25-07-2017, 22:52
(This post was last modified: 25-07-2017, 23:26 by St Charles Owl.)
(25-07-2017, 22:44)0762 Wrote: Re his healthcare proposals I gather one of the biggest criticisms is the lack of comprehensive details and impressive in depth research into such an important change for millions of American citizens but rushed policies appear to be the order of the day for this unimpressive president.
The problem is the effects of ACA (Obamacare) are only just being fully seen in the open market place and for the first time in many years my health insurance has gone down in price, no idea if that is a coincidence or not!! He talked about retaining some of the pillars of the ACA and this new plan will do that but its the parts that just simply hurt the low income sector in the US that will set this plan as a bad one. Millions of American will simply lose healthcare either through cost or pre-existing conditions, and these are the ones who have only just been able to get healthcare for the first time in their lives because of the ACA!!! But even putting Trump aside, this is the Republicans through and through, you know what you are going to get from them on certain issues irrespective of who is actually their president, its just a matter of how much they can achieve before they get voted out of office again!! Of course a huge proportion of those who will be most affected by this new plan voted for and still support Trump!! The word lemmings springs to mind!!!
(25-07-2017, 22:44)0762 Wrote: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.telegra...1014844640
Back here in the UK, this latest revelation re the multi-billion pound refurb of the Houses of Parliament is astounding and IMO 'open to question'! Simple question: 'What happened to such a tender award embracing the best of certain British building companies in the construction and services industry and will undoubtedly have the skills, reputation and ability to carry out this work to a high standard and quality'??? This scummy Tory govt has already sold out other massive projects to the Chinese (nuclear energy provision) and the French. Now we have this latest 'sell out' to the detriment of British business/industry again!! I despair!!
I would love to see the scope of work involved in these bids. It would appear that the UK companies possibly priced themselves out of this work but then accepting the lowest bid is also not always the best way to go. Its always a touchy subject when it comes to government spending and whether such work should only go to UK companies, I am fairly neutral on it most of the time, but I suppose it is incumbent on the government to make sure they are getting value for their money, and taking the lowest bid is part of that. I'm not sure these days it matters as much where the contractor is from as well. Nearly all their workforce who get jobs on this contract will be British to start with and ultimately its only going to be some profit that goes back to the mother country, most of the money spent will be to British workers who will in effect end up working for a UK subsidiary of the US company, and all parties will be paying their taxes in pounds on the bulk of the transaction.
As I said, I am not too bothered one way of the other, as long as the project is costed correctly and funded correctly then most of the money will start and end in the UK either way.