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Berkeley-based Politify tells voters whether Mitt Romney's or Barack Obama's platform is better
Bay Area News Group ^ | 09/06/2012 | Josh Richman

Posted on 09/06/2012 10:21:41 AM PDT by AmericanSamurai

BERKELEY -- Unsure which presidential candidate's platform would be better for your household's or neighborhood's financial bottom line? Don't worry: There's an app for that.

Politify.com lets a user input his or her salary, other income, age, tax status and other data, and produces an estimate of how much the user would gain or lose under President Barack Obama's and Mitt Romney's respective tax and budget plans.

But cofounder Nikita Bier, 23, of Berkeley, said Friday that while the site's earlier version was little more than a tax calculator, the version launched Aug. 23 also uses "a complex merger of IRS and census data" to estimate the increase or decrease in specific government services a household would receive. A user can also input his ZIP code or city and state to generate a color-coded map showing which neighborhoods would benefit, and how much, from which candidate.

"Most ZIP codes in the U.S. tend to vote against their self-interest -- they vote for candidates who would harm the households in those areas," Bier said. "The big thing that we plan on releasing in about two-and-a-half weeks will be a 'heat map' displaying which ZIP codes vote against their self-interest."

(Excerpt) Read more at insidebayarea.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2012; obama; politify; romney

1 posted on 09/06/2012 10:21:44 AM PDT by AmericanSamurai
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To: AmericanSamurai

Vote the opposite of what it recommends and you won’t go wrong...


2 posted on 09/06/2012 10:24:26 AM PDT by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: AmericanSamurai

Why do I have the feeling that about 90% of the results will be “Obama’s is better”?


3 posted on 09/06/2012 10:24:41 AM PDT by Ranald S. MacKenzie (It's the philosophy, stupid.)
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To: Ranald S. MacKenzie

Well I guess they don’t call it “Berserkeley” for nothing. :P


4 posted on 09/06/2012 10:26:24 AM PDT by AmericanSamurai
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To: AmericanSamurai

I mean who are the homeless, Zapatistas, and anarchists voting for? :P


5 posted on 09/06/2012 10:27:05 AM PDT by AmericanSamurai
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To: AmericanSamurai

Oh sure....the Communists at Berzerkley have the interest of freedom-loving Americans at heart. How absurd.


6 posted on 09/06/2012 10:27:12 AM PDT by txrefugee
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To: AmericanSamurai

I played around with the charts a bit. My conclusion is that the numbers on each page do not add up. Romney’s side of things shows less income (to the government) from taxes, yet every combination I entered paid more in taxes. Apparently it is another lying ad for Obama.


7 posted on 09/06/2012 10:30:07 AM PDT by Ingtar (Everyone complains about the weather, but only Liberals try to legislate it.)
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To: Ingtar

I love how they claim “Non-Partisan”.


8 posted on 09/06/2012 10:33:39 AM PDT by AmericanSamurai
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To: AmericanSamurai

This site is garbage. It really didn’t seem to matter what info I put in, it always said Zero was the best choice. It also said on a national level, Zero would be a much better choice for my area. I live in Camp LeJeune. We all know a democrat is rarely good for the military. Again, garbage.


9 posted on 09/06/2012 10:36:53 AM PDT by Millicent_Hornswaggle (Retired US Marine wife)
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To: Ingtar

Under personal, it shows I would do far better under Romney so I like this chart.


10 posted on 09/06/2012 10:39:07 AM PDT by rudabaga
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To: AmericanSamurai

>> a complex merger of IRS and census data” to estimate the increase or decrease in specific government services a household would receive.

Ask not ...

SnakeDoc


11 posted on 09/06/2012 10:39:35 AM PDT by SnakeDoctor ("I've shot people I like more for less." -- Raylan Givens, Justified)
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To: Ranald S. MacKenzie
Why do I have the feeling that about 90% of the results will be “Obama’s is better”?

I explored it last week and would say you grossly under-estimated.

12 posted on 09/06/2012 10:46:14 AM PDT by newzjunkey (Election night is 61 days away.)
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To: AmericanSamurai

I took their little test. Its rigged. According to them .... every county in the US, save maybe three, will benefit more from Obama, the nation as a whole will benefit more from Obama (including a reduced deficit????) ... and, even six-figure earners in Texas will benefit more from Obama. They even include planned parenthood as a “benefit”.

“My name is Barack Obama, and I approved this message.”

What a joke.

SnakeDoc


13 posted on 09/06/2012 10:46:19 AM PDT by SnakeDoctor ("I've shot people I like more for less." -- Raylan Givens, Justified)
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To: SnakeDoctor

It’s not a joke, it’s propaganda.


14 posted on 09/06/2012 10:47:43 AM PDT by newzjunkey (Election night is 61 days away.)
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To: AmericanSamurai

An entrepreneur, for sure....23 year old dual citizen (mother country not specified)......forages for food in the Berkeley environment hawking his ‘tool’......good luck, comrade....


15 posted on 09/06/2012 10:54:11 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: Ranald S. MacKenzie
The national and local impact results were exactly what you feared. There is no input except for zip code.

However, when I did personal impact that involved input of household income and dividends, the result was Romney by a factor of 2X.

This seems to pit the individual against the big government arguments. In short, nothing new.

16 posted on 09/06/2012 11:31:43 AM PDT by pfflier
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To: Ranald S. MacKenzie

You got that right.

My community, reliably and staunchly conservative and republican, and went over 90% for the republicans since Reagan, shows 68% for The Messiah. YGTBSM!!


17 posted on 09/06/2012 11:43:57 AM PDT by Hulka
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To: AmericanSamurai

Too bad that they didn’t have people input their IQ score...anything above 75, and Fauxbama loses.


18 posted on 09/06/2012 1:30:52 PM PDT by Ancesthntr (Bibi to Odumbo: Its not going to happen.)
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