US Politics January 2018: "You All Just Got A Lot Richer"

Wow, $11/hour is almost a living wage!

breathless Russia junk

Feb thread title please

seriously, no one is forcing you to read or contribute

just trying to help a HOOS out since I didn't think he'd get much of a response to his q here

you might have said the thread is about politics, not policy

ok guys

the Wal-Mart news is interesting, it's hard to argue it's not at least relatively a Good Thing, no matter how clearly disingenuous. I've seen headlines though where some of the companies who've already handed out Tax Bill-related bonuses are also laying off workers, so I certainly wouldn't be shocked to see Wal-Mart follow suit eventually, once this trickle-down policy improbably shits the bed once again.

yeah it's "good" in the short term but there's much worse news coming for the bulk of these workers over the next decade

'Trickle down' in this instance being something like winning the lottery and bumping your kids' allowance up by a buck fifty.

'Trickle down' in this instance being something like winning the lottery and bumping your kids' allowance up by a buck fifty.

Yeah, has anyone done the maths to figure out what proportion of the post-Tax Bill windfall is going to the Walmart employees?

what are the expanded maternity benefits?

You become eligible for Wal-Mart maternity benefits only if you also indenture your child to become a Wal-Mart employee. That's how people will get to that awesome thousand-dollar "20 years of service" bonus. Win-win!

"I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office"

can anyone parse this

nvm i googled

Walmart said the changes will benefit the retailer's more than 1 million hourly employees across the country and will go into effect as soon as February. The wage increases in particular are expected to add about $300 million in costs to what Walmart was already planning for the upcoming fiscal year.

so wage increases will add up to an increase of around $300 million a year.

Walmart will also pay a one-time cash bonus to eligible employees of as much as $1,000. The payouts, which should total roughly $400 million, will result in a one-time charge that the company will take in the fourth quarter of this year.

and another $400 million for the one-time payouts. so an $700 million increase in costs for wal-mart in 2017, and a $300 million increase for subsequent years.

Wal-Mart's net profit has hovered around 13 to 17 billion the last several years (https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/wmt/financials). so even without the tax cut, paying their workers a little better will make their profits dip from like, 15 billion to 14.5 billion. fucking assholes.

i'm not sure how much they'll save annually from the corporate tax rate dropping from 35 to 21%. but an 2014 analysis by Americans for Tax Fairness (barf), reported in this nation article found that even a cut from 35 to 25% “might save at least $720 million more in U.S. income taxes each year based on the profits it made and the taxes it paid from 2008 to 2012.”

i don't know why i'm typing all this out. everyone already knows wal-mart could have afforded to this a long time ago if they cared about their own employees (or people). but it looks like the costs of the employee raises will be more than compensated by the savings from the cut to the corporate tax rate, while they still make 15 billion profit per year. even without the tax cut, their profits dwarf the cost of wage increases. and that doesn't even take into account all the tax loopholes and offshore havens that they're already taking advantage of.

http://cdn.smosh.com/sites/default/files/2014/09/scooby-doo-unmasking.jpg

"I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process."

nothing shocking there but thanks for the numbers to confirm it KM

lol does he agree with FISA or not ?

Americans for Tax Fairness (barf)

i strike the barf, they look like a good organization.

barf

i've been in an awful mood for several months and just the name made me want to barf, sorry

Yeah, thanks for parsing, KM. Pretty much exactly what I expected. Nothing that either contributes much in the way of material improvements to the lives of Wal-Mart employees or scuttles a Wal-Mart executive's ability to purchase a seventh yacht this year. But the optics!

lol does he agree with FISA or not ?

― (•̪●) (carne asada), Thursday, January 11, 2018 4:03 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it seems like he agrees with it being used to surveil The Bad Guys on Foreign Lands but not when used to Tapp Trump Tower

I would like to legalize punching people in the face except where it's still illegal to punch me in my face, how do I do that

just become president

lol @ Americans for Tax Fairness trying to dupe libertarians who support Americans For Fair Taxation

Personally I'm for the People's Front of Judea.

Anyway "but the optics" indeed. Have seen plenty of smug-as-fuck right-wing crowing about the many, many businesses giving out "Trump bonuses" because now they can suddenly afford it, now that the Government is Getting Out of the Way.

Clearly meant to deflate all the smug lefty "lol white working class voting against their own interests by enriching plutocrats" talking points.

So it's transparent, it's laughably meager, it's horribly cynical... and it's also probably going to work.

yeah, it sucks to imagine all those conversations happening right now in wal-marts across the country. "sweet, we got a raise!" - "yeah, it's because of trump's tax cuts" - "wow, really? well, i guess he does some good things, at least", etc etc

thanks for laying it out, KM, and I totally expected these raises wouldn't take more than the tiniest of bites out of Wal-Mart's profits. my point was more just frustration with how easily the corporate class and their idiot president can spin this bill into a win and how difficult it is to push back against that narrative, especially when real people will be seeing more real money in their wallets.

xpost...yep

Was an $11 starting wage at Walmart coming anyway? Target just moved to $11 and is apparently pledged to go to $15. It was just good timing that Walmart could use it to propagandize for tax cuts.

this seems to be blowing up:

ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) -- Governor Eric Greitens on Wednesday night confirmed to News 4 he had an extramarital affair, an admission a months-long News 4 investigation prompted.

In a recording obtained by News 4, a woman says she had a sexual encounter with Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens and that he tried to blackmail her to keep the encounter quiet.

The details were provided to News 4 by the woman’s ex-husband, claiming the sexual relationship happened between his now ex-wife and Greitens in March 2015. News 4 is not naming the woman and she has not made an on-the-record comment about the story.

http://www.kmov.com/story/37240190/governor-greitens-admits-to-extramarital-affair

if i'm reading that correctly, the MO gov had a fun sexy time by taping the other person's hands to some sort of workout rings / pull-up device, then took a picture of her naked and used it as blackmail

The "Trump bonus" is a PR effort that is very deliberately targeted (no pun intended) to head off any disillusionment or disappointment that might be rising in Rust Belt / blue-collar wypipo in advance of this year's midterm elections.

Not that I credit Trump with having "ideas," or making "plans." But the GOP strategy is definitely to isolate and label all anti-Trump sentiment as an effete affectation, a craze that only afflicts coastal liberals and the media (which are the same thing).

(even though trump is a coastal elite and fox news is the media too)

wow liberal fake news station KMOV don't mention that when Eric Greitens had that sexual relationship he was a DEMOCRAT... more evidence that you can't trust the FAKE NEWS liberal media

THANKS FOR THE MATHS KM!

The "Trump bonus" is a PR effort that is very deliberately targeted (no pun intended) to head off any disillusionment or disappointment that might be rising in Rust Belt / blue-collar wypipo in advance of this year's midterm elections.

I'm reminded of an ex of mine who insisted Wal-Mart got a bad rap and was actually great, evidence being that a 20something friend of hers had cashed out his 401k and traveled for some time. Anecdotal cash--checkmate, lefties.

man fuck all these corps - most which have NEVER paid the nominal corporate rate, who've seen record-setting growth, earnings, productivity since the recession - who are now trying to con their employees into thinking they can FINALLY give them a minuscule raise or bonus thanks to this stupid tax bill.

and fuck me, it'll probably work. another couple rounds of polling and i'm sure a comfortable majority of doughy american idiots will view it favorably.

or yeah what Karl said.

we will basically never have nice things.

Karl & YMP, that is.

i've no doubt this will be chalked up as a GOP win in the medium term. and by the time the fallout happens the Dems will for some reason take the hit bc hey why not. they're in charge now and stymieing our business genious president.

Breaking: Medicaid will allow states to create a work requirement for "able-bodied" adults to qualify for Medicaid. The new policy marks the first time Medicaid has allowed states to impose such requirements as a precondition of coverage.

— NPR (@NPR) January 11, 2018

oh jfc

I would on the one hand encourage people to analogize this insulting turn of events in terms that might make more immediate sense to a Wal-Mart employee (just in terms of the percentage of Wal-Mart's profits which are affected applied to an hourly employee's paycheck to illustrate how infinitesimally small a figure it is) but on the other hand I know how big a deal a $2/hour increase can be when you're earning a dirt wage and how disinclined you might be under those circumstances to look a gift horse in the mouth. Which is to say, yes, the cynical optics will probably go over like gangbusters.

Federal officials said they would support state efforts to require able-bodied adults to engage in work or other “community engagement activities” as a condition of eligibility for Medicaid.

“Our fundamental goal is to make a positive and lasting difference in the health and wellness of our beneficiaries, and today’s announcement is a step in that direction,” said Seema Verma, the administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

...In a speech to state Medicaid officials in November, Ms. Verma indicated that the Trump administration would be receptive to work requirements and other conservative policy ideas to reshape Medicaid. And she criticized the Obama administration, saying it had focused on increasing Medicaid enrollment rather than helping people move out of poverty and into jobs.

“Believing that community engagement requirements do not support or promote the objectives of Medicaid is a tragic example of the soft bigotry of low expectations consistently espoused by the prior administration,” Ms. Verma said. “Those days are over.”

oh fuck off

so bigoted of them to expect that people with no money will not be able to afford health care

xps - I have occasionally worked for large corporations.

One might wonder aloud, "jeez, the chuckleheads at the top make millions, and the company itself has cash reserves in the billions, why we hafta be stingy about making one-sided copies?"

Many of my colleagues would be like, "well, they must know something we don't. They're at the top, after all, and we're just here in the mailroom." I assume that many Wal-Mart employees would take the same view of it.

Yeah, I can look at the man in the mirror for an example of same. Constantly hearing about the millions more we make for the company every year while getting a perfunctory annual raise that allows me to purchase a fancy sandwich every week without compromising my budget.

from a friend who's spent several years campaigning & organizing at wal-mart:

"they did a big wage hike a few years ago when there was a lot more organizing going on in their shops, but that can't really be a factor now. i'd guess it has more to do with falling unemployment rate and more competition in low wage labor markets, plus rising minimum wages in lots of states. also worth noting that every time they do an hourly wage hike like this they tend to cut hours"

Believing that community engagement requirements do not support or promote the objectives of Medicaid is a tragic example of the soft bigotry of low expectations consistently espoused by the prior administration,” Ms. Verma said. “Those days are over.”

This being the previous administration headed by someone repeatedly mocked by Republicans as a "community organizer."

the relentless cruelty of this crew, in ways large and small, is psychologically debilitating. I admit I have not been personally effected by these changes---yet--- but the steady stream and my desire to stay informed has the cumulative effect of making me dread facing each day, even as I go about my daily business. Much like climate change - don't call it warming(!) -- I wonder if this is simply the new normal.

AFAIC the only thing I can control is my own complicity in allowing it to become the new normal. Don't know if that's helpful at all. It's only occasionally so for me.

Like, hey, maximize the personal kindness and at least know that you're not part of the problem.

someone tell Ms Verma that jobs are mostly obsolete