Donald Trump Thread aka End of Days

[OldRover]

Where's our old boy Jack Thompson when you need him?

[MotherGunner]

We were promised the end of days and I'm sadly still waiting.  =*/

[seieienbu]

It's less the end of days and more the overall slightly shittier life for everyone without at least $100 million.

[MotherGunner]

Really? An overall slightly shittier life for "everyone" without at least $100 million?

[seieienbu]

Perhaps hyperbole but Trump takes care of his own at the expense of the common man.  But don't worry, we'll get that $700 tax rebate so we can finally start saving for retirement at the expense of our air quality, our health insurance, our international standing, and a bunch of liberties that aren't considered good christian values.

[NE146]

Perhaps hyperbole but Trump takes care of his own at the expense of the common man.  But don't worry, we'll get that $700 tax rebate

I don't know what rebate you're talking about but for this common man, the feds are taking less tax out of my paycheck now that's for sure,   And it's not an insignificant amount totaling several thousand in a year.  As a brown minority who's never voted in his life (I never really cared tbh).. I'm considering registering finally and rocking the GOP vote this year. 

[NecroPhile]

The tax drop is nice but you do understand that he's piling on a bunch of debt to pay for it, right?  Currently it'll add trillions to the debt before the tax cuts for us little guys expire (don't worry, the big corporations keep their tax cuts indefinitely), but there's talks of severely cutting medicare and social security to help pay for it.  I'm not old, though, so I guess fuck 'em and I got mine, eh?

Make sure you keep those extra tax dollars ready to pay for big increases in health insurance costs, a 25 cent (more than double) increase in fuel taxes, and increased state and local taxes to make up for planned cuts to education, disaster recovery, development grants, job training, etc.

[NE146]

lol @ health insurance costs.. I had an awesome PPO plan at my work for over a decade that covered stuff like our kid being in the Nic-U (which cost thousands of dollars) with zero hassle and a small copay. However as most know, today the PPO plans are almost extinct and most workplaces have elected to go with high-deductible health plans (HDHP) being the de-facto standard.  Whether this was due to the passive aggressive regulations from the ACA is debatable, but that's not the point. The point is you still pay the same annual premiums.. actually higher, but you have to pay all your healthcare costs Out of Pocket for most families up to around 6-9 grand, after which you're covered 80% until year end.  i.e. you're covered for catastrophe, but that's about it. So in other words if you just have a standard year and go to the doc now and then it's like having no insurance at all, while still paying the same premiums. Great!

So yeah.. warning about "big increases in health insurance costs"  its not like we haven't already gotten much higher healthcare costs during the previous administration. It's happened already man and we've been dealing with it for some time.

[NecroPhile]

It's a given that costs go up every year.  The point is that the increases are expected to be steeper with the changes Trump's made and the uncertainty he's thrown into the system.  With elimination of the mandate, it's projected that many relatively healthy people will drop insurance coverage; the same number of claims spread over fewer participants means the costs per person go up more sharply.

I don't know the exact numbers off hand, but I'd rather keep paying 10% annual increases than 20% every year.

And if you get a subsidy, that's getting cut too.

[xcrement5x]

Yeah, I just started a new job and they were pushing the HDHP suuuuper hard to me since they're self insured (it's a non-profit) but thankfully they still offered a PPO as well.  They made me feel kind of bad going the PPO route, but I was like I have 2 young kids and going the HDHP plan would have been a bloodbath for me.

[Gypsy]

High impact sexual violence.

[MotherGunner]

I think I triggered Null. 

[Pfloydguy2]

It's a given that costs go up every year.  The point is that the increases are expected to be steeper with the changes Trump's made and the uncertainty he's thrown into the system.  With elimination of the mandate, it's projected that many relatively healthy people will drop insurance coverage; the same number of claims spread over fewer participants means the costs per person go up more sharply.

I don't know the exact numbers off hand, but I'd rather keep paying 10% annual increases than 20% every year.

And if you get a subsidy, that's getting cut too.

Really?  You're attributing the skyrocketing increases caused by the ACA to costs going up every year?  Our insurance has never been as bad as when the ACA went through.  Our deductible literally doubled in one year.  When everyone at my company complained, we were told it was because of the ACA.  It's exactly as NE146 said:  we're covered in case of a catastrophe, but we pay through the nose for standard medical procedures.

[NecroPhile]

Don't be stupid or try to deflect.  I'm obviously saying that percentage rate increases for this year (and coming years) are projected to be higher relative to those in recent years.  It's all under ACA, but Trump is making it even worse by pushing healthy (low cost) people out of the pool, cutting subsidies for low-income peoples, cutting the enrollment period, and generally destabilizing the whole shebang.

Remember when the dotard promised to repeal and replace ACA with something better, cheaper, and cover more people?  We're more than a year past "day one" and the jackass still has NOTHING.

[seieienbu]

I think his current goal is to make "Obamacare" bad enough to where it collapses, blame the mess on Obama, and come through and be the hero that saved America after Obama tried (but failed because of people like Trump) to destroy this great nation of ours.

Nothing else makes sense.

[xcrement5x]

I think his current goal is to make "Obamacare" bad enough to where it collapses, blame the mess on Obama, and come through and be the hero that saved America after Obama tried (but failed because of people like Trump) to destroy this great nation of ours.

Nothing else makes sense.

Trump has two goals I believe:
1) Destroy as much of Obama's legacy as he can.
2) Enrich himself and his friends/family as much as he can. 

I have yet to see anything contrary to this, and anything he has done for the "little guy" has helped the big guy just as much if not more.

[seieienbu]

Oh, I clearly forgot about the second point.  Yeah, that's absolutely apparent.

[bob]

It's a given that costs go up every year.  The point is that the increases are expected to be steeper with the changes Trump's made and the uncertainty he's thrown into the system.  With elimination of the mandate, it's projected that many relatively healthy people will drop insurance coverage; the same number of claims spread over fewer participants means the costs per person go up more sharply.

I don't know the exact numbers off hand, but I'd rather keep paying 10% annual increases than 20% every year.

And if you get a subsidy, that's getting cut too.

Really?  You're attributing the skyrocketing increases caused by the ACA to costs going up every year?  Our insurance has never been as bad as when the ACA went through.  Our deductible literally doubled in one year.  When everyone at my company complained, we were told it was because of the ACA.  It's exactly as NE146 said:  we're covered in case of a catastrophe, but we pay through the nose for standard medical procedures.

you'd be thankful if there was a catastrophe

[NE146]

I think his current goal is to make "Obamacare" bad enough to where it collapses, blame the mess on Obama, and come through and be the hero that saved America after Obama tried (but failed because of people like Trump) to destroy this great nation of ours.

Nothing else makes sense.

Lol that's like 100% opposite of the story during the initial implementation.. i.e. that the long term strategy was the ACA was specifically designed by the Democrats (who were of course, solely responsible for it) to fail over time so that they could then eventually come through to save the day by saying that the only answer was Single Payer.

e.g. http://www.weeklystandard.com/harry-reid-and-tom-coburn-agree-obamacare-was-designed-to-fail-pave-way-for-single-payer/article/745908

'Course this was all way before Trump came onto the scene. I'm not saying it's true or not (who the heck knows) but if it is,  then his election and the Dems falling out of power would be a complete disruption of it.

[Pfloydguy2]

It's a given that costs go up every year.  The point is that the increases are expected to be steeper with the changes Trump's made and the uncertainty he's thrown into the system.  With elimination of the mandate, it's projected that many relatively healthy people will drop insurance coverage; the same number of claims spread over fewer participants means the costs per person go up more sharply.

I don't know the exact numbers off hand, but I'd rather keep paying 10% annual increases than 20% every year.

And if you get a subsidy, that's getting cut too.

Really?  You're attributing the skyrocketing increases caused by the ACA to costs going up every year?  Our insurance has never been as bad as when the ACA went through.  Our deductible literally doubled in one year.  When everyone at my company complained, we were told it was because of the ACA.  It's exactly as NE146 said:  we're covered in case of a catastrophe, but we pay through the nose for standard medical procedures.

you'd be thankful if there was a catastrophe

Sure, just like I would have on my old plan, except this way I'll be thankful with less money.

[OldRover]

Remember when the dotard promised to repeal and replace ACA with something better, cheaper, and cover more people?  We're more than a year past "day one" and the jackass still has NOTHING.

Well yeah, because "who knew health care could be so complicated"... oh wait, we all did, you fucking toolbag... everyone but you, apparently...

[Gypsy]

https://www.theringer.com/2018/3/8/17098364/trump-video-games-guns-summit

[NecroPhile]

It was stupid when they blamed Doom for Columbine and it's doubly stupid now, though I'm not surprised that Trump is embracing such ignorant, illogical theories that've been repeatedly dismissed by academics.  It's what he does.

[Gypsy]

Best to deflect than face the real issues right?

[seieienbu]

When the real issues lobbyist are paying you tens of millions you can consider your votes bought and paid for I guess.  I love how the only amendment that the republicans care about is the 2nd.

[ClodBusted]

Trump twitters today:

"That Kim is actually not such a bad guy. Found out we have a lot in common. #Friendship is magic"

[seieienbu]

A friend of mine works for Zenimax.  He said the CEO went to Trump's summit on video games and he got an email summation of it.  Long story short, an old man doesn't get video games and at one point was informed that the ESRB exists and these same games (and also movies) are sold worldwide yet no other country has the same sort of shootings happen.  Apparently there wasn't really a response to this, unsurprisingly.

Just like last time in the early oughts, and before then in the late 90s, and before then in the mid 90s, I think nothing will come from this new round of "Videogame Violence is Bad!"  It still annoys me though.

[ToyMachine78]

Where's Tipper Gore when you need her.

[ClodBusted]

Trump twitters today:

"They say I had an affair with that famous porn star.
Not true! She isn't famous!"

[NecroPhile]

I want to thank the White House Historical Association and all of the people that work so hard with Melania, with everybody, to keep this incredible house or building, or whatever you want to call it — because there really is no name for it; it is special — and we keep it in tip-top shape. We call it sometimes tippy-top shape. And it's a great, great place.

When he said he's a stable genius, he must've meant he's smarter than all the horses, goats, and cows in the barn.

I'm not convinced.

[geise]

LOL. Keep em' coming Clod!

[ClodBusted]

Just saw this on TV:

Make sure to turn on captions and translation to English.