I am still very excited about Google Plus and the potential for this platform. Today I posted a straight forward question and received several very insightful comments which I have attached below. Whether you agree with someone’s political view or not, this platform has opened a new door for people to connect with others in an unrivaled way. I have engaged with so many unique individuals on the site that I would never had met in either Twitter or Facebook.
What are your experiences on Google Plus? Have you made any new connections?
Original Post:
Do you think Obama should be re-elected? Is he doing enough to support business or are there too many regulations stifling the business climate in US? More stimulus? So many questions.
Jason Easley (PoliticusUSA) originally shared this post:
It is worth noting that President Obama and Democrats created more jobs in 2010 than George W. Bush did in his eight years as president.
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Comments:
Jafar abdul Haseeb - At present I am a bit unsure. It really depends on the nomineee. If it is Huntsman.. Idk..any of others then i will more than likely support Obama.. time will tell
7:27 AM
+1
- Reply
Chuck Homsy - IMO he hasn’t really shown much backbone or leadership. If he had during the debt ceiling debacle maybe it wouldn’t have turned so sour on him. Then again it’s mostly republicans that hold the purse strings and because of that they probably are the one’s responsible for talking S&P into lowering the U.S.’s credit score. Just because they know they don’t have a snowball in hells chance of having another person elected to the Presidency.
7:31 AM
David Sanders - Does anyone think a specific President will really change things much? The corporate influence is so strong, I find it hard to believe any one person can make a true difference.
The left agenda is too left and the right is too right. A mushy wimpy centralist like Obama is perfect. He will be elected again.
The left agenda is too left and the right is too right. A mushy wimpy centralist like Obama is perfect. He will be elected again.
7:40 AM (edited)
Jafar abdul Haseeb - I agree with what you say completely. His failure to show leadership started with the Bush Tax Cuts expiration debate. I am no fan of taxes by any means but revenue is essential. His willingness to compromise is good however he needs to grow a spine sometime.
7:35 AM
+1
Chad LaFarge - His view of “compromise” is when other people agree to do what he wants, and for most part, what he wants is bad for business.(insert obligatory call for action) I’d love to see a consumption tax so all this “tax breaks for the Rich” crap can go away and we can get back to being the only Super-Power in the world (present company accepted, China 
… love you guys over there).
… love you guys over there).7:47 AM
Jafar abdul Haseeb - I disagree with your view of his view of compromise +Chad LaFarge. I don’t think he wanted the Bush Tax cuts to extend. I think he was compromising because of the 2010 election results and felt this would be a way to forge relationships and compromise for the future. 250 K a year is not my idea of rich..
7:52 AM
Chad LaFarge - I took that as his going along with the (D) House and (D) Senate, who both voted to extend, and his not wanting this to be only the third veto of his presidency (the first veto killed H.J.RES.64, which would have extended 2010 appropriations by 2 months, and the second killed H.R.3808, which would have recognized interstate notarization… Notary Public across state lines).
8:11 AM
Jafar abdul Haseeb - Both D’s in the House and Senate voted to extend the tax cuts at his urging. I want him to succeed but I want him to grow a spine. We need the revenue.
8:15 AM
Chuck Homsy - Taking from my previous post: This would explain the brainlessness of the Iowans voting Michelle Bachman during the straw poll this past weekend. I can not believe the people of Iowa are that dumb and must be playing a really, really bad joke on the rest of the world.I apologize ahead of time to any Iowans that may be on this feed.
8:15 AM
James Fierce - +Chad LaFarge Hey Chad how does a consumption tax work? That’s not the value added tax that they have in EU is it?
8:16 AM - Edit
Jafar abdul Haseeb - You would have toth understand the straw poll in Iowa was nothing but a fund raiser for the Republican party there. It is really meaningless. Whoever can bus the most people and buy the most tickets wins the straw poll. Romney won the straw poll in 2007 and tanked in the caucauses (spell check). Ms. Bachman will never be the nominee. The party may be desperate but not that desperate. +Chuck Homsy
8:20 AM
Chuck Homsy - Consumption taxes work like this, anything over a certain price point, say a $200 pair of jeans, have an additional % added to the price.
8:23 AM
Chad LaFarge - +James Fierce The Fair Tax is the consumption tax that most people think of, and I like it, at least what I know of it. here are some features (pro and con).Your Federal Income tax disappears.
It is replaced by a [some figure between 21 and 27]% sales tax on all items bought by consumers.
Note that businesses do not pay the tax, so it does not pile taxes up in the development of products.
To prevent regressive taxation, all people are send a monthly amount to cover the cost of the taxes for basic necessities up to the poverty line.
The IRS would go from a giant hated department of agents seeking people out to punish them to a much smaller group of people making sure your monthly check is right for your family size. (I loves me some department-shrinking)
Tax credits and loopholes disappear, so it’s not terrific in the mind of people counting on Mortgage Interest Deductions… I’m not sure how that’s compensated for, if at all (see site link below where that is likely addressed).At the same time that you see a giant increase in your take-home home, you’re going to see an increase in the cost of consumer goods, but as not as much as you might think: Much of what we buy now is already taxed, and also has the taxes of its component parts factored into price.
It is replaced by a [some figure between 21 and 27]% sales tax on all items bought by consumers.
Note that businesses do not pay the tax, so it does not pile taxes up in the development of products.
To prevent regressive taxation, all people are send a monthly amount to cover the cost of the taxes for basic necessities up to the poverty line.
The IRS would go from a giant hated department of agents seeking people out to punish them to a much smaller group of people making sure your monthly check is right for your family size. (I loves me some department-shrinking)
Tax credits and loopholes disappear, so it’s not terrific in the mind of people counting on Mortgage Interest Deductions… I’m not sure how that’s compensated for, if at all (see site link below where that is likely addressed).At the same time that you see a giant increase in your take-home home, you’re going to see an increase in the cost of consumer goods, but as not as much as you might think: Much of what we buy now is already taxed, and also has the taxes of its component parts factored into price.
There’s more information here:
http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer
It’s certainly worth a read, if nothing else to know the options.
Hope this is helpful.
9:36 AM - Edit
Scott Clark - I’ve always liked the idea of a Fair Tax system but I don’t have confidence in our apparatus to support it.- For one, the fraud potential is huge. This would result in a perpetual backlog of cases that the IRS has to chase down probably requiring the same amount of auditors and investigators they have now.
- For another, it makes it that much harder for the government to project their budgets beyond a certain point. An income tax is somewhat predictable and jobs are designed to weather market and consumer spending fluctuations. But unless I totally misunderstand parts of the Fair Tax (which is likely so I’m happy to be corrected!), it being entirely tied to consumer spending makes it just as unpredictable. Maybe it self corrects at this level of quantitative analysis?As James’ original question: I’m not sure if Obama is doing a good enough job to be re-elected. His style of compromise assumes everyone involved in the conversation is in there for the collective well-being. That’s nice when you’re a community organizer, but I woulda assumed the cutthroat IL politics would have trained him on how often people are NOT in for the collective good, but focus more on the personal or small group/constituent/PAC good.
- For another, it makes it that much harder for the government to project their budgets beyond a certain point. An income tax is somewhat predictable and jobs are designed to weather market and consumer spending fluctuations. But unless I totally misunderstand parts of the Fair Tax (which is likely so I’m happy to be corrected!), it being entirely tied to consumer spending makes it just as unpredictable. Maybe it self corrects at this level of quantitative analysis?As James’ original question: I’m not sure if Obama is doing a good enough job to be re-elected. His style of compromise assumes everyone involved in the conversation is in there for the collective well-being. That’s nice when you’re a community organizer, but I woulda assumed the cutthroat IL politics would have trained him on how often people are NOT in for the collective good, but focus more on the personal or small group/constituent/PAC good.
I want a centrist who forces both sides of Congress to work together, or failing that, forces policies through by going around Congress and talking directly to the people. I have seen though more capitulation than necessary to politicians who he wants to assume are listening to their constituents but who often can’t possibly be doing so for the kind of policies they’re pushing.
Fierce,
I’ve had much more substantive content shares and discussions via G+, but haven’t quite figured out how to dovetail the open expansion of Twitter posts, and G+ depth. It seems to be both an technique and a technical question. My friend @67tallChris and I have been working on this for a few days.
Yes, that’s a great convo on a political topic! I still haven’t got my bearings on Google Plus yet. I have distinct highly differentiated engagements on twitter, Facebook, secret fb groups and linked In , but so far google plus is still somewhat of a mirror world of these. I expect this to change with greater use of huddle, Hangout and other google integrated services.
We stumbled over here from a different web address and thought I might check things out.
I like what I see so i am just following you. Look forward to looking over your web page
for a second time.