Outside the Beltway

#SoMuchWinning Update

Steven L. Taylor
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Via the NYT, Trump’s ‘Great National Infrastructure Program’? Stalled

Infrastructure remains stuck near the rear of the legislative line, according to two dozen administration officials, legislators and labor leaders involved in coming up with a concrete proposal. It awaits the resolution of tough negotiations over the budget, the debt ceiling, a tax overhaul, a new push to toughen immigration laws — and the enervating slog to enact a replacement for the Affordable Care Act.

This is an illustration of the fact that one does not just spout off on the campaign trail and then policy magically happens once in office.  It takes actual work and the employment of actual experts to do that work.

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20 responses to “#SoMuchWinning Update”

  1. TM01 Avatar
    TM01

    You mean not everything was Shovel Ready?

  2. TM01 Avatar
    TM01

    Are you saying I CAN’T keep my doctor? Or that I WON’T be saving $2500 on health insurance?

  3. Just 'nutha ig'nint cracker Avatar
    Just ‘nutha ig’nint cracker

    ” It takes actual work and the employment of actual experts to do that work.”

    So, we’re pretty much hosed over,then? And have been since Nov. 9, 2016?

  4. michael reynolds Avatar
    michael reynolds

    @TM01:

    No wall.
    No infrastructure bill.
    No ending NAFTA.
    No tax reform.
    No ending Obamacare.

    Yes to diminishing US influence.
    Yes to ending US as ‘leader of the free world.’
    Yes to increased government power to seize property (including, yes: guns.)
    Yes to weakening NATO.
    Yes to digging the Afghanistan hole deeper.
    Yes to abandoning our free Syrian allies.
    Yes to licking Vladimir Putin’s boot.
    Yes to being investigated for money-laundering, collusion, corruption.

    MAGA! He’s got 39% of the American people and Vladimir Putin. He will never get more support. We’ve already passed Peak Trump.

  5. CSK Avatar
    CSK

    @michael reynolds:

    Yeah, but Michael, Trump’s annoying/enraging the libtards (which means everyone not a full-throated Trumpkin, such as George Will).

    We haven’t yet fully absorbed the fact that this election was about revenge. That’s all the Trumpkins want–revenge against “the elites.” It really doesn’t matter to them what Trump does or doesn’t do otherwise.

  6. TM01 Avatar
    TM01

    Well, Obama did tell us to vote for Revenge.

  7. wr Avatar
    wr

    @TM01: Aren’t you getting tired of being a complete loser yet? Yes, you hate Dems, we get that. You hate the uppity N– who dared to be president, and you hated the C– who tried to follow. Yay you.

    But the guy you’re supporting, simply because you hate these other people, is busy destroying the country. And all you can say is “I hate ni**ers.”

    Grow up, for fuck’s sake.

  8. michael reynolds Avatar
    michael reynolds

    @TM01:
    No, he said voting is the best revenge. That is not the same as “vote for revenge.” Of course you know this, but intellectual integrity isn’t really a thing for you.

    But in any case I’m glad to see you admit you have no larger agenda. Noted.

  9. Franklin Avatar
    Franklin

    @TM01: Destroyed, too easily. Better head back to RedState or whatever for new talking points.

  10. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    @TM01:

    You mean not everything was Shovel Ready?

    BTW, this response is a good illustration of the problem of our current politics.

    1) It is a jibe based on talk-radio and cable news ridicule. It is not serious and it isn’t even clever.

    2) Regardless of what one thinks about Obama’s infrastructure policies, the following is worth noting: a) he did get some spending passed less than a month after his inauguration. b) He faced opposition from broader spending from Republicans, and tried to get further spending through during much of his term, having some success late.

    If one wishes to engage in actual debate, and not snark alone, I would note that one would need to compare actual records as well as face up to the act that while Obama’s infrastructure successes were anemic, most such spending was opposed by the GOP, meaning support for it now is because of fealty to Trump/crass partisanship and not principled policy positions.

    FWIW, I think that Obama’s infrastructure policies were anemic and would love to see serious attention to the problem by the current congress and president (but I am not holding my breath).

    Part of the problem is the fundamental unseriousness of the current POTUS. He has no plan.

  11. OzarkHillbilly Avatar
    OzarkHillbilly

    @TM01: Isn’t it about time you came out of the basement?

  12. george Avatar
    george

    @CSK:

    The election for 95% of voters was voting for the home team. They voted for the party they always vote for, and for the same reason they cheer for their favorite sport team – you support the team, even if you hate the coach and think the star player is an asshole. That’s always been the case, and it was no. Most voters didn’t spend 10 minutes thinking about the election. In fact, almost half the potential voters didn’t even bother voting at all – which tells you pretty much all you need to know about how important the election was to much of the country. Thinking those people voted because of revenge, or the economy, or cultural issues or anything else is misguided, and won’t help win the next election at all. Its team loyalty, nothing else.

    Of the 5% who were open to change who went with Trump (about 2% of voters and about 1% of possible voters), many voted that way out of revenge, and/or racism, culture war and so on. Note that 1% is still a million people, so its a lot of people. Those million or so are the ones you run across at Trump rallies, or on websites like Breitart – more than enough to make a huge online and rally presence, but small as a percentage of actual voters. Getting hung up about them is a distraction from the goal of winning in 2018 and 2020.

    Talk to some Trump voters, ones you personally know. I’m willing to bet not one in ten can tell you anything more about what Trump had than “You’re fired!”. They weren’t listening to him, or Clinton, because it was irrelevant. They vote GOP, so why waste time in an already way too busy life listening to politics?

    Most people simply don’t care. The offline world is startlingly different than the online world. In a sense that makes it easier to take some of the rabid Trump people – at least they care about politics, however misguided they are. Most people simply don’t. Not because they’re stupid – I know quite a few people who are extremely intelligent by any standard who can’t be bothered t vote, or vote for the same party automatically – but because they’re too busy. Its the same reason most of us know almost nothing about any of the 1000 vital issues in the world today. How many can read the journal articles in Nature or Science about climate science and understand the physics and chemistry? Or understand machine learning enough to see why people like Bill Gates and Hawkings are saying its the biggest future threat to humanity? And so on. We all pick things we think are vital to our future and concentrate on those.

  13. TM01 Avatar
    TM01

    @wr:
    Brilliant playing of the Race Card.

    You know what they about how to tell when you’ve won an argument with a leftist, right?

  14. Liberal Capitalist Avatar
    Liberal Capitalist

    @TM01:

    You know what they about how to tell when you’ve won an argument with a leftist, right?

    WHAT ??!!?? ENGLISH !!! Do You Speak It ???

    Listen, it’s Sunday night. Put down the beverage, back away from the keyboard, and sober up for Monday.

    Granted, you are funny here, but not for the reason YOU think, Bubba.

  15. Kylopod Avatar
    Kylopod

    @TM01:

    You know what they about how to tell when you’ve won an argument with a leftist, right?

    You know how to tell you’ve won an argument with anyone?

    Hint: it isn’t by responding to concrete, fact-based arguments with empty-headed, schoolyard-level snark.

  16. Pylon Avatar
    Pylon

    I just rewatched Hot Fuzz on TV. I never noticed before but the Police Chief justifies killing all those the town elders see as no good in order to “Make Sandford Great Again”. I’m not sure what it is but there’s a message there somewhere.

  17. michael reynolds Avatar
    michael reynolds

    @george:
    That was a whole bunch of wisdom well-presented.

  18. wr Avatar
    wr

    @TM01: You think I’d waste a second of my time arguing with a loser like you? Who understands nothing, but can repeat anything he’s heard on Hannity for the last ten years?

    Why would I argue with someone incapable of forming a thought more complex than “neener neener neener”? You want to argue? Come up with something interesting to say.

  19. grumpy realist Avatar
    grumpy realist

    @TM01: Snark and insults are no way to run a country, son. And you can pass that along to the mango-colored 70-year old toddler you so ardently worship.

    Why don’t you people actually sit down and plan something constructive, for heaven’s sake?

  20. Just 'nutha ig'nint cracker Avatar
    Just ‘nutha ig’nint cracker

    @Pylon: Does “we had to destroy the village in order to save it” ring a bell? (The exact quote was “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it” according to Wikipedia.)

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