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Hopefully these services can be restored in 3.5 years. One of the greatest things to happen to aging infrastructure of this country in the last 10 years as a lo

Hopefully these services can be restored in 3.5 years. One of the greatest things to happen to aging infrastructure of this country in the last 10 years as a lot of our systems are based on aging military systems. We just need it, there’s no question of the benefits and there were no negatives to speak about. Thank you President Barack Obama! A true leader and patriot.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
spencerflem 1y ago
I mean, I liked what they made but its kinda sad that greatest thing to happen to our nation's infrastructure was some nice websites. Meanwhile, healthcare housing and education got way more expensive and taxes for the wealthy went down.
- nemomarx 1y ago
  And a lot of bridges fell into disrepair, roads get worse, etc. Gridlock has made funding anything pretty hard in the last decade, and certain parties are so anti spending they won't try to fix it
  - spencerflem 1y ago
    Lol anti spending but they're about to pass a bill adding 2 trillion to the deficit
    - kubb 1y ago
      Isn’t that just to cut taxes for the rich?
      - amanaplanacanal 1y ago
        Yep. The only real cuts I see are cutting medical care for the poorest of the poor.
  - caycep 1y ago
    and when Biden/Obama admins did actually fix a bunch of infrastructure, half the voting public didn't give a shit
  - Hikikomori 1y ago
    Anti spending? The deficit has increased under every republican president almost back to ww2. Their two Santa strategy seems to work well confusing people though.
    - nemomarx 1y ago
      Yeah but mostly tax cuts and MIC contributions, they're not paying for local development or education or so on
    - westurner 1y ago
      /? https://www.google.com/search?q=The+deficit+has+increased+under+every+republican+president+almost+back+to+ww2 https://www.google.com/search?q=The+deficit+has+increased+un... : - History of the United States public debt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_public_debt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_p... - https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/jul/29/tweets/republican-presidents-democrats-contribute-deficit/ https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/jul/29/tweets/rep... (2019) : > The deficit is the difference between the money that the government makes and the money it spends. If the government spends more than it collects in revenues, then it’s running a deficit. > The federal debt is the running total of the accumulated deficits. [Or surpluses] "Federal Surplus or Deficit [-] (FYFSD)" https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSD# https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSD# "Federal Surplus or Deficit [-] as Percent of Gross Domestic Product (FYFSGDA188S)" https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSGDA188S https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSGDA188S
  - pstuart 1y ago
    > and certain parties are so anti spending they won't try to fix it It's one certain party, and the situation is worse than that -- they don't want any of the opposing party's legislation succeed that would be recognized by the people as a good thing and make that party look good. This is why partisan politics is a pox on the people -- loyalty to party over country is literally treason but is celebrated by party members.
- itsdrewmiller 1y ago
  USDS was borne out of the healthcare.gov debacle, which resulted in providing affordable healthcare to millions of uninsured people. They may not have had an equivalent sized win yet but they have tremendous accomplishments for a tiny organization.
- xp84 1y ago
  That's what happens when parties govern by executive fiat instead of relying on legislation for things like that. Things rammed through by flimsy executive action are fragile and easy for the next administration to cancel. We could have higher taxes on the wealthy and good healthcare. But to do that, the side that claims they want that and that they believe in "democracy" would have to not only post on Bluesky about it, they'd have to (A) vote, and (B) convince (rather than demonize) the moderates who are skeptical of them. We'll see in a while if they learned that lesson from 2024.
  - pstuart 1y ago
    In a two party system voting is very simple: one must vote for the least bad candidate or suffer the consequences of the worse candidate taking office. It stinks and we should change it, but until then one needs to do a simple weighing of options and cast a best effort ballot.
soulofmischief 1y ago
[flagged]
- spencerflem 1y ago
  Preach <3
- righthand 1y ago
  Yikes, you sound jaded. I’m not going to pretend Obama was a saint but he cared about his country and the people as he worked to give people rights. And my entire praise is for the comparison of where we are today. Now we have people actively trying to take rights away for no reason other than some rotted pride. Just my opinion in my 36 years. The only POTUS who wasn’t a “wolf in sheep's clothing” was George Washington.
  - spencerflem 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - pnut 1y ago
      That sounds like a bunch of second guessing tactical decisions after the fact. Sorry he's not the second coming. Where's the rest of the political will in the USA? Looks like what the country actually wants is authoritarianism, so maybe he was just the right politician in the wrong country.
      - spencerflem 1y ago
        No I'm saying he's about as left wing Reagan. He ran on a "change" platform but failed to deliver change. He propped up the rich and shot down any sort of possible ideas that would meaningfully change anything despite being given once in a generation mandate. It dissolutioned a lot of voters, and lead to where we are now where people are desperate enough to want a strongman outsider who promises to really shake things up. If we had gotten an actual progressive instead of a textbook neoliberal things might have been different.
sneak 1y ago
[flagged]
- tomrod 1y ago
  Yes, yes, but sometimes people peddle factually bad ideas in the trappings of alternative opinions, unwilling to have their ugly philosophical babies challenged under the guise of rhetorical bearings.
- woodruffw 1y ago
  Inter alia, the USDS was notable for streamlining and fixing portions of the VA, Medicaid, and refugee processing systems. Those changes improved (and probably outright saved) large numbers of lives; it seems extremely callous to cast that aside.
  - tomrod 1y ago
    Aye. Digital services aren't websites only, though websites can be involved. They are software that improves process and operational efficiency while ideally making the process more transparent. The IRS site in general is massively better now than 5 years ago, for example.
  - sneak 1y ago
    Many people would rather see the VA and Medicaid shut down, rather than spending even more money on them to improve them. The point is that the idea that this organization existing was an unqualified good thing is a matter of opinion, not fact. You’re allowed to have that opinion, but presenting it as fact is the part that I have an issue with.
    - woodruffw 1y ago
      Nobody appears to be presenting "the VA is good" as an unalloyed fact.
      - sneak 1y ago
ronbenton 1y ago
>Hopefully these services can be restored in 3.5 years I am not sure it works like that. Destruction is easy, building is hard.
- zbentley 1y ago
  True, but software is slightly easier to restore service to than a razed physical building, for example. The support/staff/operations part still takes time and resources, but it is a little easier.
AStonesThrow 1y ago
[flagged]

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

spencerflem 1y ago

I mean, I liked what they made but its kinda sad that greatest thing to happen to our nation's infrastructure was some nice websites. Meanwhile, healthcare housing and education got way more expensive and taxes for the wealthy went down.

nemomarx 1y ago
And a lot of bridges fell into disrepair, roads get worse, etc. Gridlock has made funding anything pretty hard in the last decade, and certain parties are so anti spending they won't try to fix it
- spencerflem 1y ago
  Lol anti spending but they're about to pass a bill adding 2 trillion to the deficit
  - kubb 1y ago
    Isn’t that just to cut taxes for the rich?
    - amanaplanacanal 1y ago
      Yep. The only real cuts I see are cutting medical care for the poorest of the poor.
- caycep 1y ago
  and when Biden/Obama admins did actually fix a bunch of infrastructure, half the voting public didn't give a shit
- Hikikomori 1y ago
  Anti spending? The deficit has increased under every republican president almost back to ww2. Their two Santa strategy seems to work well confusing people though.
  - nemomarx 1y ago
    Yeah but mostly tax cuts and MIC contributions, they're not paying for local development or education or so on
  - westurner 1y ago
    /? https://www.google.com/search?q=The+deficit+has+increased+under+every+republican+president+almost+back+to+ww2 https://www.google.com/search?q=The+deficit+has+increased+un... : - History of the United States public debt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_public_debt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_p... - https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/jul/29/tweets/republican-presidents-democrats-contribute-deficit/ https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/jul/29/tweets/rep... (2019) : > The deficit is the difference between the money that the government makes and the money it spends. If the government spends more than it collects in revenues, then it’s running a deficit. > The federal debt is the running total of the accumulated deficits. [Or surpluses] "Federal Surplus or Deficit [-] (FYFSD)" https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSD# https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSD# "Federal Surplus or Deficit [-] as Percent of Gross Domestic Product (FYFSGDA188S)" https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSGDA188S https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSGDA188S
- pstuart 1y ago
  > and certain parties are so anti spending they won't try to fix it It's one certain party, and the situation is worse than that -- they don't want any of the opposing party's legislation succeed that would be recognized by the people as a good thing and make that party look good. This is why partisan politics is a pox on the people -- loyalty to party over country is literally treason but is celebrated by party members.
itsdrewmiller 1y ago
USDS was borne out of the healthcare.gov debacle, which resulted in providing affordable healthcare to millions of uninsured people. They may not have had an equivalent sized win yet but they have tremendous accomplishments for a tiny organization.
xp84 1y ago
That's what happens when parties govern by executive fiat instead of relying on legislation for things like that. Things rammed through by flimsy executive action are fragile and easy for the next administration to cancel. We could have higher taxes on the wealthy and good healthcare. But to do that, the side that claims they want that and that they believe in "democracy" would have to not only post on Bluesky about it, they'd have to (A) vote, and (B) convince (rather than demonize) the moderates who are skeptical of them. We'll see in a while if they learned that lesson from 2024.
- pstuart 1y ago
  In a two party system voting is very simple: one must vote for the least bad candidate or suffer the consequences of the worse candidate taking office. It stinks and we should change it, but until then one needs to do a simple weighing of options and cast a best effort ballot.

soulofmischief 1y ago

[flagged]

spencerflem 1y ago
Preach <3
righthand 1y ago
Yikes, you sound jaded. I’m not going to pretend Obama was a saint but he cared about his country and the people as he worked to give people rights. And my entire praise is for the comparison of where we are today. Now we have people actively trying to take rights away for no reason other than some rotted pride. Just my opinion in my 36 years. The only POTUS who wasn’t a “wolf in sheep's clothing” was George Washington.
- spencerflem 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - pnut 1y ago
    That sounds like a bunch of second guessing tactical decisions after the fact. Sorry he's not the second coming. Where's the rest of the political will in the USA? Looks like what the country actually wants is authoritarianism, so maybe he was just the right politician in the wrong country.
    - spencerflem 1y ago
      No I'm saying he's about as left wing Reagan. He ran on a "change" platform but failed to deliver change. He propped up the rich and shot down any sort of possible ideas that would meaningfully change anything despite being given once in a generation mandate. It dissolutioned a lot of voters, and lead to where we are now where people are desperate enough to want a strongman outsider who promises to really shake things up. If we had gotten an actual progressive instead of a textbook neoliberal things might have been different.

sneak 1y ago

[flagged]

tomrod 1y ago
Yes, yes, but sometimes people peddle factually bad ideas in the trappings of alternative opinions, unwilling to have their ugly philosophical babies challenged under the guise of rhetorical bearings.
woodruffw 1y ago
Inter alia, the USDS was notable for streamlining and fixing portions of the VA, Medicaid, and refugee processing systems. Those changes improved (and probably outright saved) large numbers of lives; it seems extremely callous to cast that aside.
- tomrod 1y ago
  Aye. Digital services aren't websites only, though websites can be involved. They are software that improves process and operational efficiency while ideally making the process more transparent. The IRS site in general is massively better now than 5 years ago, for example.
- sneak 1y ago
  Many people would rather see the VA and Medicaid shut down, rather than spending even more money on them to improve them. The point is that the idea that this organization existing was an unqualified good thing is a matter of opinion, not fact. You’re allowed to have that opinion, but presenting it as fact is the part that I have an issue with.
  - woodruffw 1y ago
    Nobody appears to be presenting "the VA is good" as an unalloyed fact.
    - sneak 1y ago

ronbenton 1y ago

>Hopefully these services can be restored in 3.5 years I am not sure it works like that. Destruction is easy, building is hard.

zbentley 1y ago
True, but software is slightly easier to restore service to than a razed physical building, for example. The support/staff/operations part still takes time and resources, but it is a little easier.

AStonesThrow 1y ago

[flagged]