attempted by the Obama administration. Within weeks of Obama’s inauguration, AFP holds “Porkulus” rallies protesting Obama’s stimulus spending measures.
[...]
April 2009 and After: Koch-Funded ‘Grassroots’ Advocacy Movement Provides ‘Tea Party Talking Points’ for April 15 Protests

The right-wing advocacy group Americans for Prosperity (AFP), funded largely by Koch Industries (see August 30, 2010), has worked closely with the “tea party” movement since its inception (see February 27, 2009 and April 15, 2009). In the weeks before the first Tax Day protests (see April 8, 2009, April 15, 2009, and April 15, 2009), AFP hosts a Web site offering its visitors “Tea Party Talking Points.” The Arizona branch of AFP urges people to send tea bags to President Obama. The Missouri AFP urges its members to sign up for “Taxpayer Tea Party Registration” and provides driving directions to nine protests. After the protests, the North Carolina AFP will launch a “Tea Party Finder” Web site, advertised as “a hub for all the Tea Parties in North Carolina.” [New Yorker, 8/30/2010]

April 14, 2009: FreedomWorks, Lobbying Firm Fighting Health Care Reform, Profiled by Progressive Site
[...]
April 15, 2009: ’Tea Party’ Protests Organized by Conservative Lobbying Firms, Says Progressive Think Tank

The Center for American Progress (CAP), a progressive think tank and lobbying organization, releases a report that says the “tea party” movement protesting the various policies of the Obama administration (see April 8, 2009) is not, as purported, entirely a grassroots movement of ordinary citizens, but an “astroturf” movement created, organized, and funded by powerful conservative and industry firms and organizations. (CAP notes that the anti-tax “tea parties,” with “tea” standing for “Taxed Enough Already,” fail to note that President Obama’s recent legislation actually has cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans.) Two of the most prominent organizations behind the “tea parties” are FreedomWorks and Americans for Progress (AFP). FreedomWorks (see April 14, 2009) is a corporate lobbying firm run by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX), and organized the first “tea party,” held in Tampa, Florida, on February 27. It then began planning and organizing “tea parties” on a national scale; officials coordinated logistics, called conservative activists, and provided activists with sign ideas and slogans and talking points to use during protests. AFP has coordinated with FreedomWorks. AFP is a corporate lobbying firm run by Tim Phillips, a former lobbying partner of conservative activist Ralph Reed, and funded in part by Koch Industries, the largest private oil corporation in America (see May 29, 2009). Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) is also involved, through his lobbying form American Solutions for Winning the Future, which is supported by oil companies.

Support, Promotion from Fox News - On cable news channels, Fox News and Fox Business have run promotions for the “tea parties” in conjunction with enthusiastic reports promoting the affairs; in return, the organizers use the Fox broadcasts to promote the events. Fox hosts Glenn Beck, Neil Cavuto, and Sean Hannity all plan to broadcast live reports from the events. Fox also warns its viewers that the Obama administration may send “spies” to the events. (Fox justifies its depth of coverage by saying that it provided similar coverage for the 1995 Million Man March. However, Fox did not begin broadcasting until 1996—see October 7, 1996.)
2011 - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=62100811

As we are reminded of again Koch's other AstroTurf organizations came before the Tea Party. Then were instrumental
in the corporatization of what was, in part at least, actually, for a time at least, a legit grass-roots movement.

Thanks for bringing that history back.

[arizona1]

Oh look! Another MAGAt bit the dust tonight in VA! I bet @GlennYoungkin is having a sad. #OneSide

BREAKING: @HollySeiboldVA just won her election to Virginia’s HD-35!

A former public school educator & nonprofit founder, Holly is ready to bring her record of service to the Virginia House, where she’ll advocate for protecting abortion rights & safe, high-quality schools. pic.twitter.com/LLgRocsEaW

— Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (@DLCC) January 11, 2023