Elmo.

New Liberal 🌐 Political Institutions Enjoyer 🏛 Forza Venezia 🦁 Map staring expert 🗺 He/him.

[BadFinanceBro @badfinancebro]

@espn ESPN finally built a lineup specifically for men who haven’t updated their personality since college

[Chris Towler @blkprofcct]

The fact that almost EVERY former confederate state is moving to completely eliminate Black representatives almost immediately after the SCOTUS decision should be more than enough proof that voting rights still need protection and racism is far from gone in this country.

[Elmo. @vonFrizzi]

@WELSH_GAMER_99 What are the odds that's not hughie but a shapeshifter? Or maybe there's some form of mind control that's making them attack each other?

[Elmo. @vonFrizzi]

@JJOneOfOne

[Ethan Ridge @cozyfreedom]

@Channel5iveNews I'd smoke crack with him

[Elmo. @vonFrizzi]

@nikicaga Delete this, or I will unfollow 😤 #1204wasjustbusiness

[Elmo. @vonFrizzi]

@Denkmal6850 Guys, this is Star Wars. People have space ships.

[Joey Politano 🏳️‍🌈 @JosephPolitano]

this must’ve been how Churchill felt when Hitler broke Molotov-Ribbentrop

[Nikolaj🇺🇦🇵🇸 @nikicaga]

How will you explain this to Saint Peter?

[Elmo. @vonFrizzi]

@nominalthoughts

[Elmo. @vonFrizzi]

@maiamindel The Swindler, The Peddler, The Riddler, and The Diddler. It's like Mob of the Dead, but with a celebrity cast.

[Jessica Riedl 🧀 🇺🇦 @JessicaBRiedl]

“Why aren’t you cheering Trump & DOGE? I thought you wanted spending and deficit cuts!"

Because I’ve been doing this for 25 years and can’t be tricked by gimmicky nonsense. Trump’s first term added $8 trillion in enacted spending hikes and tax cuts to the deficit - half of which was unrelated to the pandemic. This time around, Trump has proposed roughly $8 trillion more in tax cuts and spending hikes over the decade. And right now, a GOP Congress is preparing to abandon most reconciliation cuts and instead add $325 billion this year in new spending. We’re headed towards $4 trillion deficits within a decade.

So, no, I don’t get excited when DOGE cancels $1 billion in govt contracts. Or saves $3 billion in federal workforce reductions out of a $7,000 billion budget. Not when Trump and Congress are also preparing to add $800 billion more annually in proposed new tax cuts and spending.

And no, the huge savings are not coming. Even (unrealistically) eliminating 20% of the federal workforce would save $60 billion, and overhauling federal systems to sharply reduce payment errors may save perhaps $80 billion (and is probably unlikely too). For all of DOGE’s bluster, administrative and executive reforms would at best save 1-2% of federal spending and offset only a small fraction of Trump’s red ink agenda.

That leaves trying to unilaterally impound spending such as USAID—which is wildly illegal—or actually going to Congress to pare back spending the constitutional way. But Trump has already taken Social Security, Medicare, defense, veterans, border (and interest) off the table, which is 2/3 of all spending and is driving deficits. And the GOP Congress seems ready to give up on cutting the remaining one-third of spending. Want to cut spending and the deficit? How about they stop passing budget-busting bills. Don’t brag about your coupon-clipping frugality at the same time you are buying a $250,000 Ferrari. I’m not going to cheer Trump and DOGE for adding “only” $750 billion to deficits instead of $800 billion. We’re still going backwards.

I’ve spent decades studying the federal budget. I know that $7 trillion(!) behemoth inside and out – where the money really goes, and where the savings opportunities lie. So I can also detect bullshitters who talk tough about trillion-dollar spending cuts without doing their homework. It’s the ones who claim most spending goes to undefined “waste,” federal salaries, immigrants, foreigners, Ukraine, or non-working welfare recipients. It’s the ones who claim we can easily balance the budget or cut $1 trillion without specifying exactly what line-items to cut. Or that we can return to 2019 spending levels for each program, which means a 20% inflationary cut, defaulting on the federal debt, and kicking off every senior who has since retired into Social Security and Medicare. It’s all hot air and empty bluster. Tough talk without following through on anything substantive. Just wait until you see the final deficit numbers in October.

And this is why GOP movements to cut spending always fail. They make absurdly ambitious promises without doing their homework, understanding where the money goes, and specifying real plans to fix it. You can’t significantly cut the deficit just by cutting waste, firing bureaucrats, and defunding immigrants and foreigners. There are no easy short cuts. You have to stop cutting taxes and then address Social Security, Medicare, defense, and a lot of other popular programs. Wake me when the GOP goes there.

So, no, I will not get excited about a couple billion in DOGE savings on one hand while Trump pushes Congress to add $8 trillion over the decade in tax cuts and spending with the other hand. I’m not that gullible.

[James🗳 @_fat_ugly_rat_]

Besides New Orleans, I can't think of a city with more wasted potential.

[k ✦ @knmmmmmmmmm]

I will never get over that missed field goal right as the clock struck midnight… my year was ruined the second it started.

[Elmo. @vonFrizzi]

@maiamindel Bashar al-Assad 🤝 SF 49ers

Not knowing the overtime rules

[❦ @thetowerofjoy]

asoiaf calendar 2024 by justin sweet
——— a thread ⚔️

(art commissioned by grrm // credit: asongoficeandfiresource on tumblr)

1. lyanna and rhaegar (cover art)

[Elmo. @vonFrizzi]

@TheOmniLiberal

[Isaac @GalaxyPeaBrain]

Do 30 year olds go on Ice-cream dates? Cells.
>Cells

Is Oppenheimer leftist? Cells.
>Cells.

Ice cream ice cream yum yum yum. Cells.
>Cells

I look so odd with the old filter. Interlinked
>Interlinked

Having some girl dinner. Interlinked.
>interlinked

[Elmo. @vonFrizzi]

@MichaelKrause6 @Leftist_Kiwi Fair point. Now I may have to update my DRA project.

[Anthony 💩 @TheRealSharty]

WOAH HE HAS TROUBLE WITH THE APP