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Republican 2012 Nomination Thread


Texsox

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QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 2, 2012 -> 03:12 PM)
I do have to give Trump credit for one thing, he has worked the American system better than anyone. From real estate to entertainment. Divorce, bankruptcy, and still living the dream.

Born on 3rd base, thinks he hit a triple

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http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/...et-drug-prices/

 

WOODLAND PARK, Colo. – GOP contender Rick Santorum had a heated exchange with a mother and her sick young son Wednesday, arguing that drug companies were entitled to charge whatever the market demanded for life-saving therapies.

Santorum, himself the father of a child with a rare genetic disorder, compared buying drugs to buying an iPad, and said demand would determine the cost of medical therapies.

“People have no problem paying $900 for an iPad,” Santorum said, “but paying $900 for a drug they have a problem with — it keeps you alive. Why? Because you’ve been conditioned to think health care is something you can get without having to pay for it.”

The mother said the boy was on the drug Abilify, used to treat schizophrenia, and that, on paper, its costs would exceed $1 million each year.

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QUOTE (kapkomet @ Feb 5, 2012 -> 05:44 PM)
Abilify is not that expensive. But it's okay, that would get in the way of a good story to demolish another GOP candidate.

Checking the drugstore.com price, 360 doses would be a little bit over $6000 for people with no insurance.

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QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 5, 2012 -> 04:59 PM)
Checking the drugstore.com price, 360 doses would be a little bit over $6000 for people with no insurance.

 

 

False. You know why? They get the card that makes it not cost that much direct from the manufacturer. Would we like to keep making things up that aren't here for the purposes of villifying someone? But I like how you made a big point of $6k to $1m for me.

 

I'm not saying it's not a problem, but in a lot of cases there's a lot of ways around "screwing people over" the way you all want to make it sound like.

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QUOTE (kapkomet @ Feb 5, 2012 -> 07:53 PM)
False. You know why? They get the card that makes it not cost that much direct from the manufacturer. Would we like to keep making things up that aren't here for the purposes of villifying someone?

Um, I was agreeing with you. The worst case scenario for that drug, bought through the website with no discount card or insurance, would be $6000 a year. $6000 is not $1000000. It is less. Thus, I was agreeing with you.

 

If I wanted to try to fill in the gaps, I could start adding up doctors visits and such on there, or assuming 2-3 doses per day, or even a factor of 2 higher cost at a local pharmacy for whatever reason, but there is no reasonable method by which you can push that number up by a factor of 175. You appear to be correct on the first post.

 

If a person is going to challenge a Presidential candidate with the amount they're paying for health care, they ought to use a number that is sensible.

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It sounds like the procedures for the Nevada caucuses were a disaster.

By all accounts, the night was a foreseeable disaster, months in the making.

 

The county party leaders rebuffed the state party’s wishes for a streamlined method of delivering results and state officials here don’t have sufficient clout to order the local officials around.

 

Then state officials planned to release results via Twitter — eschewing the traditional means of distributing them through The Associated Press for a method they had not yet tested. Cooler heads ultimately prevailed and the AP was given access to initial numbers, but the @nvgop Twitter feed through which results were streamed developed a relatively scant following — just over 2,000 followers as of Sunday morning.

 

It didn’t help matters that, due to redistricting, the county clerks in Clark and Washoe counties — the population hubs where Las Vegas and Reno are located — renumbered all of the local precincts last month. So voters in the state’s two largest cities were confused about where to caucus.

 

The new precinct numbers led to significant reporting problems, said Tarkanian and James Slack, the incoming state party chairman who will take over for Tarkanian whenever the caucus process is completed.

 

When Washoe County, the state’s second largest, submitted its results to the state party — via an emailed Microsoft Excel spreadsheet – its columns didn’t properly line up with the template the state party submitted to the counties, Tarkanian said.

So initial results submitted to and reported by the AP were wrong and had to be corrected. Slack said even if individual precinct numbers in Washoe are incorrect, he expressed confidence the sum total is accurate.

 

Slack said there were voters throughout the Reno and Las Vegas areas who didn’t know where to caucus and, when results were submitted to the state party, precinct numbers didn’t always match the caucus sites.

 

“There was some confusion at the caucus sites, and now the confusion is that some of the numbers that are showing up for precincts, we don’t have any votes for them,” Slack said. “So we don’t know if nobody voted or if it’s precinct number is one that that should have been disposed of.”

 

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/...l#ixzz1lc2vzePn

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QUOTE (kapkomet @ Feb 5, 2012 -> 06:53 PM)
False. You know why? They get the card that makes it not cost that much direct from the manufacturer. Would we like to keep making things up that aren't here for the purposes of villifying someone? But I like how you made a big point of $6k to $1m for me.

 

I'm not saying it's not a problem, but in a lot of cases there's a lot of ways around "screwing people over" the way you all want to make it sound like.

Easy, killer.

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QUOTE (Middle Buffalo @ Feb 7, 2012 -> 07:37 AM)
Mitt's kids set for life. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/romney-kids-...-184900265.html Mitt's making a 26% return on his investments and paying 10% in taxes. Maybe he can save our country. I'm sure all his stock plays are legit - no insider info, just good sound research and good timing.

I'm not sure I understand what you are getting at with this post. Are you just saying that because he makes a 26% return, that must mean he's doing something fishy?

 

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QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 7, 2012 -> 09:35 AM)
So, another day of actually having votes cast. Minnesota, Colorado, and a non-binding something or other in Missouri.

 

Colorado is probably strong territory for Romney, the others are more interesting, and some data is showing surprising enduring strength for Santorum.

 

If Newt can't pull out a win in Minnesota, its hard to see a path to Sooper Tuesday for him, because in terms of states won, it'll be Mittens 4, Santorum 3, Gingrich 1.

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QUOTE (Middle Buffalo @ Feb 7, 2012 -> 09:38 AM)
Pretty much.

There are hundreds of hedge funds and proprietary trading funds out there that make those kind of returns pretty consistently. Some VC firms can do even better on select investments. And if you balance between funds well enough, you can do even better. These are fully legal vehicles. Mitt Romney isn't picking stocks himself anyway, and probably his investment advisors aren't either. They are investing in hedge funds, VC firms, and possibly they have partnership in a prop unit or two.

 

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QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 7, 2012 -> 09:43 AM)
There are hundreds of hedge funds and proprietary trading funds out there that make those kind of returns pretty consistently. Some VC firms can do even better on select investments. And if you balance between funds well enough, you can do even better. These are fully legal vehicles. Mitt Romney isn't picking stocks himself anyway, and probably his investment advisors aren't either. They are investing in hedge funds, VC firms, and possibly they have partnership in a prop unit or two.

FWIW there was a recent study that found hedge funds and private equity provide fantastic returns for managers but, on aggregate, mediocre returns for investors.

 

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/0..._investors.html

 

This isn't commentary on Romney's investments, and I don't expect that he's doing something illegal or dishonest to earn those returns.

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QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 7, 2012 -> 09:50 AM)
FWIW there was a recent study that found hedge funds and private equity provide fantastic returns for managers but, on aggregate, mediocre returns for investors.

 

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/0..._investors.html

 

This isn't commentary on Romney's investments, and I don't expect that he's doing something illegal or dishonest to earn those returns.

Taken as a whole, no doubt this is true. These are all spaces where a lot of firms post erratic results, and many went under in the 2007-2010 period. But if you look at the performance of, say, the top 5% of hedge funds - where cap requirements and entry are closed for most people but not a guy like Mitt - the returns can average 20-30%, year in and year out, even in the long term.

 

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QUOTE (Middle Buffalo @ Feb 7, 2012 -> 10:30 AM)
Politician's seem to have an uncanny ability to be successful in the market. Did or is Mitt doing something illegal? I don't know. Does he have access to info or the ability to influence legislation in such a way that he can personally profit? I'm pretty sure.

 

Romney hasn't been in office for 5 years now.

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QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 7, 2012 -> 09:41 AM)
Romney hasn't been in office for 5 years now.

That doesn't really refute my point. Obviously, since he's running for president, he hasn't cut all of his political ties.

 

But, really, I just posted the original comment and link to the article because I'm kind of sick of all of our political figures being a little out of touch with most Americans. I'd guess that Mitt has done everything to the letter of the law financially, but that doesn't mean that I have to like the laws.

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QUOTE (Middle Buffalo @ Feb 7, 2012 -> 10:56 AM)
That doesn't really refute my point. Obviously, since he's running for president, he hasn't cut all of his political ties.

 

But, really, I just posted the original comment and link to the article because I'm kind of sick of all of our political figures being a little out of touch with most Americans. I'd guess that Mitt has done everything to the letter of the law financially, but that doesn't mean that I have to like the laws.

Given Mitt's ties to Bain and other Wall Street entities, if he was going to get privileged info, that is the route he would take. Not Washington.

 

Also, much of his investments are now in blind trusts of one kind or another, so he's probably been away from most decision-making on that money for some time.

 

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