@StayingRight@krassenstein You can't lower the amount you spend, lower your income even more, *and* pay off your debt all at the same time. Not without cutting spending so deeply you cripple critical fed functions and services. Poor families shouldn't lose medicaid just so there's more $ for Musk to leech.
@StayingRight@krassenstein The debt ceiling isn't the same thing as the debt, but that isn't really the point. The point is that the hacking and slashing of social spending would only be of real value towards republican's alleged goal of a balanced budget if they also made the wealthy pay their share.
@StayingRight@krassenstein Tax cuts don't create debt in the way that quitting your job when you need to pay your bills to live doesn't *technically* create debt. I'm discussing the extension of the 2017 tax cuts, for which republicans have proposed raising the debt ceiling by 4 trillion dollars.
@itsjakelebowski @krassenstein But they aren't reducing the deficit. The proposed budget increases the deficit by trillions to pay for tax cuts that benefit only the wealthy, while cutting funding for programs that benefit low-income americans *and* genuinely important federal jobs.
@StayingRight@krassenstein Giving citizens money that was originally allocated elsewhere while *also* giving the wealthy extraordinary tax cuts that are going to add trillions to the national debt definitely creates government debt. You can't have it all.
@strickcmb82@StephenJManche1@krassenstein But I thought there were 40 million or 400 million or 800 million illegals in the US, eating taxpayer-funded caviar in between their taxpayer-funded sex-change surgeries. Surely that presents plenty of targets for an administration that has been clear they're coming for everyone?
@bertthefarmer@wiley_inc@MalcolmNance@NPRinskeep I think it’s funny our country can be 36T in debt while millionaires and billionaires who benefit from the spending that supports infrastructure and an educated workforce whine about paying taxes.
@bertthefarmer@evansrc717@MalcolmNance@NPRinskeep Also, please consider the ridiculous spin being put on these programs by right wing media. Most, if they were properly explained and contextualised, would clearly be global health initiatives and cultural/humanitarian exchange that support America’s important soft power efforts.
@bertthefarmer@evansrc717@MalcolmNance@NPRinskeep But Trump’s budget plan increases the deficit by 2 trillion dollars. You can’t keep giving tax cuts to the wealthy and pay for Social Security. Now you’re going to have a huge deficit, a crippled government increasingly unable to support its citizens, *and* no SS.
@DrewBruske@agraybee The deficit will still increase by trillions to pay for tax cuts that will disproportionately benefit the wealthy, who seem increasingly reticent to pass those savings along as higher wages or increased spending.
I dunno, it seems bleak.
What do feel you have to show for it?
@DrewBruske@agraybee Women and minorities have lost major protections against discrimination, (and it seems every MAGA discussion of DEI simply evidences why those protections were needed in the first place.)
Farmers are facing major instability as the USG reneges on contracts and cut off markets.