2023-2024 Presidential, senate, house, state and city election thread

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Trump's GOP rivals open door to cutting Social Security for younger people

Three of Donald Trump’s rivals for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination are pushing for cuts to Social Security benefits that would only affect younger Americans, as the party’s leaders grapple with the explosive politics of the retirement program.

In comments on Sunday as well as in interviews earlier this year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Social Security will need to be revamped — but not for people who are near or in retirement.

Former vice president Mike Pence and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley have taken similar positions since launching their presidential campaigns. From the earliest days of his 2016 run, Trump has vowed not to touch either Social Security or Medicare — a break from GOP orthodoxy that has shifted the party’s views — and has more recently hammered DeSantis for wanting to cut the program.

“When people say that we’re gonna somehow cut seniors, that is totally not true,” DeSantis said on Fox News. “Talking about making changes for people in their thirties and their forties so the program’s viable — that’s a much different thing, and something I think there’s going to need to be discussion on.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... vals-cuts/

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Reactionaries are hoping to bring Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. into the race to divide and cause problems for the Democrats. It would be funny if instead he helped bring conservatives into the Democratic party.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: We Have Cushy Socialism for The Super Rich and Savage, Merciless Capitalism for the Poor
by Ian Schwartz
July 25, 2023

Introduction:

(Fox News via Real Clear Politics) SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS: I'm listening very closely to what you are saying and you are saying we can do better and I agree with you. Over 60% of this country living paycheck to paycheck. The average American owes $54,000, $55,000 in debt. People are cashing in their pensions to get bare necessities or they're putting stuff on credit cards at 22.5% interest rates.

I would argue that as part of the Biden economy and the only difference where we might separate here is whether or not you think it ought to be a government program. I think it's free-market economies that inspire entrepreneurs and you have the freedom and the ability to bring goods and services to market versus the government giving you your bare necessities.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.: Of course. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants to live on the government dole. We don't have free-market capitalism in this country, we have corporate crony capitalism. We have a system of cushy socialism for the super-rich and this brutal, savage, merciless capitalism for the poor. And it's all designed to strip-mine the middle class in this country of all their equity, all of their assets and move it to the upper echelons. And the COVID lockdowns were the final straw. Under COVID lockdowns, we created a billionaire a day and this was Trump and Biden -- 500 days of lockdowns -- we created a billionaire a day. We moved $4 trillion from the middle class to the super-rich.

The people who came into the lockdown with $1 billion increased their wealth on average by 30%. We closed 3.3 million businesses.

Read more here: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/vide ... poor.html

caltrek's comment: This is airing on Fox News and reported upon by Real Clear Politics. Not exactly left-wing news outlets. (Real Clear Politics does feature reporting from a broad spectrum). It therefore represents penetration into information silos relied upon by conservatives.

Still, it doesn't look like RFK, Jr. would be supportive of UBI, as presumably he would consider that living "on the government dole."

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YouGov/Economist: Trump +37
Trump 55%
DeSantis 18%
Ramaswamy 5%
Pence 3%
Haley 3%
Scott 3%
Christie 1%
Everyone else 0%

https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/pvpz4fi6ym/ ... Report.pdf

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Reactionaries are hoping to bring Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. into the race to divide and cause problems for the Democrats. It woul be funny if instead he helped bring conservatives into the Democratic party.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: We Have Cushy Socialism for The Super Rich and Savage, Merciless Capitalism for the Poor
by Ian Schwartz
July 25, 2023

Introduction:

(Fox News via Real Clear Politics) SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS: I'm listening very closely to what you are saying and you are saying we can do better and I agree with you. Over 60% of this country living paycheck to paycheck. The average American owes $54,000, $55,000 in debt. People are cashing in their pensions to get bare necessities or they're putting stuff on credit cards at 22.5% interest rates.

I would argue that as part of the Biden economy and the only difference where we might separate here is whether or not you think it ought to be a government program. I think it's free-market economies that inspire entrepreneurs and you have the freedom and the ability to bring goods and services to market versus the government giving you your bare necessities.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.: Of course. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants to live on the government dole. We don't have free-market capitalism in this country, we have corporate crony capitalism. We have a system of cushy socialism for the super-rich and this brutal, savage, merciless capitalism for the poor. And it's all designed to strip-mine the middle class in this country of all their equity, all of their assets and move it to the upper echelons. And the COVID lockdowns were the final straw. Under COVID lockdowns, we created a billionaire a day and this was Trump and Biden -- 500 days of lockdowns -- we created a billionaire a day. We moved $4 trillion from the middle class to the super-rich.

The people who came into the lockdown with $1 billion increased their wealth on average by 30%. We closed 3.3 million businesses.

Read more here: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/vide ... poor.html

caltrek's comment: This is airing on Fox News and reported upon by Real Clear Politics. Not exactly left-wing news outlets. (Real Clear Politics does feature reporting from a broad spectrum). It therefore represents penetration into information silos relied upon by conservatives.

Still, it doesn't look like RFK, Jr. would be supportive of UBI, as presumably he would consider that living "on the government dole."

It would be fucking Amazing if he got those conservatives to agree on punishing the fucking rich and laying off the poor and working class. I doubt it. This guy is a useful idiot as Stalin once said. And of course not as he is faker then a two dollar bill.

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Reuters/Ipsos: Trump +34
Trump 47%
DeSantis 13%

https://www.reuters.com/legal/about-hal ... 023-08-03/

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Tim Scott says he'd finish border wall if elected president

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), a GOP presidential candidate, said Friday he’d finish the border wall started during former President Trump’s administration if elected to the White House.

“As president of the United States, I will finish this wall, and I will use the available technology to surveil our border to stop fentanyl from killing another 70,000 Americans in the next 12 months,” Scott said on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom.”

Scott blamed President Biden for illegal crossings and deaths from fentanyl, knocking the administration for not closing the southern border.

The White House contender visited the southern border in Arizona on Friday as the country faces a recent surge of migrant arrests and continued contention over the situation at the border.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/tim-scott-sa ... 50055.html

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Reuters: nearly half of republicans wouldnt vote for trump if convicted of a felony

https://www.reuters.com/legal/about-hal ... 023-08-03/

WASHINGTON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - About half of Republicans would not vote for Donald Trump if he were convicted of a felony, a sign of the severe risks his legal problems pose for his 2024 U.S. presidential bid, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Thursday.

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Trump's National Lead Grows

https://politicalwire.com/2023/08/04/tr ... ead-grows/

"SNIP........

The FiveThirtyEight polling average shows Donald Trump now leading Ron DeSantis nationally among GOP voters, 55% to 14%.

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DeSantis' biggest donor says he won't give more money unless changes are made
Source: Reuters

Aug 4 (Reuters) - Hotel entrepreneur Robert Bigelow, the biggest individual donor to a group supporting Ron DeSantis' presidential bid, told Reuters on Friday he will not donate more money unless the Florida governor attracts new major donors and adopts a more moderate approach.

The comments by Bigelow, who gave $20 million to the pro-DeSantis "Never Back Down" super PAC in March, underscore donor concerns about the Florida governor's struggling campaign, which has been unable to make a dent in former President Donald Trump's huge lead for the 2024 Republican nomination.

"He does need to shift to get to moderates. He'll lose if he doesn't ... Extremism isn't going to get you elected," Bigelow said in an interview, adding that he had communicated these concerns to DeSantis' campaign. When asked which specific policies Bigelow did not support, Bigelow cited only DeSantis signing in April a bill passed by the Florida legislature banning abortions after six weeks, a move that came after Bigelow had donated the $20 million.

Bigelow said he would not donate more money for now. "Not until I see that he's able to generate more on his own. I'm already too big a percentage," Bigelow said. "A lot of his donors are still on the fence." Bigelow, the founder of Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace, said he wasn't looking for an exact figure, but that "it's going to be a lot." In a statement to Reuters, a spokesperson for the DeSantis campaign, Bryan Griffin, said they were "grateful" to supporters and donors who gave them "the capacity to compete for the long haul," without addressing Bigelow directly.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/desant ... 023-08-04/

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