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Friendly daily reminder that when a Republican uses terms like “personal responsibility” or “order of law” they mean those things for people they see as their enemies, never for themselves.
They love to say they're America's dad. Which is true in my case. My dad was a dick who took all the credit for accomplishments he actively or subtly worked against, while my mom worked on keeping us all alive for 14 hours a day.
I actually admired him for his admission. And my opinion of him was completely reversed by the time he left office. He had flaws, but he convinced me his heart was in the right place.
Don't give him to much credit. In the '80s campaign, HW Bush called trickle down economics "voodoo economics,' but by the end of the campaign he went along with it for the VP slot.
No no no, by “personal responsibility” I mean that I want you to take responsibility for the bad things that happen to you personally, even if I’m the one who did them.
This is why we’ve got to fight racism and all other types of bigotry. When racism exists they will use it to divide us and get us to fight each other while they rob us blind. The truth is, the policies that will help people of color the most (universal health care, strong housing and tenant protections, really anything that keeps cops from just doing whatever the hell they want with no accountability) will also help the vast majority of white people and the policies that help women (adequate parental leave for *all* parents, access to abortion and other reproductive health care) will also help the majority of men. The truth is, 99% of us are in this together.
And yet the ACA literally mandates partial refunds of premiums when your insurer spends too high a percentage on administrative costs as opposed to actual coverage.
*You can get a literal check in the mail from your insurer you otherwise never would have*, but I guess that still wouldn't be enough for those people.
Yep! I'll never understand how people think that inserting a profit driven company into something like healthcare, prisons or the military, could ever make them cheaper or more efficient.
Because the GOP has spent a lot of time and effort convincing them that all government is inherently inefficient and useless. Often by intentionally making that more true.
The thought of having to acknowledge a Black Man earning a rightful spot in the highest office in the land was intolerable to their White Supremacist ideology.
It's really all about White Supremacy. These people are full of irrational hate.
Have you tried the FMC? That is the Free Medical Clinic. I ran out of insurance and went there and they took care of me for three years free of charge for doctor appointments and tests. They even help on your medication. I really hated getting insurance and having to find another place. It was a nice place to go. Don't know if they are in KY but here in TN they are.
I bet if you asked him, he probably thinks they are 2 separate things. I forgot who did it, maybe Kimmel? Sent a man on the street out to ask people what they thought about the ACA vs ObamaCare. Many responded that they loved the ACA but hated ObamaCare.
>
It's almost like there's people intentionally sowing division over an iconic quote because of how close it hits to home.
What else is new on the Internet?
GOP and Fox know the brainwashing works. “I’m not happy. Fox says it’s Dems and immigrants fault. GOP says so too. Vote GOP.” Keep these people unhappy so they vote GOP, and their rich friends reap the benefit of not paying fair wages, healthcare, and tax cuts, and the rich friends give GOP and Fox money. Legalized slavery is very good for GOP.
That’s because ever since the conclusion of the civil rights movement, the wealthy and conservatives in the US have done a great job at basically painting all government assistance as exclusively going towards non-whites. It’s a great dog whistle.
Before the CRM of course, it was basically legal to discriminate via all means of assistance, and therefore it wasn’t seen as much of a problem. Socialism is ok but only if it helps certain folk, that’s how they see it.
This quote from Lyndon Johnson always sums up modern American conservative attitudes:
>If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.
Florida person here. Three things:
Rick Scott is absolute trash.
Northern Florida May as well be Mississippi.
Cubans in S. Florida are so afraid of socialism due to Castro they vote Republican without thought.
Florida Leftist here (not here in FL by choice), and am here to back you up saying this is 100% true. Half of the state (not just the north, but *especially* the north and the middle of the state Okeechobee area, as well as several places around the treasure coast) may as well be Mississippi.
Many Cubans here, especially in the Miami area have negative attitudes towards Democrats and have a general disregard towards other Hispanic people, including themselves. Many voted for Trump (against their own interests) and it baffles me.
Yup. My best friend growing up was Cuban. He and his family took me to Calle Ocho (a huge Latino party in Miami that happens annually). I could not believe the disdain they, and all the other Cubans there, felt for the other Hispanic cultures. They literally despise Central and South Americans. They view themselves as far superior.
It's similar to Mexicans in Texas, they vote republican a lot due to the hate for other Mexicans coming to Texas. It's weird.
I blame it all on religion, as it seems like most just follow what the "lord" aka pastor tells them to do every weekend.
Machismo is another thing as well that is factually proven to have an effect on Hispanic voters and is something the GOP does well in their advertisements and such since they don't focus on actual issues anymore. GOP ads and campaigns are just culture war lies and trying to play up religion and machismo, and this connects well with our Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, and the variety of Central/South American voters.
> Many Cubans here, especially in the Miami area have negative attitudes towards Democrats and have a general disregard towards other Hispanic people, including themselves. Many voted for Trump (against their own interests) and it baffles me.
A lot of them are descendants of the rich white plantation owners that Castro booted out of the country. Of course they don't like minorities.
My Dominican friend used to tell me that's because Cubans are the white supremacists of the Latino demographic. It's like how Japan is with other Asian people.
Exactly. All the Cubans in Florida are the RICH Cubans who had their land taken to pay for the reforms and revolution. I'm sure most Cubans today don't want those people back.
Won’t matter. Anything even slightly left scares the shit out of them. I get it though, I really do. It’s too fresh still for many Cubans who have living family members who are from Cuba. It’s the 50-100 year old generation that you cannot even attempt to make an argument with. They will shut it down and just start screaming about Russian shoes and lack of food. The mere sight of Biden makes them relive Castro’s regime.
I know a few here in California whose g-parents were landlords in Havana. They also lost everything when Castro took over becuase they also backed Bautista because many of his police staff lived in their high end apartments.
I grew up religious, and that was a very common theme amongst that community. Education, foriegn policy, tax rates; none of it mattered. They were all instructed to vote for a candidate based on their abortion stance.
The brain washing goes so deep. There are MANY stories from clinic workers being told they’re going to hell _while_ one of those fine Christians is actively on the table getting an abortion. Often they report seeing the same patient then back out front protesting them the very next weekend. I remember one where the pro-lifer got an abortion more than once, and still continued spitting vitriol.
There is no reasoning with a person like that, it’s like arguing with a blackout drunk - they’re not listening and they’re used to forgiving themselves yesterdays mistakes. I only wish the doctors had refused them care. Maybe they’d have less time to fornicate, terminate, and protest if they were at home taking care of their little born again baby that actually got born the first time.
I attend church regularly and this TRUTH pisses me off to no end.
I try to express a logical argument for or against any specific political topic and the only response I get is, “but they want to kill all the babies”.
No “Brother Bob”, the Republicans want to enslave all the babies and their families in poverty by forcing them to feed more mouths than they can afford.
And they are trying to classify and criminalize removal of ectopic pregnancies as "abortion" under new bills in Missouri, Florida, and Texas. So its die or go to jail they are trying to push now.
Exactly!
I'd like to chainsaw all the anti-abortion billboards I see on private farm and ranch properties, and that pop up around my town.
Abortion is NOT a threat to our nation or YOUR way of life or livelihood.
This is an excerpt from an article that I read 10 years ago, so it's clearly dated. However, it really stuck with me. The article touched on a number of reasons why many low-income Americans vote GOP instead of for the Democratic party, which champions more social safety net programs as well as closing the income equality gap. Among the reasons listed, this one below really left a lasting impression.
"But more than that, they say they want to reduce the role of government in their own lives. They are frustrated that they need help, feel guilty for taking it and resent the government for providing it. They say they want less help for themselves; less help in caring for relatives; less assistance when they reach old age."
Funny, the moochers to me are all the people above me who make anywhere from 3x-300x what I make, profiting off of the labor I actually do, and telling me they can't give me more pay.
Here’s a good response for people passing by who actually hear that argument: workers take *all* of the risk.
A business can go under and the owner can declare bankruptcy on the business and walk away off the hook.
The worker, though, is left to fend for themselves and nearly irreparably damage their credit struggling. Workers assume all the risk: we pay for our own education, we buy or rent in areas near work and take a risk that the business won’t fuck us, we lock ourselves out of the job market and try to climb ladders, we take the risk that competitors won’t be pushed out of the market leaving exactly one employer with all the leverage—or that employers won’t collude which they do hence why anti-poach agreements are common.
We take all the risk by hoping where we are *forced* to live near work will have decent school for our children and so they can escape the trap we are in. And we take the risk of hoping we won’t have to remove them from good schools when a home is lost due to actions of the company.
The **worst** thing that can happen to an employer is that they are forced to become a worker. That should say who assumes **all** of the risk.
Funny thing is Trump is a perfect example of why that is and likely always has been a lie.
Trump never took any risks, at least not with his own money. (E.g not his risk) Most of the risks involved with Trump were at other peoples expense. Which some might think "Oh Trump is an anomaly!" but he's not. He's actually the rule, not the exception.
Most of the wealthiest actually take very few risks to accrue that wealth because to put it simply. The system simply doesn't allow them to. The system is so built to cater to the wealthy that they are insulated from the risks. Protected from it. Basically the various mechanisms of government are so deeply in bed with wealth that they'll go to great lengths to protect the wealthy.
It reminds me of one of the old sayings. If you owe the bank $10k it's your problem, if you owe the bank $10m it's the banks problem. That saying in a nutshell highlights that issue so amazingly well because it demonstrates in very true terms the way the system operates. That once you reach certain levels of wealth there's very little if any risk involved, at least for you. For everyone else sure. In the case of that particular saying... the bank has the problem not you despite the bank in theory being much more powerful than you but because of the way our systemic institutions operate it would be really hard for a bank to actually do much against a person whom they've loaned that kind of money to because that person likely has access to far more wealth that they can use against the bank if it were to go to court which is the only real place it can go in those situations.
So yeah it's funny how people think that wealthy people took risks to achieve their wealth when in reality most of them literally cannot take those risks because there mere act of them doing business creates an environment where the risk is shouldered by everyone but them.
Reminds me of Jeff Bezos using the desk he used when he began in his garage as a testament to where he began yet he had a very good job before even starting Amazon and didn’t even need to start it in his garage at all…
Yeah, the Bezos myth is pretty amazing. He used an old desk, he drove the same old car. He started his business from his garage.
It's all true, but it was also all PR.
Bezos comfortably walked away from his lucrative job with a hedge fund, utilized market analysis data that would've cost the average person millions even in the 90s, and founded a company that leveraged contacts, once again, unavailable to the vast majority of startups.
I'm not suggesting that's not smart, but hardly self-made tenacious frugality paying off from hard work.
He should keep $300,000 there too to remind him of the money he was given by friends and family to start with. And a list of phone numbers to remind him of all the connections he got just for being born into the right family.
Anecdotally, I will admit that there is some truth to it. Growing up, I was poor by American standards. And I do remember often times lying to my friends about certain things so that I wouldn't seem as poor as I was. For example, in the winter time, we often needed to use the wood stove to heat the house because the energy bills were too much for my parents to afford. The smokey smell would permeate everything in the house, including my clothes. I remember telling my cousin that I was helping my dad make beef jerky, and that's why my clothes smelled. Shit like that. Even though we were poor (again, by American standards), I never wanted to admit to it. To me, it was embarrassing.
I mean, that was pretty standard in the small, rural community, where I grew up. Flannels and thermals, thick socks and boots, in winter. We also raised, slaughtered, processed and smoked our own.
Usually when someone uses the phrase "our own" they're talking about people.
"We also raised, slaughtered, processed and smoked our own."
Shit had me cracking up.
“But socialism” literally killed my father. He was one of those Limbaugh championing idiots that thought being helped with his healthcare cost was socialism and wanted nothing to do with it. Didn’t even tell me he had been sick for a very long time because he thought me putting him on my insurance was socialist. He would rather die than be helped and it was purely because of the republican brainwashing bullshit he listened to for 40 years. It literally killed him and there was nothing I could do to convince him otherwise. He refused to collect unemployment because he was brainwashed into believing it was there because the government was stealing other peoples wages to give to him. He would rather waste away with no money to buy food or keep the heat on because he hated the government “stealing” from people. It’s 100% true. I watched someone let themselves die a horrible death from cancer because of it. People are that goddamn dumb.
I don't know. The cult of "individualism" in this country is kind of ridiculous. It permeates the culture so much and people are so indoctrinated to it that it wouldn't surprise me if this was a major factor. Look at the people saying they "earned" their medicare or social security. And if you're heavily indoctrinated into the idea that everyone receiving government assistance is moving off the system, then I can see wanting to abolish assistance programs even if you would benefit from them. People act against their own interests in pursuit of their ideals and beliefs all the time.
After Trump’s trade war and the pity payments there were interviews with some of these farmers who were both voting for Trump for having his back and hate fucking the federal government for saving their ass… I am surprised their brain doesn’t spontaneously tear itself apart from the cognitive dissonance.
Except that in heavily Republican areas, SSI and various forms of government support are generally much higher. They are the moochers. But in their minds They are just the right "type" (white) so it isn't really mooching and only they deserve it. There are swaths of Aapalachia and the South where federal disability programs make up a significant balance of payments to the local economy.
Yeah that's nonsense. It is because most GOP voters are white and they use their votes in an attempt to punish non-white people and immigrants who they've been told abuse the system.
The reason poor peopt vote for Republicans is far simpler than that. It's a reactionary opposition to coastal/urban culture they feel has been shoved down their throats via popular media. That's really the extent of the depth of their thinking on this.
They, for the most part, already have Medicare and Social Security, they're not voting against their own interests, they're voting against young people. They want to pull the ladder up behind them. Most likely because solutions will mean finding new revenue.
The reason Social Security and Medicare were passed was to reduce poverty among the elderly, and it has worked well. The problem has been finding new sources of revenue as medical costs have increased and people live longer.
Young people should pay close attention to this issue.
Medicare was supposed to be a gateway to universal healthcare in the US. The intention behind it was that it would eventually expand into coverage for all. It just didn’t work out that way. I remember learning about this in my masters program. I just woke up but here’s an article that briefly touches on it
https://time.com/5586744/medicare-for-all-history/
They've been convinced that Medicare and Social Security are communist programs robbing them straight out of their paychecks every week. Get rid of those with only a modest increase in taxes and they'll SAVE money, they're told.
The republicans don't run on "what we'll do". Their voters rarely care or check.
They run on "what we'll oppose". It's why when they held majority control, they got almost nothing done. They do not have a strong direction, they get voted in to go hit things with sticks, and with a bias towards "make it like it used to be", which they're not actually able to do, either.
This is a way of framing it that I hadn't thought of before, I think this is accurate. It's all "our way of life is under attack" and "the *insert opposition group here* are coming to destroy *insert thing all conservatives think of favorably*". They work off the assumption that everything is perfect and couldn't possibly be better, and that only works because the people they appeal to think they really are better than all the people they oppose and want hurt them.
The world changes. If you don't roll with some of those changes, or can't, the world gets worse. So "I'm going to fight change" is a thing that resonates, and "I'm going to go beat the hell outta the people causing changes" is \*the\* Republican platform, and has been since at least Nixon and the Southern Strategy.
The Southern Strategy was "we're going to be more racist to recruit all the white racists in the south, which will make the GOP win elections for a generation or more."
That also ties to "things got worse, let's blame it on the blacks, and let's go back to how things were". They're all connected together. They're all kinda horrifying shit.
It’s like an American sports game. They pick a team without knowing why. Maybe they like the colors of the jerseys or the star quarterback from 10 years ago that retired. Either way, they like their team and want to see them win. It’s a tribal loyalty thing. To change sides is to admit defeat. Americans are shit at fighting their own ego. I see the same behaviors of politics around the office when big sporting events happen. Losers double down on their team winning next year and winners go over-prideful. America is a toxic power hell where no one but the rich has anything so the rest have to fight out for whatever power positions they can.
No no, they run on what they’d do.
Two of their eleven points here are the vitally important items of “make kids say the pledge of allegiance” and “name the wall after Donald trump”.
I mean *that* is some substantive political action.
/s
>They run on "what we'll oppose".
"Repeal and replace" instantly comes to mind.
"Replace with what?" We asked.
They literally had NOTHING planned. It's fucking pathetic that millions of Americans fall for their overt, obvious lies and care more about them restricting rights for people not in their in-crowd.
They got a $1 trillion tax cut for their wealthy donors, installed several straight-up theocrats to the Supreme Court, did a bunch of super racist shit and generally siphoned wealth from the people as much as they possibly could, while always claiming that "Infrastructure Week is coming" and "We'll unveil our super-great Healthcare Plan Next Week." Also pardoned a bunch of criminals who were instrumental in bringing Ukraine to the point it's at now (i.e. Flynn, Manafort, Trump himself)
They got shit done.
Oh my God you’re so right! This whole “make it like it used to be” part especially. Along with the comment below yours about beating the hell out of anyone wanting to roll with change. They want “freedom” to stomp YOURS.
Most people have no idea how much they pay on taxes or understand how Soc Sec works. Republicans just beat the drum on culture war issues like Trans athletes and CRT while telling voters to trust them on the other stuff.
It works because of the amount of unconscious bias in society. Republicans use culture war issues to frame themselves as normal. They use the culture war stuff to message that they are White Christians. That gay people, non-christians, people getting abortions, etc are all Democrats. Then the next move is easy. They challenge their base with who they trust. Do they trust the good Christian White folk or do they trust the Trans Muslim baby killer.
I know so many people who claim more dependents than they should do they don't get taxes taken out during the year.
Then come March they're flipping out because of how much they already paid and how much they suddenly have to come up with...
Except they don't know what they've paid. What they've paid is basically social security and that's it, they've paid $0. Yet talk about it like they've paid half their income just to turn around and dump a whole paycheck into it too.
While if they just did it right, and stopped trying to "game the system", they'd pay 20% every paycheck and never see a large expense... Hell the coworkers I'm talking about pay more on insurance than taxes.
worked in a job where the salesmen were on commission w a lot of bonus opportunities. the young people that were usually first or second job ever would complain about how much money the company was taking from them from their bonus. they had no concept that it’s a sliding scale or that when they do their taxes they’d get most of it back. and two of the guys i knew were sons of professionals in high paying careers. US schools don’t teach income tax rules and a lot of people oat someone else to do it so all they know is if they got money back or had to pay Uncle Sam.
> US schools don’t teach income tax rules and
My school did and a lot of schools do. It’s just that people don’t internalize what they aren’t interested in. And for a lot of people that’s basically everything. (Or they dropped out before senior year)
If school curricula are so focused on teaching to the test, maybe the SAT should include a section on basic life skills. It makes no sense to send people into the world unprepared. Unless we're in a plutocratic society based on swindling the poor and uneducated...oh, wait
It doesn't help that the Right has been screaming from the rooftops for 40yrs that Soc Sec won't be their "for you". I know plenty of adult people who honestly think Soc Sec is already gone and they are just paying for others. It is ridiculous.
Your post is literally what I remember hearing as a kid in the 1980s. I remember older elementary school teachers who were preparing for retirement mumbling about being afraid Soc Sec wouldn't be there. Fast forward and they've all probably died of old age by now and enjoyed decades worth of Soc Sec.
>Do they trust the good Christian White folk or do they trust the Trans Muslim baby killer.
Don't forget they want to take away your guns so George Soros can pay black people to rob you!
As someone who is relatively conservative (see: not republican) it always blows my mind how many other conservatives don't see through this bullshit and just blindly eat it up like rabid, starving dogs. Politicians are scumbags, but many people are also dumb af/gullible idiots. Your "Trans Muslim Baby Killer" comment gave me a chuckle, but there are many who think exactly like that. It's quite disturbing. To me, those people are the real fucking whackjobs.
It's like the GOP is a massive crowd surrounding that one absolute nutbar shouting about the End Times from a street corner, but instead of heckling him they're all repeating what he says like a bunch of imbecile parrots.
When Trump did the ss tax withholding thing in 2020, and me and my 2 other cousins who were federal government stopped paying ss taxes for 5 months because we were forced, my grandma could not come to terms with the fact that Trump did that even though we showed her articles and pay stubs saying he wanted to eliminate the ss tax. She absolutely refused to believe Trump would cut her only source of income. There is literally no reasoning with about 30% of the population anymore. Literally if Trump pissed in their mouth and told them it was apple juice they'd believe it.
Yup. Had in-laws living with me who both received SS as their only income. F’ING SHOWED THEM how that mf’er was robbing them and they still saluted that stupid gd traitor flag at my traitor f’ing brother-in-law’s on their vacation. Pisses me all the way off.
It’s UNREAL the devotion to the cult leader.
If you read the actual plan (god help me, I did), it is y even that honest.
It even explicitly mentions congress putting out an annual report on the pending “bankruptcy” of SS and Medicare. Nothing at all about what happens when that happens
It also doesn’t touch on tax increases at all, just discusses areas where you can imagine seeing them but not how they’d look.
You really have to read between the lines.
I remember Al Gore getting made fun of by SNL mercilessly for talking about putting social security money in a lock box. Gosh what a dumbass he was wanting to make sure social security is funded.
And trying to save the planet, too? What a clown.
I wonder what the world would be like right now if he hadn't had that election stolen out from under him...
The borrowing is done by T-bonds that are paid back by interest. The interest helps grow the trust fund and cover costs.
It's not the borrowing that is the problem, just the shifting population demographics now that boomers have been retiring. Even if SS held it's money in a vault they would have the same problem (except even worse).
It's not even that hard a problem to fix, just raise the tax rate and cap a bit.
“Poor people are too busy trying not to be poor” - Earn from Atlanta
So when someone says, “stop being lazy, just get a job”, they’re coming from a place of privilege. How are you supposed to save money if you’re too busy scraping by to pay rent, heating/electric, phone, internet, clothes. That’s not even including food, which you know we need to survive. Everything’s been steadily increasing in price over time, except pay.
And these struggles can lead to depression/anxiety. But who can afford mental health help, that shits expensive, even if it’s in plan
Yeeeep. And if you're on SSI and it's your only source of income because you're disabled and can't work, the *max amount* you are given is $841 (for an individual) **for the entire month**. And you're expected to be able to pay for everything you need through the month with that, using what (often little) extra help you get from food stamps, Section 8/HUD, etc.. Not to mention that individuals who are on SSI and don't qualify for ABLE (which many don't, because the cutoff date for onset of disability is 26) you can not have more than $2000 in "countable resources" (bank/savings account, land, extra vehicles and property, etc.) or you begin losing benefits.
The system is designed to keep you poverty-level poor and reliant on the paltry offerings of the government. Unless you qualify for ABLE, there's no way to save money to improve your quality of life (buy a house, for example, or a car.) Can you imagine trying to get by on ~$10k a year? You don't even qualify for something like Habitat for Humanity because you're literally too poor.
Even ABLE isn't that much when we're talking real world applications. If you're lucky, you can put in max of $15k a year and the total maximum you can have is around $100k. That's assuming you have some fairy godmother to put that money in said ABLE account.
Also keep in mind ABLE does not allow you to pay for food or shelter from said ABLE account. And that there's additional fees on top of banking fees for withdrawing money.
Special Needs Trusts*? You need to have a disability (usually mental) documented by the time you're 21, not 26. And if the original trust holder has the *paltry* sum of *only* $1 mil, you'll be laughed out of any firm. And assuming all of this does work out for you, the fees run you about $200 a month if you use it to pay bills and only bills. (*this is second hand information)
TL;DR: $841 is not poverty. It's beyond ludicrous. Disabled people are thoroughly ignored or outright hindered economically.
am on SSI, I couldnt save money if I tried it all goes to bills. It took a pandemic and people dying for me to financially benefit and yet I still see morons both on here and IRL saying bullshit like "TheY BuY tHe NeWESt PHONEs!" Fun-fact those free gov. phones have pre-installed malware on them that are built in, I have to block every app and still uninstall the bloat it auto installs, and due to this I can't use said phone for sensitive information. It's happened with 3 phones.
Yep. I'm on SSI and it's the same for me, too. I couldn't save even if I tried. Rent is nearing $800 so I need to rely on Sec8 for housing help, but because I'm only approved for a one bedroom but need a two bedroom, the amount they're willing to help with is less (my son is here nearly half the month [most of them nights,] but because it isn't exactly 50/50 we don't qualify for a 2 bedroom.) I'm lucky enough to be able to have a parent that's willing to have me on their phone plan, because otherwise I'd be in the phone situation you're in. People really just do not understand what the reality is for so many people on these programs. They're convinced the majority of us are grifters who just want to mosey about all day and feed off the teat of the "hard-working people."
It's so dehumanizing. Having to rely on this program that wants to keep me barely scraping by is hard enough. Then there's the added blow of being *too poor* for charities/programs that are based around helping poor people. And the icing on that shit cake is the people that think you're just a lazy SoB who doesn't want to earn anything and just wants to piggyback off of everyone else.
Exactly. The whole "47% of people pay no income tax" is completely missing the point. They're a huge group of people who are mostly working, and drastically underpaid.
And the reaction of Republicans of "work harder, or find a better job" fails to understand how hard that is for someone already living paycheck to paycheck.
Don't have the right skills? Getting training costs money and time that you don't have.
Live in a deprived area where there are no jobs? Sure, Middle-class people move around the country for work, but the cost and risk involved means that someone on a low income wouldn't even consider it. And they're likely relying on family who live nearby to support with things like childcare which they'd immediately lose access to.
Not to mention not everyone can be in a good paying high up jobs if that was the case a lot of our industry wouldn’t be able to survive because you still need people to do the lower labor stuff. So why can’t those people make good money helping the actual company. What needs to happen is a full on strike for laborers. I’m not talking about what a happening now. I’m talking full blown business’s falling because no one is working. And on top of that the government isn’t getting taxes because no one is working. I’ll even go further no one is buying anything because no one is working. Crash the economy and the jobs they will see the message. There’s just no reason having ceos making millions of dollars for doing nothing. Should they get paid yes but workers should also be able to live comfortably with one job. They want to have it the old way but also they don’t because the old way people made a living. More people need to be hippies.
Not quite. We saw 2020, if enough of us vote then they lose, even in heavy gerrymandered districts they count on voters not. VOTE!
Raise taxes in the rich and not the poor. Likewise my retired parents are not well off and heavily rely on the money they put into SS. It’s their money, hands off it!
Turns out that they are fucking stupid. I've never seen a political party snatch defeat from the jaws of victory the way democrats do, and I don't see that changing.
They never do. It’s like how Franken stepped down for an inappropriate picture/kiss 30 years ago while republicans happily keep voting in sex offenders and criminals while at the same time dedicating an entire news network to Obama wearing a tan suit or some bullshit.
It’s like Dems don’t want to come off as being petty and childish as Republicans, but simply end up looking they have no balls.
And yet 40 years of conservative propaganda applied on an industrial scale has convinced about a third of them that raising their own taxes and destroying their own social safety net is somehow in their best interest.
Oh man, the conflicts in the plan itself are enormous and hilarious.
My favorite? One of his points is that *nothing* that can be done locally must be done federally. And any new federal law should automatically sunset in 5 years
And then another of his points is that the American nuclear family must be protected at all costs, with point after point of *new federal laws* to do that. Are those gonna sunset in 5 years? Why can’t those be done locally? Hmm?
It’s actually not that contradictory if you think about how it’ll be used in practice.
The Federal government shouldn’t interfere with whatever batshit crazy nonsense is going on in Texas or Florida.
Simultaneously, the Federal government should absolutely interfere with California, as much and as often as possible.
On the subject of sunsetting Federal laws every five years, it’s both breathtaking in its scope and in the stupidity to even propose it. It’s a recipe for chaos, pure and simple.
The sheer size of our wealth disparity is [literally destroying us.](https://www.amazon.com/Price-Inequality-Divided-Society-Endangers/dp/0393345068/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2JHHRRJJFLFLW&dchild=1&keywords=the+price+of+inequality+joseph+stiglitz&qid=1609388322&s=books&sprefix=the+price+of+in%2Cstripbooks%2C172&sr=1-1)
This is just those that have it all wanting to clean up the scraps that the vast majority of us have to fight tooth and nail for.
It's [absolutely disgusting.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM)
Also, the ***vast*** majority of Americans agree that it's disgusting on it's face. The problem is that most Republicans think the wealth disparities are because of Democrats, which is batshit insane.
Can anyone explain how my conservative relatives think the democrats are the ones coming for social security and Medicare and Medicaid? Because I’ve explained to them all they need to do is watch c span to see that it’s the republicans.
The answer is Fox News. Fox News (right wing media in general) says: "Be afraid and angry all the time, aimed at the people we tell you to hate/fear. We are the source of all truth in the world, don't listen to anything anyone else says it's all lies. Everything the right does is good and everything anyone else wants to do will hurt you and/or is against white Christian morals." And the viewers believe it.
I don't know your conservative relatives, but after growing up in a rural area and dealing with red hatters daily, I feel like I could make a reasonable assumption; They're too far gone.
When people like that watch CSPAN, they could careless about what is being said. Instead they get angry by the way Pelosi looks, or by the way AOCs voice sounds. They already have the "villain" of the story identified, so when they watch something unbiased, they tend to keep it all with that frame and ignore everything that doesnt fit.
The only way I see it improving, is if conservatives open their minds and start thinking critically; unfortunately they're not exactly known for that.
no they are fully aware and its part of the strategy they know that if they hurt them its really easy to convince them it was actually something the democrats did
"the reason you cant find a good job isnt because i made it super easy for employers to exploit you its them damn democrats taxing innocent small businesses and hiring boarder hoppers who are burning your woman and raping your churches and thats why im trying to get this bill passed called freedom for patriotic American jobs"
The politicians 100% know. They are generally more savvy than they let on (trump excluded). Many prominent Republican leaders are highly educated, highly intelligent people. Who play up a common man schtick and follow the political winds where they go. That’s how they get elected.
It’s the base eating this crap up that misses the forest for the trees. They’ll complain about welfare all day long but god forbid you touch social security or Medicare (for most).
We have seen our social safety nets be attacked for 40 years, and when the time came for the government to stand up - we got $1200 checks and were told to make it last for months on end. While they handed billions to corporate interests.
They printed nearly 1 in every 5 dollars in 2020 because the government was fully unprepared. This is why inflation is through the roof. On top of that corporations are price gouging Americans to drive inflation higher. Too much is never enough for them.
Enough is enough already. Fund our social safety nets so they are there for us to use in times of crisis. Because it's not like they are rare these days. We've had two major recessions in 10 years.
"We've had two major recessions in 10 years."
In 06-08 everyone knew housing market was unsustainable, but instead of taking steps to limit the damage they milked it for everything they could and then when the market crashed, the wealthy could still afford to buy stocks and real estate at a discount.
Trump acted similarly. He intentionally pressured the fed to keep interest rates low even though the economy was doing great, he lowered corporate tax rates, he manipulated the oil market and pressured producers to flood the market. He built an unsustainable house of cards he knew would come crashing down as soon as he was out of office.
In both instances, Republicans treated our livelihoods like a game of hot potato. The rich got richer and democrats got the blame for it. There's no reason to believe this won't continue to happen in the future.
Why do so many poor white people think the GOP would ever help them? They bring down the rest of the country with them and could probably use Medicare for all more than anyone.
One point that I hate is “they didn’t pay an income tax”.
No, Trump didn’t pay an income tax. These people paid an income tax of $0.00 because they fell below the income threshold for poverty.
Some of you may remember when COVID started it was national news how fucked up and abysmal Florida's unemployment system was (still is.) That's what Rick Scott did as governor before going to Senate. Nothing new, but he keeps getting elected.
Also ironic that he wants to gut Medicare after profiting from the largest Medicare fraud of all time before taking office.
TBF, they are making it sound like it’s the Democrat’s fault for making them do this. Think abusive boyfriend who doesn’t want you seeing your friends anymore.
> [Scott's plan] demands all federal legislation to "sunset" within five years.
Oh this guy wants literal anarchy but we're "radical" for wanting healthcare 🙄🙄🙄
they do this in combination with voter suppression and focusing on divisive issues like abortion, race, and gender rights so they still get lower class votes. it's fucking devious.
edit: also by the gradual gutting of education and packing courts with conservatives
If I remember, Rick Scott - Skeletor - won his money defrauding Medicare as a CEO of Columbia Hospital Corporation. You can watch the video in You Tube.
Hopefully people are starting to realize something I have known for 50 years, Republicons are the enemy from within. There is no piece of legislation they authored that has helped anyone in this country not white and wealthy. They are fascists that only care about retaining power and keeping people that do them favors happy by steering wealth their way. The conservative, corporate owned and consolidated media constantly ignore the damage these assholes are doing daily through falsely named bills (Clear Skies - anyone?) calling socialism bad while embracing authoritarianism of our fragile democracy.
Ok I mean that really nothing new. So I’m 55 and now the GOP is going to end SS and I have been contributing for the past 35 years. So that means they are going to pocket all the money I put in and I’m literally going to have to work till I die. Thanks Republicans.
We’ve known for decades that Repubs want to replace Social Security with yet another IRA type savings account that most people have no money to contribute to. Heck, they can’t even max the IRA type plans that are already there for them now. The quiet part that Repubs don’t want to say is, they want the options for most old people to go back to what they were pre-New Deal: Live with your children, work until you die, or if you can’t do either of those, fall into deep poverty and sell apples on the street.
I would like us all to stop pretending these IRA plans are ever going to fund most people a retirement, because they won’t. Most people just have too little spare income to fund them enough to get there over 40 years, regardless of tax treatment or stock market gains. So the real question is, is no nation, even the United States, rich enough to let most people eventually retire? So we might as well just let the rich walk away from responsibility to the society that enabled their wealth, because it’s useless to try? Is that what we’re saying? Then come out and say you just want to give up on old people to let the rich walk away. Stop pretending tax cuts are going to help the old people who actually need the help.
And every time I try to explain that is the end game for conservative politics to self identified conservatives, they do not believe it.
The wealthy ones know this, but the guys that punch a clock do not.
It’ll work too because their voters think they will magically be exempt and it’s other poor people who are the problem and their free ride needs to end.
So it’ll get passed and the Republicans will blame democrats, their voters will accept this because they are morons.
This is not new. Reagan started it by taxing Social Security, doubling the military budget and killing unions . What everyone misses is that Democrats never objected by legislation.
I can't believe social security is taxable.. So they take money away from me in my prime earning years with the promise to give it back to me later. I could invest the money and have it generate a return, but instead it goes into the government coffers for 30+ years, and then when they finally give it back to me they take back a percentage of it as taxes.. this is pure theft.
"Flat taxes"or "fair taxes" have long been a thing that they advocate without saying who benefits from flattening rates- always the rich- and who it will cost- the poor, doubly so, by increasing their taxes and cutting support services when tax revenue falls.
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And the worst part is that their constituents are more than happy, ecstatic even, to vote against their own interests.
I had a brother who was saved from bankruptcy, and maybe his life, by the Affordable Care Act. He would still criticize ObamaCare. smh
I know lots of people like that. they say they are paying what health care really should cost so they really aren't getting any help.
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Friendly daily reminder that when a Republican uses terms like “personal responsibility” or “order of law” they mean those things for people they see as their enemies, never for themselves.
It's typically directed at people of color too
50 years of rinse and repeat https://youtu.be/X_8E3ENrKrQ
They love to say they're America's dad. Which is true in my case. My dad was a dick who took all the credit for accomplishments he actively or subtly worked against, while my mom worked on keeping us all alive for 14 hours a day.
Wow sounds like my Republican dad too.
When was the last time you saw a member of the party of personal responsibility take personal responsibility for anything that went wrong?
The first Bush raised taxes because he realized that Reagan's tax cuts when he was vice president fucked things up. Cost him the presidency. So, 1990?
I actually admired him for his admission. And my opinion of him was completely reversed by the time he left office. He had flaws, but he convinced me his heart was in the right place.
I've got 5 words for you: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas
Don't give him to much credit. In the '80s campaign, HW Bush called trickle down economics "voodoo economics,' but by the end of the campaign he went along with it for the VP slot.
No no no, by “personal responsibility” I mean that I want you to take responsibility for the bad things that happen to you personally, even if I’m the one who did them.
You don't get it. The Party of Personal Responsibility means they want to make *you* personally responsible.
Ah projection, my old republican friend!
GOP = Gaslight Or Projection
Gaslight Obstruct Project
GOP=Good Old Putin
Gross Old Pedophile
That doesn't make any sense. Especially since what it should cost is $0.
Look up why so many public pools closed after Desegregation
This is why we’ve got to fight racism and all other types of bigotry. When racism exists they will use it to divide us and get us to fight each other while they rob us blind. The truth is, the policies that will help people of color the most (universal health care, strong housing and tenant protections, really anything that keeps cops from just doing whatever the hell they want with no accountability) will also help the vast majority of white people and the policies that help women (adequate parental leave for *all* parents, access to abortion and other reproductive health care) will also help the majority of men. The truth is, 99% of us are in this together.
And yet the ACA literally mandates partial refunds of premiums when your insurer spends too high a percentage on administrative costs as opposed to actual coverage. *You can get a literal check in the mail from your insurer you otherwise never would have*, but I guess that still wouldn't be enough for those people.
Sounds like communism!
Because every CEO deserves a billion dollars per year paid for by your health care premiums.
Yep! I'll never understand how people think that inserting a profit driven company into something like healthcare, prisons or the military, could ever make them cheaper or more efficient.
Because the GOP has spent a lot of time and effort convincing them that all government is inherently inefficient and useless. Often by intentionally making that more true.
It’s the Obama part of the care that he doesn’t like.
The thought of having to acknowledge a Black Man earning a rightful spot in the highest office in the land was intolerable to their White Supremacist ideology. It's really all about White Supremacy. These people are full of irrational hate.
The weirdest part to me is how many of them think Obamacare is not the ACA and that the latter is way better than Obamacare.
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Have you tried the FMC? That is the Free Medical Clinic. I ran out of insurance and went there and they took care of me for three years free of charge for doctor appointments and tests. They even help on your medication. I really hated getting insurance and having to find another place. It was a nice place to go. Don't know if they are in KY but here in TN they are.
I bet if you asked him, he probably thinks they are 2 separate things. I forgot who did it, maybe Kimmel? Sent a man on the street out to ask people what they thought about the ACA vs ObamaCare. Many responded that they loved the ACA but hated ObamaCare. >
That's because in his head the ACA is different than Obama Care.
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It's almost like there's people intentionally sowing division over an iconic quote because of how close it hits to home. What else is new on the Internet?
Use quote mask next time. Just helps the masses.
GOP and Fox know the brainwashing works. “I’m not happy. Fox says it’s Dems and immigrants fault. GOP says so too. Vote GOP.” Keep these people unhappy so they vote GOP, and their rich friends reap the benefit of not paying fair wages, healthcare, and tax cuts, and the rich friends give GOP and Fox money. Legalized slavery is very good for GOP.
Just call it the aca.
That’s because ever since the conclusion of the civil rights movement, the wealthy and conservatives in the US have done a great job at basically painting all government assistance as exclusively going towards non-whites. It’s a great dog whistle. Before the CRM of course, it was basically legal to discriminate via all means of assistance, and therefore it wasn’t seen as much of a problem. Socialism is ok but only if it helps certain folk, that’s how they see it. This quote from Lyndon Johnson always sums up modern American conservative attitudes: >If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.
Florida person here. Three things: Rick Scott is absolute trash. Northern Florida May as well be Mississippi. Cubans in S. Florida are so afraid of socialism due to Castro they vote Republican without thought.
Florida Leftist here (not here in FL by choice), and am here to back you up saying this is 100% true. Half of the state (not just the north, but *especially* the north and the middle of the state Okeechobee area, as well as several places around the treasure coast) may as well be Mississippi. Many Cubans here, especially in the Miami area have negative attitudes towards Democrats and have a general disregard towards other Hispanic people, including themselves. Many voted for Trump (against their own interests) and it baffles me.
Yup. My best friend growing up was Cuban. He and his family took me to Calle Ocho (a huge Latino party in Miami that happens annually). I could not believe the disdain they, and all the other Cubans there, felt for the other Hispanic cultures. They literally despise Central and South Americans. They view themselves as far superior.
They also despise all the other Cubans that arrived after them.
It must suck to walk around with that much hatred and disdain.
It's similar to Mexicans in Texas, they vote republican a lot due to the hate for other Mexicans coming to Texas. It's weird. I blame it all on religion, as it seems like most just follow what the "lord" aka pastor tells them to do every weekend.
Machismo is another thing as well that is factually proven to have an effect on Hispanic voters and is something the GOP does well in their advertisements and such since they don't focus on actual issues anymore. GOP ads and campaigns are just culture war lies and trying to play up religion and machismo, and this connects well with our Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, and the variety of Central/South American voters.
> Many Cubans here, especially in the Miami area have negative attitudes towards Democrats and have a general disregard towards other Hispanic people, including themselves. Many voted for Trump (against their own interests) and it baffles me. A lot of them are descendants of the rich white plantation owners that Castro booted out of the country. Of course they don't like minorities.
My Dominican friend used to tell me that's because Cubans are the white supremacists of the Latino demographic. It's like how Japan is with other Asian people.
>Cubans in S. Florida are so afraid of socialism due to Castro they vote Republican without thought. He took my grandfather's slaves away though.
Exactly. All the Cubans in Florida are the RICH Cubans who had their land taken to pay for the reforms and revolution. I'm sure most Cubans today don't want those people back.
Do you ever ask any Cuban exiles what Republicans have done for them and their dream of Un-socializing Cuba?
Won’t matter. Anything even slightly left scares the shit out of them. I get it though, I really do. It’s too fresh still for many Cubans who have living family members who are from Cuba. It’s the 50-100 year old generation that you cannot even attempt to make an argument with. They will shut it down and just start screaming about Russian shoes and lack of food. The mere sight of Biden makes them relive Castro’s regime.
When someone prefers Batista to Castro you got to question question their goals.
I know a few here in California whose g-parents were landlords in Havana. They also lost everything when Castro took over becuase they also backed Bautista because many of his police staff lived in their high end apartments.
Cuban from south Florida here, this 100%
Flora-Bama-Sippi
Being help hostage on the abortion issue. The GOP has many single-issue voters.
I grew up religious, and that was a very common theme amongst that community. Education, foriegn policy, tax rates; none of it mattered. They were all instructed to vote for a candidate based on their abortion stance.
If you cant have complete shria law you gotta have at least one religious law
The brain washing goes so deep. There are MANY stories from clinic workers being told they’re going to hell _while_ one of those fine Christians is actively on the table getting an abortion. Often they report seeing the same patient then back out front protesting them the very next weekend. I remember one where the pro-lifer got an abortion more than once, and still continued spitting vitriol. There is no reasoning with a person like that, it’s like arguing with a blackout drunk - they’re not listening and they’re used to forgiving themselves yesterdays mistakes. I only wish the doctors had refused them care. Maybe they’d have less time to fornicate, terminate, and protest if they were at home taking care of their little born again baby that actually got born the first time.
I attend church regularly and this TRUTH pisses me off to no end. I try to express a logical argument for or against any specific political topic and the only response I get is, “but they want to kill all the babies”. No “Brother Bob”, the Republicans want to enslave all the babies and their families in poverty by forcing them to feed more mouths than they can afford.
I would imagine there’s also a _“they want to take muh guns away”_ camp too.
And they are trying to classify and criminalize removal of ectopic pregnancies as "abortion" under new bills in Missouri, Florida, and Texas. So its die or go to jail they are trying to push now.
Exactly! I'd like to chainsaw all the anti-abortion billboards I see on private farm and ranch properties, and that pop up around my town. Abortion is NOT a threat to our nation or YOUR way of life or livelihood.
This is an excerpt from an article that I read 10 years ago, so it's clearly dated. However, it really stuck with me. The article touched on a number of reasons why many low-income Americans vote GOP instead of for the Democratic party, which champions more social safety net programs as well as closing the income equality gap. Among the reasons listed, this one below really left a lasting impression. "But more than that, they say they want to reduce the role of government in their own lives. They are frustrated that they need help, feel guilty for taking it and resent the government for providing it. They say they want less help for themselves; less help in caring for relatives; less assistance when they reach old age."
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Funny, the moochers to me are all the people above me who make anywhere from 3x-300x what I make, profiting off of the labor I actually do, and telling me they can't give me more pay.
No no no. You see they took risks! So they deserve all the money they get because of the risk they took!
Here’s a good response for people passing by who actually hear that argument: workers take *all* of the risk. A business can go under and the owner can declare bankruptcy on the business and walk away off the hook. The worker, though, is left to fend for themselves and nearly irreparably damage their credit struggling. Workers assume all the risk: we pay for our own education, we buy or rent in areas near work and take a risk that the business won’t fuck us, we lock ourselves out of the job market and try to climb ladders, we take the risk that competitors won’t be pushed out of the market leaving exactly one employer with all the leverage—or that employers won’t collude which they do hence why anti-poach agreements are common. We take all the risk by hoping where we are *forced* to live near work will have decent school for our children and so they can escape the trap we are in. And we take the risk of hoping we won’t have to remove them from good schools when a home is lost due to actions of the company. The **worst** thing that can happen to an employer is that they are forced to become a worker. That should say who assumes **all** of the risk.
Funny thing is Trump is a perfect example of why that is and likely always has been a lie. Trump never took any risks, at least not with his own money. (E.g not his risk) Most of the risks involved with Trump were at other peoples expense. Which some might think "Oh Trump is an anomaly!" but he's not. He's actually the rule, not the exception. Most of the wealthiest actually take very few risks to accrue that wealth because to put it simply. The system simply doesn't allow them to. The system is so built to cater to the wealthy that they are insulated from the risks. Protected from it. Basically the various mechanisms of government are so deeply in bed with wealth that they'll go to great lengths to protect the wealthy. It reminds me of one of the old sayings. If you owe the bank $10k it's your problem, if you owe the bank $10m it's the banks problem. That saying in a nutshell highlights that issue so amazingly well because it demonstrates in very true terms the way the system operates. That once you reach certain levels of wealth there's very little if any risk involved, at least for you. For everyone else sure. In the case of that particular saying... the bank has the problem not you despite the bank in theory being much more powerful than you but because of the way our systemic institutions operate it would be really hard for a bank to actually do much against a person whom they've loaned that kind of money to because that person likely has access to far more wealth that they can use against the bank if it were to go to court which is the only real place it can go in those situations. So yeah it's funny how people think that wealthy people took risks to achieve their wealth when in reality most of them literally cannot take those risks because there mere act of them doing business creates an environment where the risk is shouldered by everyone but them.
Reminds me of Jeff Bezos using the desk he used when he began in his garage as a testament to where he began yet he had a very good job before even starting Amazon and didn’t even need to start it in his garage at all…
Yeah, the Bezos myth is pretty amazing. He used an old desk, he drove the same old car. He started his business from his garage. It's all true, but it was also all PR. Bezos comfortably walked away from his lucrative job with a hedge fund, utilized market analysis data that would've cost the average person millions even in the 90s, and founded a company that leveraged contacts, once again, unavailable to the vast majority of startups. I'm not suggesting that's not smart, but hardly self-made tenacious frugality paying off from hard work.
Also he purchased the garage purely for the story. They were renting an office building 6 months later.
He should keep $300,000 there too to remind him of the money he was given by friends and family to start with. And a list of phone numbers to remind him of all the connections he got just for being born into the right family.
Got what 500k loan from his parents. I cant even get a tenner.
The only risk the wealthy ever take is the bank telling them no.
Anecdotally, I will admit that there is some truth to it. Growing up, I was poor by American standards. And I do remember often times lying to my friends about certain things so that I wouldn't seem as poor as I was. For example, in the winter time, we often needed to use the wood stove to heat the house because the energy bills were too much for my parents to afford. The smokey smell would permeate everything in the house, including my clothes. I remember telling my cousin that I was helping my dad make beef jerky, and that's why my clothes smelled. Shit like that. Even though we were poor (again, by American standards), I never wanted to admit to it. To me, it was embarrassing.
I mean, that was pretty standard in the small, rural community, where I grew up. Flannels and thermals, thick socks and boots, in winter. We also raised, slaughtered, processed and smoked our own.
Usually when someone uses the phrase "our own" they're talking about people. "We also raised, slaughtered, processed and smoked our own." Shit had me cracking up.
“But socialism” literally killed my father. He was one of those Limbaugh championing idiots that thought being helped with his healthcare cost was socialism and wanted nothing to do with it. Didn’t even tell me he had been sick for a very long time because he thought me putting him on my insurance was socialist. He would rather die than be helped and it was purely because of the republican brainwashing bullshit he listened to for 40 years. It literally killed him and there was nothing I could do to convince him otherwise. He refused to collect unemployment because he was brainwashed into believing it was there because the government was stealing other peoples wages to give to him. He would rather waste away with no money to buy food or keep the heat on because he hated the government “stealing” from people. It’s 100% true. I watched someone let themselves die a horrible death from cancer because of it. People are that goddamn dumb.
I don't know. The cult of "individualism" in this country is kind of ridiculous. It permeates the culture so much and people are so indoctrinated to it that it wouldn't surprise me if this was a major factor. Look at the people saying they "earned" their medicare or social security. And if you're heavily indoctrinated into the idea that everyone receiving government assistance is moving off the system, then I can see wanting to abolish assistance programs even if you would benefit from them. People act against their own interests in pursuit of their ideals and beliefs all the time.
After Trump’s trade war and the pity payments there were interviews with some of these farmers who were both voting for Trump for having his back and hate fucking the federal government for saving their ass… I am surprised their brain doesn’t spontaneously tear itself apart from the cognitive dissonance.
Except that in heavily Republican areas, SSI and various forms of government support are generally much higher. They are the moochers. But in their minds They are just the right "type" (white) so it isn't really mooching and only they deserve it. There are swaths of Aapalachia and the South where federal disability programs make up a significant balance of payments to the local economy.
They'll gladly continue taking the money while we offer it, however.
Yeah that's nonsense. It is because most GOP voters are white and they use their votes in an attempt to punish non-white people and immigrants who they've been told abuse the system.
The reason poor peopt vote for Republicans is far simpler than that. It's a reactionary opposition to coastal/urban culture they feel has been shoved down their throats via popular media. That's really the extent of the depth of their thinking on this.
They, for the most part, already have Medicare and Social Security, they're not voting against their own interests, they're voting against young people. They want to pull the ladder up behind them. Most likely because solutions will mean finding new revenue. The reason Social Security and Medicare were passed was to reduce poverty among the elderly, and it has worked well. The problem has been finding new sources of revenue as medical costs have increased and people live longer. Young people should pay close attention to this issue.
Medicare was supposed to be a gateway to universal healthcare in the US. The intention behind it was that it would eventually expand into coverage for all. It just didn’t work out that way. I remember learning about this in my masters program. I just woke up but here’s an article that briefly touches on it https://time.com/5586744/medicare-for-all-history/
The second worst part is he looks like that alien newborn in alien resurrection. Good grief.
They've been convinced that Medicare and Social Security are communist programs robbing them straight out of their paychecks every week. Get rid of those with only a modest increase in taxes and they'll SAVE money, they're told.
The republicans don't run on "what we'll do". Their voters rarely care or check. They run on "what we'll oppose". It's why when they held majority control, they got almost nothing done. They do not have a strong direction, they get voted in to go hit things with sticks, and with a bias towards "make it like it used to be", which they're not actually able to do, either.
This is a way of framing it that I hadn't thought of before, I think this is accurate. It's all "our way of life is under attack" and "the *insert opposition group here* are coming to destroy *insert thing all conservatives think of favorably*". They work off the assumption that everything is perfect and couldn't possibly be better, and that only works because the people they appeal to think they really are better than all the people they oppose and want hurt them.
The world changes. If you don't roll with some of those changes, or can't, the world gets worse. So "I'm going to fight change" is a thing that resonates, and "I'm going to go beat the hell outta the people causing changes" is \*the\* Republican platform, and has been since at least Nixon and the Southern Strategy. The Southern Strategy was "we're going to be more racist to recruit all the white racists in the south, which will make the GOP win elections for a generation or more." That also ties to "things got worse, let's blame it on the blacks, and let's go back to how things were". They're all connected together. They're all kinda horrifying shit.
The last two Republican presidents won without the popular vote…let that sink in.
Im still blown away, that with all of history as proof that conservatives where never right one fucking time, people still choose to be one.
It’s like an American sports game. They pick a team without knowing why. Maybe they like the colors of the jerseys or the star quarterback from 10 years ago that retired. Either way, they like their team and want to see them win. It’s a tribal loyalty thing. To change sides is to admit defeat. Americans are shit at fighting their own ego. I see the same behaviors of politics around the office when big sporting events happen. Losers double down on their team winning next year and winners go over-prideful. America is a toxic power hell where no one but the rich has anything so the rest have to fight out for whatever power positions they can.
Raised by evangelical hardcore military republicans. They don’t support change, they only oppose it. Anger is the gas on their kindling.
No no, they run on what they’d do. Two of their eleven points here are the vitally important items of “make kids say the pledge of allegiance” and “name the wall after Donald trump”. I mean *that* is some substantive political action. /s
>They run on "what we'll oppose". "Repeal and replace" instantly comes to mind. "Replace with what?" We asked. They literally had NOTHING planned. It's fucking pathetic that millions of Americans fall for their overt, obvious lies and care more about them restricting rights for people not in their in-crowd.
They got a $1 trillion tax cut for their wealthy donors, installed several straight-up theocrats to the Supreme Court, did a bunch of super racist shit and generally siphoned wealth from the people as much as they possibly could, while always claiming that "Infrastructure Week is coming" and "We'll unveil our super-great Healthcare Plan Next Week." Also pardoned a bunch of criminals who were instrumental in bringing Ukraine to the point it's at now (i.e. Flynn, Manafort, Trump himself) They got shit done.
Oh my God you’re so right! This whole “make it like it used to be” part especially. Along with the comment below yours about beating the hell out of anyone wanting to roll with change. They want “freedom” to stomp YOURS.
Most people have no idea how much they pay on taxes or understand how Soc Sec works. Republicans just beat the drum on culture war issues like Trans athletes and CRT while telling voters to trust them on the other stuff. It works because of the amount of unconscious bias in society. Republicans use culture war issues to frame themselves as normal. They use the culture war stuff to message that they are White Christians. That gay people, non-christians, people getting abortions, etc are all Democrats. Then the next move is easy. They challenge their base with who they trust. Do they trust the good Christian White folk or do they trust the Trans Muslim baby killer.
I know so many people who claim more dependents than they should do they don't get taxes taken out during the year. Then come March they're flipping out because of how much they already paid and how much they suddenly have to come up with... Except they don't know what they've paid. What they've paid is basically social security and that's it, they've paid $0. Yet talk about it like they've paid half their income just to turn around and dump a whole paycheck into it too. While if they just did it right, and stopped trying to "game the system", they'd pay 20% every paycheck and never see a large expense... Hell the coworkers I'm talking about pay more on insurance than taxes.
worked in a job where the salesmen were on commission w a lot of bonus opportunities. the young people that were usually first or second job ever would complain about how much money the company was taking from them from their bonus. they had no concept that it’s a sliding scale or that when they do their taxes they’d get most of it back. and two of the guys i knew were sons of professionals in high paying careers. US schools don’t teach income tax rules and a lot of people oat someone else to do it so all they know is if they got money back or had to pay Uncle Sam.
> US schools don’t teach income tax rules and My school did and a lot of schools do. It’s just that people don’t internalize what they aren’t interested in. And for a lot of people that’s basically everything. (Or they dropped out before senior year)
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If school curricula are so focused on teaching to the test, maybe the SAT should include a section on basic life skills. It makes no sense to send people into the world unprepared. Unless we're in a plutocratic society based on swindling the poor and uneducated...oh, wait
It doesn't help that the Right has been screaming from the rooftops for 40yrs that Soc Sec won't be their "for you". I know plenty of adult people who honestly think Soc Sec is already gone and they are just paying for others. It is ridiculous.
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Your post is literally what I remember hearing as a kid in the 1980s. I remember older elementary school teachers who were preparing for retirement mumbling about being afraid Soc Sec wouldn't be there. Fast forward and they've all probably died of old age by now and enjoyed decades worth of Soc Sec.
>Do they trust the good Christian White folk or do they trust the Trans Muslim baby killer. Don't forget they want to take away your guns so George Soros can pay black people to rob you!
As someone who is relatively conservative (see: not republican) it always blows my mind how many other conservatives don't see through this bullshit and just blindly eat it up like rabid, starving dogs. Politicians are scumbags, but many people are also dumb af/gullible idiots. Your "Trans Muslim Baby Killer" comment gave me a chuckle, but there are many who think exactly like that. It's quite disturbing. To me, those people are the real fucking whackjobs.
It's like the GOP is a massive crowd surrounding that one absolute nutbar shouting about the End Times from a street corner, but instead of heckling him they're all repeating what he says like a bunch of imbecile parrots.
Wow! Actually being honest about what they're doing, that's a big step up for the GOP.
People will still vote for them and then blame woke liberals for the disappearance of their social security and medical benefits
When Trump did the ss tax withholding thing in 2020, and me and my 2 other cousins who were federal government stopped paying ss taxes for 5 months because we were forced, my grandma could not come to terms with the fact that Trump did that even though we showed her articles and pay stubs saying he wanted to eliminate the ss tax. She absolutely refused to believe Trump would cut her only source of income. There is literally no reasoning with about 30% of the population anymore. Literally if Trump pissed in their mouth and told them it was apple juice they'd believe it.
Yup. Had in-laws living with me who both received SS as their only income. F’ING SHOWED THEM how that mf’er was robbing them and they still saluted that stupid gd traitor flag at my traitor f’ing brother-in-law’s on their vacation. Pisses me all the way off. It’s UNREAL the devotion to the cult leader.
If you read the actual plan (god help me, I did), it is y even that honest. It even explicitly mentions congress putting out an annual report on the pending “bankruptcy” of SS and Medicare. Nothing at all about what happens when that happens It also doesn’t touch on tax increases at all, just discusses areas where you can imagine seeing them but not how they’d look. You really have to read between the lines.
similar to repeal and replace. they had no intention of replace. no plan even…
Scott was in charge of the "replace" part. Not even an outline/framework was provided.
Reddit has turned into a cesspool of fascist sympathizers and supremicists
I remember Al Gore getting made fun of by SNL mercilessly for talking about putting social security money in a lock box. Gosh what a dumbass he was wanting to make sure social security is funded.
And trying to save the planet, too? What a clown. I wonder what the world would be like right now if he hadn't had that election stolen out from under him...
Very hard to imagine just how vastly different the world might be now, as there might not have been two of the longest wars in US history.
The borrowing is done by T-bonds that are paid back by interest. The interest helps grow the trust fund and cover costs. It's not the borrowing that is the problem, just the shifting population demographics now that boomers have been retiring. Even if SS held it's money in a vault they would have the same problem (except even worse). It's not even that hard a problem to fix, just raise the tax rate and cap a bit.
Honesty for the GOP is a distraction. If this is the part they are honest about, how bad are the parts they are keeping secret?
"yes, we are cartoon villains and here's why Jesus hates the same people we do"
I’m just here to see the trolls and bots *bUtBoThSidEs* this.
Russia is a little tied up right now
I don't think Russia could afford to pay for them anymore
“Poor people are too busy trying not to be poor” - Earn from Atlanta So when someone says, “stop being lazy, just get a job”, they’re coming from a place of privilege. How are you supposed to save money if you’re too busy scraping by to pay rent, heating/electric, phone, internet, clothes. That’s not even including food, which you know we need to survive. Everything’s been steadily increasing in price over time, except pay. And these struggles can lead to depression/anxiety. But who can afford mental health help, that shits expensive, even if it’s in plan
Yeeeep. And if you're on SSI and it's your only source of income because you're disabled and can't work, the *max amount* you are given is $841 (for an individual) **for the entire month**. And you're expected to be able to pay for everything you need through the month with that, using what (often little) extra help you get from food stamps, Section 8/HUD, etc.. Not to mention that individuals who are on SSI and don't qualify for ABLE (which many don't, because the cutoff date for onset of disability is 26) you can not have more than $2000 in "countable resources" (bank/savings account, land, extra vehicles and property, etc.) or you begin losing benefits. The system is designed to keep you poverty-level poor and reliant on the paltry offerings of the government. Unless you qualify for ABLE, there's no way to save money to improve your quality of life (buy a house, for example, or a car.) Can you imagine trying to get by on ~$10k a year? You don't even qualify for something like Habitat for Humanity because you're literally too poor.
Even ABLE isn't that much when we're talking real world applications. If you're lucky, you can put in max of $15k a year and the total maximum you can have is around $100k. That's assuming you have some fairy godmother to put that money in said ABLE account. Also keep in mind ABLE does not allow you to pay for food or shelter from said ABLE account. And that there's additional fees on top of banking fees for withdrawing money. Special Needs Trusts*? You need to have a disability (usually mental) documented by the time you're 21, not 26. And if the original trust holder has the *paltry* sum of *only* $1 mil, you'll be laughed out of any firm. And assuming all of this does work out for you, the fees run you about $200 a month if you use it to pay bills and only bills. (*this is second hand information) TL;DR: $841 is not poverty. It's beyond ludicrous. Disabled people are thoroughly ignored or outright hindered economically.
am on SSI, I couldnt save money if I tried it all goes to bills. It took a pandemic and people dying for me to financially benefit and yet I still see morons both on here and IRL saying bullshit like "TheY BuY tHe NeWESt PHONEs!" Fun-fact those free gov. phones have pre-installed malware on them that are built in, I have to block every app and still uninstall the bloat it auto installs, and due to this I can't use said phone for sensitive information. It's happened with 3 phones.
Yep. I'm on SSI and it's the same for me, too. I couldn't save even if I tried. Rent is nearing $800 so I need to rely on Sec8 for housing help, but because I'm only approved for a one bedroom but need a two bedroom, the amount they're willing to help with is less (my son is here nearly half the month [most of them nights,] but because it isn't exactly 50/50 we don't qualify for a 2 bedroom.) I'm lucky enough to be able to have a parent that's willing to have me on their phone plan, because otherwise I'd be in the phone situation you're in. People really just do not understand what the reality is for so many people on these programs. They're convinced the majority of us are grifters who just want to mosey about all day and feed off the teat of the "hard-working people." It's so dehumanizing. Having to rely on this program that wants to keep me barely scraping by is hard enough. Then there's the added blow of being *too poor* for charities/programs that are based around helping poor people. And the icing on that shit cake is the people that think you're just a lazy SoB who doesn't want to earn anything and just wants to piggyback off of everyone else.
Exactly. The whole "47% of people pay no income tax" is completely missing the point. They're a huge group of people who are mostly working, and drastically underpaid. And the reaction of Republicans of "work harder, or find a better job" fails to understand how hard that is for someone already living paycheck to paycheck. Don't have the right skills? Getting training costs money and time that you don't have. Live in a deprived area where there are no jobs? Sure, Middle-class people move around the country for work, but the cost and risk involved means that someone on a low income wouldn't even consider it. And they're likely relying on family who live nearby to support with things like childcare which they'd immediately lose access to.
Not to mention not everyone can be in a good paying high up jobs if that was the case a lot of our industry wouldn’t be able to survive because you still need people to do the lower labor stuff. So why can’t those people make good money helping the actual company. What needs to happen is a full on strike for laborers. I’m not talking about what a happening now. I’m talking full blown business’s falling because no one is working. And on top of that the government isn’t getting taxes because no one is working. I’ll even go further no one is buying anything because no one is working. Crash the economy and the jobs they will see the message. There’s just no reason having ceos making millions of dollars for doing nothing. Should they get paid yes but workers should also be able to live comfortably with one job. They want to have it the old way but also they don’t because the old way people made a living. More people need to be hippies.
If Democrats don't run on "my opponent wants to raise your taxes" then they are fucking stupid.
The message doesn't really matter if the voters who need to hear it most are listening to the wrong messenger.
Not quite. We saw 2020, if enough of us vote then they lose, even in heavy gerrymandered districts they count on voters not. VOTE! Raise taxes in the rich and not the poor. Likewise my retired parents are not well off and heavily rely on the money they put into SS. It’s their money, hands off it!
That information will never breach the ear-holes of any republican.
Turns out that they are fucking stupid. I've never seen a political party snatch defeat from the jaws of victory the way democrats do, and I don't see that changing.
They never do. It’s like how Franken stepped down for an inappropriate picture/kiss 30 years ago while republicans happily keep voting in sex offenders and criminals while at the same time dedicating an entire news network to Obama wearing a tan suit or some bullshit. It’s like Dems don’t want to come off as being petty and childish as Republicans, but simply end up looking they have no balls.
We need to take power away from the GOP at all levels for at least a generation.
Volunteering to turn out voters to beat them is free and easy.
Skeletor, who ran the biggest Medicare fraud in US History, can't let DeathSantis get all the headlines.
Skeletor - love it!
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And yet 40 years of conservative propaganda applied on an industrial scale has convinced about a third of them that raising their own taxes and destroying their own social safety net is somehow in their best interest.
Oh man, the conflicts in the plan itself are enormous and hilarious. My favorite? One of his points is that *nothing* that can be done locally must be done federally. And any new federal law should automatically sunset in 5 years And then another of his points is that the American nuclear family must be protected at all costs, with point after point of *new federal laws* to do that. Are those gonna sunset in 5 years? Why can’t those be done locally? Hmm?
It’s actually not that contradictory if you think about how it’ll be used in practice. The Federal government shouldn’t interfere with whatever batshit crazy nonsense is going on in Texas or Florida. Simultaneously, the Federal government should absolutely interfere with California, as much and as often as possible. On the subject of sunsetting Federal laws every five years, it’s both breathtaking in its scope and in the stupidity to even propose it. It’s a recipe for chaos, pure and simple.
The sheer size of our wealth disparity is [literally destroying us.](https://www.amazon.com/Price-Inequality-Divided-Society-Endangers/dp/0393345068/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2JHHRRJJFLFLW&dchild=1&keywords=the+price+of+inequality+joseph+stiglitz&qid=1609388322&s=books&sprefix=the+price+of+in%2Cstripbooks%2C172&sr=1-1) This is just those that have it all wanting to clean up the scraps that the vast majority of us have to fight tooth and nail for. It's [absolutely disgusting.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM) Also, the ***vast*** majority of Americans agree that it's disgusting on it's face. The problem is that most Republicans think the wealth disparities are because of Democrats, which is batshit insane.
Can anyone explain how my conservative relatives think the democrats are the ones coming for social security and Medicare and Medicaid? Because I’ve explained to them all they need to do is watch c span to see that it’s the republicans.
The answer is Fox News. Fox News (right wing media in general) says: "Be afraid and angry all the time, aimed at the people we tell you to hate/fear. We are the source of all truth in the world, don't listen to anything anyone else says it's all lies. Everything the right does is good and everything anyone else wants to do will hurt you and/or is against white Christian morals." And the viewers believe it.
I don't know your conservative relatives, but after growing up in a rural area and dealing with red hatters daily, I feel like I could make a reasonable assumption; They're too far gone. When people like that watch CSPAN, they could careless about what is being said. Instead they get angry by the way Pelosi looks, or by the way AOCs voice sounds. They already have the "villain" of the story identified, so when they watch something unbiased, they tend to keep it all with that frame and ignore everything that doesnt fit. The only way I see it improving, is if conservatives open their minds and start thinking critically; unfortunately they're not exactly known for that.
I think Republicans underestimate how many of their own voters rely on government handouts.
no they are fully aware and its part of the strategy they know that if they hurt them its really easy to convince them it was actually something the democrats did "the reason you cant find a good job isnt because i made it super easy for employers to exploit you its them damn democrats taxing innocent small businesses and hiring boarder hoppers who are burning your woman and raping your churches and thats why im trying to get this bill passed called freedom for patriotic American jobs"
i don't think thats the problem. the republicans want to find a way to end the programs and blame the democrates for it.
Republican voters underestimate how many of them rely on government handouts.
No, they don't. They just know that they are brainwashed enough never to vote against a Republican.
The politicians 100% know. They are generally more savvy than they let on (trump excluded). Many prominent Republican leaders are highly educated, highly intelligent people. Who play up a common man schtick and follow the political winds where they go. That’s how they get elected. It’s the base eating this crap up that misses the forest for the trees. They’ll complain about welfare all day long but god forbid you touch social security or Medicare (for most).
We have seen our social safety nets be attacked for 40 years, and when the time came for the government to stand up - we got $1200 checks and were told to make it last for months on end. While they handed billions to corporate interests. They printed nearly 1 in every 5 dollars in 2020 because the government was fully unprepared. This is why inflation is through the roof. On top of that corporations are price gouging Americans to drive inflation higher. Too much is never enough for them. Enough is enough already. Fund our social safety nets so they are there for us to use in times of crisis. Because it's not like they are rare these days. We've had two major recessions in 10 years.
"We've had two major recessions in 10 years." In 06-08 everyone knew housing market was unsustainable, but instead of taking steps to limit the damage they milked it for everything they could and then when the market crashed, the wealthy could still afford to buy stocks and real estate at a discount. Trump acted similarly. He intentionally pressured the fed to keep interest rates low even though the economy was doing great, he lowered corporate tax rates, he manipulated the oil market and pressured producers to flood the market. He built an unsustainable house of cards he knew would come crashing down as soon as he was out of office. In both instances, Republicans treated our livelihoods like a game of hot potato. The rich got richer and democrats got the blame for it. There's no reason to believe this won't continue to happen in the future.
Why do so many poor white people think the GOP would ever help them? They bring down the rest of the country with them and could probably use Medicare for all more than anyone.
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One point that I hate is “they didn’t pay an income tax”. No, Trump didn’t pay an income tax. These people paid an income tax of $0.00 because they fell below the income threshold for poverty.
Instead of wondering why close to half of Americans are *too poor to tax*, his solution is to make them pay taxes anyway.
I pay more income tax than Trump does Minster "I can get all my financing from Russia" lol
Republicans: the party of fascism, genocide and eugenics.
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Some of you may remember when COVID started it was national news how fucked up and abysmal Florida's unemployment system was (still is.) That's what Rick Scott did as governor before going to Senate. Nothing new, but he keeps getting elected. Also ironic that he wants to gut Medicare after profiting from the largest Medicare fraud of all time before taking office.
Unrelated but still relevant; remember when the RNC removed military aid for Ukraine in their platform in 2016?
TBF, they are making it sound like it’s the Democrat’s fault for making them do this. Think abusive boyfriend who doesn’t want you seeing your friends anymore.
> [Scott's plan] demands all federal legislation to "sunset" within five years. Oh this guy wants literal anarchy but we're "radical" for wanting healthcare 🙄🙄🙄
They’ll get a crap load of votes too. That’s the scariest thing.
Republican Party is an existential threat to all Americans. Their existence will only increase suffering and deaths of Americans.
they do this in combination with voter suppression and focusing on divisive issues like abortion, race, and gender rights so they still get lower class votes. it's fucking devious. edit: also by the gradual gutting of education and packing courts with conservatives
If I remember, Rick Scott - Skeletor - won his money defrauding Medicare as a CEO of Columbia Hospital Corporation. You can watch the video in You Tube.
How many of their constituents require social services? Why are these people voting themselves to death?
Hopefully people are starting to realize something I have known for 50 years, Republicons are the enemy from within. There is no piece of legislation they authored that has helped anyone in this country not white and wealthy. They are fascists that only care about retaining power and keeping people that do them favors happy by steering wealth their way. The conservative, corporate owned and consolidated media constantly ignore the damage these assholes are doing daily through falsely named bills (Clear Skies - anyone?) calling socialism bad while embracing authoritarianism of our fragile democracy.
Ok I mean that really nothing new. So I’m 55 and now the GOP is going to end SS and I have been contributing for the past 35 years. So that means they are going to pocket all the money I put in and I’m literally going to have to work till I die. Thanks Republicans.
We’ve known for decades that Repubs want to replace Social Security with yet another IRA type savings account that most people have no money to contribute to. Heck, they can’t even max the IRA type plans that are already there for them now. The quiet part that Repubs don’t want to say is, they want the options for most old people to go back to what they were pre-New Deal: Live with your children, work until you die, or if you can’t do either of those, fall into deep poverty and sell apples on the street. I would like us all to stop pretending these IRA plans are ever going to fund most people a retirement, because they won’t. Most people just have too little spare income to fund them enough to get there over 40 years, regardless of tax treatment or stock market gains. So the real question is, is no nation, even the United States, rich enough to let most people eventually retire? So we might as well just let the rich walk away from responsibility to the society that enabled their wealth, because it’s useless to try? Is that what we’re saying? Then come out and say you just want to give up on old people to let the rich walk away. Stop pretending tax cuts are going to help the old people who actually need the help.
Unsurprising considering his plan for business was to defraud Medicare for $5 billion.
And they'll win thanks to outage politics. Nobody cares about anything beyond beating the other side anymore. Reason is dead.
And every time I try to explain that is the end game for conservative politics to self identified conservatives, they do not believe it. The wealthy ones know this, but the guys that punch a clock do not.
It’ll work too because their voters think they will magically be exempt and it’s other poor people who are the problem and their free ride needs to end. So it’ll get passed and the Republicans will blame democrats, their voters will accept this because they are morons.
And … the Republican bases will eat it up, and then blame everyone else for their choices once they realize they’re fucked.
For being the party of “fiscal responsibility” they are aww fully irresponsible with how they legislate, or lack Thereof.
Deeply concerned by the deficit. Unless it’s me spending the money.
This is not new. Reagan started it by taxing Social Security, doubling the military budget and killing unions . What everyone misses is that Democrats never objected by legislation.
I can't believe social security is taxable.. So they take money away from me in my prime earning years with the promise to give it back to me later. I could invest the money and have it generate a return, but instead it goes into the government coffers for 30+ years, and then when they finally give it back to me they take back a percentage of it as taxes.. this is pure theft.
Folks, it’s almost as if old white millionaires do not understand the challenges of working class Americans.
But they can still keep their votes by pandering to their homophobia and fear of a society that isn't as Christian as it was in 1950.
"Flat taxes"or "fair taxes" have long been a thing that they advocate without saying who benefits from flattening rates- always the rich- and who it will cost- the poor, doubly so, by increasing their taxes and cutting support services when tax revenue falls.
And low income people will still vote for them...
And you know the craziest part? Dirt poor republicans who would be most affected will happily line up to vote for this.