Government Policy and Budget Discussion Thread (no politics)

[OrangeAfroMan]

On the election thing from earlier - I've found it odd since childhood that they're releasing presidential election results before all states are finished voting.  I still don't understand how it's a thing.  How did it even begin to be a thing???

[847badgerfan]

Wow, you guys sure abandoned the "no politics" in a hurry.

Trying to keep it about election and process but it can veer a bit. Also trying to keep current/recent names out of it.

[Cincydawg]

On the election thing from earlier - I've found it odd since childhood that they're releasing presidential election results before all states are finished voting.  I still don't understand how it's a thing.  How did it even begin to be a thing???

It is public information, right?  The media will report on it.  They don't report an individual state until its polls have closed.

Our elections are run by the states  (within some limits).

[847badgerfan]

To me, much of the tone was brought to light though the last campaign.  

I tend to agree with this.

Or, by stuff like this:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/congresswoman-rashida-tlaib-trump-profanity-curse-says-impeach-the-motherf-twitter-video/

I remember a prominent US Rep from Cali called for impeachment before 45 even took office, or shortly thereafter. 

This kind of stuff is divisive, and sad, and we need to find a way to end it and come together as Americans.

[bayareabadger]

I tend to agree with this.

Or, by stuff like this:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/congresswoman-rashida-tlaib-trump-profanity-curse-says-impeach-the-motherf-twitter-video/

I remember a prominent US Rep from Cali called for impeachment before 45 even took office, or shortly thereafter.

This kind of stuff is divisive, and sad, and we need to find a way to end it and come together as Americans.

So the linked thing is the sort of thing that at one point was considered a liability. And the world has changed and suddenly it might not be, on either side. 

I think the negatives outweigh the positives, though you also have that WV governor who cursed (which I found funny in a crass way) and then had to record a message that he'd never cursed that way, which is almost assuredly not true either. 

[FearlessF]

I tend to agree with this.

Or, by stuff like this:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/congresswoman-rashida-tlaib-trump-profanity-curse-says-impeach-the-motherf-twitter-video/

I remember a prominent US Rep from Cali called for impeachment before 45 even took office, or shortly thereafter.

This kind of stuff is divisive, and sad, and we need to find a way to end it and come together as Americans.

both parties encourage this stuff and use it to deflect from doing anything good for the country as a whole

whatever happened to Pelosi's investigation of Trump for failing to stem the pandemic?   Just talk and BS???

[Cincydawg]

both parties encourage this stuff and use it to deflect from doing anything good for the country as a whole

whatever happened to Pelosi's investigation of Trump for failing to stem the pandemic?  Just talk and BS???

There is to be some committee to review whatever at some point.  I view nearly everything that happens in DC as politically oriented.  Any "fact finding" committee is just to throw dirt on the other side, not to find any real facts.

[FearlessF]

yup, just keep the folks rooting for one side or the other feuding 

[Cincydawg]

So, how are states and cities going to survive the revenue shortfall with the economy?

The NASDAQ is now positive for the year.

[betarhoalphadelta]

The NASDAQ is now positive for the year.

That's a little surprising to me, but not a HUGE surprise.

Obviously in the dot com boom, my industry [tech] was the fuel for the boom and thus got hammered in the bust. But it was a bubble that was formed on a rising tide, and all the factors that created it were real and have only expanded since. 

In the Great Recession, tech was largely unaffected. It was mostly a financial / blue collar impact that hit the mortgage industry (expanded into banking) and the construction industry. While it might have dampened the overall economy, it didn't directly impact or affect tech.

This is much the same. It's hammering retail/service industries hard, because those businesses have been forcibly shut down. Communications & Information Technology is largely considered an essential industry, and high tech is one of the industries that transitions easily to WFH. Construction is considered an essential industry, and while it's not easy to do WFH, they're still going to work building things. 

The biggest potential hit to tech is if consumers can't buy things, either because the stores are closed or because they're on unemployment and don't want to spend if they don't have to. Mobile phones have been hammered during this for a combination of those two reasons. But tech in general is booming. Work from home and distance learning created an immediate new demand on tech infrastructure for those who are still working, and for kids. For those people and everyone else, the retreat inside our homes meant that most of our communication and entertainment is now electronic--social media and Netflix. So someone who might normally have gone and met friends for happy hour on a Tuesday night after work is now sitting at home on the couch watching streaming video. Huge boom there.

So while I wasn't sure whether the downturn in retail or the upturn in the rest of tech would be a net plus or net minus for tech, I knew it wasn't all negative news. I'm not at all surprised that the NASDAQ is up. 

[SFBadger96]

This discussion makes me sad. I need to stop reading it.

[utee94]

That's a little surprising to me, but not a HUGE surprise.

Obviously in the dot com boom, my industry [tech] was the fuel for the boom and thus got hammered in the bust. But it was a bubble that was formed on a rising tide, and all the factors that created it were real and have only expanded since.

In the Great Recession, tech was largely unaffected. It was mostly a financial / blue collar impact that hit the mortgage industry (expanded into banking) and the construction industry. While it might have dampened the overall economy, it didn't directly impact or affect tech.

This is much the same. It's hammering retail/service industries hard, because those businesses have been forcibly shut down. Communications & Information Technology is largely considered an essential industry, and high tech is one of the industries that transitions easily to WFH. Construction is considered an essential industry, and while it's not easy to do WFH, they're still going to work building things.

The biggest potential hit to tech is if consumers can't buy things, either because the stores are closed or because they're on unemployment and don't want to spend if they don't have to. Mobile phones have been hammered during this for a combination of those two reasons. But tech in general is booming. Work from home and distance learning created an immediate new demand on tech infrastructure for those who are still working, and for kids. For those people and everyone else, the retreat inside our homes meant that most of our communication and entertainment is now electronic--social media and Netflix. So someone who might normally have gone and met friends for happy hour on a Tuesday night after work is now sitting at home on the couch watching streaming video. Huge boom there.

So while I wasn't sure whether the downturn in retail or the upturn in the rest of tech would be a net plus or net minus for tech, I knew it wasn't all negative news. I'm not at all surprised that the NASDAQ is up.

Business is booming for us right now, but we're calling out a pretty significant downturn in the second half for our industry.  The work-from-home plus COVID-response spike has been massive, but we expect it to result in one or both of the following factors:

1) IT budgets for spending throughout the year, were effectively pulled-in to the March/April timeframe, so those companies won't be spending as expected beyond this surge
2) Many companies are struggling and will now have to put off previously planned IT purchases in order to save in this uncertain future

FED/GOV spending will be largely unaffected, and EDU spending will be delayed but we're not expecting it to bottom out.  G500/Fortune500 companies are in the category of spending heavy right now but less likely to spend in the second half, and small/medium business are going to tank for the rest of the year.

That's our call for the time being.  However, if we emerge from this without any disastrous second waves or other things to rattle customer confidence, things could improve in the second half.

[FearlessF]

The Department of Justice is dropping the criminal case against President Donald Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, abandoning a prosecution that became a rallying cry for Trump and his supporters in attacking the FBI's Russia investigation.

will be the same with the insider trading of the Senators

oh, this is a big deal, we are going to punish the offenders!

then nothing, it goes away after a few months of wasting time and money

the rich politicians do not punish themselves

the impeachment proceedings probably the same deal.  Much ado about nuttin

[CWSooner]

Like how Jefferson suggested constitutional revisions every 20 years or so.  Wide-scope corrections/improvements...basically building on what is learned over time, instead of waiting for a certain party (or special interest) to gain or lose control. 

Examples that come to mind are probably social equality issues that could have been taken care of decades earlier.  Speaking more broadly, that would be tough, because it'd be time-sensitive. 

Everybody loves the constitution and it's great and all, but there are many out there who treat it like it was carved into stone by the baby jesus from on-high.  It's not perfect.  It can be improved/edited.  Why not improve/edit it?

You're writing as if we are still living with the Constitution of 1787.
We're not.  There's a process for improving/editing it.  It has been applied 27 times.  Sometimes the change has been for the better, other times for the worse.  That process is still available for us to use.
Actually, two processes, one we've successfully (in terms of getting the change applied) used 27 times and the other (Article V convention of states) that has not been tried.
So, again, what particular changes would you like to see?