Gotta admit I was surprised by Trump’s speech tonight.

[PorterRockwell]

I didn’t know he could make a speech like he did tonight.  I hope it is sincere and not just something to improve his approval rating.  

Hopefully is sincere and is trying to mend things.  

I still think the job is far more difficult than he envisioned. 

Even his staunch supporters in places like Kentucky are questioning repealing the ACA and the republican plan to have people have more “skin in the game”. He has walked back the rhetoric on ACA significantly since taking office.  

Namcy Pelosi appeared bound and determined to not give him credit for anything while he was speaking.  I don’t recall her even giving “golf clap”.   

[Newbomb Turk]

Pelosi didn’t do anything different than the Repubs did during Obama’s addresses. Doesn’t make it right, but that’s the way it is.

It will be interesting to see if Trump can come through with his promises, since he promised everything, from getting all addicts off of drugs to cutting taxes to rebuilding infrastructure and balancing the budget.

[PorterRockwell]

I agree re it not being any different than what the GOP did however at some point someone has to reach across the aisle Seems like a missed opportunity there? I don’t know who wrote Trump’s speech or if it was from the heart but tonight’s version of him was more palatable than past versions

[EUte]

Actually I don’t think any Dems shouted “you lie!” like Joe Wilson (R) did to Obama, which, acording to those keeping track, they could have truthfully done 51 times tonight.

[Tacoma Ute]

I can’t argue with that. Sometimes I think the entire gaggle of politicians are like tots in a daycare center who have divided up into two hostile factions.

[SkinyUte]

While I still don’t agree with any of his policy positions, I will give him credit for a few things tonight, in addition to some other random thoughts:

1. I was, frankly, stunned to hear him completely reverse course and talk about a path for legal immigration. This is something I would agree with him on, if he’s actually serious about it. Seems to go against pretty much everything he’s said previously, though, so I have my doubts.

2. He actually sounded more like a President, and less like a raving lunatic tonight. He didn’t go into EC victory, trash Clinton, talk about inauguration crowds, discuss fringe conspiracy theories (like he did earlier in the day, claiming the JCC bomb threats were being done “to make him look bad”), there were no overt shots at minorities, he didn’t once mention “fake news”, and he actually stayed on message. What I heard tonight was the voice of someone who I can disagree with, but possibly respect as the leader of the country. That said, it’s a single drop of sanity in a bucket filled to the brim with crazy bulls**t for the past month, so he’s got a looooooong way to go.

3. I agree with some of his proposals around health care reform. Not necessarily the expanded HSA (which is simply another tax shelter for the wealthy) or the tax credits (which are insignificant compared to what “high risk” plans would cost), but the basic framework of covering pre-existing conditions, and working to bring drug prices down. It’s unfortunate that his actual actions have gone against this, but perhaps he’s turning over a new leaf. I think harping on Obama’s “you can keep your doctor” comments are going to come back to bite him pretty hard, considering what he himself just promised.

4. That VOICE program is stupid. We should be focused on curbing violence – period – and not just that which occurs at the hands of undocumented immigrants.

5. Slightly encouraged about his support of NATO, even though it came with a somewhat vague threat as well. Still…baby steps.

6. Remind me again why a military that spends more than the next 10 countries combined needs another 54 billion? Other than a way for him to enrich his DOD contracting buddies? I’m still a little fuzzy on that point.

7. For the first time, he didn’t describe the US as some sort of third world hellhole that he – and he alone – can singlehandedly save. This was a marked and welcome change in overall tone.

As Turk said, he has promised the world here, and I still don’t see any way the policies he has put forward will accomplish even a fraction of what he’s saying he’ll do. And there’s still that big, nasty Russia storm hanging over everything, and I’m not sure that gets any smoother any time soon.

However, tonight seemed to be the first positive step forward since November, and I suppose we can all be grateful for that.

[gUrthBrooks]

Was he ever against legal immigration?

[SkinyUte]

For people currently here illegally, yes. His plan was deportation, then formal application for legal status, a process which most could never afford.

What he seemed to say tonight was that he favored a path for undocumented immigrants (without criminal records, of course) to gain citizenship. If I understood that correctly, then I applaud him for that change.

[Tacoma Ute]

He said months ago that he wanted to make the process for legal immigration easier. I hope he’s serious. That’s how I feel too. I’m all for immigration if it can be controlled and we know who the hell is coming over here.

[SkinyUte]

Did a little more digging this morning, and it looks like I did understand it correctly. From this article: Trump signals major shift on immigrants.

President Trump signaled a new openness on Tuesday to granting legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants who have not committed serious crimes.

The idea is a sharp break from the broad crackdown on immigrants in the country illegally that Mr. Trump ordered in his first weeks in office and the hard-line positions embraced by his core supporters that helped sweep him into the White House. The president hinted at the reversal just hours before he arrived on Capitol Hill to deliver his address to a joint session of Congress.

A move toward a comprehensive immigration overhaul would be a dramatic turnaround for the president, whose campaign rallies rang with shouts of “build the wall!” on the Mexican border and who signed an executive order in January directing the deportation of any unauthorized immigrants who have committed a crime — whether or not they have been charged or convicted — or falsified a document. The standard could apply to virtually any one of the estimated 11 million people in the country illegally.

[zeous]

Gotta disagree with the HSA being a tax shelter for the wealthy.  In my opinion, it is more like the 401k: a shelter for the middle-class sheep to be shorn by Wall Street.

[SkinyUte]

Either way, expanded HSA’s are a very minor part of a solution, and not the end-all, be-all they keep touting. Doubly so for low income families. The ability to put money you don’t have into an HSA does exactly…nothing.

Someone (Takei, I think) made an interesting observation after the speech. If you listen carefully, they’ve been very deliberate about saying that their goal is for people to have “access to healthcare” and not that people will “have healthcare”. This gives them a convenient out for when someone is facing a $5,000/month “high risk” premium with coverage exclusions and a $1MM cap because they once had pneumonia for a week when they were three. “Hey, we told you that you have access to healthcare…and you do!”

[zeous]

I agree with the first paragraph. The 2nd may well be, we’ll see.

[UtahFanSir]

On your second part, yes. Did you see Warren Buffet’s comments on that the other day? Put your money in low-load index funds. Managed funds under perform the market and have for a long time. Significant academic research consistently shows that “timing the market” is for losers. But it does enrich money managers.

Why Pay High Fees

None of them will do it, but I want money manager compensation to be directed tied to their performance. They cannot have a percent of my base, year after year. But I would give them a high percentage of the increase on any gain over the Dow or S&P 500 (with essentially no fees in index funds) and on any lower decline than the Dow or S&P 500 in bad periods.

Instead, the model is to secure clients with big assets, then to skim off of that year after year, with remarkably little to show for their net, compared to mine. I know I besmirch the industry, but I have learned the hard way, as have a lot of my friends, and my parents.

I had one guy about 10 years ago talk about how his firm does all this research and moves funds based on their smart view of the market. I asked specifically, “Then do you ‘time’ the market?” He said yes. So I asked him to show me someone’s portfolio improvement for the last ten years on their calls, compared to the Dow, removing names. No, he said. A few days later, after another lunch, he said, “Well are you going to move your portfolio over?” I said no. He asked why. I said, “You lost me when you said you timed the market. I know better. And then when you were not willing to show me how you have done with an actual portfolio, I thinking, I can’t trust you with all I have.” So why did you go to lunch with me, he asked. I said, because you asked.

Recent Forbes Article On Timing…

I invest with Vanguard, a variety of index funds in different sectors and broad market, small, mid- and large-cap, some foreign, some bonds.

[zeous]

Has there been an ETF scandal yet?

[ladyinred]

I was surprised as well, except it was because he sounded more like a democrat than a republican in some ways, and yet the republicans were giving him a standing ovation. Had Obama proposed such a Christmas list, the republicans would be howling about reckless spending. Go figure.

The good:
Affordable healthcare ( duh)
Affordable childcare/ family leave
Infrastructure spending

The bad:
The stupid ass wall
Increase in military spending

When asked in an interview how this would all be paid for, Ted Cruz said that he believed Trump’s magical wand in the form of tax cuts and slashing regulations would boost the economy. To the tune of doubling GDP. And that’s how they propose to pay for most of this, I s**t you not. 1- that is a mighty gamble, 2- we are in for some deficit spending, something that I swear republicans were totally against just last year, and for the past 8 years.

[SkinyUte]

Don’t get too excited about his talk of affordable child care. As with most things he does, it really only benefits the rich.

The heart of Trump’s plan is to significantly expand the tax deduction that families can take for child care expenses for kids under 13. Anyone making less than $250,000 ($500,000 if married) could deduct the average cost of child care in their state. (The average would be based on the age of their child, since it usually costs more to care for infants and toddlers).

That sounds great, but families have to pay income taxes to Uncle Sam in order to take advantage of the deduction. Many working class families pay nothing in federal income taxes because they earn too little in income to owe anything.

[Substiute]

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