The economy's tanking. While We The People are bothered by that, Convicted Felon Donald Chump doesn't care. Jonathan Allen (NBC NEWS) notes, "In a recent CBS poll,
80% of respondents said addressing inflation should be a top priority -- while just 29% said they believed Trump was prioritizing the issue 'a
lot'."
If we're going to cut out waste and fraud in the US government, let's start with Donald Chump and the way he wastes our money. He wasted money during his first term as well. In fact, on the deficit, let's note this breakdown that Michael Tomasky provides at THE NEW REPUBLIC:
Jimmy Carter added $25 billion to the deficit. • Ronald Reagan added $74 billion. That seemed bad at the time; just you wait. • George H.W. Bush added $102 billion. • Bill Clinton reduced the deficit by $383 billion, leaving the budget in surplus when he left office. • George W. Bush added $1.54 trillion to the deficit. • Barack Obama got the deficit down to $585 billion; that is, he reduced it by $825 billion. • Donald Trump added $2.1 trillion to the deficit. • Joe Biden reduced the deficit by about $942 billion.
$2.1 trillion. Pretty sure that Chump's going to leave us much higher in debt by the end of this term.
Why did he run for another term? He said he wanted to be in the White House so why can't he sit that fat ass down and stay in the residence we're paying for? Oliver O'Connell (INDEPENDENT) reports:
Less than two months after returning to the White House, Donald Trump has reportedly played golf on 13 of the 48 days he has been back in office — and the cost of those trips to Florida has been mounting.
The White House pool report on Saturday (March 8) had him arrive at the Trump International West Palm Beach
just after 8:15 a.m. after a short drive from his “Winter White House”
just across the Intracoastal Waterway in Palm Beach proper.
According to an analysis by HuffPost,
this is his 10th trip to the club, adjacent to Palm Beach International
Airport, since his inauguration on January 20th. He has also golfed
three times at Trump Doral, just east of Miami International Airport.
The outlet claims, citing costs from a 2019 Government Accountability Office report,
that the president’s apparent insistence on spending his weekends (six
out of seven so far) in Florida has now cost American taxpayers in
excess of $18 million.
He's destroying the economy, he's destroying the country, he's destroying our schools. Is that what has him on the run?
One year ago, a report appeared in the media documenting Musk’s heavy
use of a range of illegal and mind-altering drugs. This report didn’t
come from some left-wing scandal sheet; it was actually a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal. Here’s how the story begins:
Elon Musk
and his supporters offer several explanations for his contrarian views,
unfiltered speech and provocative antics. They’re an expression of his
creativity. Or the result of his mental-health challenges. Or fallout
from his stress, or sleep deprivation.
In recent years, some executives and board members at his
companies and others close to the billionaire have developed a
persistent concern that there is another component driving his behavior:
his use of drugs.
The world’s wealthiest person has used LSD, cocaine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, often at private parties around the world,
where attendees sign nondisclosure agreements or give up their phones
to enter, according to people who have witnessed his drug use and others
with knowledge of it. Musk has previously smoked marijuana in public
and has said he has a prescription for the psychedelic-like ketamine.
The story documents the drugs he took at parties, naming specific
people (a brother, a board member, friends) with whom he took them. It
recounts incidents at work where he appeared to be too wasted to
function (including one attempt to address SpaceX employees that
attendees termed “nonsensical” and “cringeworthy”). It cites repeated
concerns of his companies’ board members about his ability to function
on at least a somewhat steady keel, and their concerns that his
companies might have to pay a price for his conduct. In particular,
members also feared that Musk’s drug use might threaten SpaceX’s ability
to do business with the government, as SpaceX is privy to highly
classified information about the U.S. spy satellites it sends into
orbit. As a subsequent Journal story that ran less than three months ago reported:
[T]he company’s lawyers advised senior executives not to seek a
higher security clearance for Musk that would give him access to
details about sensitive programs SpaceX is involved in, according to
people familiar with the matter.
The reason, these people said, was that Musk would have had to
answer questions from the government about his contacts with foreign
nationals and drug use previously reported by The Wall Street Journal.
In internal discussions, the lawyers and executives posited scenarios in
which Musk might inadvertently disclose secrets to foreign officials
with whom he regularly speaks, the people said. The Journal reported in October that Musk has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022.
That may explain why Donald Trump hasn’t officially appointed Musk to
anything, as he might be required to perjure himself to become an
actual administration official. Then again, chatting with Putin while in
possession of highly classified U.S. secrets and being
hallucinogenically high as a kite probably poses no problem in the Trump
White House.
The Department of
Health and Human Services has granted associates of the U.S. DOGE
Service access to a sensitive child support database with troves of
income data, overriding the objections of career employees, according to four people familiar with the matter.
The government database — created to help enforce child support
payments and overseen by the Administration for Children and Families,
or ACF — contains substantial amounts of personal income data linked to
nearly all U.S. workers. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity
because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
An HHS official
confirmed that DOGE received access to the system, saying that DOGE’s
agents sought “read-only access” to the system and were required “to
take all necessary trainings” before being granted permission to use it.
“ACF supports
DOGE’s efforts to improve efficiency and data quality to reduce waste,
fraud, and abuse in federal programs,” the official, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity to describe internal operations, wrote in an
email. “ACF will continue to assist DOGE in efforts to strengthen the
programs it runs.”
Nearly two months into President
Donald Trump’s lawless dismantling of the federal government, a small
agency has stood up with a tell-all lawsuit. The lawsuit
from the president of the United States African Development Foundation
(USADF) asks the courts to spare the agency from obliteration at the
hands of Elon Musk and his band of tech bros. In doing so, it lays out
in detail just how Musk and his so-called Department of Government
Efficiency go about their illegal takeovers—and how one tiny agency
stood up for its mission and the rule of law.
Since the opening days of the administration, Musk and his minions
have barged into agencies, including such august institutions as the
Treasury Department, where they demanded access to the most sensitive
systems and were handed the keys to the kingdom. Across government,
career officials facing DOGE orders have resigned quietly, leaving the
public to guess as to what is happening as reporters rush to share
snippets.
But the lawsuit offers something that has been generally lacking—an
example of top agency officials who not only fought DOGE’s attacks, but
are sharing with the public exactly how these attacks are taking place.
USADF and its president Ward Brehm has something
going for him that some larger agency leaders do not, in that it
operates outside the purview of any Trump-appointed cabinet official. By
blocking DOGE’s access to their systems, despite threats, and then
filing a lawsuit, USADF demonstrates how smaller agencies and officials
can stand up against Musk. After all, as the lawsuit points out, Musk
and his staff do not have actual authority to do what they are doing. At
least in this case, they just have bravado. While DOGE personnel were escorted
into the USADF headquarters by federal marshals on Friday, if the
agency’ lawsuit succeeds, its resistance could fend off annihilation at
the hands of DOGE.
The allegations in the complaint lay bare how DOGE operates. First,
Trump issued an executive order targeting several agencies as
“unnecessary,” including USADF. Next, DOGE staff attempted to penetrate
USADF’s internal networks “under the false pretenses of modernizing and
streamlining USADF’s computer systems.” When USADF leadership were later
told the real reason DOGE sought access was to essentially shut USADF
down, they refused them access.
What followed was an increasingly outlandish series of threats, lies,
and actions without any legal authority on the part of DOGE as they
sought to take control at USADF.
“DOGE employees began threatening members of the Board—telling them
that unless they carried out DOGE’s plans to strip USADF to its core,
the Board would be fired,” the complaint alleges. “When that didn’t
work, USADF was told that President Trump did not need to follow the
required process for advice and consent of the Senate and instead had
appointed Pete Marocco as the sole board member (despite there still
being four properly appointed board members, none of whom had received
any notification of termination).”
Chump and his bed and business partner Musk are destroying the country and destroying the world. Wafaa Shurafa (INDEPENDENT) notes, "Foreign ministers from Muslim nations on Saturday rejected calls by US president Donald Trump to empty the Gaza Strip of its Palestinian population and backed a plan for an administrative committee of Palestinians to govern the territory to allow reconstruction to go ahead." Chump's stupidity on Gaza isn't playing well around the world . . . or here at home. Sarah Ward (IRISH TIMES) reports:
Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort has been vandalised by activists in response to the US president’s statements on Gaza.
The
golf course in South Ayrshire, owned by the US president, was targeted
overnight, with activists painting Gaza Is Not For Sale in three-metre
high letters on the lawn, and damaging the greens including the course’s
most prestigious hole, used in Open Championships.
Red spray paint was used to deface the elite club house at the 800-acre resort, on Friday night.
Palestine Action described it as a “direct response to the US administration’s stated intent to ethnically cleanse Gaza”.
Mr Trump’s recent comments include plans to “clean out the whole thing”.
I’m reaching out with a quick request. And no, it’s not for money.
I’m just
over a month into my new role as DNC Vice Chair, and every single day,
I’m hearing from Democrats who are angry and worried about what they’re
seeing from the Trump administration. They want to see a strong
Democratic Party fighting back.
Trust me,
so do I. As we work to strengthen our Party, the first step is listening
to supporters like you on the best way to move forward.
This
isn’t one of those surveys where the real purpose is to get you to make a
donation. The DNC’s team will be reading each response we receive here,
and we will use the information we gather to make an informed decision
about the DNC’s next steps.
Thank you in advance for sharing your feedback — and more to come soon.
David
David Hogg
Vice Chair
Democratic National Committee
Friday, March 7, 2025. Chump gets push back from the markets, JD Vance insults our ally, Senator Elizabeth Warren delivers in a hearing, DSA continues to attack the Democratic Party, and much more.
When this
site started, we covered Iraq every day. We have moved on but we will
cover Iraq as needed. When we covered Iraq, we covered the stories that
needed to be amplified. Which meant we called out the NYT reporting on
Falluja that was shoddy and incorrect. And we called it out in real
time and raised questions about it. It would go on to win a Pulitzer
but for those who know about Iraq -- and the use of White phosphorus --
it remains one of the most controversial bits of 'reporting' that THE
TIMES ever published from Iraq. The Pulitzer should have been returned
and that 'reporting' remains a nightmare though many try to avoid
criticizing it because the writer is 'on our side.' I'm sorry, when you
are 'reporting' on the killing of teenage males and you're letting the
US military vet your copy, you're not on my side. We also covered the
deaths especially when families were lied to and/or insulted. 'Brave'
Australians like Luke and Caitlin are always a laugh to me because the
words "Jake Kovco" were never typed by them. He's an Australian who
died in Iraq. There was an inquiry into his death. The government
failed him and failed his family. But, hey, Luke and Caitlin and you
other cowards, keep calling out the US government and pretend that makes
you brave while you stay silent about your own government.
I
bring this up because someone will whine -- and they probably still
will -- that I'm pulling in the next story for no real reason. You can
say that but, again, we covered Iraq here daily and did so for almost 20
years. This next topic is something we would have covered then and
we'll cover it now. Simon Thake (BBC NEWS) reports:
A
Sheffield man whose son was killed in Iraq has condemned "glib" and
"offensive" comments about overseas troops by US vice-president JD
Vance.
Vance said an American stake in
Ukraine's economy was a "better security guarantee than 20,000 troops
from some random country that hasn't fought a war in 30 or 40 years".
The comments were criticised by UK opposition politicians, who accused Vance of disrespecting British forces.
Bill
Stewardson, whose son Kingsman Alex Green, 21, died in Basra in 2007,
said Vance's comments "lacked common decency" and called on him to
resign.
Mr Stewardson said Vance "epitomises everything that a statesman and a leader should not be".
He's created an international incident.
Grasp that.
Vice presidents do not normally do that.
And he's got no character. I get it, Miss Sassy was the Corporal
Maxwell Q. Klinger in Iraq. He didn't fight. He tries to act tough
but he was just typing away in Iraq. While others were required to show
courage.
And now he makes statements that insult our ally. If he had any decency or
self-respect, he would say, "My goodness, I am so sorry that my words
sounded that way. It was not my intent an, as a fellow Iraq War
veteran, I certainly appreciate everyone who served there so I would
like to say to Alex Green's family that I am sorry and wish I had used better and more precise wording."
He
can't do that. He can spark an international incident but he's not
mature enough and lacks the character required to say what is now
needed.
Automakers got a one-month exemption yesterday from the 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico—a glimmer of hope that sparked a Wall Street rally. But Target CEO Brian Cornell and other U.S. retailers say they could raise prices on fresh-food imports within
days. Canada and China have already announced retaliatory tariffs on
U.S. goods, with Mexico promising to announce its plan by Sunday. Stock
markets may reverse course and rally if investors cling to the hope that
the global trade war will be no more than a “little disturbance,” as
President Trump promised in his speech to Congress. Or not.
For
CEOs, what’s next is the stuff of existential debate. Who knows what
will happen in the coming days? But here are some takeaways from the
trade war so far:
The damage is real – If current tariffs remain in place for three months, RBC estimates that the U.S. economy will see zero growth this year. Goodbye Trump bump.
Hello, planning for a potential recession. For months, CEOs have talked
about tariffs as a tactic and negotiating ploy to squeeze concessions
from trading partners on other issues. Now, the threat is urgent and
real, with an impact that could ripple across different industries.
Cash-strapped consumers tend to cancel vacations, delay renovations, and
skimp on expenses like healthcare. Consumer spending accounts for
almost 70% of U.S. GDP—and Americans are nervous about the future right now.
When
President Trump announced tariff hikes on China, Canada, and Mexico,
his team reassured consumers that they wouldn't be facing the sharp end of the deal.
In fact, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent went so far as to say he wasn't concerned about
the 20% increase the White House had placed on imports from China,
saying the nation "will pay for the tariffs because their business model
is exporting their way out of this inflation. They will eat any tariffs
that go on."
Likewise, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick hinted that retaliatory tariffs from Canada and Mexico wouldn't come to fruition, as "they have so much more that they sell to us than we sell to them."
He
added: "It’s not even close, this is not a battle that we’re ever going
to lose. The president knows it, he does have the cards, and he’s going
to protect Americans."
If
Lutnick was betting there would be little or no retaliation, it hasn't
paid off. Canada has since responded with a 25% hike of its own on
American exports, with Mexico adding it will announce tariff and non-tariff rebuttals later this week.
China also whacked 15% onto imports of key U.S. farm products, including chicken, pork, soy, and beef, as well as expanding controls on doing business with U.S. companies.
It
seems the back-and-forth will raise prices for consumers, a further
burden on purse strings which have already been stretched over the past
few years by inflation and tight interest rates.
The
bad news for Chump is that FORTUNE, et al don't care whether you get a
honeymoon or not. They're not going to be intimidated. They're not
Barbara Walters or Liz Smith where you can screech and scream and get
your way. They're not the soft and weak 'news' reporters for THE NEW YORK TIMES who had decades to cover Chump and never alerted the people to the reality of him or of his family. Most readers of THE TIMES couldn't even tell you of the proximity to greatness the Trump family had before Chump was born but all that really happened is Trump betrayed. That is the story of that family.
The bad news for the average American is that they're not the
focus of the financial press. (Though when they are, you can win a
Pulitzer -- the human costs of the leverage buyout of Safeway, for
example.) Their concern is Money. And Money's never respected Chump to
begin with and they're not going to lie for him. And whenever
Chump does something nutty -- several times a day -- with regards to our
economy, I'm reminded of what Chuck Schumer said in January 2017 about
Chump and the CIA, "Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence
community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you. So,
even for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he’s being
really dumb to do this." The CIA are actually much kinder than the
financial press.
Here's Lawrence O'Donnell from last night explaining the bosses that Chump has to listen to.
Lawrence has done outstanding work for years. Everyone can't say the same. I'm thinking of DSAer posing as a Democrat and I'm wondering what the hell he thinks he's doing? Like a good DSAer, he's just attacked the Democratic Party in a video and insisted that the party was not going to save us from fascism. And then, 13 hours later, he did a video slamming Dems for voting with fascists.
Well if they're not going to save us, as you already argued, why the surprise?
Oh, that's right.
You're not about truth and you're not about consistency.
You are about pimping lies and attacking the party.
Hate to break it to you -- and you're old enough that I shouldn't have to -- no one is riding to the rescue. We have to roll our sleeves and do it ourselves.
That's not me attacking the Democratic Party which is not fascist, by the way.
That's me acknowledging the system we live in. It's a system DSA loves to criticize but can't seem to effectively work with, work against or work around.
The Democrats in Congress are of many minds on how to push back on Chump. They test things and they try to see what works. I wasn't a fan of the 'bingo cards' -- I wasn't fan of them before this year either -- but it was a tactic and they tried it.
If DSA had a brain -- even one -- among it's almost 80,000 national members, they might grasp that we -- the people -- are the ones who push and push and push.
That means we push in our commentary. Against Chump.
Clutch The Pearls was the automatic stance of corporate media long before Cokie Roberts further pioneered it with "as a mother . . ."
The media can be a vengeful pack, but it is a pack that runs together.
Those of us online can say much more -- and should -- about Chump than those in elected office. We -- that even includes DSA -- need to be pushing the dialogue to the left. You know, like DSA forever claims that they want to push the Democratic Party to the left. That's what they said back in 1982 with the plan that they'd build their own party and their membership would soar.
Four decades later and they've gone from 25,000 members to almost 80,000 -- that's not soaring.
The media has a honeymoon period where they are reluctant to critique and assess the new president. It's the first hundred days. Chump has already seen that honeymoon begin to fade.
Dems in office are fighting back. They need to do more. They are testing other avenues and responses.
But we're the ones who have to do the hard work right now.
And, sorry to break it to you simple-minded DSAer, your attacks on the Democratic Party do nothing to help anyone. Like Uncommitted, it's a recipe for disaster.
Criticize the party. I do. But I don't call my political party a fascist.
It's not one, that language is not helpful, this is a time when supposedly we should pull together -- all of us.
Isn't that what Rashida Tlaib's groupies keep saying?
The time to pull together was before election day so there calls for all of us to pull together are laughable now.
But they keep making them . . . just like they keep attacking the Democratic Party.
I'm tired of it. The mid-terms are important and so is the next presidential election and we don't have time for DSA's desire to turn us into a Socialist country to excuse their nonsensical and repeated attacks on the Democratic Party.
We need to be focused. And don't come at me with we all need to pull together when you're on YOUTUBE calling my party a fascist.
Last night, Rachel Maddow spoke with Hampton Dellinger who demonstrated how one person could make a huge difference.
We have power and we have strength. The Black community is effectively responding with specific boycotts, for example. But then we usually do respond as opposed to the male and female Karens of DSA. Marcia notes three strong people standing out in last night's "3 patriots demonstrating real courage: Kayde Martin, Dr. Mary Brinkmeyer,
Pete Buttigieg."
We The People can't sit back and wait to be rescued because that never happens. We have to be out here fighting for our country and for our future. (If the vile racism and sexism aimed at Kamala by our 'friends' on the left and aimed at Black women specifically means you are taking time for yourself, you continue to do that. You rejoin when and if it's good for you. I am appalled that all this time later Tlaib's groupies cannot apologize for their online attacks of Black women.) We need to model the courage we want to see from our representatives. We need to make demands of them as well.
But we really don't have time for Socialists in political closets attacking our party with one extreme judgment after another -- extreme and uninformed.
Here's Chris Hayes from last night calling for more from our party.
He's not kissing ass or pretending everything is turning up roses and rainbows. He's also not calling Dems fascists.
Welp, that isn't exactly going to plan. In Musk's incredibly high-profile role as the head of the Department of Governmental Efficiency, he
has tried to impose massive cuts to spending that had already been
approved by Congress, and he's laid off thousands of federal employees.
This has not gone over well with the general public, and now Teslas
shares are down 40 percent from their peak after the markets closed on
March 5, according to CNN.
Shares have lost over a third of their value since Trump took office on
January 20, meaning it has lost nearly 90 percent of its post-election
bump.
Elon Musk told investors to expect Tesla sales to grow this year — but plummeting sales in several countries are complicating that goal.
While
Tesla's Model Y continues to be a top seller and UK sales were up in
February, some of Tesla's sales figures in other markets looked grim —
the kind of year-over-year drops that should worry the CEO.
Germany: -76%
Tesla's
sales in Germany last month were down by 76% year over year, with 1,429
vehicles sold. Germany's Federal Motor Transport Authority said overall
EV sales in the country grew by about 31%.
Tesla sales in France last month declined by 26% year over year:
It sold 2,395 vehicles, though that was an increase from 1,141 Teslas
sold in January. The country also experienced an overall decline in car
sales of 0.7%, Plateforme Automobile said.
Teslas manufactured in China: -49%
Sales
of Teslas manufactured in China also took a hit in February. The EV
giant sold 30,688 China-made vehicles, its lowest number since August
2022. That represented a 49% drop year over year in China. Tesla's Chinese rival BYD recorded a 90.4% increase in vehicle sales that month.
Steve
Wozniak is no fan of Elon Musk, he revealed—and that goes for the Tesla
CEO’s cars as well as his current stint as President Donald Trump’s
chief cost-cutter.
The
Apple cofounder excoriated Musk during a recent interview, criticizing
his management style at the so-called Department of Government
Efficiency (DOGE).
“I don’t know what got into his head,” Wozniak told CNBC.
“Sometimes
you get so rich at these big companies, when you’re on top, it goes to
your head, and you’re the most credible person in the world, you’re the
brightest, and you're gonna dictate what others will do.
“Bullying is the best way to think of it,” Wozniak said.
Washington, D.C. – At a hearing of the Senate
Finance Committee, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) questioned
Dr. Michael Faulkender, President Trump’s nominee for Deputy Secretary
of the Treasury, on Republicans’ “magic math” for their plans to cut
taxes for the ultra-wealthy. Republican leaders are increasingly
supportive of using a “current policy baseline” for their tax package to
hide the true cost of their proposed $4.6 trillion tax package.
Congress’ independent scorekeepers have historically scored
legislation using a “current law baseline,” which assumes that temporary
tax cuts will expire and that extending those tax cuts will cost money.
A current policy baseline, on the other hand, assumes that temporary
tax cuts will not expire and that extending those tax cuts will cost $0.
When pressed by Senator Warren on whether this gimmick actually
produces additional revenue, Dr. Faulkender admitted, "I can't imagine
that it would.”
Last month, Senator Warren sent a letter
to the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), which provides
Members of Congress with revenue estimates for tax legislation. She
pressed for answers on whether JCT has ever used a “current policy
baseline” for official scoring purposes on the Senate floor, among other
questions, to set the record straight on Republicans’ “magic math."
Ahead of his nomination hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Warren also sent a 32-page letter to Dr. Faulkender, pressing him to explain his views on his potential Treasury responsibilities.
Transcript: Hearing to examine the nomination of Michael Faulkender, of Maryland, to be Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Senate Finance Committee March 6, 2025
Senator Elizabeth Warren: Thank you very much, Mr.
Chairman. So, President Trump had exactly one big legislative
accomplishment in his first term: a giant tax cut for millionaires,
billionaires, and massive corporations. In fact, it was so giant that a
big hunk of it lasted only eight years and still cost $2 trillion. Now,
the eight years are up, so Republicans want to do another tax cut for
the ultra-wealthy, which Congress’ non-partisan budget scorers say is
going to cost $4.6 trillion this time. Now, Congressional Republicans
say they care about the deficit, so they have a plan to fix things up:
repeal math. Here's their story: because they already had eight years of
tax cuts that ran up the debt, Congressional Republicans claim that 10
more years of tax cuts will be free. They named this gimmick the
‘current policy baseline.’ They should have named it “magic math.” It is
so nuts that when we need to figure out the cost of tax cuts, the
Senate has never, never switched to it over using real math.
Now, Dr. Faulkender, if confirmed, you will play a role in whatever
tax deal the Republicans put together. So let's talk about math,“magic
math” and real math. Dr. Faulkender, does renaming tax cuts produce any
additional revenue?
Michael Faulkender, Deputy Secretary-Designate, U.S. Department of the Treasury: Does renaming them–
Senator Warren: Yes, calling them something different. Does that produce any additional revenue?
Dr. Faulkender: I don't think renaming something changes—if it changes behavior, it has the potential to change revenues.
Senator Warren: Wait, so, are you saying renaming tax cuts produces additional revenue? Just renaming it?
Dr. Faulkender: I can't imagine that it would, unless it causes people to behave differently.
Senator Warren: Okay, I'll take that as no. Fair
enough? Claiming that somehow losing $4.6 trillion in tax revenues is
free is just plain nuts. Congressional Republicans are hoping they can
fool people long enough to deliver giveaways to their wealthy donors
before anyone figures it out. But at the end of the day, Republicans
cannot repeal math. A bunch of tax cuts for billionaires will cost $4.6
trillion.
But congressional Republicans don't like that answer. So, I'm
wondering, if they love magic math so much, I want to ask the same
question in reverse. If the Republicans’ idea of magically not counting
the cost of tax cuts for billionaires makes sense, what about not
counting the cost of tax cuts for ordinary people? That is, for
extending the Child Tax Credit?
Dr. Faulkender, according to Republicans’ magic math, if extending
the tax cuts is free, shouldn't extending a temporary expansion of the
Child Tax Credit also be free?
Dr. Faulkender: Thank you, Senator. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
increased the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000, and so if we
allow that tax cut to expire, it would mean that the child tax credit
would go back to the $1,000.
Senator Warren: Right. So, the question I'm asking
is, using Republican “magic math,” if it is free to extend tax cuts for
billionaires, isn't it also free to extend tax cuts for poor kids?
Dr. Faulkender: Senator, I'm not familiar with magic
math, but what I do know is that the American people look at the
current tax code, what they paid last year and what they paid this year
as the current environment. So, the question is, when we talk about
extending it, I would argue that extending the TCJA is making sure that
the American people don't incur a $4.5 trillion tax increase.
Senator Warren: So, you do think that renaming the tax cuts will produce $4.5 trillion in revenue?
Dr. Faulkender: No, Senator, I didn't say that it
had any impact on the bottom line deficit. I'm just saying when you ask
me what a baseline is, to me, the baseline is what I'm currently doing.
Senator Warren: I’m not asking you that. I'm asking
you what it costs to put in $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. Look, if
Republican “magic math” works, then why not extend it to everything we
spend money on? How about the money we spent last year on roads and
bridges or child care subsidies and the workers who process Social
Security checks? Of course not. No one is going to do that.
Congressional Republicans want to use “magic math” to pass giant tax
cuts, and then try to tell the American people those tax cuts cost
nothing. Hard-working Americans understand that $4.6 trillion for a
billionaire tax cut is not free. Congressional Republicans are trying to
sell magic math so they can help billionaires, and fortunately, the
American people are just not buying that.
###
Instead of amplifying that, DSAers spent the last 24 hours calling the Democratic Party fascists and that's why so many of us -- "us" being members of the Democratic Party -- feel we can not afford or indulge the DSA currently. They made their choice in the last election and it was to attack the Democratic Party which brought us another term of Donald Chump.
We can't afford the DSA and we certainly cannot trust them currently.
Billionaire
Jeff Bezos has decided to use his newspaper to propagate an outdated
story that Americans like to tell themselves: that economic freedom
equals human freedom. The myth of meritocracy might be designed to
inspire striving, but in a country with the greatest income inequality in the developed world, it does something more harmful. It threatens Americans’ health, gaslighting people to believe that unchecked capitalism delivers personal liberty, when decades of research show it shackles people to financial and emotional insecurity.
Bezos announced on February 26 that TheWashington Post’s
opinion pages will be “writing every day in support and defense of two
pillars: personal liberties and free markets.” The paper will not
publish any viewpoints opposing his priorities, he said, while adding,
“Freedom is ethical—it minimizes coercion—and practical—it drives
creativity, invention, and prosperity.” For an editorial section that
long prided itself as a marketplace of ideas, and a newspaper
historically dedicated to holding the powerful accountable, this edict
by a union-busting business mogul engaged in a pay-to-play scheme with a president who disdains the Constitution is bad for journalism and democracy and, perhaps most personally, Americans’ mental health.
I worked at The Washington Post from
2017 to December 2023, establishing the Opinion section’s first
documentary film unit and pioneering a column about mental health and
society. In 2021, I covered the January 6 attack at
the U.S. Capitol as part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for
Public Service. When I learned of Bezos’s editorial edict, I talked to
former colleagues and learned of “heartbreak,” confusion, and anger in
the newsroom. I also reached out to Post leadership for a comment
on what defines “personal liberties and free markets” and who would be
the arbiter of who deserved this freedom. No response.
[. . .]
The
system Bezos is championing has enabled the rich to get richer faster
and the working class to burn out more quickly. And the assignment he’s
given The Washington Post opinion pages is to make his story look good. There is a dataset that gives it credence: Since the 2020 pandemic, the U.S. economy expanded at
a solid pace, wages have grown, and more people are working. But if you
widen the lens to look at health, well-being, and human
flourishing—some people’s definition of life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness—the United States does “abysmally,” social epidemiologist
Richard Wilkinson, a professor emeritus at the University of York in
Britain, told me.
“The
costs of the way the society works are absolutely horrendous,”
Wilkinson said in an interview. “We must, at some point, get people to
address that.”
Poor Jeff Bezos, paying with his soul.
Hey baby
I want to know
From the 'a-go-go' to the disco
Where did you really go?
You finally made it
You're gonna make it rich
As long as some poor bastard in Africa
Is lying in a ditch
Soul
Soul
Soul
Soul
How much did ya
How much did ya
How much did ya get?
-- "How Much Did You Get For Your Soul," written by Chrissie Hynde, first appears on Pretenders' GET CLOSE album.
