On August 5, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders introduced a bill that would requires the states to register adult U.S. citizens automatically, and let them then opt out of registering. Here is the text of the bill. The bill doesn’t have a bill number yet. The bill would only apply to elections for federal office.
I wonder if I can get a side order of food stamps with that!
This is a nightmare.
More and more mindless Donkey robot communists or what ???
One more step on the long road to Civil WAR II ???
Next step — REQUIRED Voting by the robots ??? Duh.
It seems to work OK in Great Britain and Canada.
Casual –
Your point being? Be specific, please.
When people can vote themselves benefits from the public treasury they will. They should at least be motivated enough to register. Why make it even easier to go bankrupt?
Fixed debt of all govts in the USA is now about a mere $ 30 TRILLION —
plus Trillions more in coming UN-funded liabiities.
USA economy now about 17 TRILLION — related to the ravings of the math morons involved in election donations.
Makes the Greece regime bankruptcy seem trivial.
The difference between us and Greece is that Greece doesn’t frequently engage in massive unnecessary military adventures, doesn’t have hundreds of military bases on foreign soil, or a massive military-industrial complex that churns out equipment that at times even Pentagon generals say they don’t need or want. Let’s cut that waste first and then see if we’re still in such desperate trouble that we need to gut education, health care, and other social program funding. I’m not against reforms meant to cut actual waste and fraud, but so many times when someone wants to cut from social programs, people who actually needed them to recover from mental/physical illness, or cope with aging, get thrown in alongside people defrauding the system.
As for the ACTUAL issue at hand, I like the ideal of automatic voter registration, but the problem is that such a thing could be corrupted in a way to give the two ruling parties even more weapons to use against Greens, Libertarians, Independents, etc (some states register people by party, and sometimes in a corrupt manner, ie, Arizona). I’d feel better if it was a Green or a Libertarian that was behind the bill, not a sell-out former Independent that seems to share the Establishment’s disdain for third parties.
Casual –
I see. So the REAL problem is that voters tend to vote in their self-interest, guided by what they manage to “get out” of their government?
Maybe we should require unemployed people to re-register after their unemployment benefits run out. Or, if someone goes to the hospital emergency room, their voter registration should immediately be revoked. Or maybe we should make this simple…if, whatever your reported gross income, if your taxable income is reduced to the second lowest marginal tax rate, then your voting rights should be suspended.
Would that slake your revulsion for poor people?
Be aware, though, that the last measure may have had the effect of revoking Mitt Romney’s right to vote (not that rich people get any benefits out of government, mind you…oh, no.)
You seem to think people are entitled to vote themselves other people’s stuff. I don’t.
Casual –
“Other people’s stuff” does not include the right to vote, and there is no more reason that the right to vote ought to be easier for people who own cars than it is that the right to vote ought to be easier for people with fat balances in their checking accounts.
I’d guess you were opposed to the bailouts of AIG, Bear Sterns and the auto industry. How many Americans benefited – directly – from that “socialist” largesse, and also fed their kids using food stamps? And how many who don’t quite fit your notion of “sub-Americans?”
Would a feudal system of governance and economics be more acceptable to you?
More and more NET LOOTERS supported by the NET Tax SLAVES since 1929 in the USA —
estimated 35 percent of ALL adults in the USA now get ALL of their incomes from statist spending schemes.
Super-easy to be a communist with the income and assets of OTHER folks.
See the 1917-1991 USSR regime – until it had a total economic collapse — i.e. due to the warfare / welfare in the regime.
—
P.R. and nonpartisan App.V. — to get SOME real debates about taxes, borrowing and spending.
How many TRILLIONS in added USA debt since 2000 — esp. in the Bush II/Obama regimes ???
Means ZERO to the LOOTERS class — until econ Judgment Day.
See Argentina, Greece, etc. etc. in world history.
What New Age regime is NOT 100 percent bankrupt — due to UN-funded liabilites ???
i.e. the various nonstop econ demagogues in the rigged gerrymander districts making their nonstop promises of getting LOOT.
Since 1929 the various govt regimes in the USA have borrowed an average of about 30 percent of each year’s spending —
i.e. the econ DEBT chickens are coming home to roost.
Demo Rep – 35% of all ADULTS?
Completely dependent on the “State?”
Ahhh….social security, right? Those thieving, lazy OLD people, feeding off of the rest of us. Is that it?
If not…citation please? Who’s doing the “estimating?” Glenn Beck?
Multiple statist LOOTER gangs in all regimes –
Govt officers/employees, govt contractors, govt creditors (getting interest) and welfare folks —
with each special interest gang trying to get more and more of the LOOT – from the NET Tax SLAVES and moron creditors making more loans to regimes.
All govts spending in 2014 in USA – 36.8 pct of GDP (of which about 20 percent is *imputed* – fictional) — real spending about 42-45 percent of the money GDP.
NOT yet 100 percent.
Economic facts mean NOTHING to econ MORONS from Hell – see the USSR communists in 1989-1991 — having an econ collapse.
Another attack on the Tenth Amendment and states’ rights.
Article One gives Congress the authority to write election laws for congress, so this bill does not conflict with the 10th amendment.
Sanders bill would not automatically register adult US citizens.
It would require applicants for driver’s licenses to be registered unless they declined. Applicants for driver’s licenses are now given the opportunity to register, so it is unlikely to make much material difference.
Sanders’s bill takes pains to state that the voter rolls can’t be used to check for citizenship.
It would be way simpler for the federal government to issue ID cards to citizens, and simply report to the states whenever the voter updates an address.
The bill also requires that a state be able to ask the party affiliation of the voter, but that has nothing to do with getting a driver’s license. It would be better if the the States were forbidden from recording the political beliefs of its citizens, or make that a condition for voting in any federal election.
Demo Rep –
Conflating welfare recipients and government employees into a single group of people “dependent on” the state for their incomes is very misleading, particularly in the context of this thread.