The Biden Presidency 2021

51 or 52 Senators were against the BBB as submitted. The 51st and 52nd (and maybe some other Dems hiding behind them) may have been brought into the fold with the right changes. I think the leadership and President thought that they could get them to submit to the will of the other Democrats. That was an error. Now that they have lost that part of the battle, it would be incredibly dumb to not fashion a bill that does what the "no" votes on the Dem side would support and move forward for that win.

The Squad and other more progressive folks may balk at that idea, which does mean it might not work. That would make it another "loss" but it seems to be worth the risk given the commitment of the President to the BBB.

Dems will try to spin this a hundred ways from Sunday but the fact is they knew where people stood and tried to steamroll the people in the way. The loss is their fault. Had they passed a lesser bill, or even if they pass one after the New Year, they can spin more truthfully on what Republicans stopped them from doing. They will like about it and spin it now as the Republican's fault, but they had the gavels and the majority necessary to impart their will.

Their will doesn't matter; the law says that it's the will of the country that matters. For the Senators, in theory, that should mean that they will represent the will of the individual states that they represent---which I would suggest is precisely what Joe Manchin did. I can't speak for the others as I don't know the people from the other states well enough, but no way your average West Virginian is a fan of BBB.

Quote: terapined

Yup
Republicans now against business
Companies need the right to protect their businesses with mask and vaccine mandates
Businesses also need better infrastructure to succeed and Goldman Sachs sees that
Whats good for business is good for America
Due to trump, republican party against America and American businesses

This is the definition of naive! Republicans are for businesses succeeding…. without adding the 2+ trillion to the deficit. If a company needs these ADDITIONAL tax dollars funneled it’s way to succeed, then that business will, and should, fail. Don’t spend what you don’t have. I’ll bet ‘President terapined’ does that with his own budget. I think now the national debt is now 6 times what the government takes in via taxes in a year. Is your debt six times for pension plus social security plus stock dividends/appreciation. My guess is you have NO debt.

The Democrats need to put up each part of the BBB bill individually. Maybe Manchin and Sinema will vote for some of the specific parts. And it lets each part be analyzed on its own merits. Perhaps even a few Republicans will vote for some of the individual bills.

Quote: Mission146

Their will doesn't matter; the law says that it's the will of the country that matters. For the Senators, in theory, that should mean that they will represent the will of the individual states that they represent---which I would suggest is precisely what Joe Manchin did. I can't speak for the others as I don't know the people from the other states well enough, but no way your average West Virginian is a fan of BBB.

He has stated his issues with the bill. I am sure it is a combination of how he feels about the spending, the impact of the bill on his constituents, and the fact that he is a moderate Democrat in a mostly Republican state with reelection hopes for 2024.

If they had parts of the current BBB that fit better with all of that and fashioned a bill in that manner, he would likely vote for them. He wasn't against everything.

Politicians often ignore the will of their constituents or even the best interests of those that they serve. Many of them continue to win elections after that.

I keep seeing reference to the BBB. To me the BBB is the Better Business Bureau. I assume that is not what you are referring to.


By the way, the Better business Bureau is a bunch of crap too.

Quote: DRich

I keep seeing reference to the BBB. To me the BBB is the Better Business Bureau. I assume that is not what you are referring to.


By the way, the Better business Bureau is a bunch of crap too.

Build Back Better; the Better Business Bureau is glorified and legalized extortion.

Quote: Mission146

Build Back Better; the Better Business Bureau is glorified and legalized extortion.

I still find the Better Business Bureau useful. For instance if I set the filter to give me both unaffiliated businesses and member businesses in "Auto-repair" you get some unaffiliated businesses with high ratings,

Plus, in the past, I've had couple complaints answered by them.

Quote: rxwine

I still find the Better Business Bureau useful. For instance if I set the filter to give me both unaffiliated businesses and member businesses in "Auto-repair" you get some unaffiliated businesses with high ratings,

Plus, in the past, I've had couple complaints answered by them.

I'm not a fan. Depending on the category of business that you want, they are nowhere near complete as a listing site even when you want to look up both affiliated and unaffiliated businesses.

For example, I looked up tobacco shops and they already had me out of state before the tenth listing for the ZIP code that I searched; in the meantime, Google gave me no fewer than twenty within a ten mile radius. (I searched for this because I already know most of the ones within said ten miles)

My problem with the BBB is not the rating system on the customer side, any site can have any rating system that it wants to. My biggest problem with them is their complaint clearing process, which factors into the overall rating, from their site:

https://www.bbb.org/process-of-complaints-and-reviews/complaints

Quote:

Once a complaint is closed, BBB will assign one of the following closing statuses:

Resolved = The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
Answered = The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either (a) did not accept the response, OR (b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
Unresolved = The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
Unanswered = The business failed to respond to the dispute.
Unpursuable = BBB is unable to locate the business.

On the business side, my problem with them is that they can mark you, "Unresolved," on the grounds of responding to a dispute, but not making a, "Good faith effort," to resolve it. Basically, if you become a BBB accredited member, then they will be more lenient when it comes to this capricious, subjective and arbitrary decision as to whether or not a good faith effort was made.

Furthermore, I would also argue that, "Answered," at some point, should automatically turn into, "Resolved."

If the customer instigated the issue by getting the BBB involved (often without even contacting us directly to try to resolve it), which is the only way an issue is instigated, then it is my opinion that the business should be held harmless if the customer does not eventually accept the response or does not notify the BBB that they are satisfied with the response. I would say that the fourteen days they give the business to respond to the complaint to begin with should be the amount of time that the customer has to make the BBB aware that they do not accept the response, otherwise, it should automatically be, "Resolved," just by virtue of the business responding.

On one occasion, the customer was clearly complaining about a different business altogether...why they thought it was the hotel I managed I have no idea, but it wasn't. How am I supposed to respond to that? In any event, I had to argue with them for the better part of a half hour to get them to at least take it from, "Unresolved," to, "Answered," because my entire response amounted to, "Aspects of your complaint to the Better Business Bureau are sufficient to demonstrate that you must have stayed at some other hotel. Particularly, you do not enter our rooms from the outside, the hotel is not a one-story structure and we do not have an outdoor pool."

I eventually got them to remove that one altogether one day that I didn't have that much to do.

Another occasion was that of a four night customer who would not accept anything less than a full refund, which was deemed, "Unresolved," as we were not considered to have made a good faith effort to resolve the complaint. We offered them the maximum that we would offer anyone---to refund them for one night---which is the maximum that the franchisor themselves would have offered. We also explained that the customer had acted in bad faith by instigating complaints on multiple channels (the third-party booking website, the franchisor and the BBB) all within minutes of each other in an obvious effort to (they must have thought) get full refunds from multiple channels.

After that, I explained that the franchisor contacted the guest and offered them a refund of one night, which they accepted and then the guest called us to try to get a full refund before we had even been made aware that the franchisor had already refunded them for one night!

Finally, I explained to the BBB that the policy of refunding no more than one night is a policy supported by the franchisor themselves, not just by the hotel. With that, if the BBB does not consider it an adequate, "Good faith," remedy, then their problem is with the franchisor, not with us.

In other words, this particular guest is trying to scam the ^%^$% out of us to effectively end up with refunds in excess of what they even spent on the entire stay, and the BBB maintains that we're not making a, "Good faith," effort to resolve it? It was resolved the second that the guest accepted the offer from the franchisor of the one night refund.

Anyway, they as much as directly said that we would have an easier time of these things, "Additional assistance and support," in the event we were to become BBB accredited---despite the fact that the annual fee is more than I ever dished out in refunds, in seven years, as a result of complaints made to them.

Apparently, someone isn't paying attention because when you look up that hotel for the new franchise, they have every single complaint that has ever been made against that entire franchise listed as if it belongs to the hotel. Oh well. Not my problem.

That's of course not even to mention their own claims that they do not accept complaints as to issues that have already been resolved. For that reason, the guest having resolved it with the franchisor, it should have been dropped immediately, but wasn't.

Quote: ams288

Honestly I find this to be one of the most depressing stories to come out of the Biden WH:

Quote:

Pet news dump from the WH: New puppy, new cat, and Major will get a new family.

“After consulting with dog trainers, animal behaviorists, and veterinarians, the First Family has decided … it would be safest for Major to live in a quieter environment with family friends.”

I heard that the dog's name will be changed to KARL BARX

Raise your hand if you work for a frickin moron