How much is your local "Trump at the Pump Tax?"

I believe that if it really was a Constitutional Federal Republic, the constitution would stop any individual, no matter what their political standing or position, but that is not what is happening in the USA is it, the Potus doesn't really know what it says, certainly doesn't know what any of it means, and is wiping is muddy feet on it.

But that is just one of the differences. Everyone votes in Australia, no one has to line up in the rain or the snow to cast their vote, they register when they turn 18 and the govt continues to hound them until they do register, but registration is a relatively simple operation, they know all about you anyway .

If you are under paid, the govt actually takes up the case and sues the employer on the workers behalf, so not a matter of who has the most money, more a case of, who has the most to lose, a licence to operate a corporate business in Australia is a fairly big stick the govt can wave .....

We have a free universal health care policy, no one goes bankrupt trying the get medical treatment nor gets turned away from a public hospital because they don't have medical insurance. Even if the doctor/specialist charges more that the deemed rate, medicare will pay the deemed rate and the patient only has to find the difference or gap payment .... and in cases of true hardship, either the govt will step in and try to negotiate or pay the gap, but generally, the gap is dropped in cases where genuine hardship makes it impossible to pay .... they don't bankrupt people.

If you have declared bankruptcy or been declared bankrupt, you can not hold a position as a company board member or have a controlling interest in a company or become or hold a political position in the senate or the house of representatives, if they are declared insolvent or bankrupt while a sitting member, they must resign ...... So, no bankrupt premiers, prime minsters or presidents

4 weeks paid annual leave and 10 paid sick days if a full time employee, if a casual employee, an additional % on top of their weekly pay to make up the difference.

Unfair dismissal laws, if the employer is found guilty of such an offence, they have to pay all legal costs and the rate of pay the employee would have been paid from the time of termination to the time of the court finding .... and they still have a job .... but can use 1 week of their holiday pay to act as their i weeks notice of leaving that employment ......

There are so many differences that I couldn't list them all here, but an important one is, a tied govt vote can determined by the house speaker casting their vote with one side of the other, so no jerrymander nonsense ....

T1 Terry

 

Yet another difference about how Australia treats it's less wealthy ..... we have govt housing, the rent is a % of income, but wreck the place and you will be out on the street ...... the houses are maintained to an extent, but the residents are refunded any expenses they may have incurred for materials to maintain or repair the house or unit, but no labour costs.

T1 Terry

 

You think the Service Employees International Union is against higher wages for their members? That a new one to me.
Businesses fail for many reasons, and you believe it’s due to giving the service members a raise, do you.
Its called hook, line, and sinker.

 

I'm several pints behind you so I cannot decipher what you're driving at here.

We do not have compulsory voter registration.
In the US, voter ID is not required since like you we do not require any ID at all, unless you're exercising the privilege of driving on one of our public roads.
In all of our states that I am aware of if you present yourself at a polling station without ad ID you may indeed cast a vote - but it will be a provisional (sometimes called an affidavit) ballot until you can contact your local clerk or like official with some proof of who you are.
As far as lining up in the rain and snow - this may be a case where you're being misinformed.
Absentee and mail in voting in nearly universally available.

Our upper and lower houses work almost exactly the same way with tied votes - but I believe that you're conflating cloture filibusters in the US Senate with "gerrymandering" which is the manipulation of an electoral constituency's boundaries so as to favour one party or class.
Our Constitution is mute on the subject of cloture rules for the upper house, and filibusters are a hypocrisy test for our political zealots.
SOME people maintain the position that cloture procedures should be eliminated completely regardless of who is in the Oval office.
I personally do not care all that much one way or the other - but I'm thinking that our US Senators should.
There's a REASON that the Senate is considered to be the upper house which speaks to its function - otherwise they would just be a US Congress with longer terms.

I congratulate you on knowing as much as you do about our system of government.
You probably know more than 90% of our own citizens - despite the misinformation and disinformation that you're being exposed to.

We do the same thing only without the being 'out on the street in you wreck the place' part.

I don't think it's 'free' - but rather I think it's a 'single payer' system.
We have a similar system for some of our people.

Once upon a time, one of our US states threw tens of billions of dollars at high-speed rail.....in the 1990s.
As of 2026 they've serviced 0 passengers on 0 miles of trackage.
It's the same thing with universal health care - only we spent trillions instead of billions and admittedly we do now have some coverage for some people. It's also one of the reasons out national debt is as high as it is.

 

I can't understand your link between a high speed rail and universal health care, you know full well why the national debt is so high, so don't attempt to spin it to caring for the lower income earners, because at the moment, the money end of town think they are a drain on their wealth ....

As far as not understanding my point about the US constitution being any real part of US politics, time to take the blinkers off, the POTUS simply ignores it if it looks like getting in the way of him profiteering from his political position, the rest of the party he is supposed to belong to have so many skeletons in the closet they are scared to defy him .... that is not political leadership ......

I doubt the US will ever recover to the position it once held, will the states remain united when the whole lot comes tumbling down?

T1 Terry

 

You live in Australia, right?

 

don't know much about Australia would love to visit there.. have spent time in England... enjoy learning about other countries..
....something tells me maybe it is not all peaches and cream living there...

..maybe pay more attention to where you live..

Is Australia facing an economic reality not seen since World War Two? | SBS News

Australia is fast becoming a failed socialist state | The Spectator Australia

Australia is in a cost-of-living nightmare: what can the new Albanese government learn from its last term? - ABC News

Australian economy: IMF report lays bare worsening debt problems


Australia is ‘under socialist control’ says former Prime Minister of the UK | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site for latest headlines

Here are couple of articles from our part of the world and other Socialist experiments...might be inetestring reading:

South American country swings to right, ending 20 years of socialist rule

South America is recalibrating toward free-market conservatism – Deseret News

Latin America continues its rightward shift – GIS Reports

Milei to Kast: Rightward Parliamentary Shift Across South America - The International Parliament Journal (IPJ)

Cuba's Economic Collapse Signals Final Unraveling of Socialist Ideology | Prism News

 

The costliest war in our history, nearly more than all of our wars put together was the US so-called Civil War.
The stated goal of that conflict was that the states remain united.

Despite the STATED goal of our DSA party, the US States are more united than divided at present.
Our Constitution is pretty much working as it was DESIGNED to when they laid down the beam ends.

Yep.
THEY are the people that lecture us about human rights when they have the strictest immigration policies on earth.

They don't have ICE officers that shoot people in self-defense, they use their military, and places like Christmas Island and Nauru.
No posse comitatus for them!
This perhaps is why the RAAF is the largest operator of the most advanced maritime surveillance aircraft in the world (P-8A Poseidon.)

In other words - they're just like most of the Socialists in the US.
They live in a gated community.

 

You may have a misconception about the states. We also have government subsidized housing.

You appear to have misunderstood the question, ...or just couldn't imagine what incentive SEUI analysts would have had for overstating the effect of higher wages on employment in the fast food sector. If it's the latter problem, the good news is that you understood it, but the bad news is that you chose transparent evasion over a substantive response.

Emphasis added.

Missing the bolded text above would be evidence of genuine difficulty reading, but if it isn't then your "hook, line and sinker" may reflect projection.

You could do worse than consulting VVB's and Terry's recent posts in this thread.

 

The typical response, sling as much mud as possible and hope some sticks.
I hope your vision of your world pans out for you, reality has a nasty way of coming back to bite once the illusion fades, and reading these last posts, that illusion is not even close to reality.

T1 Terry

 

Funny how many "America" experts there are that don't even live here.

As for immigration?
Australia's current immigration policy prioritizes skilled migration to fill labor shortages, targeting a permanent Migration Program cap of 185,000 places for 2026–27.

Wow, we had that many illegal immigrants flooding our borders every three weeks for 4 continuous years during the JB era. Minimal skills and maximum burden.

 

Actually, I'm intrigued by multiple claims regarding Australia's immigration policy ..... have a few of you been rejected when attempting to immigrate to Australia, maybe we are selective about who we let in .......

T1 Terry

 

Some in my country would say that maybe we SHOULD be....but then we do not have a Nauru or Christmas Island.

I'm something of a libertarian on the subject.
I think that we should NOT be selective at all when it comes to skills, money, income potential, etc.
I have long stated that I would give anyone that presents and surrenders themselves at a US border controll point with a verifiable non-criminal background should have free admittance and a green card.
People in the US confuse "green card" with "citizenship" but then we also have people who think that pro wrestling is real and that we faked the moon landing.
The US aids in this confusion by calling them a "permanent resident" card.

HOWEVER (comma!)
I also believe that those who break into my country should be treated like the criminals that they are and deported, using all of the tenderness and grace that Australia does with their illegals.

This would seem to place me well to the left of AUs policy in this area.....but like I said.
They're in a moderately armed gated community......for now.

 

I didn’t miss any of your text. I don’t see your link to what SEIU actually said. I understand you are trying to prove something about denying working poor more wages. You can say oh and inflation too, but your agenda appears to be those extra few dollars per hour for workers. So it doesn’t count to say oh inflation too, empty words, that’s why I choose to ignore them, your position makes no sense.
Costco $5.45 it went up.that’s significand bread for a gallon of gas. I use a plug in so it has little effect, but feel sorry for commuters especially for those minimum wage workers.