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[W K @dubque86]

@JJswhite2 @Rothmus Dual flag

[W K @dubque86]

@ShawnaNonna @BasedMikeLee @DAGToddBlanche They probably need real evidence first.

[W K @dubque86]

@hochbergjason @grok @BillMelugin_ @E_Barcohana @amyforsandiego @TeamSteveHilton @elonmusk There were 22 races on my ballot and I'm in the suburbs. LA has even more races with city council, education boards, college trustee boards, etc.

They didn't count 30+ race ballots in 2 days with punch cards and abacuses.

[W K @dubque86]

@Kaybirdsong7 @RealCandaceO We definitely don't believe Laura Loomer. She's a complete nutjob.

This Candace lady seems pretty mentally unstable, too.

[W K @dubque86]

@Goindia394131 @AP4Liberty How many 747s do they have?

[W K @dubque86]

@SavvyGCali @JubHarshaw @beinlibertarian @BrklynPatriot18 It wasn't a spending bill. It didn't appropriate money to any agencies. It established a framework. It was a debt ceiling and budget framework bill.

[W K @dubque86]

It's more than that for sure. My guess is above 15%. I haven't found a fast way to run the numbers and I stupidly didn't track that stat when I was verifying the 22% GOP defection stat I kept see getting thrown around. I wish I had thought about that from the start but I didn't even know to track that until I realized how many bills the GOP and Dem majorities both supported and how often Massie was voting against that.

I also noticed that even though the MAGA influencers kept posting about how Massie voted with the GOP majority the least of any Republican this year, there's absolutely no way that's possible. Fitzpatrick in PA voted against the majority so many times I was stupified. It seemed like every single vote with 2 or more GOP defectors, Fitzpatrick was one of them. I want to check his stats but unless I can think how to do it faster I'm not sure I will. It took me like 4 hours to verify Massie. It will take about 4 to check his voting percent with the Dems and probably 5-6 to do both for Fitzpatrick. Probably not worth it as a short term activity or a long term project. But maybe, we'll see.

[W K @dubque86]

@SavvyGCali @JubHarshaw @beinlibertarian @BrklynPatriot18 I would like to see an administration interested in measuring their spending reductions in the trillions, not billions. We've gotten so far out of control since Obama left office, especially since 2020. As an ardent Tea Party supporter, it's crazy to see myself type that.

[W K @dubque86]

There are at least 27 GOP Senators who will hold onto Thune to prevent his successor from eliminating the filibuster. The question is exactly how many. There are 9 GOP Senators who are for sure gone next year (McConnell, Ernst, Tillis, Daines, Lummis, Tuberville, Armstrong, Cassidy, Cornyn). For sure McConnell, Ernst, and Tillis either strongly support the filibuster or are strong allies with Thune. Cornyn recently came out in favor of nuking it but there's no way he would vote Thune out to do it. Same for Cassidy. Tuberville is probably not in Thune's camp and would vote him out. Daines and Lummis are harder to say. Armstrong replaced Mullin who played close to Thune but I'm pretty sure he wasn't helping keep him as Leader.

So of those 9, I'd say 5 are for sure helping keep Thune safe, 2 for sure aren't, and the last two I've got no idea. If it was exactly 27 then we will see a change to leadership in January. If it was more like 35+ then he's probably still pretty safe. Again, he's not there still because so many are big allies of his. A lot of the Senators just don't want to see the next guy nuke the filibuster so they are backing the guy they know won't do that.

[W K @dubque86]

@SavvyGCali @JubHarshaw @beinlibertarian @BrklynPatriot18 EPA is on pace to spend about $7B less than last year. Not technically rescissions, but it's great. We need to get the spending back down to at least the $9B it was until the IIJA and IRA money started flowing in 2022-23. We are projected to finish the fiscal year at $22.3B.

[W K @dubque86]

"The current administration just rescinded like 29 billion not to long ago"

The current administration rescinded $9.4B not to long ago, not $29B. That's about 0.13% of our budget. The rescission was almost entirely reductions to USAID and CPB. After that passed in July, we haven't heard a thing about rescissions or spending reductions since.

[W K @dubque86]

Correct, about $16B one time. This on top of the spending caps that meant that because the baseline would go down, that would obviously mean it wasn't going up like normal, resulting in the discretionary baseline not increasing roughly $110B as would be expected without the caps. And the caps were for two years, so the FY2025 budget was capped about $150B below the expected baseline. Add to that the reduced interest payments vs what we would've paid if that spending baseline wasn't decreased.

The bill was a deficit reduction bill. It wasn't a spending bill. On top of reducing the deficit, it was the first real attempt (albeit weak and minor) by our government to actually address our spending problem at least since the BCA of 2011. The GOP leadership promptly ignored that aspect as soon as it was time to pass the next appropriations bills (using CRs with staggered expirations to avoid the 1% reduction deadline and because fuck reducing spending, amirite??).

[W K @dubque86]

He just voted for ICE funding like 2 weeks ago. Obviously funding ICE is not what he takes issue with. The OBBBA wasn't simply "ICE funding". Massie has long opposed deficit spending and operating our Legislative Branch thru omnibus bills. Why would it be expected that he change in that?

He voted against the GOP majority 22% of the time the 1st session this Congress but are you aware that includes all of the bills where the GOP and Dem majorities voted the same and he voted against them both? The GOP and Dem majorities voted the same way 106 out of 360 votes (29%). How much of Massie's 22% was him also voting against Dems? What percentage of the time did he vote with the Dem majority?

[W K @dubque86]

@SavvyGCali @JubHarshaw @beinlibertarian @BrklynPatriot18 The provision only impacted the 2024 budget.

[W K @dubque86]

@SavvyGCali @JubHarshaw @beinlibertarian @BrklynPatriot18 Also Div B, Title II § 251.

[W K @dubque86]

@SavvyGCali @JubHarshaw @beinlibertarian @BrklynPatriot18 No, I'm talking about Division B, Title I § 1-81 of the bill.

[W K @dubque86]

@SavvyGCali @JubHarshaw @beinlibertarian @BrklynPatriot18 A 1% reduction means that it's not increasing. That would have been pretty amazing to see that happen.

[W K @dubque86]

@SavvyGCali @JubHarshaw @beinlibertarian @BrklynPatriot18 Massie votes Nay on spending bills and Yea on rescission bills. Where's the hypocrisy?

[W K @dubque86]

The bill did cut spending. It rescinded spending that Congress had previously appropriated. That is completely separate from the 1% reduction (which never happened strictly because of the GOP leadership that you won't criticize for that or for supporting and promoting the FRA).

That is different from "the deficit decreased in absolute terms". Yes, the deficit wasnt wiped out. We still spent more than we took in. But the FRA made the difference shrink. Non-discretionary spending is out of control and no one in our government has the stomach to address it. But the FRA didn't create that spending. And since it's statutorily required, even if we let the nation default and get downgraded, whenever the debt finally got below the ceiling (or more likely, when the ceiling was finally raised), we would've been required to disburse all of that still.

Not handing the waitress your credit card to pay for dinner doesn't mean you didn't spend money when you ordered the food. You can't get out of "spending" by not paying off your credit card. You still spent the money when you swiped it.

[W K @dubque86]

@SavvyGCali @JubHarshaw @beinlibertarian @BrklynPatriot18 I want to talk about how you haven't found time to criticize any other politicians by name for the FRA passing.