The Biden Cabinet and Transition Thread (4 Viewers)

Thread Attachment browser

Users who are viewing this thread

    Total: 5 (members: 0, guests: 5)
    GrandAdmiral

    GrandAdmiral

    Well-known member
    Joined
    Nov 20, 2019
    Messages
    4,073
    Reaction score
    5,913
    Location
    Center of the Universe
    Offline
    Ok the rules:
    • Your post can only contain one department and guess.
    • You may post more than once for different departments.
    • Post can contain comments about previous guesses.
    • Guesses for one department can be used for other departments.
    • Minds can, of course, be changed.
    I will kick things off first...

    Secretary of State: Susan Rice

    Susan_Rice_official_photo.jpg


    This is as clear a choice as there can be. She has all of the credentials and rep to begin healing as relationships with our allies.
     
    Lapaz said:
    The U.S. Health care system has also suffered over the last 20 to 30 years with hyper-inflation, so most people pay higher deductibles and premiums compared to inflation rates for other products. So any funding issues experienced by countries with UHC pales in comparison to the problems we've experienced. Obamacare helped slow down the growth and allowed more people to afford health care, but we're still much worse off than other advanced democracies.
    Click to expand...
    A bloated, badly-regulated UHC or welfare social service programs does effect funding and effectiveness in Western countries and its much more acute and potentially devastating then perhaps you believe it does. The UK'S economy and how its severe recession effected budget cuts in NHS, social welfare programs and main core elements of how British economy worked since 1945 and Atlee's "post-war consensus" brilliant IMHO, welfare state policies implemented due to the British being effectively broke after WWII and process of decolonization of major Western empires lasting unto late 1970s.
     
    Last edited:
    Saintman2884 said:
    But you do admit that over the past 20-30 years in countries like Sweden, and Norway their once solid, well-funded social welfare programs have declined or experienced problems as it relates to funding, corruption, less-then-honest politicians who's main primary interests weren't focused at helping or benefitting their elected constituents. And you didn't exactly answer my question about corporations or multi-national corps relocating or moving most of their main home operations base away from their home bases? That has happened as a trend in Scandinavian countries as well as the UK, especially since the late 70s?
    Click to expand...

    Nope that is not the case. Do we have some who tries to cheat - certainly but it is extremely difficult to do so here due to the fact that we are a very "registered" society. Everyone gets a social security number at birth or when they immigrate from elsewhere and that number is used for everything. When I do my taxes I basically only need to sign it because everything is already on the sheet. Salaries, deductions of different kinds, even the salary I earn working remote for a German Game developer company, has been reported from the german authorities.

    Likewise, we have very few corruption cases, mostly people getting payback for a permit or stuff like that and almost never money - the punishment is really severe and companies have a hard time actually taking the money out of the books without the auditor noticing and he is required by law to report inconsistencies. So yes - sometimes someone get a free roof or a new kitchen but it is very rare and usually discovered.

    Funding wise - social services and healthcare is funded by taxes, like roads or schools so it does not "run out" as such.

    Regarding politicians and campaign donations - actually no, because EVERY campaign donation is public information and besides there are strict (and low) limitations on how much they can receive.

    Yes some multinational companies have moved production overseas, but we actually don't have a lot of jobs for unskilled labor due to the way our education system works.. Almost everyone will get either a academic or a vocational education. Some multiple if their skills become obsolete over their lifetime.
     
    Dragon said:
    Nope that is not the case. Do we have some who tries to cheat - certainly but it is extremely difficult to do so here due to the fact that we are a very "registered" society. Everyone gets a social security number at birth or when they immigrate from elsewhere and that number is used for everything. When I do my taxes I basically only need to sign it because everything is already on the sheet. Salaries, deductions of different kinds, even the salary I earn working remote for a German Game developer company, has been reported from the german authorities.

    Likewise, we have very few corruption cases, mostly people getting payback for a permit or stuff like that and almost never money - the punishment is really severe and companies have a hard time actually taking the money out of the books without the auditor noticing and he is required by law to report inconsistencies. So yes - sometimes someone get a free roof or a new kitchen but it is very rare and usually discovered.

    Funding wise - social services and healthcare is funded by taxes, like roads or schools so it does not "run out" as such.

    Regarding politicians and campaign donations - actually no, because EVERY campaign donation is public information and besides there are strict (and low) limitations on how much they can receive.

    Yes some multinational companies have moved production overseas, but we actually don't have a lot of jobs for unskilled labor due to the way our education system works.. Almost everyone will get either a academic or a vocational education. Some multiple if their skills become obsolete over their lifetime.
    Click to expand...
    When it comes to funding social services and healthcare programs by taxes as with roads, schools, or public infrastructural projects, that's how pretty much every Western advanced nation does it, including USA. Its not so much how the process works concerning funding through taxes, it is what happens when a once-prosperous, flourishing wealthy city, country, or region with a large tax base starts having its industries becoming obsolete, the cost of competition foreign or even domestic here among US cities, or lack of competent, capable leadership. I'll give you another great example: Detroit, 65 years ago, was one of the most prosperous, wealthiest, progressive US cities with its automobile industry and supply-side companies, very large tax credit base, one of the biggest, affluent African-American middle-class in the country. Only problems were systemic racism among the police, police brutality, angry, disaffected inner-city population about to explode due to the lack of social or economic advancement/mobility by the early 1960s, it was a ticking bomb that exploded in July 1967 with 8 days of riots, 43 people dead(33 of them black), major parts of inner-city destroyed, businesses, homes, livelihoods were destroyed and the overriding faith and confidence in Detroit city politics, mayor, the state governor(Mitt Romney's father, BTW) and President Johnson's petty slow partisan game of politics to send in National Guard or Army troops to quell or stop the rioting hurt any remaining chance of progress long-term.

    After the 1967 riots, most white-and-black middle class families moved out to the suburbs as fast as they could by mid-70s, the auto industry began getting complacent, unimaginative, and losing steam to newer, more robust cars, trucks and related products from German and Japanese competitors, then AUW began getting power-hungry, demanding more concessions and not meeting production quotas or raising their levels of efficiency and productivity. This slump in Detroit's auto industry led to that once-prosperous tax base from businesses shrink and all those funds which were used to renovate, rebeautification inner city and make it more consumer-friendly fell apart because those businesses relocated or closed down or stopped being as productive as they were 20 years before.

    I'm just saying that if a nation's economy or one of its once-largest, wealthiest cities loses a lot of its income or tax credit bases from its businesses, multi-national corps, or they start becoming less successful or close down, or relocate, that tax or real estate, income taxes they do pay to fund infrastructure or schools or roads or bridges shrivels and it does create some hardships when it comes to funding.

    I realize that in Scandinavia with the "Nordic model" of capitalism, the state plays a larger role in managing, regulating or even running some mixed-model companies, and I recognize also that Scandinavian economists or politicians, historically, tend to be better organized, less incompetent, and well-run overall so, they can manage the disparities or mid-long term damages a severe recession might bring, like the 2008-2009 world economic crisis. But what happened in UK in the late 1970s when the Labour government and its TUC allies effectively forgot how to make government work properly or function decently with wage and inflation policies nobody took seriously anymore and how Detroit went from being an All-American, bustling prosperous city to America's Pompeii, unfortunately, has the potential of happening anywhere. It happened with Japan in their "Lost Decade" from late 90s-mid 2000s where they went from a world economic powerhouse to somewhere towards the middle of the first rung. Japan's economy is still very good, very strong and resolute but its not ever going to reach the same heights it did in the 1970s and 80s.
     
    Saintman2884 said:
    When it comes to funding social services and healthcare programs by taxes as with roads, schools, or public infrastructural projects, that's how pretty much every Western advanced nation does it, including USA. Its not so much how the process works concerning funding through taxes, it is what happens when a once-prosperous, flourishing wealthy city, country, or region with a large tax base starts having its industries becoming obsolete, the cost of competition foreign or even domestic here among US cities, or lack of competent, capable leadership. I'll give you another great example: Detroit, 65 years ago, was one of the most prosperous, wealthiest, progressive US cities with its automobile industry and supply-side companies, very large tax credit base, one of the biggest, affluent African-American middle-class in the country. Only problems were systemic racism among the police, police brutality, angry, disaffected inner-city population about to explode due to the lack of social or economic advancement/mobility by the early 1960s, it was a ticking bomb that exploded in July 1967 with 8 days of riots, 43 people dead(33 of them black), major parts of inner-city destroyed, businesses, homes, livelihoods were destroyed and the overriding faith and confidence in Detroit city politics, mayor, the state governor(Mitt Romney's father, BTW) and President Johnson's petty slow partisan game of politics to send in National Guard or Army troops to quell or stop the rioting hurt any remaining chance of progress long-term.

    After the 1967 riots, most white-and-black middle class families moved out to the suburbs as fast as they could by mid-70s, the auto industry began getting complacent, unimaginative, and losing steam to newer, more robust cars, trucks and related products from German and Japanese competitors, then AUW began getting power-hungry, demanding more concessions and not meeting production quotas or raising their levels of efficiency and productivity. This slump in Detroit's auto industry led to that once-prosperous tax base from businesses shrink and all those funds which were used to renovate, rebeautification inner city and make it more consumer-friendly fell apart because those businesses relocated or closed down or stopped being as productive as they were 20 years before.

    I'm just saying that if a nation's economy or one of its once-largest, wealthiest cities loses a lot of its income or tax credit bases from its businesses, multi-national corps, or they start becoming less successful or close down, or relocate, that tax or real estate, income taxes they do pay to fund infrastructure or schools or roads or bridges shrivels and it does create some hardships when it comes to funding.

    I realize that in Scandinavia with the "Nordic model" of capitalism, the state plays a larger role in managing, regulating or even running some mixed-model companies, and I recognize also that Scandinavian economists or politicians, historically, tend to be better organized, less incompetent, and well-run overall so, they can manage the disparities or mid-long term damages a severe recession might bring, like the 2008-2009 world economic crisis. But what happened in UK in the late 1970s when the Labour government and its TUC allies effectively forgot how to make government work properly or function decently with wage and inflation policies nobody took seriously anymore and how Detroit went from being an All-American, bustling prosperous city to America's Pompeii, unfortunately, has the potential of happening anywhere. It happened with Japan in their "Lost Decade" from late 90s-mid 2000s where they went from a world economic powerhouse to somewhere towards the middle of the first rung. Japan's economy is still very good, very strong and resolute but its not ever going to reach the same heights it did in the 1970s and 80s.
    Click to expand...


    Good points. One of the differences between the US and DK where I live is that it really does not matter if people live in the center of the city or the suburbs because schools as well as social services are state financed, and there are elaborate systems set up to even out the taxes recieved by the inner city communities and the suburbs as well as the rural communities. So smaller rural communities will receive a share of the cooperate taxes collected in the big cities.
     
    Saintman2884 said:
    When it comes to funding social services and healthcare programs by taxes as with roads, schools, or public infrastructural projects, that's how pretty much every Western advanced nation does it, including USA. Its not so much how the process works concerning funding through taxes, it is what happens when a once-prosperous, flourishing wealthy city, country, or region with a large tax base starts having its industries becoming obsolete, the cost of competition foreign or even domestic here among US cities, or lack of competent, capable leadership. I'll give you another great example: Detroit, 65 years ago, was one of the most prosperous, wealthiest, progressive US cities with its automobile industry and supply-side companies, very large tax credit base, one of the biggest, affluent African-American middle-class in the country. Only problems were systemic racism among the police, police brutality, angry, disaffected inner-city population about to explode due to the lack of social or economic advancement/mobility by the early 1960s, it was a ticking bomb that exploded in July 1967 with 8 days of riots, 43 people dead(33 of them black), major parts of inner-city destroyed, businesses, homes, livelihoods were destroyed and the overriding faith and confidence in Detroit city politics, mayor, the state governor(Mitt Romney's father, BTW) and President Johnson's petty slow partisan game of politics to send in National Guard or Army troops to quell or stop the rioting hurt any remaining chance of progress long-term.

    After the 1967 riots, most white-and-black middle class families moved out to the suburbs as fast as they could by mid-70s, the auto industry began getting complacent, unimaginative, and losing steam to newer, more robust cars, trucks and related products from German and Japanese competitors, then AUW began getting power-hungry, demanding more concessions and not meeting production quotas or raising their levels of efficiency and productivity. This slump in Detroit's auto industry led to that once-prosperous tax base from businesses shrink and all those funds which were used to renovate, rebeautification inner city and make it more consumer-friendly fell apart because those businesses relocated or closed down or stopped being as productive as they were 20 years before.

    I'm just saying that if a nation's economy or one of its once-largest, wealthiest cities loses a lot of its income or tax credit bases from its businesses, multi-national corps, or they start becoming less successful or close down, or relocate, that tax or real estate, income taxes they do pay to fund infrastructure or schools or roads or bridges shrivels and it does create some hardships when it comes to funding.

    I realize that in Scandinavia with the "Nordic model" of capitalism, the state plays a larger role in managing, regulating or even running some mixed-model companies, and I recognize also that Scandinavian economists or politicians, historically, tend to be better organized, less incompetent, and well-run overall so, they can manage the disparities or mid-long term damages a severe recession might bring, like the 2008-2009 world economic crisis. But what happened in UK in the late 1970s when the Labour government and its TUC allies effectively forgot how to make government work properly or function decently with wage and inflation policies nobody took seriously anymore and how Detroit went from being an All-American, bustling prosperous city to America's Pompeii, unfortunately, has the potential of happening anywhere. It happened with Japan in their "Lost Decade" from late 90s-mid 2000s where they went from a world economic powerhouse to somewhere towards the middle of the first rung. Japan's economy is still very good, very strong and resolute but its not ever going to reach the same heights it did in the 1970s and 80s.
    Click to expand...
    Dragon stated there was a checks and balance system in place that stymied corruption- that would have certainly helped in Detroit (or any urban center)
     
    The US auto industry didn’t rot from the inside out. Quite the contrary. Raw material production and the steel industry as a whole was decimated in the 70’s in the urban areas- Detroit was the death knell, not the beginning. Cleveland, NW Indiana, and down through eastern Pennsylvania all began suffering from raw material plant stoppages well before the domestic auto industry tanked. The US stopped producing and began assembling. That is what killed urban areas across America- the complete decimation of the urban manufacturing base. Not just Detroit.

    And blaming the UAW is such oversimplification. GM wanted the the unions to suffer the lion share of the reduction in revenues. Like 3/4 of it. Of course the Union is going to push back- it’s their job and only reason for existence. The pension funds were robbed to pay for the poor speculation by the Board. Those were contracts signed by both sides. Why should the company get to change the conditions of the deal? Because they own stock and made all the terrible decisions that caused their financial situation?

    Germany has a robust worker’s Union. They have required representation on their BoD. VW has 25% of their BoD is labor. They don’t seem to be suffering from mismanagement or work defection. Hell they almost pulled their factory out of Chattanooga for NOT unionizing.
     
    I nearly fell out of my chair this morning when I heard Republicans are opposing Neera Tanden for OMB because of her mean Tweets about Republicans.

    I mean, I know they have no shame and hypocrisy is an actual life choice for them, but really? Seriously? How can you even say that with a straight face after the last 4 years?
     
    CoolBrees said:
    The US auto industry didn’t rot from the inside out. Quite the contrary. Raw material production and the steel industry as a whole was decimated in the 70’s in the urban areas- Detroit was the death knell, not the beginning. Cleveland, NW Indiana, and down through eastern Pennsylvania all began suffering from raw material plant stoppages well before the domestic auto industry tanked. The US stopped producing and began assembling. That is what killed urban areas across America- the complete decimation of the urban manufacturing base. Not just Detroit.

    And blaming the UAW is such oversimplification. GM wanted the the unions to suffer the lion share of the reduction in revenues. Like 3/4 of it. Of course the Union is going to push back- it’s their job and only reason for existence. The pension funds were robbed to pay for the poor speculation by the Board. Those were contracts signed by both sides. Why should the company get to change the conditions of the deal? Because they own stock and made all the terrible decisions that caused their financial situation?

    Germany has a robust worker’s Union. They have required representation on their BoD. VW has 25% of their BoD is labor. They don’t seem to be suffering from mismanagement or work defection. Hell they almost pulled their factory out of Chattanooga for NOT unionizing.
    Click to expand...
    To be fair, VW does have other issues.. like falsifying emissions tests.. but I get your point
     
    wardorican said:
    I was hoping it would have been from kicking Trump's butt..
    Click to expand...

    No joke...

    Of course, Cillizza is opinionated, but he is spot on in the analysis on how different things are and will be with the incoming administration.

    www.cnn.com

    Analysis: Joe Biden’s broken foot reveals how different his White House will be from Donald Trump’s | CNN Politics

    Days before Thanksgiving last year, President Donald Trump made an unannounced and previously unscheduled trip to Walter Reed medical center. The White House said the trip was for a “quick exam and labs.” We still don’t know why he actually went – or what the outcome of his visit was.
    www.cnn.com www.cnn.com
     

    Create an account or login to comment

    You must be a member in order to leave a comment

    Create account

    Create an account on our community. It's easy!

    Register

    Log in

    Already have an account? Log in here.

    Share this page

    General News Feed

    Fact Checkers News Feed

    Back
    Top Bottom