5 ms·
Many of the candidates are US lawmakers. Have they attempted to acquire the tax return? They’re statutorily entitled to it, and the case for a “legitimate legis
by lvh 7y ago
Many of the candidates are US lawmakers. Have they attempted to acquire the tax return? They’re statutorily entitled to it, and the case for a “legitimate legislative purpose” (“the tax code sounds messed up and I want to fix it”) is much clearer than it was when Congress exercised the same right to attempt to acquire Trump’s tax returns.
If they haven’t, this sounds like pandering. But hey, so’s “let’s axe student debt” instead of the obvious “let’s 20x Pell grants”, so...
- jerf 7y agoOne of my least favorite politician games is when they're grandstanding about some problem and demanding some new power to address the problem, when they are already empowered to address the problem somehow. The administrative agencies are particularly prone to this; many of them have quite surprisingly vast powers, but will then claim helplessness in the face of some particular problem unless they're given even more. But you dig in, and while perhaps maybe the exact thing they're asking for is out of their power, they've got several other options for fixing the problem... if "fixing the problem" was their actual priority. But legislatures play this game plenty too. (And that's not even mentioning the cases where they created the problem in the first place.)
- lvh 7y agoAgreed, and I think it’s even worse here: Bernie Sanders is saying he will do a thing that is explicitly his job as a Senator and explicitly not his job as President!
- mc32 7y agoThe cost of college/university is outrageous, especially for the return on investment for many questionable degrees (questionable in the sense of market demand). We should funnel many more students into vocational schools where they’d contribute more to society (by not having to revert to waitressing as fall back). They could be nurses, welders, HVAC, etc earning good money. But no, we have many many people regretting their majors and many disillusioned with the job prospects of their peripheral majors. My pet peeve is the attention elite private schools get. They represent a very small fraction of all students. We should instead ensure state schools remain affordable but also ensure that grades mean something and not everyone “deserves” acceptance. We should push people who don’t fit in academically into vocations rather than string them along and have them fail in a career.
- lvh 7y agoYeah, sorry, the Pell grant thing was out of frustration and not a fully baked policy suggestion. As a regular at our local hackerspace, which has woodshop and welding and electronics and.... yes, I very much wish vocational skills had no stigma :)
- lvh 7y agoSomeone has brought to my attention that Sen. Warren has proposed something like a corporate AMT, so she is actually addressing it as a lawmaker: https://medium.com/@teamwarren/im-proposing-a-big-new-idea-the-real-corporate-profits-tax-29dde7c960d https://medium.com/@teamwarren/im-proposing-a-big-new-idea-t...