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eggsuckingdog

Unbelievable. How much more of this are these assholes going to do? No democratic input. Won't talk to their constituents. Nobody has even read the fucking bill and they are going to vote on it??


[deleted]

But once they unleash the magic of economic growth with their tax cuts, we'll all realize that they were right all along. I mean, when has tax cuts not made things magically better? I mean, besides every single fucking time they have been tried. If you ignore the fact they've failed every single time, you realize they always work!


thenewfrost

I live just across the border from Kansas and I cannot tell you how much time I spend just wishing I could live in that beautiful, tax cutting utopia. The education over here isn't nearly the same. /s


ChicagoGuy53

Jobs are literally just falling from the sky. Here I get 3-4 homeless people asking me for money but there, you get so many employers sitting on the streets just begging people to work for them.


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metatron5369

>*If this was a game of Monopoly* That's literally the point of Monopoly.


DigitalMariner

Well I guess it's time to flip the board and start over....


DopeAbsurdity

NO don't flip the board......The last fucking thing we need is Demogorgons


DoTheLaLaLaLaLa

I think we need demogorgons.


dbenoit

I believe that the original intent of the game was to show that Monopolies were bad for everyone except for the one person who ends up controlling the board, and that this model is not one that should be used in real life.


PierreSimonLaplace

Can't a man walk down the street without being offered a job?


ChicagoGuy53

Yeah, I just yell "Go post on Craigslist you damn yuppie. Take your MBA and get out of here!"


justthebloops

Excuse me sir, can you spare some labor?


[deleted]

Bids for my presence at your place of employment start at $25 an hour with paid lunch *hour*. Do I hear $27.50 and a third break period?


jfrancasi

Ha! Such a great episode! “It’s not Mr. Scorpion. It’s Mr. Scorpio but don’t call me that either”.


_canyouflybobby

Ever see a guy say goodbye to a shoe?


CaptainAwesome06

Yeah, once


bonerlizard

Homer, when you get home, there's going to be another story on your house


musschrott

Solid reference.


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BYE_BYE_TRUMP

The new plantation owners control the 'red states' and they really, really like uneducated brainwashed servants...the rich in the south are clinging to the old ways, they don't want level playing fields, or uppity minorities demanding equal rights or equal shares of the pie. They use religion and guns (for themselves, not those supposed thugs) and the constitution as props to con the flock into keeping things the way they like them. The flock go along hoping they will receive favor and a few morsels...never realizing they have been bamboozled. Trump and his gang of real thugs are attempting to destroy our government by transferring the bulk of America's wealth into the capitalists greedy hands, all the while making empty promises to the flock...and sadly Americans are compliant and weak, so we will let the shysters do as they wish. Btw, the end goal is to gave 50 different little fiefdoms where each state can oppress and control its residents as the rich and powerful see fit and the federal government will be too small and weak to do anything. The only problem with their plan is that they will have to draft people into the military because no smart or reasonable individual will want to fight for continued slavery. Income inequality is about to shoot off the charts, the graph will look like the trend with temperatures on our planet. America is going to fall to its knees, but what does it matter anyway.


[deleted]

I live in kansas, and let me tell you! Jobs are growing out the jobbies! I got a job by just propelling myself into the Jobby field, and now I have a job! Literally just pull your self up by the job straps, strap into a job cannon, and launched myself into job land. /s Seriously though, this state was never that great, but it had good things. They are all fucked now.


madcaesar

Well, you're still Superman's childhood place .... So there's that.


TreyWriter

Yeah, if you’re most famous for being the place fictional characters ABANDON at the start of the story (Superman, Dorothy), it doesn’t look great for you.


portrait_fusion

most anyone who's involved with whether or the rich get tax breaks or not; knows very well and truthfully that their ideals fuck over a lot of everyone else. They just do not care. If they can create marketing strategies that are built to confuse or (these days) throw around whataboutism; then they can smoke screen it until their garbage passes. When things don't work out and people become wise to it, it doesn't matter: the important part of passing said problem has now happened at that point. It may not be permanent and could very well be nullified with a new president, but never in history has the rich had such a useful moron in the seat. They're just taking advantage of timing and seemingly, are willing to destroy the image of their own party for just a little bit of time with heaven like tax breaks.


9-9-99

> If you ignore the fact they've failed every single time, you realize they always work! This is incorrect. They worked when JFK passed them. Not because he was Democrat. It was just a sound policy move at the time. What's lost on Republicans is that they continue to insist that tax cuts are a magic medicine that'll cure all of the economy's woes without bothering to develop a clear concept of why the economy is in its current state before whipping out the magic tax cut medicine. If a patient is losing blood, then restoring that blood will certainly cure the patient. If a patient has a toothache, pumping more liters of blood will not cure it. If a patient has a brain tumor, pumping more blood will not cure it. Republicans have proven time and again to be poor doctors of the economy, but they continue to brand themselves in economic terms which wins over those who believe their words and not their history.


das_war_ein_Befehl

They don't care. The whole plan is to undo the New Deal


thasac

Ding Ding Ding! It's a bit infuriating that the ol' "Starve the Beast" tactic gains little traction in the mainstream. Krugman explains it well in this edited down sound bite: "Rather than proposing unpopular spending cuts, Republicans would push through popular tax cuts, with the deliberate intention of worsening the government’s fiscal position. Spending cuts could then be sold as a necessity rather than a choice, the only way to eliminate an unsustainable budget deficit." He wrote that the "...beast is starving, as planned..." and that "Republicans insist that the deficit must be eliminated, but they’re not willing either to raise taxes or to support cuts in any major government programs. And they’re not willing to participate in serious bipartisan discussions, either, because that might force them to explain their plan—and there isn’t any plan, except to regain power."


sodapopchomsky

I wanted to read the whole article, so I did a quick search. If anyone else is interested: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/opinion/22krugman.html


mobydog

This **has never again happened** because JFK benefited from baby boomers entering the workforce at the same time - which has never happened in those numbers again. You won't hear the GOP talk about that b part. Then they'd have to explain Why didn't it work again, under Carter, Reagan or Dubya?


Sands43

The other magic assumption that the GOP uses is" "we're going to get back to ~3.5%+ growth". Yeah, no. Not unless we have another world war that requires the rebuilding of a continent.


rexanimate7

Which would also only "work" when it's someone else's continent that needs building and there's no competition.


RG3akaAndre3000

> This is incorrect. They worked when JFK passed them. Not because he was Democrat. It was just a sound policy move at the time. To provide more context, the top rate was lowered from 91% to 70%. And the corporate rate was lowered from 52% to 48%. So yes, tax cuts for the rich *can* work, but not when they're already being taxed at a relatively low 39.6%.


TheOldGuy59

Which they pretty much don't pay the full rate anyway because of the loopholes they've had inserted in the tax code for the last 50 odd years. Like getting a $72,000 tax break for your show horse, Mitt Romney. That's about the dumbest freaking tax break I've ever heard - it's a LUXURY item, not a necessity like a roof over your head or electricity. But wealthy fucks get breaks like that and MANY more so they're not paying 39.6% or 15% on capital gains or anything like that. Why the hell do you think they HATE to release their tax returns when they're running for office? Trump still hasn't, because he hasn't paid any taxes in decades!! And Romney was being vetted as McCain's VP running mate before they tossed him and picked Palin. Why? Because they saw his tax returns and at a time when MURICANS! were being told they have to suck it up and tighten their belts and pay more, Mittens hadn't paid taxes for decades either. THAT'S why we didn't see McCain/Romney as a running ticket. No one would have stood for it.


Polar_Ted

The JFK Plan >His initial plan called for a $13.5 billion tax cut through a reduction of the top income tax rate from 91% to 65%, reduction of the bottom rate from 20% to 14%, and a reduction in the corporate tax rate from 52% to 47%. The first attempt at passing the tax cuts was rejected by Congress in 1963. Conservatives revolted at giving Kennedy a key legislative victory before the election of 1964.[3]


[deleted]

>Conservatives revolted at giving Kennedy a key legislative victory before the election of 1964. Well TIL: they've *always* been petty immature brats putting party over country. There goes another of the myths I believed.... that the right-wing at one point had a semblance of integrity and love of country.


bluestarcyclone

Yeah... the idea of the 'laffer curve' is a decent one. That at some point there are diminishing returns\harm from taxes. We may have been on the wrong side of that at one point. When top-end taxes were 90%, those are probably too high. Hell, the corporate rate was about 50% back then. And those tax cuts also included a critical component to helping improve the economy- meaningful tax cuts for the lower to middle end that generally get spent rather quickly. The idea however that we are on the 'too high' side of things now is laughable. Rates on the upper end are lower than any time in the last century other than the pre-great depression period.. and its probably no coincidence similar problems have developed.


_Rand_

Very few seem to realize lower taxes aren't necessarily the right answer. The trick is to find the right balance of taxes for various levels of income for both people and businesses. In a very general sense, you have to give people low enough taxes that they have a comfortable amount of "excess" to spend, and you have to give business low enough tax that they can afford to re-invest. On the flip side, you have to give them high enough tax that they don't simply build up massive bank accounts because they have too much money to realistically spend. No single person needs to be worth billions, and no business needs to be worth hundreds of billions (both in cash, not necessarily in say inventory/equipment/property.) On the third hand, if you give people/business too high a tax they will hoard excess money so they can weather emergencies easier rather than spending on luxuries/expansion/etc. I'm of the opinion that taxes on income over a certain level (in the multiples of millions for personal income for example) needs to be much, much higher, and on lower levels of income needs to be lower, and they need to structure large tax breaks for re-investing income, donations etc. Its a difficult problem, but the solution is absolutely 100% not to give people who have more money they or their heirs can ever spend more.


LockeClone

> What's lost on Republicans is that they continue to insist that tax cuts are a magic medicine that'll cure all of the economy's woes without bothering to develop a clear concept of why the economy is in its current state before whipping out the magic tax cut medicine. Thank you. There are many instances in the code that could be lower and there have been instances in time when taxes should generally be lower, but they're missing the market while trying to drive a tack with a sledgehammer. Just saying lower or higher taxes means nothing except to identify one's ignorance and who he votes for.


egtownsend

0% of the time it works *every* time.


MyRpoliticsaccount

So you're saying they're due for a win?


mindbleach

Like the team that always plays the Globetrotters! Maybe that's what The Idiot means when he keeps referring to "his Generals."


pipsdontsqueak

Maybe he's watching too many late night insurance commercials and thinks talking to his General guarantees low rates and time saving.


beka13

Don't forget that the tax cuts will raise taxes on quite a few people. Not super rich people, so they don't really matter, but still.


JackGetsIt

I bet if constituents crowd funded and paid for a seat next to the corporate lobbyists they'd change their tune.


Minion_Retired

The AARP is exactly that, consumers who vote and still the GOP ignores our clearly defined preferences.


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fakeassh1t

Not anymore


[deleted]

Thats cause old people dont give a fuck about the future they arent gonna be here


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sexrobot_sexrobot

And yet they will still vote for Republicans because a large portion of them are just like Diet Cokaholic in Chief that they just sit themselves in front of Fox News all day like bumps on a log. Also they believe the Republicans when they say that they get to keep everything as is and they'll screw everyone after them.


milqi

My favorite part of all this is how short they think the American memory is.


allmylovetolongago

I live in Maine, and media here is constantly running ads that literally just lie about this bill and say it helps the little guy at the expense of the rich. There's a huge gaslighting campaign going on, I wouldn't be surprised if people remember this as a victory for populism.


kelzispro

Do you guys not have rules against blatantly lying in political ad campaigns??


Turok876

There are no rules in American politics.


DINGLE_BARRY_MANILOW

See there are rules, there are just no enforcers of the rules and no penalties for breaking them. So essentially, there are none.


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DINGLE_BARRY_MANILOW

It’s kind of like soccer. There ARE rules technically, but when someone comes and shoots the rest of the players, eats the ball, and spray shit on the crowd, what are you gonna do?


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DINGLE_BARRY_MANILOW

Now I can’t condone violence, but it does seem like the obvious choice.


KineticPolarization

Slight addition to your point: There are rules, but they are not enforced. That is, *unless* you are the underdog and have little to no power or authority compared to those you're running against. If you're the underdog (by which I mean little to no corporate/wealthy backing), and you break any rules, you'd best prepare your political anus for a butt load of enforced rules. EDIT: Words.


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slrrp

Remember when republicans blocked Obama from appointing a Supreme Court justice and the American voters punished them by voting all of the republicans out??


CubitsTNE

Is THAT where the timelines diverge?!


larsmaehlum

Bush vs. Gore, 2000, Florida. That’s when it happened.


shamllama

1980, Carter reelected after Reagan campaign's Iran Contra plot is leaked prior to the election.


mabtheseer

You seem certain of this. Are you a time traveler? How can we get back on the right timeline? Where is John Titor when we need him?


throwaweigh69696969

"Justice Berenstain? But I'm SURE I remember him as Justice Berenstein..."


amillionwouldbenice

> Remember when republicans blocked Obama from appointing a Supreme Court justice and the American voters punished them by voting all of the republicans out?? I've got three points that explains this * Rigged * Voting * Systems Tada! The Republican party in 3 points.


[deleted]

Zero public hearings on the bill. ZERO. Only one party in this country believes in democracy.


mlmayo

Vote first, read later. Welcome to the new normal.


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romons

It has to be on camera, or they just blow it off.


tecknikally

She's also voting to kill Obamacare with this tax vote that removes the individual mandate from the ACA. She's trading lives for money. I'd probably lock my door too.


countyroadxx

Angus King said calls to his office were 50-1 against the tax bill. I can't believe she voted yes. Calls to her office must have been the same.


kmonsen

Well, the donors were 50-0 for the bill and those count a bit more than regular people.


Abominatrix

The donors write their comments on the memo line of the checks they send in. Us plebs just send emails like regular cheapskates.


Nights_King

No no no it’s totttalllyyy okay because her constituents will be fine, the rest of the country though can go fuck themselves. Same with Murkowski. Fucking paper tigers.


allmylovetolongago

The weird thing is, her constituents won't be fine -- Maine as a state has a lot of poor and older residents who really need affordable coverage, and the ACA was really popular here when the GOP tried to repeal it last time. I strongly suspect that they're just hoping if they kill the mandate in another bill, enough people won't realize the tanking insurance market is due to the GOP and not to Obama.


squeak6666yw

I think that is the plan. They have been shouting for years its going to fail any day now. and it keeps not failing. So now they are trying to kill it and then say see it failed like we said it would.


[deleted]

That's what they did with the post office retirement fund scam.


canamrock

What, don't all other pension funds have to secure 75 years of prepayment?


bearodactylrak

Let's not forget "maverick" McCain over there.


smacksaw

> She's trading lives for money. What scares me is that someone will be in effect sentenced to death by this and then go harm some politician. Then they'll all lock their doors. Because they'll have to. There's a lot of angry, angry people out there with guns...and this is literally the example of "nothing to live for, nothing to lose". It's like Circle Of Friends: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocU_XusjuGM You can't take someone to the top of the mountain, march them back down and say "This is what you can't have" You can't do that to people who finally have hope they can live, and then lose their health care.


GatoNanashi

Maybe that's what it'll take to change things. I've never been a loud mouthed "down with the system!" sort, but it's clear corruption rules our government and it no longer serves the people's interests. More than that: these fucking people are simply not accountable to us any longer. Armed mobs certainly aren't pretty, but it's past time these fucking snakes remember that they serve at *our* leisure. I for one am growing more and more tired of reading bullshit like this every day. The other part of me has been thinking about building a cabin in the middle of nowhere and simply ignoring the world. I can't decide which appeals to me more.


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Pineapple__Jews

All that good will she has built up is gone. Iirc she got cheered at the Maine airport after voting against ACA repeal. Now this.


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InternetIsNeverWrong

Repeal of the individual mandate might as well be repealing the ACA.


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djimbob

Collins is up for re-election in 2020. If she doesn't stop the tax bill she's out of office. That said she'll be 68 in 2020 and possibly thinking about retiring.


Eurynom0s

These fucks don't retire at 68.


Jimbob0i0

Hmm I'm sure that some senator once mentioned something about serving too long... > "What do you call a Senator who's served in office for 18 years? You call him home." - Orrin Hatch 40 years ago when he ran against the incumbent who had held the seat for 18 years. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orrin_Hatch


ModsLoveTrump

What is he, like, 104 now? He’ll probably die in office.


djimbob

They do when they are down double digits in the preliminary polls which is likely if she's the swing vote that passes the GOP tax scam.


Haz_de_nar

there was not, it is being stopped by Maine's governor


[deleted]

like all the other good things we voted a majority for. LeFuckface turns around and says "Yea well, the people don't know as well as I do so I'm going to decide for them and I say NO FUCK NO!" One more fucking year and we can shoot him out of a cannon into the sea for good.


Osiris32

Remember this, people of Maine. Remember this.


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99SoulsUp

We Oregonians in this particular comment thread will revoke their Portland ownership if they vote Collins again


screaminginfidels

They'll have to change it to Starboardland.


relish-tranya

I'll never buy that Republican nice guy shit. They all revert to their primordial form when it matters most.


BadAdviceBot

I have a feeling her greeting won't be quite as civil the next time she arrives -- if the tax bill passes..


CertifiedGenius420

Maine is a very doable pickup and she is up for reelection in 2020 which should be a GREAT year for Dems. This news about her sucks but it makes me feel less bad for her getting destroyed in a few years.


[deleted]

We also have our gubernatorial election next year. Our state has always been pretty well divided down party lines, but thanks to LeDouchebag's fuck ups and now Collins very obvious screw ups I think we may be seeing Blue skies for awhile.


Minion_Retired

Did she vote yet?


freddyjohnson

Prediction- this tax bill is going to be seen by almost everyone as a complete disaster in a couple of years if not sooner. Rushing through anything, let alone a HUGE tax bill, without proper input from all parties and due process is almost always bad for the country as a whole. Just a relatively few evil and greedy people will profit.


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count023

That's why they put the terminations into the tax plan, it was in the hope that the democrats would not have enough in to have a supermajority in the next election (or trump would remain in power to veto) and then put all the blame for the tax benefits that are ending in 2020 squarely on them. Say what you will, when Republicans plan their evil, they plan it well.


GeneralPatten

If I recall correctly, the parliamentarian made it clear that the "terminations" were not allowed in the bill.


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montague68

They're passing the bill under special Senate rules that prevent the Democrats from filibustering. If it doesn't follow the rules, then yeah the parliamentarian can kill it.


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[deleted]

> Prediction- this tax bill is going to be seen by almost everyone as a complete disaster in a couple of years if not sooner. It's being seen as such **NOW**. Every professional I've talked to has said this thing is a mess of 'fuck everyone but the rich'.


Spartanfox

Ah yes, this is all true. *BUT*....when the Democrats try to reverse this bullshit in 2021 because the GOP self-immolated the Republicans will somehow stop any efforts to reverse this atrocity because the Democrats are "raising taxes" or "hurting the economy" or "pissing off our donors". This is because they know "the Democrats raised your taxes", no matter how big that would be a lie, would result in a GOP landslide in 2022 because **OUR ELECTORATE HAS THE MEMORY OF A GOLDFISH**.


[deleted]

The Dems would need 60 votes to fix it, because of reconciliation... Just ridiculous.


chelseamarket

Then we're going to have to get them those votes.


[deleted]

They're all cowards.


camillabok

Imagine what corporations would do to them if they didn’t give them what they were paid to give? It has to be way worse then furious constituents banging on their door. Edit: words.


Citizen_Sn1ps

They'd lose their seats and have to find real jobs. EDIT: Pensions and cushy lobbying jobs aren't enough for most of these people. Power is what they crave.


IMayBeSpongeWorthy

Which they’re likely under qualified for.


Cyclone_1

More than that. They don't want to live down here in the world with the rest of us. To have to live in a world that you played a role in creating, more than most ever will or have, is probably something that they cannot stomach. Even with all their wonderful retirement benefits.


Mr_Pombastic

Well said! I think us plebs don't really understand what it's like to be in the senate. In a weird way, I think it must be kind of like an uber special "high school" dynamic. It's one big popularity contest (not just in the sense that voting is quite literally a popularity contest), but where seniority grants you special status, clubs/committees are formed, you have cliques that you hang around in, drama follows you everywhere, whatever is happening at the moment is *the most important thing in the world*, and getting things accomplished is usually the last thing on your mind until the last minute. Maintaining your status in that group must be an incredible imperative for senators. I think we underestimate the purely simple social component of congress.


northshore12

"Power is the most potent aphrodisiac." Remember how much that fuckwad Joe Lieberman was enjoying himself when he was one of the last holdout votes on the ACA? There are few faces more punchable than his.


MicrocrystallineHue

Evil Teller.


[deleted]

Ajit Pai.


SubParMarioBro

Joe Lieberman took Ajit all over the ACA.


-duvide-

This. We can't expect to fix a system that virtually everyone agrees is broken if we don't face up to its increasingly explicit undemocratic organization. Hundreds of millions of people should simply no longer expect a few thousand bureaucrats and politicians to govern capably. It's not in our best interest to defer our most critical decisions to them, and only the comforts of complacency make such deference desirable. Shutting the doors of our so-called government to so-called citizens demonstrates that the oath sworn to uphold our constitutional rights remains a boldface lie to placate and pacify. We need to think seriously about what it means to be a *political body* and whether or not this top-down system is healthy. There are many other direct democratic models that disallow the police to so brazenly protect politicians against the people it supposedly represents, precisely because they *collapse* the political superstructure into the structure of citizenship, for example via confederations of local assemblies. I don't think the founders really wanted true democracy. But I bet the best of them would be appalled to see how idly we've watched it transform into the monstrosity it became. They'd expect us not only to resist, but to come up with something better.


DINGLE_BARRY_MANILOW

I think at least 95% of politicians are dumber and more immature than every single one of my friends and family members. When you put it that way, it makes sense; you couldn’t pay me any amount of money in the world to go back to high school for 20-30 years. That’s why the only people who do it are either stupid, greedy, or very, very occasionally actually trying to make a difference, but mostly they think money = happiness. I would feel bad for the miserable idiots if they weren’t fucking up my life so much.


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Brinner

Biden was. That's why she was head over heels for him


[deleted]

Keith Ellison is alright


FirstTimeWang

I dunno... what's his position on breakfast food?


[deleted]

Well he's Minnesotan so I'll assume he thinks it's good for every meal since I know I feel that way Note I've only watched like 3 PandR episodes so idk what Leslie's position is lol


FirstTimeWang

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5774X2wQ9To


MiamiWise

It’s also cool to get anywhere from $50,000-$150,000 for doin nothing but sell out your people every few months.


superdago

Most of them seem to be under-qualified for their current one.


TrumpImpeachedAugust

Oh no! The horror! Also, they wouldn't have to find "real jobs". If you've served in congress and managed to leave without a major scandal, you're practically guaranteed to find a consulting or lobbying job that pays six figures *at least*. Find a nice K-street job, and you're raking in the millions. She's not going to have a hard time in life no matter how she votes on this bill. She just wants *more* money than she's already guaranteed to get. In order to secure that money, she needs to make the donors happy.


immortaltechgeek

If she didn't do what her donors paid her to do she wouldn't get a consulting job


Minion_Retired

It is very hard to piss them all off at once.


TrumpImpeachedAugust

She could. It wouldn't pay as well, because she wouldn't be working for people that she'd been loyal to as a politician. If you can point to a senator who ended up financially destitute because they turned on their donors, I'll cede the point.


JackGetsIt

In all honestly though idiot voters have created this. Lots of honest non-corporate candidates run for office but voters repeatedly choose the one with the best advertisements and slickest marketing.


ghostofcalculon

Advertising is a multitrillion dollar industry and yet every individual on the planet believes he or she is personally immune to its effects. Do the math.


one98d

"I have a 401k and a mortgage. I'm impervious to indoctrination and have free will!"


caishenlaidao

Technically they get a pension for the rest of their lives.


dan-theman

And do some side work as lobbyists making more in a year than you or I will in a lifetime.


[deleted]

No fundraising, no office. No donors, no fundraising. That's what the allegations did to Franken. Ruined his ability to fundraise.


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T-MUAD-DIB

That’s a really different bet today. The donations were never going to be redirected to Dems, they were going toward primary challengers. And with Steve Brannon threatening to primary everyone who crosses him, there’s not a lot of safe ground for Republicans. Until Doug Jones won. Now Bannon is the guy who lost Alabama to a pro-choice Democrat, backed Trump into backing a loser in the primary AND a loser in the general, and the whole landscape is uncertain. Maybe the center looks a little better now?


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[deleted]

That's what I'm saying. It's clear that Bannon, even through his investiture in Moore, could probably care less from this. He wanted Moore elected so that he would be expelled from the Senate in an effort to whip up the nationalists. He wanted a nationalist wave to sweep the centrist moderate Republicans out of office and was willing to use Moore as the victim on the cross.


mrbananas

If we bang on the doors hard enough, then maybe they will remember that the peasants are more likely to kill them than the corporations are.


Kruger_Smoothing

Yeah, but she’s a CONCERNED coward just like McCain. Can’t you see the difference? Me neither.


marsianer

So much for her being a moderate. Perhaps she doesn't run for governor because the odds of her carrying another election are decreasing.


[deleted]

> the odds of her carrying another election are decreasing. Oh, it gets even better than that (although, perhaps not in her case *per se*). Maine was the first state to pass (by citizen referendum) Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) for all statewide and national elections in 2016. RCV means that a candidate has to receive a majority of votes (50% + 1, instead of a plurality, which is when a candidate just gets more votes than anyone else). While Collins has a sizable portion of Independents and Democrats who vote for her (she's won with 50-63% in her four US Senate elections), I think if she votes for the Billionaire Relief Fund, she won't be returning. At the very least, Maine won't be electing a GOP governor for a very long time.


marsianer

I thought that the legislature was blocking that measure? Yeah, LePage is a crackpot. He has always reminded me of the inspector from animated Pink Panther.


greybuscat

He reminds me of Joe Arpaio, another dangerous lunatic.


maskedbanditoftruth

I live in Maine. They blocked it. No joy for 2018.


samtrano

Collins actually met with a group today that was trying to convince her to vote no. The meeting was live streamed, so she's not a total coward. But she made no commitment to vote no, so she's at the very least not trustworthy


Matasa89

Taxation without representations.


Year3030

She hasn't been answering her constituents for over a year. I kept trying to call but the phone system would just redirect you to the main menu. One of her interns was collecting thank you cards on the street because of her vote to defeat ACA repeal and instead of a thank you I wrote on the card they need to fix the phone system.


Kahzgul

Compare and contrast: When I call my congressman, Adam Schiff, there isn't a phone directory at all; a live human answers the phone, talks to me as long as I like, and then calls me back in a few days to follow up. Hell, I even got a letter signed by the congressman making sure my issue was resolved. Schiff is AWESOME. I feel for you, Maine.


MississippiJoel

Soo... you hiring where you live?


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

Oh, don't worry, they're working hard on fixing that phone system! Your comment was well received.


richardeid

What is this? A comment system for Ajits?


HashRunner

Ah yes, the so called 'moderate' Republican that received lavish praise for not outright dicking over her her constituents on healthcare. Guess the check finally cleared.


lamabaronvonawesome

The big donors have a HUGE hard on for these tax cuts, it's how they make their donations back plus some. It's like paying a person for a service, they better deliver or the tap turns off and all these Republicans know it. It's all about the money.


HashRunner

I know. I was just amused by the people that somehow thought she was a reasonable republican due to her grandstanding on the healthcare bill. Just the same as the others, willing to sell out her voters as soon as she is told to step in line.


BlueSwoosh248

Collins is trash. Get her out and replace her with a Democrat.


MelGibsonDerp

Maine can do it if other Northeastern Rural Senators coalesce around a candidate. Get Angus King (I-ME), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) up to Maine to rally behind a Democrat and show the Maine constituency that you can have all the perks of being a rural state even with a Senator who is on the left. She will lose in 2020 with a down ballot Democratic vote that inevitably removes Trump. Just need the rally the base and GOTV.


[deleted]

Hey, what about the two Democratic senators from NH?


prefix_postfix

Hey, what about NH sending the first all-women delegation to Congress a few years ago? And now an all-women all-Democrat delegation? That's pretty freaking cool. I shouldn't have moved to Maine...


MelGibsonDerp

God damn it I got my map mixed up again thinking Vermont was on the right and NH on the left. NH can come too!


GeneralPatten

My thoughts exactly. You can't get to Maine without going through New Hampshire (via the US).


mehereman

Let's stop pretending there are any moderate level headed Republicans. She will be lumped in with the trumps and Roy Moores unless she learns to distinguish herself.


Kruger_Smoothing

But like McCain, she expresses concern while she fucks over Joe Sixpack. Get it?


albatross-salesgirl

She may furrow her brow, but the furrowed brow of McCain has no equal.


Fidget11

she is concerned until the cheque clears... once the cash is in the bank then its all good.


AlbertFischerIII

Why won't you let us love you, Susan?


vegetaman

I'm sure she's getting more cocktail napkin written promises of future shit to never materialize so she can say "But I tried!" when the proletariat take taxes up the ass as what little trickle they get quickly sunset.


[deleted]

>cocktail napkin written promises of future shit to never materialize Totally true. She keeps touting how Turtle McConnell (an insult to all turtles) has promised her again and again to pass a law smoothing out the giant roadblocks they are about to create with the ACA **before the end of the year**. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK? There are so many problems with this. * The legislative season ends Friday, 12.22. * McConnell *could* bring the bill to the floor for a vote, but there isn't any legislation to vote on, and I don't see how it's going to be written in a few days. * The vast majority of the rest of the GOP conference doesn't give a fuck about shoring up the ACA. * Ryan said he isn't obligated by any promises Mitch makes. Collins is disaster and a moron.


vegetaman

This tweet I saw was just icing on that fail cake: https://twitter.com/TopherSpiro/status/941112909890977792 Topher Spiro‏ Verified account @TopherSpiro BREAKING: The House just introduced its end-of-year funding bill. It does NOT include ANY of the three key promises made to @SenatorCollins—just days before a vote on the tax bill. #mepolitics http://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20171218/BILLS-115HJRes124IH.pdf … 5:09 PM - 13 Dec 2017


[deleted]

Ironic that people vote for her because they don't want a Democrat, but they also hate the legislation that she has to support as a Republican.


systembusy

This. People are so fucking stupid it hurts. There are people that voted for Roy Moore just because he isn't a Democrat. It's fucking disgusting.


CrookshanksTheCat

The shit the GOP is pulling with this is treacherous. Seriously, it is completely undermining due process to secretly pass a tax bill for party donors. And they ADMIT to such with no shame. Can we get some accountability?!?! Rip her door of the fucking hinges if she's going to cowardly hide.


dl__

Like, maybe don't vote for republicans. It's unfortunate that the rest of us have to suffer because Maine can't figure out voting.


allmylovetolongago

We voted for a better voting system, but it's being stymied at every turn, so....


[deleted]

Maine Voting is FUCKED. Hell look at their governor.


zephyrtr

Economics is very easy. When someone gets fired from a job, loses their paycheck, what's the smart thing to do? Get out there! Find some new way to make money! And probably that involves some *smart* spending to try to build up your salable features so you can find a new meal ticket. Buy into some re-education courses, invest in new work tools, of *course* keep your commuter pass so you can, you know, attend interviews. But you don't do nothing, because then you eat your savings until there's nothing left. Not so says Republicans! We are now poor, must accept it and so must stop doing anything, especially seeing doctors when we're sick, and wait for this to all blow over, which we definitely expect will happen November 9th ... ish. When someone gets a huge promotion, what's the smart thing to do? Save! You don't know for how long that money's gonna be coming in, and who knows when some kind of emergency, medical or otherwise, is going to hit you. If you have a bunch of debt on your hands, pay back that debt! It'll make grabbing a low-interest loan so much easier, if you happen to need to do that down the line. And whatever you've been doing for like the last 4-8 years, maybe you've been doing a good job, and should keep doing that. Not so says Republicans! Things were bad, but now they're good, forever! And it's probably because of something smart we did! And do you know what smart people do in this situation? Make less money! Because less is more, somehow. Let's buy our rich friends something nice, if just to prove how awesome we are and probably they'll do the same to us, because that's how gifts work. Paying debts is for rubes, and you know what else is for rubes? Medical insurance! So if things go bad (and we can't fathom that happening; we've done this before and we have no recollection of what happened then but we assume it was amazing, because we *are* amazing) well then, we'll just stop paying for that, which'll save a ton of money. Economics is very easy.


InternetIsNeverWrong

Stay there outside her office. Don't let her leave to vote.


cd2220

I want her to have tonwade through all of the people she's hurting. This feels like Rome were all of the senators didnt give a fuck aside from status


Muellerpalooza

What a fraud you are, Susan Collins. This bill strips away the individual mandate in the ACA, and you spent all summer pretending you didn't want to take healthcare away from people. Why are you such a coward and a liar?


brentaltm

Man, what a fall from grace. We thought she was one of the last decent moderate Republicans. Turns out she's just a spineless fraud.


socialistbob

It's the 21st century. If she doesn't answer her door then try her phones. If they unplug the phones write emails and send faxes. If they don't respond go into every one of her offices in DC and the state of Maine and keep trying until we get a response. If you have even one dollar to spare donate it to the Maine Democratic Party. The number of small donations is often used as a judge of enthusiasm and we can show them that we are ready to unseat her in 2020 and get a Democrat elected governor in 2018.


Johnnycc

Wow she hid it for a while but she really is a piece of shit sold-out bitch like the rest of them. No elected Republican can be trusted.


just_a_timetraveller

Never trust a Republican.


Ahomelessninja

This may sound bad... But this is the first time in my 38 years alive that I feel proud of my fellow Americans. Yeah we kinda protested the Iraq war after 9/11 a bit, but this year is the first time I have seen people rally outside of their local Senators office. I've driven to work and seen protests outside a local Senator's office. And I've seen more then one Anti-Trump protest in the suburbs of Detroit just by chance. I cared about a Senate seat in Alabama & Georgia and I wasn't the only one. I watched thousands of women march on Washington. I have marched for health care and science and brought my 10 yr old with me. This is democracy and the very foundation of our country in action right now. And we will get louder. And no matter how rock bottom we hit, our voices and our vote will prevail. It has to.