The White House

[Marokai Backbeat]

I hereby pardon Devilman88. He has served over a month of his punishment so far and I believe that to be enough, as his crime was not malicious and he has indicated to me that he wants to continue to contribute to Atlasia (and has done so in the past).

Well done, he deserved it.

(sigh)

Reading the Constitution, this type of move could lead to interesting litigation down the road.

Of course, maybe I'm wrong.  Especially since no one ever seems much interested in reading the Constitution.

Certainly not! I didn't think such a case would interest you, since it's not another opportunity for you to justify your homophobia in wordy legalese.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Does the health care bill replace Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP?

If not, I have a few concerns.

I don't know about SCHIP but I did author an amendment that phased out Medicare and Medicaid and transfers the funding and personnel from those programs to the new health care program.

[Marokai Backbeat]

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Emphasis mine.

[Marokai Backbeat]

News Flash: Our so-called "active" President is silent on domestic issues despite the absolutely terrible shape of our economy.

You're literally the only one who thinks so.

I honestly don't know where you've gotten the absolutely insane idea that Lief doesn't take an interest in or comment on domestic issues.

I would prefer $9.50 or better yet $12.50 but that won't pass for sure. This will have to do.

I would also support enacting a living wage, but I don't think that that could pass the Senate. I would happily sign such a bill though.

I'm fairly opposed to keeping the current employer-provided health insurance system in place. The entire system is an accident of history, and doesn't really make any sense at all. I'd prefer not to simply to a bandaid over it by throwing around subsidies and tax breaks.

Would that be $30,000 per employee or $30,000 regardless of the number of employees?

Don't we already have some pretty sizable tax breaks and/or subsidies for buying fuel efficient cars? Or am I misremembering?

I strongly support this bill and I thank Senator NC Yankee for introducing it. Restoring the flow of credit, along with stimulus spending which we have already dealt with, will be essential to ending this economic downturn and rebuilding the Atlasian economy.

I'd like to applaud the Senate for really debating this bill in depth and offering constructive amendments. I worked with Senators Marokai Blue and MaxQue to write a bill that would provide the foundation for an economy recovery, by giving much needed relief to struggling families and regional/local governments and getting the economy moving again, by employing out of work Atlasians in projects that won't just put them back to work but lead to a stronger economy and a stronger country in the long run.

I fully support Senators Purple State's and North Carolina Yankee's amendments to increase infrastructure spending, and I hope that the Senate adds them to the bill.

I agree with Marokai's argument here. What other bills has this Senate ever passed that required the individual approval of the regions? At the end of the day, the Senate has its spending domain and the regions have theirs; if a region believes that the Senate has overstepped their "spending domain" under the constitution with this bill, then they may bring their case to the courts.

I'd like to thank the Senate for working so diligently and debating so passionately on this important piece of legislation. This bill will help the Atlasian economy and the Atlasian worker weather the worst of this recession and allow us to emerge from it stronger and more prosperous than before.

This bill has my full support. Like I said during the campaign, it's time that Atlasia joins the rest of the developed world and insures that every citizen has quality healthcare.

And what do you propose we do with all the jobs that the plan will destroy? In the middle of a major recession.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/396919?rel=hp_picks

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I don't know that this plan would destroy that very man jobs. Sure, private insurance plans would no doubt need to cut back (and I am fine with section f being removed), but private insurance companies still exist and are profitable in many countries with public insurance plans. At the same time, the government would no doubt need to hire many people to run the new program. Finally, by removing the burden of providing health insurance to employees, we would be helping out many struggling businesses, from small businesses right up to large corporations like the auto makers, which would in the long run save jobs and prevent wage cuts.

Also, if this bill does not pass and I still believe that it can, I would not sign on to any bill that did not include a robust public option available to all Atlasians, especially if it includes a mandate to buy insurance, as that would essentially amount to a health insurance company bailout.

This is also one issue that has caused me to worry on this bill. With so many new patients, will there be enough doctors to cover them all, and will people who really need to see the Doctor have to be put on a long waiting list, even though they need to see him A.S.A.P.?

Other countries with universal health care don't have this problem, so I don't see why we would, provided we took steps to increase the number of people training to be doctors (as the Vice President suggested), modernized health information systems (as many have suggested), built new hospitals (which can be done with stimulus money), etc.

And besides that, I don't think the government should be telling people that they shouldn't smoke or drink beyond a reasonable point. And a 50% tax on those activities isn't very reasonable. With alcohol especially (though with cigarettes too to a certain degree) there aren't serious life-threatening health complications unless there is frequent unhealthy use. And if someone is an alcoholic, as the honorable Midwestern Lt. Governor pointed out, a sin tax isn't going to get them to quit.

[Marokai Backbeat]

I'd be willing to compromise (if the Senate agrees) to make this bill only apply to public/government-owned buildings and places (parks, public transportation, etc.), but I really don't think we should be telling private establishments what to do in this situation. I feel the free market does a pretty adequate job of dealing with the issue, and if people want to smoke or expose themselves to second-hand smoke, they know the risks.

I realize this will likely be over-ridden, but convictions and such, you know. I continue to believe that this is a local issue that should be decided on an establishment-by-establishment basis, and not a one size fits all government ban.

With the powers granted to my office by the 19th amendment, I redraft this bill as follows and return it to the Senate:

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Hamilton, I think you're misunderstanding Sen. Franzl. What this bill would do, if I'm reading it correctly, is ensure that, no matter regional law, someone convinced of DUI shall pay at least a $2000 fine. If the region doesn't want any of that money, they set their regional fine at $0 and the person convicted of DUI will pay all $2000 to the federal government. If the region wants to set their regional fine at $2000, then the person pays $2000 to the region and $0 to the federal government. If the region wants to set their regional fine at $10,000, then the person pays $10,000 to the region and $0 to the federal government. It's really a pretty elegant solution to the problems of 1) double punishment and 2) lax regional laws.

You guys do realize that a 0.5 BAC would mean that most people could only have one drink before driving? That seems awfully draconian.

And this doesn't take into account the several other posts on domestic issues I didn't copy here, all of his posts just casually talking to other Senators here, any of his posts on foreign policy issues, or his dozens of posts on the other board!

Lief has been an incredibly active President, much much more active than his predecessors. I think you need some historical perspective here.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Thank you for that spirited defense, Marokai. I'd also like to add that I wrote a good portion of the stimulus bill submitted to the Senate and conferred with Fritz while he was writing the national health bill.

That you did.

I think anyone here would be hard-pressed to find a more active office-holder in recent months. Phil, Moderate, and Bgwah all never reached your level of legislative involvement.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Thank you for that spirited defense, Marokai. I'd also like to add that I wrote a good portion of the stimulus bill submitted to the Senate and conferred with Fritz while he was writing the national health bill.

That you did.

I think anyone here would be hard-pressed to find a more active office-holder in recent months. Phil, Moderate, and Bgwah all never reached your level of legislative involvement.

not content to get thrown under the bus, I'll point out that most the legislation passed during my presidency was written by yours truly.

Not meant to bash anyone, just saying.

I have seen some of the debates in this board from your Presidency, it's not like you were MIA.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Echoing BK, two bills have passed and need your signature. I wouldn't have moved on Senate business without them, but I can't very well withdraw bills now.

Here they are:

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=102250.msg2181084#msg2181084

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=102232.msg2181102#msg2181102

[Marokai Backbeat]

Echoing BK, two bills have passed and need your signature. I wouldn't have moved on Senate business without them, but I can't very well withdraw bills now.

Here they are:

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=102250.msg2181084#msg2181084

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=102232.msg2181102#msg2181102

Two more, mister President, before the Senate moves on to other issues:

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=102787.0

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=103041.0

[Marokai Backbeat]

Echoing BK, two bills have passed and need your signature. I wouldn't have moved on Senate business without them, but I can't very well withdraw bills now.

Here they are:

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=102250.msg2181084#msg2181084

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=102232.msg2181102#msg2181102

Two more, mister President, before the Senate moves on to other issues:

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=102787.0

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=103041.0

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=103268.0

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=103300.0

[Marokai Backbeat]

I'm stunned, BM. I'm quite sad to see you go, this was really unexpected. I wish you the best in your future endeavors.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Here's a bit of an ignorant question though

Since I'm PPT and a Senator, surely I don't open my own hearing and vote on myself..

[Marokai Backbeat]

You're too hard on us, Spade. It's just called confusion with Atlasian procedure.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Under the current law, we have a "line of succession" of sorts, but its less structured than an actual line.

Earlier the President cited Section 9 of the Consolidated Electoral System Reform Act, which states that he can take control of the voting booth whenever the SoFA is unable to do it himself. It could be more structured, though.

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[Marokai Backbeat]

I just want to state the fairly obvious in that you should pick objective and fair people. Since it requires unanimous votes to actually get rid of people, just one stubborn biased individual could throw the entire organization off-kilter, so please pick fair people.

[Marokai Backbeat]

So Bacon King is now filling in for the PPT and for the President. Anyone know if that's ever happened before?

And Jas wanted to eliminate the Vice Presidency..

[Marokai Backbeat]

I'll be off to tour Europe tomorrow, to meet with important heads of state, including Prime Minister Brown, President Sarkozy, Chancellor Merkel and the EU leadership during my diplomatic tour of the continent.

I'm very sad for you.

He is easy to recognize. He is the little man besides the very tall smokin hot woman.

Corrected

Men.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Hopefully it's someone that can spice the office up a bit.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Thats been tried before, and he can't do it.

President have no right to give commutation nor clemency? Seriously?

That court has said such, yes.

[Marokai Backbeat]

And so HAEV claims it's first victim without even actually doing anything yet.

Agents of Chaos: 1
Game Reformers: 0

[Marokai Backbeat]

HAEV hasn't done anything yet.

You're a complete ignoramus if you believe that an organization that has yet to use it's power in any way is trying to craft a "one-party state." You and your ilk are the only ones making it overtly political.

[Marokai Backbeat]

HAEV hasn't done anything yet.

You're a complete ignoramus if you believe that an organization that has yet to use it's power in any way is trying to craft a "one-party state." You and your ilk are the only ones making it overtly political.

We oppose the JCP/DA unholy alliance monopolising the game. The HAEV has been hijacked by the likes of Antonio to try and destroy the POP.

"We oppose"? What are you people, the Borg?

As I said, HAEV hasn't exercised any of it's power yet whatsoever. Complaining about it's effects when there has been no action taken is nonsense. Also, Antonio is not part of HAEV, and you're guilty of equally partisan nominations. The way you've apparently gotten a free pass in that regard is absurd.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Now hush guys. We have to make sure the mods do absolutely nothing about it.