Politics Democrats have owned this state for decades - what do we have to show for it?

[Lanny]

For the price it costs to run TriMet you could buy every taxpayer a car and give them free gas for life.

If only that were true.
https://www.stlouisfed.org/publicat...all-2004/the-costs-and-benefits-of-light-rail

 

[MARIS61]

We have a serious air quality problem right now. I'd like to see more light rail. Every light rail passenger is one less auto passenger.

We import our air from Asia via the jet stream. The crap in our air, the trash on our beaches, mostly from Asia.

Oddly enough, they have more mass transit than we do.

 

[Lanny]

Another bridge to WA benefits some Portlanders, but Portlanders need to pay for it. On the rare occasion that I travel in WA I cross up in the gorge.

The I-5 bridge to Vancouver benefits the residents of Vancouver the most. So, why should Portlanders pay the cost of their convenience?
I think a toll road with light rail connecting the two cities is the optimum way to go.

 

[MARIS61]

If only that were true.
https://www.stlouisfed.org/publicat...all-2004/the-costs-and-benefits-of-light-rail

Communism.

Additionally, the burden for most light-rail costs is placed on America's taxpayers-even those who don't ride light rail.

 

[MarAzul]

We have a serious air quality problem right now. I'd like to see more light rail. Every light rail passenger is one less auto passenger.

A light rail fan, hey Lanny?

Do you take light rail to your VA appointments?
Do you take light rail to the Blazer games?
Do you take light rail when you go out to dinner?

When do you take light rail? Do you ever take the train on long trips? If so, how to you get to the train station?

 

[Lanny]

We import our air from Asia via the jet stream. The crap in our air, the trash on our beaches, mostly from Asia.

Oddly enough, they have more mass transit than we do.

There's this little thing called size of the population, which is huge. You're gonna get some dirty air and floating trash from somewhere around 2-3 Billion people.
In Korea, when I was last there about ten or 15 years ago, they didn't even have light rail. They did have people trains but they were much heavier and larger than light rail. Public transportation was amazingly cheap and ubiquitous.

 

[Natebishop3]

My son HAS healthcare because of democrats.

Republicans voted 50x to repeal his healthcare and take us back to the days where pre existing condition meant something.

Knute Bueler wanted to BLOCK GRANT Medicaid.

Cutting my son's healthcare is what Republicans have tried to do.

Fuck them.

I didn't ask about federal government. I asked what state democrats have done for us in the past 40 years since they have taken complete control of our state.

 

[barfo]

For the price it costs to run TriMet you could buy every taxpayer a car and give them free gas for life.

False.

barfo

 

[barfo]

We import our air from Asia via the jet stream. The crap in our air, the trash on our beaches, mostly from Asia.

Oddly enough, they have more mass transit than we do.

True. Mass transit does not reduce garbage, and mass transit does not make coal burn cleaner. IT DOES HOWEVER INCREASE YOUR SPERM COUNT!

barfo

 

[barfo]

Communism.

Additionally, the burden for most light-rail costs is placed on America's taxpayers-even those who don't ride light rail.

Same for freeways.

barfo

 

[e_blazer]

We have a serious air quality problem right now. I'd like to see more light rail. Every light rail passenger is one less auto passenger.

No we don't. We have occasional issues when there's an air temperature inversion or forest fires. Here's the EPA data for PDX for the past five years

 

[dviss1]

I didn't ask about federal government. I asked what state democrats have done for us in the past 40 years since they have taken complete control of our state.

Again, Kate Brown funded my son's healthcare.

They didn't cover kids in Florida.

 

[Boob-No-More]

Someone please tell me what positives the past 30 years of Democrat governors has yielded. I'm looking for actual examples.

A thriving high tech industry that's created tens of thousands of high paying jobs to replace those of the dying timber and fishing industries.

You can argue the good/bad trade-offs that came with those jobs and the associated growth, but if we'd have had Republican governors for the last 30 years I doubt we have the high tech industry we currently have. Republicans have traditionally tried to prop up dying industries with tax subsidies as a way of pandering to their core voter base, but in the case where the supply of product is being rapidly depleted, those are band-aid approaches that don't offer long term solutions.

Making chips and selling software is more sustainable than cutting down old growth forests and fishing our rivers barren.

BNM

 

[Natebishop3]

Again, Kate Brown funded my son's healthcare.

They didn't cover kids in Florida.

Why does she get credit and not Obama?

 

[dviss1]

It's silly to think that you don't get any benefit from light rail even if you don't use it.

It's good for everyone to have less cars on the road.

Who the hell is arguing for more cars?

 

[Natebishop3]

A thriving high tech industry that's created tens of thousands of high paying jobs to replace those of the dying timber and fishing industries.

You can argue the good/bad trade-offs that came with those jobs and the associated growth, but if we'd have had Republican governors for the last 30 years I doubt we have the high tech industry we currently have. Republicans have traditionally tried to prop up dying industries with tax subsidies as a way of pandering to their core voter base, but in the case where the supply of product is being rapidly depleted, those are band-aid approaches that don't offer long term solutions.

Making chips and selling software is more sustainable than cutting down old growth forests and fishing our rivers barren.

BNM

I knew I could count on BNM to come in here and provide something more interesting than legalized weed, higher minimum wage and mass transit.

 

[Natebishop3]

It's silly to think that you don't get any benefit from light rail even if you don't use it.

It's good for everyone to have less cars on the road.

Who the hell is arguing for more cars?

I would argue for a better roadway system.

Example - the Sunset Highway tunnel that goes into Portland. It's a total joke and should have been replaced decades ago.

 

[dviss1]

Why does she get credit and not Obama?

He does. But so does she. Read up:

https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/11/kate_brown_changes_course_dema.html

Kate Brown changes course, demands $64 million Medicaid repayment

Gov. Kate Brown on Tuesday directed the state's top health official to seek repayment of $64 million in Medicaid money that the state wrongly sent to health care organizations.

The governor sent the letter a day after her likely Republican opponent in the 2018 election, Rep. Knute Buehler of Bend, wrote his own letter calling for the governor to recoup the money.

The Oregonian/OregonLive first disclosed the Medicaid overpayments, which it learned about through a public records request, last week.

In her first public statement on the issue last week, Brown did not call for repayment. State health authority leaders said at the time that unidentified previous agency "leadership" had made a policy decision not to ask health care groups it contracts with to pay back the $64 million.

Brown's letter directs them to reverse that stance. Brown wrote in the letter to Patrick Allen, acting director of the Oregon Health Authority, that "taxpayers are counting on you to take to take swift action and have zero tolerance for the waste of their taxpayer dollars."

In his critique of Brown's management, Buehler also called for Brown to appoint an independent lawyer to investigate the overpayments and release her administration's communications on the issue. But Brown has not directly responded to those suggestions. The governor said last week she only learned of the problem in mid-October.

In her directive Tuesday, Brown requested that Allen submit a written report on the issue every two weeks and develop a dedicated website on which to publish public records requests and related documents. She commended Allen for being "dogged and transparent" since taking the top job at the health authority in August.

Brown installed Allen to replace Lynne Saxton, who resigned under fire after agency documents revealed the health authority plotted to smear an adversarial health care organization. The health authority has struggled to effectively administer the Medicaid program that was vastly expanded by the Affordable Care Act.

It's at least the second time this year Brown has asked the health agency to provide regular updates on its work to resolve Medicaid problems. In May, Brown demanded weekly updates as the department struggled to clear a backlog of Medicaid eligibility checks.

The overpayments, which totaled $74 million from 2014 through 2016 according to the health authority, occurred because the state incorrectly enrolled people in Medicaid, apparently unaware they were also old enough to qualify for Medicare. When people are old enough for Medicare and poor enough for Medicaid, Medicare generally covers most of the patients' costs. Instead, Oregon's health agency signed people up for Medicaid as if they had no other health coverage.

After the federal government caught the problem last year, the state asked the companies that administer Medicaid, known as coordinated care organizations, to repay the $10 million they were overpaid in 2016. But health officials decided not to ask for the money wrongly dispensed in 2014 and 2015, even though the federal government could still ask Oregon to repay it.

In a possible reference to Buehler and other critics of the state's handling of its Medicaid program, Brown asked Allen to "remain focused on that goal and ignore the political games that a few are playing with the ability to provide health care to more than a million Oregonians."

 

[MARIS61]

There's this little thing called size of the population, which is huge. You're gonna get some dirty air and floating trash from somewhere around 2-3 Billion people.
In Korea, when I was last there about ten or 15 years ago, they didn't even have light rail. They did have people trains but they were much heavier and larger than light rail. Public transportation was amazingly cheap and ubiquitous.

...and poor people who will never know home ownership everywhere.

 

[e_blazer]

These folks have a serious air problem:

 

[dviss1]

I would argue for a better roadway system.

Example - the Sunset Highway tunnel that goes into Portland. It's a total joke and should have been replaced decades ago.

So republicans have put forward a plan... Yeah.. no...

Also, that takes federal funding. Who have been the ONLY people in congress trying to pass an infrastructure bill?

That's right, Democrats.

Republicans could've passed an infrastructure bill in trump's first 2 years but they were too busy FLEECING us by giving over a Trillion to Billionaires....

FUCK THEM....

 

[MARIS61]

False.

barfo

True.

Your figures must include drivers who don't pay taxes.

 

[barfo]

True.

Your figures must include drivers who don't pay taxes.

Let's see your math.

barfo

 

[Natebishop3]

So republicans have put forward a plan... Yeah.. no...

Also, that takes federal funding. Who have been the ONLY people in congress trying to pass an infrastructure bill?

That's right, Democrats.

Republicans could've passed an infrastructure bill in trump's first 2 years but they were too busy FLEECING us by giving over a Trillion to Billionaires....

FUCK THEM....

But that's the whole point........ when was the last Republican in charge of Portland and/or Oregon?

 

[Lanny]

True. Mass transit does not reduce garbage, and mass transit does not make coal burn cleaner. IT DOES HOWEVER INCREASE YOUR SPERM COUNT!

barfo

To hell with that. Will it guarantee an erection when need be?

 

[barfo]

But that's the whole point........ when was the last Republican in charge of Portland and/or Oregon?

When was the last time there was one who deserved to be?

barfo

 

[Lanny]

Let's see your math.

barfo

He's got a Trump University's math degree and we all know how good those are.

 

[dviss1]

But that's the whole point........ when was the last Republican in charge of Portland and/or Oregon?

We don't want their policies.

The people said that last night.

Everything I voted for won.

 

[MARIS61]

When was the last time there was one who deserved to be?

barfo

Last night.

 

[MARIS61]

So republicans have put forward a plan... Yeah.. no...

Also, that takes federal funding. Who have been the ONLY people in congress trying to pass an infrastructure bill?

That's right, Democrats.

Nonsense, they've promised to do that for over 30 years, never even put a plausible plan up for vote.

Freaked out when Trump started talking about it.