We need a website that lists the biggest tax cuts to individuals and companies given by Trump 1.0 and a listing of ALL THE NEW jobs created by the TRICKLING DOWN. I'll guess there is an average of $10M to 1 job. And the Opposition Party needs to hammer in the message in every conversation and talking points of every interview.
If you'd asked me that about jobs a couple months ago I'd have instantly said BLS - Bureau of Labor Statistics. Now, who knows if anyone will be working there tomorrow? Still, website is:
That Musk claim is the most egregious form of BS. He wants giant tax cuts, more Nazi's in government, more contracts for himself, and as little as possible for the peons. He just lies.
All his "savings" are over ten years. All of them are illegal (save possibly those folks still on job hiring probation status) and it's going to get interesting if they try ignoring the courts. It's very likely, in that case, that the courts would order those folks to be paid, whether they were locked out or not. And don't count on the SCOTUS reversing those courts, the SCOTUS is very VERY dependent on their own GS employees. I guarantee you the Justices are getting an earful. Very subtly in a couple of cases, but they're going to get the message anyhow.
So what's the cost of a 5000$ payment to all taxpaying households (yes, that's how they'd do it) every year for ten years. About 100,000,000 x 5000 x 10, close enough. Which is five trillion dollars. The federal budget, total, is about six and a half trillion, and a whopper hunk of that is Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Discretionary spending is 1.7 trillion. Yeah. No freaking way they're doing that every year. Or any year.
Pure vaporware, about like Musk's "self driving" software he's been touting for ten years.
That said, I'll just refer you to my statement on the budget mess yesterday. Come down to it, the only choice was to filibuster, and the odds of the GQP passing multiple "keep only part of the government open" bills for months, while entire departments had every person finding other jobs, was way too high. And the powerless Democrats would own Trump's recession as a result. Where's the point in that?
Make a party powerless, and they can't exercise power. Who would have thought such a thing!
(Meant to say TAX FILING households in the above. If it was only tax PAYING households, they'd cut out a huge number of Trump supporters.)
Would it matter? The Venezuelans were on planes told to turn around. They didn’t. There are no more laws or the founding laws. That SCOTUS was asked to “hold” birthright citizenship, a Constitutional guarantee, while giving more time for lower courts, is one case after another. Or did you mean .. something else than they couldn’t act?
Reading about the 2 deportation flights of Venezuelan gang members, made me think of pre-Chavez Venezuela and 'trickle down'.
For 15 years my husband and I were regular visitors to Venezuela where we had very good friends. The government was based on the US democracy and just about everyone benefited from the oil wealth in terms of education and employment opportunities. Oil wealth did trickle down.
Now there is no oil wealth and nothing to trickle down as most of the refineries have closed.
(Before writing this I did some research on why and how everything changed from our first trip in 1988 to our last in 2004 which was bittersweet reading.)
We were you know whatted no matter which way the Dems voted. I think it would have been worse if they shut down. I think it would have made it quicker to get rid of most of the workers and close agencies.
The only 'guard rails' are the non MAGA R's who continue to go along with Trump. I am dreading when Trump decides to take over the Panama Canal and all the other BS he spouts or will he? who knows...
The Monorail episode was credited to Conan O'Brien. Agree that it's inspired. I never thought that Schumer was a particularly powerful voice in the Senate. Both he and Gildebrand, along with Fetterman and seven others in the Senate justified their votes by ignoring the duplicity of the GCoupP caucus. Their casuistry is faulty.
I received a response to a comment on another of your blogs that told me to leave the US and not come back. I left almost 30 years ago and have spent less than a month total since then. But I had an interesting experience a couple of weeks ago: I was spit upon because of my US nationality. (Gob-smacked, was I!) So arrogance and stupidity are not restricted to the US. But in the US they are far more common.
It was said, when the election was counted, that the MAGA's had always counted on the Democrats to protect themselves from the worst impulses of the GQP. They don't have that protection any more, they managed to vote it away.
This is part of that. They voted for a monster, and it's eating them.
I and you and I'm sure most of those who read Clay's blog have lived through several recessions and have reasonably secure means of living while this mess goes on. If WE don't make it through pretty much intact, the MAGA's will be starving to death, for the most part. It's already starting, google "farm bankruptcy" in any of the states that ran to Trump,
The monster was already eating them at the state level, now it'll be the much bigger federal monster. And the Democrats are powerless in any meaningful way.
Your use of the term monster immediately made me think of the song Monster by Steppenwolf. It might have been about the Nixon years but it fits so well into the times we are living in now.
If anyone cares to listen to it, it is on the album (I'm old) Steppenwolf Live.
I would have put a link to it but I don't know how.
And monster works very well for what I was thinking of. Though we created this monster, it was birthed in the founding documents, which were written to give the wealthy guarantees that their money would be safe. That's grown to the present day, when money is speech and we have Trump.
We need a website that lists the biggest tax cuts to individuals and companies given by Trump 1.0 and a listing of ALL THE NEW jobs created by the TRICKLING DOWN. I'll guess there is an average of $10M to 1 job. And the Opposition Party needs to hammer in the message in every conversation and talking points of every interview.
Anyone know of a realistic data source?
If you'd asked me that about jobs a couple months ago I'd have instantly said BLS - Bureau of Labor Statistics. Now, who knows if anyone will be working there tomorrow? Still, website is:
bls.gov
Firefox gave me a security warning when I tried to visit BLS, has it been DOGED?
This talks about Biden's child tax credit expansion in 2021 and the results:
https://www.bls.gov/osmr/research-papers/2024/ec240070.htm
but this link was fine...
Would People For or Common Cause have that info?
Damn. excellent toon and blog. boo
The sky is falling! Goodwyn actually has a toon I agree with today! Miracles do happen!
That Musk claim is the most egregious form of BS. He wants giant tax cuts, more Nazi's in government, more contracts for himself, and as little as possible for the peons. He just lies.
All his "savings" are over ten years. All of them are illegal (save possibly those folks still on job hiring probation status) and it's going to get interesting if they try ignoring the courts. It's very likely, in that case, that the courts would order those folks to be paid, whether they were locked out or not. And don't count on the SCOTUS reversing those courts, the SCOTUS is very VERY dependent on their own GS employees. I guarantee you the Justices are getting an earful. Very subtly in a couple of cases, but they're going to get the message anyhow.
So what's the cost of a 5000$ payment to all taxpaying households (yes, that's how they'd do it) every year for ten years. About 100,000,000 x 5000 x 10, close enough. Which is five trillion dollars. The federal budget, total, is about six and a half trillion, and a whopper hunk of that is Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Discretionary spending is 1.7 trillion. Yeah. No freaking way they're doing that every year. Or any year.
Pure vaporware, about like Musk's "self driving" software he's been touting for ten years.
That said, I'll just refer you to my statement on the budget mess yesterday. Come down to it, the only choice was to filibuster, and the odds of the GQP passing multiple "keep only part of the government open" bills for months, while entire departments had every person finding other jobs, was way too high. And the powerless Democrats would own Trump's recession as a result. Where's the point in that?
Make a party powerless, and they can't exercise power. Who would have thought such a thing!
(Meant to say TAX FILING households in the above. If it was only tax PAYING households, they'd cut out a huge number of Trump supporters.)
OK, to all those who don't like the Democrats not filibustering the CR, what happens next if they did?
Does anyone want to discuss the most likely returns? Especially given the FREE DUMB caucus would REVEL in a shutdown and demand it continue?
Closing down the government would put the judiciary on leave too.
Would it matter? The Venezuelans were on planes told to turn around. They didn’t. There are no more laws or the founding laws. That SCOTUS was asked to “hold” birthright citizenship, a Constitutional guarantee, while giving more time for lower courts, is one case after another. Or did you mean .. something else than they couldn’t act?
Court cases don’t stop with a government shutdown
I think I'm just gonna start playing that REM song on repeat. You know the one. 🌎☄️
Reading about the 2 deportation flights of Venezuelan gang members, made me think of pre-Chavez Venezuela and 'trickle down'.
For 15 years my husband and I were regular visitors to Venezuela where we had very good friends. The government was based on the US democracy and just about everyone benefited from the oil wealth in terms of education and employment opportunities. Oil wealth did trickle down.
Now there is no oil wealth and nothing to trickle down as most of the refineries have closed.
(Before writing this I did some research on why and how everything changed from our first trip in 1988 to our last in 2004 which was bittersweet reading.)
We were you know whatted no matter which way the Dems voted. I think it would have been worse if they shut down. I think it would have made it quicker to get rid of most of the workers and close agencies.
The only 'guard rails' are the non MAGA R's who continue to go along with Trump. I am dreading when Trump decides to take over the Panama Canal and all the other BS he spouts or will he? who knows...
Still waiting for the non-MAGA Rs to show up! I no longer know who they are.
If they cave to threats of being primaried, how will they react to actual threats to the US? Cowards, all of them. Traitors to their oaths of office.
The Monorail episode was credited to Conan O'Brien. Agree that it's inspired. I never thought that Schumer was a particularly powerful voice in the Senate. Both he and Gildebrand, along with Fetterman and seven others in the Senate justified their votes by ignoring the duplicity of the GCoupP caucus. Their casuistry is faulty.
I received a response to a comment on another of your blogs that told me to leave the US and not come back. I left almost 30 years ago and have spent less than a month total since then. But I had an interesting experience a couple of weeks ago: I was spit upon because of my US nationality. (Gob-smacked, was I!) So arrogance and stupidity are not restricted to the US. But in the US they are far more common.
US Out of North America!
It was said, when the election was counted, that the MAGA's had always counted on the Democrats to protect themselves from the worst impulses of the GQP. They don't have that protection any more, they managed to vote it away.
This is part of that. They voted for a monster, and it's eating them.
I and you and I'm sure most of those who read Clay's blog have lived through several recessions and have reasonably secure means of living while this mess goes on. If WE don't make it through pretty much intact, the MAGA's will be starving to death, for the most part. It's already starting, google "farm bankruptcy" in any of the states that ran to Trump,
The monster was already eating them at the state level, now it'll be the much bigger federal monster. And the Democrats are powerless in any meaningful way.
Your use of the term monster immediately made me think of the song Monster by Steppenwolf. It might have been about the Nixon years but it fits so well into the times we are living in now.
If anyone cares to listen to it, it is on the album (I'm old) Steppenwolf Live.
I would have put a link to it but I don't know how.
Monster
Song by Steppenwolf ‧ 1970
Overview
Lyrics
Listen
Once the religious, the hunted and weary
Chasing the promise of freedom and hope
Came to this country to build a new vision
Far from the reaches of Kingdom and pope
Like good Christians some would burn the witches
Later some got slaves to gather riches
But still from near and far to seek America
They came by thousands, to court the wild
But she just patiently smiled and bore a child
To be their spirit and guiding light
And once the ties with the crown had been broken
Westward in saddle and wagon it went
And till the railroad linked ocean to ocean
Many the lives which had come to an end
While we bullied, stole and bought a homeland
We began the slaughter of the red man
But still from near and far to seek America
They came by thousands to court the wild
But she just patiently smiled and bore a child
To be their spirit and guiding light
The Blue and Grey they stomped it
They kicked it just like a dog
And when the war was over
They stuffed it just like a hog
And though the past has its share of injustice
Kind was the spirit in many a way
But its protectors and friends have been sleeping
Now it's a monster and will not obey
The spirit was freedom and justice
And its keepers seemed generous and kind
Its leaders were supposed to serve the country
But now they won't pay it no mind
Cause the people grew fat and got lazy
Now their vote is a meaningless joke
They babble about law and order
But it's all just an echo of what they've been told
Yeah, there's a monster on the loose
It's got our heads into the noose
And it just sits there watchin'
The cities have turned into jungles
And corruption is stranglin' the land
The police force is watching the people
And the people just can't understand
We don't know how to mind our own business
'Cause the whole world's got to be just like us
Now we are fighting a war over there
No matter who's the winner we can't pay the cost
'Cause there's a monster on the loose
It's got our heads into the noose
And it just sits there watchin'
America, where are you now
Don't you care about your sons and daughters
Don't you know we need you now
We can't fight alone against the monster
America, where are you now
Don't you care about your sons and daughters
Don't you know we need you now
We can't fight alone against the monster
America...America...America...America...
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Jerry Edmonton / John Kay
Monster lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
You can find most music on youtube. The ads are obnoxious, but the music is still OK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk3sURDS4IA
And monster works very well for what I was thinking of. Though we created this monster, it was birthed in the founding documents, which were written to give the wealthy guarantees that their money would be safe. That's grown to the present day, when money is speech and we have Trump.
Thank you Paul.
I added the link to a Facebook post that is similar to the post here.
Perfect.
Nope. And, those aren't raisins.
Like