Dave
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On the article MWAA OKs More Toll Hikes for 2013, '14
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On the article Speak Out: Who Won the Third Obama-Romney Debate?
Dave
8:46 am on Thursday, November 1, 2012
In addition, shouldn't individuals be paying for their own health care? Or should the other people who buy insurance actually have to pay for those who can't/won't buy health insurance, default on their bills... forced redistribution of costs, which actually sounds more like a socialized medical system to me by repealing Obamacare. Now, if the intent is to push those decisions from the Federal government to state run systems, great - but that is unclear. Besides, what effects would that have on popular parts of Obamacare, such as pre-existing conditions, and allowing children to stay on their parents plans longer.
Finally, yes, I am aware of the origins of the "Taxed Enough Already" party. Looked good for starters - I would like to see a reduced role of the Federal government, with states being allowed to make more of their own decisions. Tea party lost me when this trickled down to all levels of government though - gut (the ability) of state and local governments as well? This is more like demanding decent service for less money - you can cut some things, but at a point, you can't continue to cut funding at all levels and not lose something that actually provides value to a society. Everybody wants something for nothing - good schools, good roads/bridges, less traffic, lower gas - but to do so, it needs to be paid for - without running a deficit. Cutting taxes indiscriminately isn't the answer either.
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On the article Speak Out: Who Won the Third Obama-Romney Debate?
Dave
8:32 am on Thursday, November 1, 2012
4 - cutting the deficit. Would love to, it's way too high. Tell me *how* he intends to do that, as this has been nothing but rhetoric so far. Cutting/voucherizing medicaid/medicare or social security seems to have been danced around. You could eliminate some government departments/functions, but that's not the lions share. Social security would actually be fairly easy to fix for now (eliminate the payroll cap and raise the benefits age). Medicaire/medicaid is tougher, and health care costs (and funding wars) are clearly what are driving the deficit. Neither party seems to have a realistic plan to control the costs and cut down the paperwork (what, 30-35% of medical costs go into essentially overhead and paperwork now). On top of that, Romney is now planning on increasing DoD funding. Great, but with what money that we don't have. Both parties here = fail. Where is the plan??
5) Supporting small businesses - great rhetoric again, but devil is in the details. There is a lot of overregulation, but I think a bunch of it actually supports/helps small business, such as 8A setasides. Both parties try, both parties have different ways of doing this, and this essentially turns into another 'draw'.
The only concrete part of Romney's plan seems to be "repeal Obamacare" - which is modeled after the plan Romney put into place in Mass.
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On the article Speak Out: Who Won the Third Obama-Romney Debate?
Dave
8:20 am on Thursday, November 1, 2012
The Romney 5-point plan? Sure, I'm familiar with it: energy independence, promotion of charter schools, new free trade agreements, cutting the deficit, supporting small business. I'll look at each of those independently...
Energy independence: nice try but very difficult to do. There are a few points to be score here - Obama should have approved Keystone, the aquifer area in question already has plenty of pipelines crossing it, and it's not like the Canadian's are going to 'stop' developing the tar sands simply because Keystone isn't built. Also, states should be able to drill offshore if they want to. Where Romney misses: "clean coal" makes about as much sense as "Amish strip club", and little/no research into renewables? He can say it, and he can get part of the way there, but he can't deliver on that promise.
2) Growth of charter schools. Great, in some areas where the school districts are failing - but why mess with or gut the funding of good school districts - such as most in Northern VA? Also, be careful what you ask for... next thing you know, madrassas masquerading as charter schools will start popping up.
3) Free trade agreements - the trick here is to promote movement of goods without free movement of jobs. Obama has signed new agreements with a number of countries and negotiating more. Neither is 'getting tough' on China. Very little difference between Mitt and Obama in practice.
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On the article Speak Out: Who Won the Third Obama-Romney Debate?
Dave
12:43 pm on Wednesday, October 31, 2012
RME - the Tea Party-led caucus of the Rep party has been the problem. They have shown no responsibility towards trying to find middle ground on taxes or the budget - it's simply 'our way or no way', and that is irresponsibly following the Grover dogma. The capital gains rate is much too low at 15% - it should be raised a bit and made 'exempt' from other deductions, or raised to close the same rate as income. Otherwise, it's paying people to not work. Maybe we should all get paid in stock to lower our tax brackets.
Did Obama make missteps? Absolutely - so does every president. I didn't think some of the stimulus for 'shovel ready' projects was a great idea for creating long term jobs - at least it fixed up a lot of roads and bridges that were neglected. I thought the GM bailout was a bad idea - actually turned out pretty well.
If you want to talk deficits, the Rep party is contributing to the problem as well. If the Bush tax cuts were the end-all be-all, we should be at 3% unemployment and running budget surpluses by promoting 'growth' - clearly, that hasn't happened after 10 years. Hasn't done a thing except for the 1%-ers. And for that matter, launching an unnecessary war against Iraq by Bush II while cutting taxes is a very large portion of that deficit too.
Still haven't seen a logical reason or a plan "why Romney" will work other than "he's not Obama" - and that's not enough of a reason for me.
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On the article Speak Out: Who Won the Third Obama-Romney Debate?
Dave
7:41 pm on Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Reply"A change in leadership".... OK, but to what?? Romney seems to be promising everything to everybody - lower taxes, cutting the deficit, protecting entitlements, and raising the defense budget, and more jobs - but won't explain *how* all of this magic is going to occur. Sorry, I don't but it. Romney is getting killed in the state he governed (yes, a liberal stronghold, but still, they would know best) by 30+ percentage points. I don't buy it - and let the buyer beware. Sorry, this (normally) Republican-leaning Independent is going to have to vote for a Dem for the first time ever. Not a big fan of the President, but he's dealing with a Congress that is the real reason the deficit is running amuck - both parties should be held responsible for that nonsense.
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On the article Letter: AAA Opposed to MWAA's Toll Plans
Dave
10:41 pm on Friday, September 21, 2012
ReplyAnd it's still a bit silly that the Dulles Access Road is 'free' - that road should be charged at the same rate that the Toll Road is, as they are some of the biggest beneficiaries of the Silver Line... and for that matter, additional airport usage fees should be levied to rental cars as well as possibly a special surchage to use the Dulles Metro station once it is built. Some toll increases are reasonable, but this is looking a little silly. VA should take over administration of this project as well, MWAA has already shown waaaay too much preference to 'gold plate' contracts already....
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On the article A Damaging Message
Dave
10:22 am on Thursday, September 20, 2012
ReplyDidn't LoCo government employees (outside of the school system) get a 5% increase - yes, I realize it was offset by an increase in contribution to the pension system, but I think it *was* an increase. The "raise" that the teachers got was a $1500 one-time only bonus (not a permanent increase), and I believe their contributions have increased as well, while their step increases have been frozen for something like 5-6 years now. If there is a teacher that can comment (I'm not, but I know a few - and most I know live in the county, with the exception of one that lives in WV, and a few that live in Fairfax) - please do. But, then again, this all should be been anticipated when a very anti-tax BoS was voted in into a fast growing county.... frozen/reduced pay, larger classes, reduced services... predictably, you get what you vote in.
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On the article Board Tables Potomac Bridge Discussion
Dave
3:52 pm on Wednesday, September 19, 2012
ReplyMontgomery County in MD is simply not even going to do a study in the current climate to consider site crossings for another bridge for two big reasons - one, it would have to go through their "Agricultural Preserve", and that's highly unlikely; two, there are many affluent landowners on the MD site of the Potomac holding large plots of land (the NIMBY factor). It's sorely needed, and as Supervisor Letourneau stated, there are a lot of people going east-west to get to the American Legion Bridge (and Point of Rocks) to get to/from MD - but it's just not going to happen. It took Montgomery County 40 years to build the ICC, and that was with an actual right-of-way reserved for most of the highway - next to no chance a study will ever even see the light of day in MD. Nice try though.
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On the article Kaine: 'Elect Leaders Who Put Results Ahead of Ideology'
Dave
11:39 am on Wednesday, September 5, 2012
ReplyBoth parties are to blame... cutting taxes without cutting the loopholes isn't going to reduce spending... the Ryan medicare voucher plan simply transfer the cost on Medicare from the Federal gov to individuals to pay for their own insurance and doesn't fix the fundamental problems... neither party even mentions social security... the Dems can't come up with a coherent and no-nonsense policy on many platforms without 6000 pages of regulation and can't control spending... and both parties like to talk jobs without a serious attempt to do anything about it, as well on beat on social policy issues which really don't do anything except score 'political points' with the fringes. Until the system is changed to the point where we aren't stuck with hardliners on both sides who draw lines in the sand and won't compromise, it won't get any better.
Dave
11:50 am on Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Still cannot understand *how* MWAA can raise tolls this fast this quickly without adding tolls to the Dulles Access road, which is what *should* be getting tolled to pay for a larger share of the fee, as well as adding additional airport usage fees to rental cars and a special Metro station fee for accessing the Dulles station once Silver line goes in to Dulles.