Shaitanshammer

Hub, for Roadrunner Books, and blog of author Rodney C. Johnson. Mostly talking about Science Fiction, and Independent Publishing.

[Shaitanshammer @Shaitanshammer]

I have the enshrined right to 'Wrongthink'. That is to say unpopular opinions and skepticism of revealed 'truths' or facts which are not permitted to be questioned.

[Brian Cates - Political Columnist & Pundit @drawandstrike]

We’ve reached stage of this where Trump exposes the fake ‘fiscal hawks’ who’ve been deceiving and toying with Conservatives for generations.

I approve.

Expose every last damn last one of them.

[Just Loki @LokiJulianus]

We've been invaded, dude. We have to spend money to fix it. That's life.

[Shaitanshammer @Shaitanshammer]

President Trump is a Big Hearted Realist. Meanwhile, Massie and Paul are actual Curmudgeons that live in an Ayn Rand fantasyland. Trump did not run as or make some pretence of being John Galt. That was not the message.

[unseen1 @unseen1_unseen]

Austerity will kill the conservative movement. It will kill the maga movement. It will kill our country and hand it to the far left. The clowns Massie and Paulnare 100% wrong and, at this point, are working for the other side.

[Gordo @GordoCDA]

I trust this guy. No one else…

[Andrew Pollack @AndrewPollackFL]

I’m starting to understand that the people opposing the BBB are not doing so because of spending, it’s because they want more immigration for their donors & companies.

[Just Loki @LokiJulianus]

So now that it's become clear — as if it wasn't before — that “pork” means “border enforcement,” it is literally the same old story as it always is: the national debt “doesn't matter” when we are sending weapons to Ukraine or giving credit cards to illegal aliens, but as soon as you try to deport people, suddenly the nation's finances are in peril.

[Derek. 🇺🇸 @SuitablePolitic]

Everyone's a deficit hawk when they want to keep the borders open.

[DC_Draino @DC_Draino]

What if I told you there was a Congressman who:

-Voted against Trump’s Border Wall

-Voted against E-Verify for illegal aliens

-Wants to cut ICE funding in the BBB

-And campaigned against Trump in the 2024 primary

Would you call them “principled”?

Or an open borders sellout?

[unseen1 @unseen1_unseen]

This is the world the fiscal hawks want. Recession, pain, and misery with their stupid austerity nonsense.

They want it because it defeats MAGA and Trump and gives dems power back. Stop being conned by clowns like Massie and Paul. Stop supporting your own destruction. Stop embracing the suck. Embrace winning and good economic times, instead. Invest in the future don't spend your life away to fill those clowns' pockets.

[Shaitanshammer @Shaitanshammer]

It is libel to misuse real information and imply an untrue thing not supported by the actual facts. He made a specific untrue inference, and did so in a manner that seemed like attempted blackmail.

[Chrissie Mayr🇺🇸 @ChrissieMayr]

Saying Trump is in the Epstein files is public knowledge. Trump’s name, contacts, addresses, etc. was always known to be in it as well as thousands of other general, social, and business contacts.

Musk did not say anything false… Yet.

[RazörFist @RazorFist]

Don't respond to Elon.
Invite him to sit down at the Oval Office.
Just like you did the South African President.
You can ask about the dinners he attended with Ghislaine Maxwell. Or play the footage of Epstein's lawyer saying Trump was nowhere near the island.
A gay old time.

[unseen1 @unseen1_unseen]

I continue to say the debt limit is fake. Let me explain in more detail why this is the truth. Congress created something called the Treasury general fund. It's basically a fully funded account to the Treasury that the Treasury can tap to cover things when other funds are short.

Think of it as a no bounce checking account. If say the debt limit is reached, this fund is used to cover the bills until Congress can lift the fake debt limit, which they always do.

Once Congress gets it's act together and agrees to the spending demands from the minority party to fully fund their pet projects in exchange for their votes to lift the debt limit this accoubt is then fully funded again by issuing more debt.

They always fund this account before the debt limit is reached.

This is the account Sec Bessent has been using as well as tarrifs revuene, a good tax season and what is known as 'extraordinary measure' to keep the US out of default since we hit the debt limit back around Jan 21, 2025. The day after, Trump took office. It's funny how that worked out, isn't it? ....anyway... moving on.

So basically, the longer Congress dicks around with the "debt limit" fight the more debt will be required to fully fund this account for the next time the fake debt limit drama plays out.

In effect, Rand Paul is costing us millions/billions by his stunt to stop the BBB to "not raise" the debt limit. He knows this. You probably didn't.

I think the last time we had this discussion back in 2023, it cost about $800 billion of new debt to fully fund the account. So basically as soon as the debt limit is raised you are talking about a quick $500b to $1 trillion of debt to fund this no bounce checking account that we had to tap for the last 4 months because the freedom clowns refused to raise the debt limit back in December in the CR fight. The freedom clowns cost you that debt to play their games, and Congress will do it again this time so they can play this game again the next time the debt limit is "reached."

Now they justify this because money is fungible and the money would have been paid in debt regardless it's just taking it from a different account until they get done with their game. However, there's a real cost as this debt is issued usually all at once to make sure the account is funded and that impacts interest rates due to supply and demand. The bond market knows this game well and makes money off the trade. Everyone is happy, but you, as more of your tax money, go to the games they play in DC.

Trump is right scrapping the fake debt limit, will end the games, and actually save us money. The clowns know this, but they won't give up in their leveraged games and instead push fear of no limits on debt to keep their games going.

The strongest debt limit we will ever have, and the only one we need but don't use is the ballot box.

[Chris @chriswithans]

That's not the point and never should be the point. The government takes 12.4% out of every single dollar you earn as a worker (W-2 wages) up to $168,600 (in 2024) on the premise that you will receive a certain amount of money every single month when you retire. There's a formula for this and you can check what you're "on track" to receive right now, on the Internet. That's a promise. I also don't care if it's a legal contract or whatever else. It's a promise based on contributions you're forced to make. It is money you are all promised based on what you have contributed. The more you contribute, the more you get back.

Shrugging and doing nothing as politicians try to reduce the pension payments that they paid to you while they still take out 12.4% of every single dollar you earn up to $168,000 is tantamount to surrender, and you wouldn't do it for anything else.

Now if they gave you an option to opt out of the taxes and refund you every single dollar that you've ever contributed even without any interest at all, this whole discussion would be very different. But they will never do that because the government clearly enjoys a big benefit from taking 12.4% of your wage income every single year.

[Stephen Miller @StephenM]

“Realistic border funding” = libertarians want to scale back the deportation program. Is that why they are fighting this bill?

BBB has no “pork.” It is a tax cut + deportations + welfare reform.

Also, saying “no salt” just means saying don’t pass any bill. It takes 218 to win.

[Red Eagle Politics @RedEaglePatriot]

Hey, resident lolbert!

That $400B goes to mass deportations and a border wall. The bill also cuts $1.6T in mandatory waste.

Our nation can survive some economic turmoil. It can't survive a permanent invasion of third world mass migration.

[Margot Cleveland @ProfMJCleveland]

Folks: Minors from another country who enter America illegally, are illegal aliens too and the law provides for their removal as well. Being under 18 and able to cross the border doesn't magically make one an American.

[unseen1 @unseen1_unseen]

Is all government spending the same? If we spend $5,000 to feed and house an illegal, is it the same as spending $5,000 to deport one?

Nuance is lost on fiscal conservatives, it seems.

[Shaitanshammer @Shaitanshammer]

@kjgillenwater That and I've said this before. They are actually curmudgeons who live in some Ayn Rand fantasyland. Trump however is a big hearted realist who doesn't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

[Shaitanshammer @Shaitanshammer]

Also. As a technical point. It seems to me, many people don't understand how things get done in government. This applies to Massie and Paul too. They often have some "legitimate sounding" issue but no practical achievable solution. Rather its just "No" which isn't workable.

[K J Gillenwater @kjgillenwater]

Doomers and Musk need to read.

[Shaitanshammer @Shaitanshammer]

I want to point out @Nerdrotics had the original correct take on Denis Villanueve when it came to Blade Runner and, no Denis suddenly didn't become a better genre Director with DUNE his DUNE movies are actually weightless junk filled with watered down Lynch visuals.

[RazörFist @RazorFist]

I don't know what Denis Villeneuve's next film will be, but I sure hope it has a wide shot of a character looking off into the horizon.