Elections/Voting resources

[amirm]

I don't know you all but I find it maddening to sort through all the various initiatives in our state. Yes, some of the key ones I stay on top of and have strong opinions about . But others that are more obscure are just not on my radar but I do want to vote the right way if I can.

So I was pleased to find this wiki that summarizes the law, and provides the opinion of the local newspapers: http://www.ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

The one or two pages are very quick to read, enabling one to have more insight than just randomly filling a box .

I hope everyone is voting tomorrow as this is one of the more important elections in my opinion!

 

[The Smokester]

Why do you think this is more important than other elections?

 

[amirm]

Well, in the last election, we gave ultimate power to democrats and with it, lots of big things happened with big $$$ stimulus, healthcare bill, etc. Question now is whether a new crew is sent to DC to oppose those changes for the next two years. In the last 30 years, I don't remember anything as large in scale happening as we have had in the last two years. The consequences (good or bad) will be felt for many, many more years to come.

In our state, there are also groundbreaking votes with the key one being enacting of State Income tax. We are one of the few without it. If that passes, then it will definitely be a major event.

 

[Steve williams]

I agree with Amir

I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see an attempt at repealing the Health Care Bill if the Republicans gain control of the House as is predicted

 

[The Smokester]

...our state, there are also groundbreaking votes with the key one being enacting of State Income tax. We are one of the few without it. If that passes, then it will definitely be a major event.

I would think that one would be a NO brainer.

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

I agree with Amir

I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see an attempt at repealing the Health Care Bill if the Republicans gain control of the House as is predicted

I think you can count on it. But given the leverage the GOP House will have with a Democratic Senate and President, I think you can also count on it being a bogus attempt, a bit of political posturing with its inevitable failure understood from the outset by all except, perhaps, a few newcomers who haven't a clue how things work. The good news of this election cycle is we finally got a high-profile populist movement against incumbents. The bad news is that it came from so far out on the fringe that it is unlikely to accomplish much of anything. What we need is an activated center - politically and economically - screaming, and voting, to be represented by their representative democracy again. What we'll get is very deep gridlock.

On the other hand, a GOP Congress worked with Clinton and got a lot done, like it or not. If this Congress and President worked together they could, for example, tweak the healthcare law so it will actually help control costs instead of just facing off on a black and white field of ideological hyperbole and bang heads very publicly. I don't anticipate that kind of cooperation this time, but I'd love to be wrong.

Tim

 

[amirm]

I would think that one would be a NO brainer.

You would think so but as always these things are written cleverly. The current bill stipulates that they only tax a percentage of income above $200K/$400K. So it is couched as "soak the rich." Alas, that provision lasts only two years after which the legislator is free to change anything it wishes and tax the entire population if they like, at whatever rates they want. Until this message got out, the initiative was thought to pass easily and it is only recently that the odds became even.

What is really remarkable is who is behind it. The news talks about Bill Gates and Bill Gates Sr (Bill's dad) and the battle of billioners (Steve Balmer and Jeff Bezos, ,CEOs of Microsoft and Amazon respectively are on the other side). But the initiative really came about from state unions who think if they don't push for this tax, someday their benefits would be cut due to belt tightening. So to prevent that, they figured they get ahead of the game by creating a huge new source of revenue per above. The way groups manipulate our system is remarkable. The consequences of such acts goes far as you can imagine. All because someone in that small group worrying about their benefit getting cut like the rest of us who have had to tighten our belts in this down economy. Here is a good read on it from WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...5560301019870596.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

While I agree almost entirely with Phelonious, I am not sure the WBF forum should go too deep into political matters. These have proven to raise passion and behavior above the boiling point ... If however you consider this particular subject benign by all means pursue it. I do beg to differ .. Caveat Emptor

 

[Ron Party]

I strongly agree with what Frantz posted. Political discussions ought to be taboo here in order to keep the peace.

 

[Steve williams]

i agree also with Ron and Frantz that political discussions can raise the level of people's voices as it did recently in a thread here on politics however Amir's original intent was to inform voters about their state resources to peruse before filling out a ballot. Rest assured the thread will be heavily moderated but I see nothing bad in the original post

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

Yeah, politics is pretty dangerous. I tried to keep my response non-partisan. Not sure if I succeeded or not...

Tim

 

[amirm]

Sorry guys. Steve is right that I was being super careful as to provide a resource for research and not any specific point of view. But I fear that my last reply, even though I was trying to still be careful in not stating a point of view, may have done that indirectly. Trying to salvage that , I feel I am more educated about the subject matter than ever due to easy to read Internet sites such as that I posted. I leave it to Steve to decide to delete my response or not. I am OK either way.

 

[Steve williams]

I think the thread topic is fine and no need to delete the post. It is merely informative for voters on election day

BTW, it must be nice to live in a state where there is no state tax.

 

[Gregadd]

This political election reminds us all that the presidency is up for grabs in two years. Those things start at least two years out. As one political analyst stated modern politics is dominated by the pursuit of one failed tax scheme after another. In fact you don't to have a scheme anymore. Just say taxes-bad. Two years ago the line to vote was three deep and stretched the around the block. Today I walked in and voted right away. Republicans stayed home two years ago because they felt their leaders had betrayed them. This time my fellow democrats stayed home because they felt their leaders had ignored them. I think the Republicans have to worry that they did not peak too soon. They have made many promises on which they can't deliver.

The people need to learn one thing. Politiciians run for the right to spend your money. All else is to get elected.

I don't want to offend anyone.This forum is called anything goes. If you don't like controversy maybe you should just ignore it.

 

[Phelonious Ponk]

This political election reminds us all that the presidency is up for grabs in two years. Those things start at least two years out. As one political analyst stated modern politics is dominated by the pursuit of one failed tax scheme after another. In fact you don't to have a scheme anymore. Just say taxes-bad. Two years ago the line to vote was three deep and stretched the around the block. Today I walked in and voted right away. Republicans stayed home two years ago because they felt their leaders had betrayed them. This time my fellow democrats stayed home because they felt their leaders had ignored them. I think the Republicans have to worry that they did not peak too soon. They have made many promises on which they can't deliver.

The people need to learn one thing. Politiciians run for the right to spend your money. All else is to get elected.

I don't want to offend anyone.This forum is called anything goes. If you don't like controversy maybe you should just ignore it.

One of my favorite things about this forum is the "What's New" feature that lets me look across the many forums at all the active discussions. I suppose the downside of that is it essentially makes it all one eclectic forum, and brings controversial threads and opinions from specific boards into the broader discussion. For those of us who enter and use "What's Best" the way I do, there really is no "Anything Goes" forum. It's all one big Anything Goes forum. With that said, I suspect we can handle this if we keep it cool, and the mods can handle it if we don't. Interesting day in America yesterday, but in broad strokes, there were no real surprises. America chose to divide power; it has been obvious for a long time that they usually prefer it that way. The GOP took the House, not the Senate. Anyone who has been paying attention won't find that surprising. What remains to be seen is whether or not that divided government can get anything done. The last time it was divided this way, they did. The GOP Congress and Clinton accomplished quite a bit; whether or not you like what they accomplished is, of course, another question. I'm sorry to say I don't expect that to happen this time. I expect gridlock on an unprecedented level.

Now...I wonder if I managed to say all of that in a way that didn't reveal my politics?

Tim

 

[The Smokester]

Amir, Thanks for your serious reply to my facetious post. I have been keeping tabs on WA politics...There are lots of articles on how this income tax proposal (I-1098) would lead to the ruination of your state. I see that the WSJ reports that it overwhelmingly failed to pass yesterday. The WSJ speculates that the reason is just what you said: Namely, that what would start out as "soak the rich" would have become "bite me in the ass" a few years down the road.

 

[MC352]

For my 2 cents, this election was a message that the American People aren't happy. I am glad to see people got out there and exercised their right to vote.

As for what this new crew will do, that remains to be seen. I can only hope for the best.

I would rather see them focus on jobs, the deficit, imbalance of trade, and energy, then to start mucking around with the health care bill again.

 

[Gregadd]

unofficially 4 in 10 voted.

 

[Gregadd]

Under Whats' New if you glance to the right you will see the forum description. Thus if you have no interest in the the "Music Forum" you can spare yourself the aggravation and move on. Oops! I forget I'm not a moderator anymore.

 

[MC352]

Greggadd, I'm thinking you meant that post for a different forum