The low interest rates are having huge negative effect on the income of pensionners .

I invested 600K in real estate, because my return is about 12% ( not necessarely cash tough - paying capital )

If I left that money in secure investment , I would get about 8000.00 a year return ... hardly enough to live on.

10 years ago, that same 600K would bring back 40 to 45K yearly ....

So situation under Obama did get worse ( nothing related to him ) and now will gett way worse as the safdety net is removed by Trump .

PS: you will be old one day ....

In the last election, about 30% of the seats that were up for election had someone running uncontested. My congressman was one of those people. Of the bigger seats that were up for election including one Senate seat, there was no real choice. For Senate I could vote for the incumbent or I could choose to vote for his challenger who was also a lifelong politician.

You can only vote for the people who run for office. How am I supposed to vote for people who will represent me and not billionaires when there are none running?

Here in Czech private dental health care is very cheap.

You are the problem and the other 90 million.

If ?Did Not Vote? Had Been A Candidate In The 2016 US Presidential Election, It Would Have Won By a Landslide. Yes you can make a difference.

And I suspect the US has worse figures for other elections.

So invest in land or gold, etc. There are many pension schemes that allow a broad range of investments.

No one else stood to oppose him?

If so that's unusual. The thing is that things will change if you start to vote for the outsider.

but you are honoring the one what is ECTREMLY the opposite of your own idea.

yes trump is an outsider - he is so outside that he will not even get a place in hell because he is too evil for the devil.
hitler was an outsider too.

the healthcare problem in us is that is was (is) allowed for young and healthy people not to pay in any insurance but call for the society when they get sick.
so the one and ONLY way to finance it is the same way EVERY insurance is financed - by the good luck of those who never get old and/or sick.

the arguments of those who speak against obamacare are the same as when someone does not want to pay car insurance because he did not have an accident yet.
that is bullshit from people who are fucking stupid and nothing else.

That's just the thing. It's not unusual at all. In the 2016 election, there were 30 different congressional reps and 1 Senator who ran unopposed.

Here the Denver Post talks about how across the nation 42% of all state House and Assembly seats only had one candidate. In the state of Georgia, 83% of the State House seats ran unopposed in the last election.

So much for democracy, gerrymandering strikes again.

"Political scientists say a major reason for the lack of choices is the way districts are drawn ? gerrymandered, in some cases, to ensure as many comfortable seats as possible for the majority party by creating other districts overwhelmingly packed with voters for the minority party."

"?In Georgia, just 31 of the 180 state House districts featured both Republican and Democratic candidates, a nation-high uncontested rate of 83 percent. Republicans hold almost two-thirds of the seats in the Georgia House of Representatives."

That's because some places are so liberal (New York City...much of California) or conservative (Texas, etc.) that it's a waste of money for the opposing party to run a candidate.

That is what happened with my rep in the last election. He won by such a big margin in the previous election, the Republicans didn't even bother running someone against him because it would just be a waste of money.

Voting districts have been gerrymandered by the representatives the voters elect since this country was founded -- so what is the point? The people got what they voted for. Then it only got worse and perpetuated itself.

If you do not like the voting district you are in, realistically your only option is to move to a district more favorable to your expectations. Otherwise, you have set out on an uphill battle you may never win.

Couldn't we just come up with an algorithm that drew voting districts so we could eliminate the human/political bias?

Fair to who?

Fair in the sense that they draw the boundaries based on population and not race, religion, political affiliation, income etc.

That would be too logical LOL
Maybe, the state assemblies should be more like parliaments you vote the party's ticket. All districts become at large on the state government level.

That would take a state constitutional convention with a 2/3 affirmation vote and a popular vote referendum on the result -- not going to happen.

Look how much the super rich will save with this Republican Healthcare 'tax cut' bill

Warren Buffet (who can buy and sell Trump on a bad day)

My point is to vote for the outsider to get rid of the two party system.

No major parties stood. So vote for an outsider. Don't vote for the incumbent whatever the alternative is.

The system needs an enormous kick up the ass.

Because American voters are blind.

Why only vote for Republican or Democrat?

Maybe you aren't understanding me. In many cases, there is only ONE person on the ballot. How do I vote for an outsider when there is one person to vote for?

Because the Republican and Democrat Party have rigged the system to work against anyone who isn't one of those two.

They make it extremely difficult to get on the ballot...almost impossible. And then in the Presidential election...they require them to get a certain percentage in their fake polls to be "eligible" to be in the Presidential debates.

Paul, your ideas are correct. But you just don't understand the corruption of the American political system.
Americans aren't "blind"...the 2 ruling party's (Republican and Democrat) have passed laws across this country to KEEP the power amongst themselves.

That's why Trump ran as a Republican. He's not "conservative" or Republican at all...hell, all the Republican's in the debates called him out on that.
But Trump is very smart. And he hijacked the Republican Party and used their own rules AGAINST them.
Brilliant!

If Trump (the Orange Messiah) is such a *rich guy* as he claims: If Trump made $100.25 million in 2016, he owes $3.8 million in "obamacare tax" :2 cents:

The Obamacare Tax Cut for Rich Guys Act

You don't seem to understand US political system for as much as you rant about it.

Let me give you a easy example. We have state districts. You can only vote for or against someone who is running in your state district.

There are 435 members of the House they can all affect my life but I can only vote for 1 of them. Meaning there are 434 people in the House of Reps that can vote for laws that affect me but I have zero opportunity to vote for or against them.

That is why we can't vote them out of office. Add to this the issues of gerrymandering and many of these guys are impossible to remove short of shooting them...

Can't wait to see his taxes

Oh I thought you had a Democracy over there.I was wrong.

I do see independents running in the Presidential elections.

finally you got it :-)

and that´s the basic point what create all this problems including terrorism.

Don't hold your breath :1orglaugh

did you ever use your brain to think about WHY you have the highest healthcare costs (and had it already long before obama) ?

this is a result of a few failures in your system (this system you want to get back)

1. people in US are allowed NOT to be insured. that leads to the fact that they will not pay in any insurance - they will NOT go to a doctor and deseases are NOT mentioned soon enough to cure them.

2. that again leads into your very biggest problem named MEDICAID - because uninsured people what are getting sick, can´t work and spend all their money in other things as their health will need it and it cost a fortune.

3. MEDICAID is not since obama - it is a very old problem what became bigger and bigger because of this idiot system to allow people not to be insured.

4. your complete system is fucked because you can only vote for corrupt politicians (and now you hope the most corrupt will fix it). that makes healthcare for a BIG business and
the clever pharma industry found ways in the past that people do not die so fast on diseases. this ways keep them longer alive and longer sick.

5. I bet that 99% of republicans are financing their own life with shares of the pharma giants or are on their pay list. they will do a fuck to change that because it means that they lose money.

what you need is not another president (and the last thing is an idiot president like trump). no president can change anything because whatever he will do will be stopped by the congress or the senat and as soon he brings the citizens into their responsibility he will be stopped from them.

so see the truth: america is bankrupt already - more bankrupt as all the countries behind the iron curtain ever have been. it is just a question of time til this system need to be changed or you are bought by the chinese or indians.

it´s time for you to understand that the complete system has failed and have to be thrown to the garbitch.

Radically changing the system will never cure this immediate problem of healthcare accessibility to all citizens in the USA.

Why? The current system will not be overturned without a violent revolution lasting many years -- during which -- there will be no healthcare services and millions will die.

The USA would become Syria x 20 fold -- I bet healthcare in Syria sucks right now -- they bomb the hospitals there still trying to operate facilities. :helpme

The Trumplicans are just shooting themselves in the foot politically and creating a campaign issue to defeat themselves. That is the only good that is in this -- a reason to agree on a national healthcare and health maintenance law. The health insurance corporations are really dinosaurs -- breathing their last breaths.

Hundreds of thousands of US citizens will suffer and some will die if this BUDGET RECONCILIATION AND THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT is passed and signed into law.

Look what the acronym the CBO is using, BRCA meaning in use is, someone has a very 'sick' sense of humor;

i fully understand your point but be honest - HOW LONG can that go on like this?

this violent revolution WILL come sooner or later and it will not kill less people.

americans getting brainwashed since centuries with their so called freedom. it is time that someone tell them that it is not freedom when you can choose between worse and worst.

people are forced into 2 possible ideologies with nothing in between. america should stop to try teaching the world but learning from it.