What are you most concerned about when the 2024 elections come around?
Originally Posted by eyecu2
I'm a bit late to this party, and the poll is closed, but the economy (especially our disastrous debt-accumulation trajectory) would get my vote.
Gotcha...not a fan of Trump either but I would hope that from a policy perspective, we can all vote on those items too! All too often I hear colloquial terms like kitchen table concerns, energy independence, and while they have a place, I'm not sure that's how people are really looking to vote solely. Watching how immigration is affecting the entire country especially larger cities right now, might have a bigger impact to folks that live in bigger cities. What is abundantly clear to me, however is that both parties are failing the public in messaging. And so are the biased news organizations that tout one side or the other. It seems to be very poorly articulated in the majority of news cycles regardless of party.
Originally Posted by eyecu2
True that! Sadly, neither of our embarrassingly dysfunctional parties is interested in much other than steamrolling its partisan opposition. Hard to see how that's likely to change anytime soon. We're a country adrift with no responsible leadership.
Quoting a famous campaign manager.........."It's the economy stupid."
Originally Posted by soldierboy44
-- James "The Ragin' Cajun" Carville, 1992
I'm starting to wonder when they are going to realize that the only way out of our debt problem is to both limit government spending and raise taxes. Both will be required over a considerable time frame to solve our national debt.
Originally Posted by txdot-guy
I think "they" (or at least most of the people who are members of the "they" you are referring to) realize that perfectly well. But they're so dug in to their ideologically hardened positions that there's no way out.
Democrats, when given half a chance, ratchet social spending upward, and there's no way to cut any of it without getting landslided out of office. Everything gets entrenched, ratified, and added to over time (like a ratchet wrench that can turn a bolt only in one direction).
For their part, Republicans have been applying their own ratchet to taxes, moving rates in only one direction (downward). I'm all in favor of keeping tax rates as moderate as possible, but within the framework of controlling spending growth. I think we should have passed "debt brake" legislation like the Germans and the Swiss did about 15 years ago.
So now we have a baked-in structural deficit of about $2 trillion, and it's only going to grow from here, unless anyone does anything about it (and no one will, unless absolutely forced by continuing crises).
The military will conduct the 2024 election. So I’m good with it.
Originally Posted by bambino
Huh?? (Presumably you are joking!)
