a ) Trump sent Federal law enforcement to Portland to protect Federal buildings because the city was failing to do so. Are you calling protecting Federal property authoritarianism? Likewise,
I doubt if Biden sent Federal law enforcement to protect Federal property, that right wing pundits would explode. They did get concerned when Democrats deployed 20,000 National Guard troops in Washington, but I suspect they would have been less concerned if Democrats had simply beefed-up security around Federal buildings.
b) Actually, CDC finally broke down and admitted (in case you missed it, they did not broadcast this latest publication), that none of the things they did to stop the spread of Covid were effective including vaccinations. Vaccines were helpful in helping prevent Covid from progressing to moderate or severe disease. Our higher mortality rates under Biden and Trump have been largely attributed to our higher obesity rates and the related co-morbidities.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/08/obesity-and-covid-deaths/
c. The search of Trump's home was unprecedented. There is no evidence that the documents were anywhere other than storage boxes and so far, no evidence has been revealed to suggest why "a raid" was necessary. If the FBI is raiding the homes of prior Presidents without White House knowledge, that speaks volumes for Biden's incompetence. Someone in the White House knew what was going on... and like what we found out through Durham, things were more political than what was first presented to the public.
d) Trump and Biden have a right to talk bad about the media... Obama and Biden have both criticized Fox. The issue is when the White House asks for individuals to be censored, don't conflate the two.
e) Trump did nothing illegal during the election of 2020. He was concerned that the election was tampered with and did try to explore all legal remedies. At this point, Congress has given up claiming he was responsible for the January 6th riot and is now claiming he fail to act when it was happening. Less well known, is Trump authorized the 20,000 National Guard troops to be available for either the Mayor of DC or Pelosi to call upon if needed. The Mayor ultimately called upon those troops after the damage was done. Trump has no legal authority to intervene in security at the Capitol building for what should be obvious reasons.
2. If your argument is that both Republicans and Democrats spend too much, you won't get any argument from me. But the recent spending by Biden's administration is unprecedented since 1945.
Social Security was supposed to be a disability program, not a retirement program. I have no issue with the government running a "disability insurance program" or even requirement people save for their retirement. But the government took the money for other programs and so it is now funding out of current revenues the benefits that would have been funded by contributions if they had been invested. Don't know your age, but several decades ago government ended the charade that your social security dollars were being kept separate from general tax revenues. If the private sector did what the government is doing, they would go to jail for breach of fiduciary duty responsibility.
You don't get it. I paid into my 401(k) for about 15 years before my income level prohibited me from participating under government "Top Hat" limits. A total of around $125K. Then for the last 28 years, that amount has simply been compounding without any additional contributions. Today, it is worth more than $500K and if I annuitize it over my lifetime, my monthly benefit would around $4K almost twice what I get from social security even though I paid far more into it... It not getting back what you put in... that's like saving money in your mattress...
Fiscal legislation happens in the House. The Senate pretty much is limited to yeah vs nay. So, the House does the real spending. The Senate can force the House to put a few "bribes" into the bills to get enough "yes" votes, but it really doesn't not craft fiscal bills or entitlement programs.
The Senate and "small states" have much more influence on non-fiscal legislation since that requires 60 votes to override a filibuster.
Candidates concentrate on the big cities because that is where all the votes are. Money is raised through fundraisers not speeches.
It is a misnomer that the richer states are "funding" the poor states. When you granularize spending much of it is not the government spending money in those states, but people spending their Social Security and receiving Medicare benefits who retired to the South because it costs less to live there, and the winters are better. In contrast, red states in cold climates don't fare as well... In theory, these people are not redirecting government spending by moving, but simply taking what should be 'their money', that the government was "holding for them" with them.
