US Presidential Elections Thread 2016 (Dems and GOP)

"If Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her."

- Donald Trump

Oo great idea, my kindda thread here XD

“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?”
- Donald Trump

I am an Iowan. I will be caucusing for Bernie. Most of all I believe we need to invest in education. And the wealthy pay a significantly smaller percentage of their income in taxes than I do (please don't fight on that one as I am a CPA and do tax planning for the wealthy as part of my job). That percentage is the smallest in the history of the country.

What will happen tonight? Bernie and Hillary will be close. The Trump and Ted will be close. What am i absolutely positive of? There will be another democratic president.

I do practice incest occasionally in Crusader Kings 2, but at least that serves a political purpose! Donald is just saying this for the sake of heavily implying his daughter is attractive (fuelling his ego). She's decent at best. You don't do incest stuff for that stuff, man - that's just sick.

/endweirdjoke

The results can change at any moment, but Bernie is very close to Hillary. For Hillary, most attempts to talk smack about Bernie ended up backfiring. The amount of support I see for Bernie is great and people are going above and beyond to help make Bernie our president. "Not me, us" - Bernie

Have you read his income tax plan? It will pay for Medicare for All.

• 37 percent on income between $250,000 and $500,000.
• 43 percent on income between $500,000 and $2 million.
• 48 percent on income between $2 million and $10 million. (In 2013, only 113,000 households, the top 0.08 percent of taxpayers, had income between $2 million and $10 million.)
• 52 percent on income above $10 million. (In 2013, only 13,000 households, just 0.01 percent of taxpayers, had income exceeding $10 million.)

He said somewhere that he would not be running if he didn't think he would be healthy enough to.
Also, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/bernie-sanders-medical-records-218330

Sadly, I cannot vote, but I am helping in a lot of ways. I do agree with a lot of Bernie's views.

I understand that not everyone has the same views as me, but I'd appreciate it if you would not judge me for the political views that I have.

I just turned eighteen this past year, so I pretty much already have my vote in my pocket ready to drop off at the embassy.

I do not affiliate with a political party, I'm an Independent.

I support Trump.. why?

Sanders certainly is a good candidate for those who are without benefits such as attendance to higher education facilities, but for those who work hard to make a large, honest income, he is not so nice. In my county, the median household income in my county is ranked seventeenth in the US, second in California at $90,535 per year. A large sum of these people make greater than $415,015 annually with an income tax of 39.6%. In Sanders' master plan, he plans to hike the income tax to 52% for individuals earning a surplus of $250,000.

In the views of myself and my family, Trump is not the better candidate only for his views on taxes, but also for his experience. It seems to be overlooked when the masses are criticizing Trump's policies, but did you know that he is 72nd richest person in the world? He is a successful businessman, and I'd like to think he knows what he's doing.

Trump also has a very intelligent way of going about his campaign. Bad press..? Doesn't exist. When you as a presidential candidate say something barbaric, insane, or just flat-out out-there, the press will eat it up and you will be pasted all over the front page. Whether it is good or bad, it's practically free advertising. There's a reason that Trump is the most heard-about Republican candidate. I currently live in Italy, and when confronted to discuss the election, most think that Trump is the sole candidate for Republican Party.

He's appealing to many citizens of the United States because:
- He is confident, charismatic
- He is different, something new
- He is unpredictable, follows no set of unwritten rules
- He is a successful
- He plays the fool
- He speaks with no-holds-barred, honest

Many seem to criticize his speeches. Before putting your emotions in the way, recognize the power that his words carry, and how his phrasing is simplistic for even the youngest viewers. Compare him to Hitler if you will, but keep in mind that Hitler was a propaganda mastermind.. years ahead of his time.

I in no way condone the actions of, nor do I support Hitler.

If you were able to read all the way through to here without writing an angry post in response, I thank you. I don't mind responding to any questions you may have.

Sources:
Bernie Sanders Tax Plan: http://time.com/4194179/bernie-sanders-tax-plan/ ; http://taxvox.taxpolicycenter.org/2016/01/19/bernie-sanders-is-proposing-really-big-tax-increases/
Income Tax US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax_in_the_United_States
Highest Income Counties US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-income_counties_in_the_United_States
Forbes 100 List: http://www.forbes.com/profile/donald-trump/

arent both candidates idiots why dont we VOTE LUXPRESIDENT

Yay we got an Iowan . Can't wait to chip in this evening and also find out results of the voting. Thanks everyone for not having staff come in and close this! I knew we could do it.

Just to say. That is the marginal tax rate on ordinary income. As your parents or their accountant could probably explain their effective tax rate on all income is considerably lower. Most likely lower than someone that makes a tiny fraction of what they do. You are probably also aware that Trump has not put out his tax returns yet. He will do it but he is most assuredly trying to figure out how he can put a good spin on that he probably paid around 15% tax on some unbelievable amount of income. Remember the last time Romney ran? When he put his out he paid an effective rate of 13.9% on over $3 million in income. I know the wealthy want to put out, "oh poor me, everyone wants my money", but the truth is they are getting away with murder in this country.

I see where you are coming from, but wouldn't it be wise to use the primary source instead?
https://berniesanders.com/issues/medicare-for-all/

Confident, yes. I wouldn't call him charismatic.

They don't do much for me or many others. He also sounds really angry in most of them. I don't know if that's because of how those of us in Europe are used to people being calm when doing these kinds of things, but it just makes me look at him as if he's some hilariously angry toddler. Then again, I'm used to hearing Jeremy Corbyn do 'speeches', and I like the idea of someone being calm when getting their point across (he doesn't argue in the House of Commons, but David Cameron tries to incite that stuff). When David Cameron does his speeches, he'll usually mess up halfway through and even if he doesn't he also sounds like a rampaging toddler.

I understand I was using base numbers and percentages, and was not going into detail for the sake of length; it's only for a basis of understanding. I wasn't referring to my parents when I said "$415,015" annual income, that was the minimum required income for the 39.6% bracket.

I didn't follow the 2012 election, so I don't know much about Romney's campaign. What does murder have to do with this?

I spent four years in the U.S. Navy working as an intelligence specialist. If I had handled top secret items in the same fashion which she did I would have enjoyed a 30 year prison stint at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Keep in mind, the intent to do wrong is not the issue here. It is incumbent upon each individual read into such programs to handle associated materials in a manner consistent with regulations and the law. You can get into trouble and be severely punished for not doing so whether you meant to or simply made a mistake. It's that serious.

That being said, the only person who can beat Hillary is Hillary. The Democrats enjoy a huge advantage in the electoral college system used for deciding presidential elections and she has friends with very, very deep pockets on Wall Street. She's already raised over $163 million dollars and the primaries are just getting underway.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/elections/election-2016-campaign-money-race.html?_r=0

I don't see anything other than massive felonious scandal derailing her bid at this point. If the Attorney General decides to prosecute her based upon the FBI's recommendations, then all bids are off. Until such time though, the odds are that she will handily become the next president of the United States.

Submitted for everyone's consideration without bias. I am supporting no candidate at this time.

I had no reason to check the campaign website as I had a credible source. With these new numbers, it still stands that it will be raised by around 5% for people who make greater than $400,000 a year, supposing they are married, putting them in the second bracket between $500,000 and $2,000,000 as a base.

The problem with the campaign website's percentages, is it doesn't list the different income margins for whether you are married (filing jointly or separately), single, or the household head.

I'm glad you see where I'm coming from though, because even if I didn't have the precise percentages, it is still evident that he is going after the richer, giving to the poorer.. a 'robin hood' if you will.

From the campaign website:
"Limit tax deductions for rich."
"..households making over $250,000 would no longer be able to save more than 28 cents in taxes from every dollar in tax deductions. This limit would replace more complicated and less effective limits on tax breaks for the rich.."
"The typical middle class family would save over $5,000 under this plan."

What you view as angry others may view as passionate and be drawn to it.

It's a term is all. It means that the wealthy are getting away with contributing much less than they should be. Certainly much less than the middle class. And as Bernie has said, "it is a rigged system". Due to the laxing of political contribution regulations the wealthy can contribute millions to political campaigns. Guess who that candidate will be beholden to. The person that helped get them elected. You don't have to be a genius to figure that out. Who would you be nice to? The person that gave you $10 million dollars or the person that gave you nothing because they aren't rich?And guess what the rich people that contributed the money want to do? Get richer of course! That's why the tax code is so screwed up. Unless we as a society stand up it is only going to get worse. The rich will further solidify their control over the political system.

'Getting away with murder' is a figure of speech. You use it to kind of emphasise when somebody could get away with almost anything.

I see, thanks for the explanation!

Unfortunately, the world isn't fair. It isn't as if the poor could control the political system? If you consider a teacher with a $44,000 annual salary poor, then I'm not sure what you consider 'middle-class'. It always seems to have the rich painted as evil, but don't most make their fortunes honestly?

You are correct. I'm not trying to portray the rich as evil just concerned about advancing their agenda which is at odds with 99% of the rest of the population. And that this 1% can now control the political process to the detriment of everyone else. There used to be limits on what one person could contribute to a political campaign to try to level the playing field and keep individual extremely rich people from controlling our political leaders. Those limits are now gone and I fear for the future of this country. There is a book called Dark Money that is about the Coke brothers and degradation of the political system you should read.