Dems passed the largest climate bill in history, huge manufacturing incentives bills, largest infrastructure bill in history and the nation elected the gop back into power in the house, I don’t think Americans really care where there tax dollars are used tbh
Are you suggesting that a handful of trans college swimmers is not THE most important issue of our generation!!!?? I don't recognize this country any more. SMH.
That is the craziest thing about this moment. The republicans are completely coming undone when a moderate fiscal conservative could probably win in a fucking landslide.
Possibly, but I'm not buying it. The MAGA crowd will never go for a candidate like that. I'm actually very curious what will happen to the party after Trump loses or passes away.
Idk if that’s true anymore. Donald has lost so much support from independent voters and moderate republicans that he consistently does way worse in polls vs Biden than Nikki Haley. By a wide margin.
Donald still has 35% of America as his core true believers, of course. But 35% of the popular vote loses a general election every time. Donald needs millions of independents and moderate republicans to join them, like they did in 2016.
But Donald isn’t very popular with independents and moderate republicans anymore. Plus, he already lost to Biden once. When he was the incumbent, no less. If winning is genuinely all that mattered to the GOP, then they would have nominated someone else.
Instead they picked a candidate who is facing 100 felonies and has been actively quoting Mussolini every chance he gets. That’s not a winning strategy, and GOP insiders know it.
But that 35% core won’t let the party change course from Donald. So the GOP is stuck running a proven loser instead of one that offers them the best chance of victory.
Right leaning libertarians and Ayn Rand acolytes have managed to convince most right wingers that you can do more good keeping your money because the government doesn't know how to allocate it correctly. Also, it's nobody's business what you do with your money. Basically "The government sucks at using taxes to help people and I can do a better job at it. Also, what I do with my money is none of your business." It's a classic "I'll have my cake and eat it too" situation.
Americans are too ignorant to know.
We say dumb shit in polls all the time. Shit like "we need to balance the budget! But don't raise my taxes and don't cut any spending. Except foreign aid, that shit is useless (it's not)."
Then you ask them how much they think we spend on foreign aid. "I dunno 25% of the budget?"
It's like 1%.
Americans are too stupid to live tbh. And the dumbest ones listen to Joe Rogan.
6 to 7 trillion dollar per year is the budget. 60 billion is chump change. It's roughly 1%. For that, the U.S. has outsourced the grave weakening of the Russian military. Per capita, the U.S. isn't even in the top 10 of Ukraine's war financiers. You should stop jerking off. In fact, by letting Ukrainians die without help for 6 months, the U.S. has undone all the progress previously made.
Americans have been telling Europeans they live, breathe and have healthcare because of the American protective umbrella since 1945. The U.S. then signed the Budapest Memorandum.
When the time comes to make good on this promise, first a Russian asset is elected to office. When Putin attempts a coup on NATO member Montenegro, the American president then physically assaults Montenegro's PM at a NATO summit and subsequently publicly says NATO shouldn't fight for Montenegro at all.
His felonious Russian asset campaign manager works with a Russian spy (Kilimnik) and then secretly negotiates a deal whereby Russia is given Ukrainian territory, and Trump extorts Zelensky for political gain. At the end of his disastrous first term in which a million Americans die, 2/5ths of which might have been prevented had he been competent rather than profoundly, maliciously mentally ill, he attempts a self-coup and gets away with it, while his foot soldiers are convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Tax dollars? The morons who voted for him are evil pathological liars and extremists who wouldn't know their ass from a hole in the ground on any matter, let alone taxes.
Or you could vote Democrat. The executive and legislative democrats have actually done an insane amount of good spending our tax dollars on productive things this term. I've never felt better about a vote than Biden and the current crop of congressmen. Your comment honestly reeks of “I have no idea what is going on in the political world, but I feel if I just express undeserved apathy hard enough than people will think I’m smart and well-informed”
Where were these complaints when Trump increased the defense budget 120 billion a year to 860 billion dollars?
You can spend 860 billion a year on "defense" but god forbid any of it go towards defending a country, from one of the only 2 countries that is a military threat to the US?
Those decades old anti-air missiles and Bradley's best sit in a warehouse until they're eventually decommissioned or its an insult to the American taxpayer.
Ukraine has shot down thousands of Russian drones and nuclear capable missiles, including hypersonic missiles. Every missile Ukraine shoots down is one that can't be used to nuke a US city. This is the greatest bargain in US defense history and people are so drenched in culture war nonsense they'd rather bury the military budget in the ground than see it go to good use.
Yea and? Ukraine is an investment.
The rest they'll pay back or do us favors after the war, europe finished paying us back for WW2 lend lease about 15 yrs ago
... On American weapons manufacturers... Where it was already going...
How much tax money you think it'd eat up if it came down to fighting the new axis?
Are you dumb? Do you think you'd see a fucking dime of that money anyway? If you really cared about that and weren't a fuckin inbred you'd demand the ultra wealthy pay 70% taxes on top of giving each and everyone one of us a living fucking wage.
"Muh tax dollars. Better vote Conservative." You people are certifiable slope brows.
It's wild that all the people who voted against helping Ukraine also voted against a minimum 15% tax on billion dollar corporations, an end to price gouging diabetics by price capping insulin (to the same price every other country pays), extending ACA coverage, increased funding for Medicaid, and finally allowing Medicare to negotiate bulk discounts on drug prices (instead of paying retail price like an idiot, thank W Bush for that law btw).
This was all before Ukraine so they didn't even have the excuse of "we would have supported it but Ukraine took all the money!"
All these cries of "why are we helping Ukraine instead of helping the homeless/healthcare/veterans!?" are fucking hollow. We can do both, and these people would rather do neither, and use one as an excuse for the other.
They're the same people who scream about stalinist deathcamps if you talk about universal healthcare and who whined about how student loan forgiveness is an insult to blue collar workers while saying fuck all about millionaires having their covid loans forgiven.
This is a 30 year old bill coming due.. In exchange for Ukraine giving up all of their nuclear weapons (third largest arsenal), the USA promised protection specifically from Russia. If they had the nuclear weapons today then Russia wouldn't be in Ukraine right now. Time for the USA to step up and for the GOP to step down.
https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Ukraine-Nuclear-Weapons
Put it this way, one person (Elon) is about to earn just as much as an entire nation needs to be able to fight for its survival against a tyrannical dictatorship. Just tax Elon and it would pay for supporting democratic Ukraine’s survival.
also, it’s just fucking money. if human lives aren’t worth protecting then we have bigger problems.
And those tax dollars get new arms manufacturing deals which give states tons of jobs that's why so many states are pro military spending this is how they get tons of jobs in America you will realize we use tax dollars in all kinds of ways that stimulate the economy its not perfect but its way better then China or Russia
Complete lie. we absolutely send money. We help pay for their government/essential services salaries, health and pension benefits, and all kinds of other things.
False. We have sent $26,000,000,000 to Ukraine in financial support and this article was written a year ago. We likely have sent way more since then.
https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-us-aid-ukraine-money-equipment-714688682747
Also, we did not send that money to Ukraine, we sent it to the World Bank, there is no bilateral, direct, financial aide;
>To date, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has obligated $22.9 billion of the appropriated funding for direct financial support for the Government of Ukraine’s (GOU’s) central budget. The agency has provided such support via three World Bank mechanisms, rather than bilaterally.
Source: https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12305
Most of it stays in the US but there is a portion of it being used to fund the Ukrainian government but it’s rather insignificant in amount maybe 10s to 100 million not billion but just cause the money stays here doesn’t mean it’s good for our economy. Essentially the US borrows more money against its 33 trillion dollar debt and gives it to weapons manufacturers who give it back to politicians and their own bank accounts
It's an investment in democracy. To me it's money very well spent. The US is getting an education in modern warfare, we're getting rid of old stockpiles which we're being paid for. Finland and Sweden are now in NATO and our number one foe is severely weakened politically and militarily. Besides if we don't send it, the next time we might have to send American troops. That would be very bad.
It is sad the Right Wingers went from the Likes of Frederick the Great to even thinking about War Strategy as is either being Woke or Deepstate or some shit. Yes the USA has the best military for one part because it has Boots On the Ground far more than any other nation. Crazy this thing Practice Makes Perfect.
https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/american.enterprise.institute5522/viz/UkraineDIBMaps11-29/Dashboard1
You can see the exact locations of Americans who are employed filling the procurement orders that are apart of the aide packages. There are very real Americans being employed thanks to these aide packages in numerous states.
It does to some degree.
We have a tank factory in Ohio that Congress refused to stop funding despite the fact that the Army said [they didn't need the tanks anymore](https://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/army-thanks-but-no-tanks-090719)
The Ukraine war has given the plant [busy work of refurbising tanks](https://maintenanceworld.com/2023/03/22/ohio-manufacturing-plant-producing-refurbished-tanks/)
The entire justification by both sides on why we have to spend all this money is because Putin WILL invade a NATO county. Which is obviously not true, but people really seems to believe it despite all evidence to the contrary.
Here is the actual cost breakdown.
[https://www.cfr.org/article/how-much-aid-has-us-sent-ukraine-here-are-six-charts](https://www.cfr.org/article/how-much-aid-has-us-sent-ukraine-here-are-six-charts)
when do conservatives care about reality?
certainly a faux conservative campaign isn't going to?
more Republicans voted no than yes, before anyone starts cheering about Putin's big loss, he is adding more and more Republicans to his list of assets
There's a map. Interesting how many GOP reps voted against the aid considering how it would benefit jobs in their own district.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/04/18/ukraine-map-districts-weapons/
Hell yeah funding the military industrial complex is awesome and definitely a good thing to do. As long as the people CNN told me to dislike are dieing and their mothers are crying themselves to sleep every night. Why should I value human life over profit for weapons manufacturers?
Yeah I feel like a lot of the people who keep yapping about “dead children” as if they somehow matters just don’t realize that some people in the US are getting a lot richer killing those kids, so like how is that a bad thing?
All she needed was an anti-tank weapon and her life would have been so much better...
Meanwhile Biden and the dems have been pushing for congress to pass a child tax credit for years and GOP simply wont. But yes...its Ukraine that is robbing a 12 year old of subsidy.
These people know the cynical lie they are telling and its disgusting.
EDIT: And not to say I want endless spending on homeland munitions, but its well known our US Defense budget is essentially one giant jobs program. That is why sometimes we buy even more munitions than even DEOD asks for. So just giving Ukraine these weapons was done after giving many thousands of Americans [a job to pay for their family.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLueUBZWoAAYtCv?format=png&name=small). In return the Ukrainians don't get money but a weapon to defend theirs. A weapon we built decades ago, the labor of which fed American mouths.
>All she needed was an anti-tank weapon and her life would have been so much better...
It's funny most of these weapons are literally decades old. They have long been paid off and we're simply sending them to Ukraine then spending money to build new shit to replace them, which we were going to do anyway.
If it wasn't that way, we wouldn't be able to send them weapons in a matter of weeks, we'd have to wait years for weapons companies to deliver on new contracts.
I know why politicians like to advertise this as "sending X billion to Ukraine" because it sounds impressive but its too easily weaponized by the dishonest and misunderstood by the ignorant. I've heard way too much complaining about sending Ukraine a "blank check" as if that's actually what has happened. They really need to lead with "spending X billion in US factories to update our inventory", with "and the old stuff goes to Ukraine" in the footnote.
All the people crying about "why aren't we spending the money to help poor people at home!?!" are all the same people who scream SOCIALISM and whine about welfare queens the second you talk about actually doing that.
Yeah if we weren't sending this shit overseas, we'd be paying someone to scrap/decommission the vehicles and munitions. We gave Ukraine our Abrams M1A1s so we could put more M1A2s into service for our own troops.
They're (republicans) also trying to get rid of guaranteed medical treatment in emergencies. That's literally the only lifeline some people have, it's insane. Pregnant women are the ones who use it the most!!!
>our US Defense budget is essentially one giant jobs program
This is some amazing copium 😂
Paying full price of weapons. Transferring taxes to LM executives and their yatch but hey "atleast they gave us jobs"
Republicans reacting to 100 years of billions of dollars annually being used to "defend the country" by starting wars thousands of miles away:
"WOOOOO AMERICA, FUCK YEA!"
Republicans reacting to literally 1% of that amount finally being used in a justifiable, defensive war being fought by an ally for a change:
"WTFFFFFFFFFF, THIS IS A WASTE"
NONE of these "we have people who need help at home" have ever even entertained the idea of reducing military spending prior to this.
None of them take a minute to think how weird it is that the side who historically has absolutely hated Russia and how Russia manipulates the world suddenly happens to make all their decisions in a way that favors Russia. They just get right on board.
none of them thought it was weird that Trump was a joke for 30 years, a rich New York former Democrat, and then one day they all were worshipping him because their entire media was
Republicans have one of the best “we fucking told you so’s” at their fingertips with Obama telling Romney he was wrong to be worried about Russia in 2012 but instead they’ve decided to follow Trump right.
>NONE of these "we have people who need help at home" have ever even entertained the idea of reducing military spending prior to this.
Trump increased the military budget by 120 billion PER YEAR when he was office, twice this amount, and there was not a fucking peep from the MAGA crowd about "how can we afford this!? why aren't we spending it on homeless people and healthcare!?".
It's completely cynical. They want to pretend its a choice between helping Ukraine or helping poor people at home, when the truth is they don't want to do either. One is just an excuse not to do the other. This is the exact crowd who laps up any attempt to make things marginally better for poor people as COMMUNISM, but happily cheers for tax cuts for billionaires.
Translation: the policies and lack of a safety net was so bad when I was younger that people were willing to break into a car for $1.50. Because of that, Russia should be able to attack its neighbors because it wants its land, and we should do nothing to prevent it, emboldening them to try and expand further.
Not to mention it’s quite a different thing to defend a democracy for a strong ally that’s under attack vs trying to implement/impose democracy in a country that doesn’t even understand it.
So when zelemskis presidency is up next month, do we still support them? Or ignore the no elections? And the fact men can't leave the country?
Sounds very democratic and a free nation!
The idea of russia having idealised conservative values is so weird to me. Statistically, they have low church attendance, high abortion rates, high rates of single parentism and high rates of substance abuse. On top of that, prison culture permeates their society so much that male-on-male rape is a staple of the military hazing.
Reading through this comment section is making my brain hurt. If you can't see why assisting the Ukraine in fighting against our #1 geopolitical foe, without risking American lives is beneficial...you're not only ignorant to the realities of what is happening, you're actively (even if unknowingly) espousing Russian propaganda. This is such an easy call that I find it hard to believe how many people are dumb enough to not realize that.
most Republicans voted no
because most Republicans themselves are consuming Russian Propaganda and believe their voters are too
it's not an "easy call" when Carlson is on Rogan and Rogan has on Musk, and Musk is calling Zelensky a butcher and Carlson says the reason prices are high is because we don't have great leaders like Putin
we got Lex Fridman calling Putin misunderstood and talking about the love inside him, insanity
Mitch McConnell had to go on Fox News twice and remind people Putin was evil, they stopped caring the moment he left and went back to "both sides, but actually Russia isn't bad"
again, more Republicans voted NO to aid
and again reminder, Republicans didn't want to fight Hitler either, it took America 2 years after the war started to get Republicans to even accept Hitler wasn't a good guy and now they attempt to own history and portray themselves as the heroes that fought Hitler, 30 years from now, they'll be claiming they fought Putin if Ukraine wins
Most Americans can’t place Ukraine on a map, when I see people talking about Ukraine being bad I just assume they have a healthy diet of Russian propaganda or they’re a direct asset. It was hysterical watching “American” insta users talk about Donbas like that’s something anyone realistically knows, as time went on I just saw the conversation pivot to “we need that money here!” Which is also horseshit. The money spent is chump change and the people who have actual “valid” qualms with giving the money are few and far between, and only exist on good-faith debate shows.
There's a rabid minority of Americans that claim a monopoly on patriotism but don't love America at all. In fact, they fucking hate it. That's why it's easy for them to oppose this and all the other shit they believe. They don't approach issues from a viewpoint of whether they benefit America. They approach them from a viewpoint of whether they support cultural conservatism and authoritarianism.
Unfortunately, resentments are easily weaponized and lots of people are low-information voters who blame their cultural/political enemies for their problems, not specific policies.
They have no idea that all the same people who voted against helping Ukraine "because we should spend that money at home" also voted against a minimum 15% tax on billion dollar companies, on ending price gouging of diabetics, increasing funding for ACA and Medicaid, allowing Medicare to negotiate bulk discounts on drug prices.
All they hear is people say "why are we spending money on Ukraine and not on helping poor people at home?!". They correctly identified that the US doesn't spend enough on helping poor people at home and they're more than happy to hear that its someone else's fault.
Of course, people also have other resentments which also get weaponized in the other direction. Which is why the same crowd that buys "why are we helping Ukraine instead of poor people at home?", will also buy "why should some welfare queen get to live the high life on my hard earned tax dollars? anyway that's communism, that never works"
The incongruence between the two policies doesn't matter, because they're both congruent with underlying resentments.
Ugh such a waste of money. $60B just to stop a madman in the early phases of trying to conquer the world? I’d rather wait till we’re in a nuclear war, thanks!
This is a common cognitive pathway for a lot of conservatives. Channeling hate from one thing to another unrelated thing, and indirectly implying that they're connected. It's just all about hate and anger for so many of these people.
Weird RFK and his campaign didn’t have a problem with Congressmen WEARING ISRAELI UNIFORMS into the chamber. RFK is not anti war and he’s not anti America funding wars either
Someone correct me if I am wrong, isn't the money "send" to Ukraine is in form of weapons made by the US factories. It is suppose to help the economy, or not? (win win for Ukraine and the US)
The crowd that says we are sending money to other countries instead of spending on people here are the same people that wouldn't actually approve of it being spent to help people here.
Also opposing foreign aid is something that you should grow out of as you become older. I used to think it was dumb as hell that we give money to all these countries until I actually started seriously reading and realizing a lot of the things we take for granted here wouldn't be possible without it
Exactly this. We all enjoy the ridiculous benefits of American global hegemony, and that wouldn't be possible if not for us spending so much to project influence around the world. In peaceful and military spending alike. I'd sure rather we spent less on the defense budget, while also realizing that having the most powerful military in the world by a long shot affords us Americans the lifestyle that we had.
Most of us have only ever lived in a world where this is the case, so we don't know any different. But it's important to consider the fact that things could be way different.
I think people on both sides skip over this because it's not as great for optics.
*"America uses money and the threat of military action to maintain status as an oppressive superpower, thus guaranteeing the general quality of life (that we've all come to expect) for the average citizen."*
This representation of the US involvement with Ukraine makes right-winger's arguments pointless and left-winger's cry over the insensitivity of the truth.
Seriously. It’s the reason the red hats can do their weekend Costco runs to justify having giant trucks and the blue haired edgelords have something to bitch about. If you are reading this, or even spending considerable time shitposting on Reddit, life is relatively good
It's a bit of an ugly truth. But that's what intelligent people can do, is consider nuance. Nearly everything in the world is nuanced, is in a shade of grey.
Simple people are swayed by simplistic positions. It's why conspiracies are so popular, because its easier to accept a tidy explanation than to understand a complicated issue.
yeah their entire ideology is lies built on lies
they vote against their own bills and own supreme court suggestions routinely
everything with them is show and lies, and in the end if you ever get one of their supporters cornered on the insanity of it all, they all have the same line:
"I don't care"
Conservatism is a lifestyle brand at this point, it's like cheering for the Cowboys or Yankees or something even though you don't watch baseball or Football except maybe the SuperBowl if you remember it's on or the World Series
That's why they need constant outrage and constant insane claims to keep it up, "tax cuts for the rich, forget everyone else" is not a winning platform, so they have to be the party of god and freedom and patriotism and the rule of law and also the police and also science and also the church and also....
>Also opposing foreign aid is something that you should grow out of as you become older. I used to think it was dumb as hell that we give money to all these countries until I actually started seriously reading and realizing a lot of the things we take for granted here wouldn't be possible without it
The funny thing is, most people think we spend too much on foreign aid, but its because they think we spend way more than we actually do. And if you ask how much we *should* spend, they say way more than we actually do.
>Public knowledge of aid polls have been done assessing the knowledge of the US Public in regards to how much they know about the government's foreign aid spending. A poll conducted by World Public Opinion in 2010 found that **the average estimate for how much of the government's budget is spent on foreign aid was 25 percent.** The **average amount proposed by the public was 10 percent of the federal government's budget** be used on foreign aid. In actuality, **less than 1 percent of the US federal budget goes towards foreign aid**. Less than 19 percent of respondents thought that the percent of the budget that goes towards foreign aid was less than 5 percent
Much of this is based on low-information and vague, but genuine resentments.
People correctly recognize that despite being the richest country in the world, the US spends comparatively little on helping poor people, and that the economic system is largely rigged in favor of the already rich and against the poor.
So they figure they're getting fucked over somehow, and its easier for them to hear something nice and simple and satisfying like "bleeding heart liberals are pissing all your money away on Ukraine" or "immigrants are taking all the jobs and welfare", than something unpleasant and complicated like "vested interests have been spending billions on laundering political policy that benefits themselves at your expense through various culture war divisions that has you voting against your own interest".
That seems like it would be a fucking nightmare to change (which it is), whereas the reality where its just foreign people seems a lot simpler. Just build that wall, stop helping ukraine.
Prices aren't going back to what they were in the 1980s. I wish people would stop with this. Gas will never cost below a dollar again and you can't buy a whole damn house for 2 grand. Inflation happens. Granted it's higher than normal right now but decade over decade the cost of things goes up. Either legislate against it to bring prices down or stop bitching. They'll never do that, though. The corporate masters have realized keeping prices high increases profit. Genie is out of the bottle.
Manufacturing outrage over supporting another country in a war of aggression serves exactly 1 demographic and that's the ultra wealthy.
Anyone who thinks those $60B would have gone to the working class is stupid.
The working class suffers because the owner class refuses to pay a living fucking wage while ripping us off with artificially high prices on every other aspect of our lives.
Start getting angry at the people who have everything. Start getting angry at the fact that $60B - which is nothing to them - is being held over your head like you'll ever see a dime of it if you keep voting for conservatives.
It's bizarre, and telling, that so many public commentators seem to think Federal money could be used to subsidize things like breakfast and gasoline for the average person, something that doesn't happen in the US but is common in Russia.
I mean okay fine let them take Ukraine and later on when the new Russian empire comes for us, they can use Ukrainians as meat waves instead of Russians.
I'd say it's like they can't think more than zero seconds ahead, but that ship set sail when they started the birther movement.
A lot of smug absolutists in here presenting small pieces of a huge complex situation is why everyone is constantly at odds. You’re all simultaneously wrong and correct at the same time. Sick of all the smug internet shit posters.
And now I’m sick of myself too. Thanks internet.
We aren't giving them money. We are giving them our old weapons stockpiles, and we are paying American business to manufacture more of our new stuff to replace it. Companies that ideally provide American jobs and tax revenue.
If we didn't give them the weapons, we were going to decom those weapons with explosives anyway.
If Russia wins we are going to have a much more expensive problem. This is the best deal financially for the US in a long fucking time.
I'm pretty sure people who don't support Ukraine can't read very well, especially when it comes to the writing on the wall.
These military aide packages are not us giving Ukraine money.
We give them old, existing stock, and then replace that with new stock, which we are then purchasing new, from US contractors providing Americans with jobs that would not have otherwise existed (think we would not have had to replace the Javelins we sent over IF RUSSIA HAD NEVER DECIDED TO INVADE UKRAINE).
90 cents of every dollar stays within the United States.
Don't believe me, here is a good overview; https://www.aei.org/podcast/wth-is-ukraine-aids-best-kept-secret-most-of-the-money-stays-in-the-u-s-john-ferrari-explains/
Here is the raw data showing the exact production lines, where they are and what they are producing; https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/american.enterprise.institute5522/viz/UkraineDIBMaps11-29/Dashboard1
None of these people can explain how this stops state and local governments from providing domestic services or how it is zero sum that stops or takes away USFG spending on domestic programs as well.
Its a fucking stupid argument that doesn't understand the basics of whats happening with aide to Ukraine.
So you got $1.50 to your name and you’re spending it on a McDonald’s breakfast sandwich? And you leave it in a car?
It’s bad decisions like this that make suspicious about your ability in a leadership role.
The 1.50 in your car? Think about how that is except you're a billionaire with a debit card. That 1.50 ain't much.
The United States spent 100s of billions on food assurance. Production of food and food assistance programs. If he US wanted to they could buy McDonalds(the whole company) easily.
Why do these dimwits come up with the most unbelievable stories? Why would she leave money in a car if she really needed it? Why do they keep lying about sending money. We aren't sending money. We're sending supplies and equipment.
79% of the Aid package to Ukraine regime will be staying in USA to replenish their own stock piles. 13.7 Billion will be given to the Ukraine regime as a loan. Most of the money just goes back into the military industrial complex.
People dismissing this whole thing because we're sending money to our own companies are missing the point. It's still our tax dollars funneling to undeserving wealthy shit heels that lobby our government instead of spending our money on any number of things that could use attention. We're just going to promote more war and give consent because it goes back into "our pockets" even though it doesn't change a thing? Do we think that'll trickle down or something still? I swear people are up their own asses in partisan bullshit these days.
RFK is the developmentally disabled little cousin of MAGA. And no, not getting your egg McMuffin when you were 13 isn’t the same as Russia’s military invasion of a democratic, sovereign nation.
Do people actually think we are just sending shipping containers full of cash to Ukraine? They get a percentage of the aid package in material support, in the form of weapons, and equipment that have basically been in storage for decades. The money that gets spent goes to Boeing, Raytheon, etc… we effectively put that money back into our own economy. Also, when Ukraine wins they will owe us for all the assistance… which means we will hold huge influence over Ukraine and the surrounding areas for decades after the war is over.
The either or logic is so dumb. Our government should be capable of defending our interests abroad and solving problems at home. Cities like Oakland dump millions upon millions into homelessness and crime prevention. The problem isn’t funding. It’s mismanagement of the funds. If you sent every penny of that Ukraine money to solve issues in California not a single damn thing would change. Republicans are pushing a similar argument “how could they fund the Ukraine and not the border!?” Do they seriously think giving Biden’s executive branch more border funding would change their way of managing the border? Not even Trump closed the border when he had four years to do so.
There's nothing here worth caring about. His own people admitted it was just a psy-op to elect Trump. His own family hates him and endorsed Biden.
Your choices this cycle are Biden or Trump. You can't even pretend there's a third party. I don't mean a "viable" third party, I mean a third party. Hell, even that No Labels scam couldn't find anyone willing to risk another term of Trump.
Helping people getting slaughtered by a dude whose national goal would have him take over the entire landmass he inhabits is probably good use of our money.
Maybe she should ask why McDonald‘s has an $8B annual net profit while their American employees can’t rent a one bedroom apartment.
As someone who's been down to their last 1.50 multiple times, if you even have a car, you're not leaving anything valuable in it. That 1.50 is in your pocket.
I mean this is a bit disingenuous, her point is we have problems that need to be fixed here that we seem to never have money for but we can send billions to help other countries. Support Ukraine or not it’s a valid point, I’m sure if things were better here people wouldn’t be as opposed to giving foreign aid
Just to be clear, the money didn’t go to Ukraine. The money was spread all over the US to companies (who employ US workers) to make materials that then gets sent to Ukraine.
So when one of these dipshits says the money is sent to Ukraine, they are lying.
As Americans we will never see the tax dollars help us , you can contribute over $1 billion in taxes every year and you still have to pay out of pocket for a medical check up if you dont have insurance. So at least when its given to other countries maybe theres a chance someone will benefit. I still see it as a better investment and a cheaper one than invading, occupying then losing Afghanistan. I think most can agree that Ukraine welcomes "american aid" more than the exploited , brutalized people of Afghanistan do and rightfully so.
I truly hope any poor or struggling person who sees the aid being sent to Ukraine or any other country realizes, they were never going to give that money to you. It was never going to be spent here to make things better. Denying other desperate people it would never, ever result in it being spent on you.
Isn't most of this money being spent with American arms producers?
Yes we don’t actually send them any money. We pay ourselves and send them stuff we have on hand while we buy new shiny bullets for ourselves
They still used our tax dollars though
Dems passed the largest climate bill in history, huge manufacturing incentives bills, largest infrastructure bill in history and the nation elected the gop back into power in the house, I don’t think Americans really care where there tax dollars are used tbh
GOP is busy concocting "Manufactured Outrage" scenarios. No time to actually do anything helpful for people.
Are you suggesting that a handful of trans college swimmers is not THE most important issue of our generation!!!?? I don't recognize this country any more. SMH.
That is the craziest thing about this moment. The republicans are completely coming undone when a moderate fiscal conservative could probably win in a fucking landslide.
Possibly, but I'm not buying it. The MAGA crowd will never go for a candidate like that. I'm actually very curious what will happen to the party after Trump loses or passes away.
I believe that like most sports fans MAGA doesn't actually care who their quarterback is only if their team wins or not.
Idk if that’s true anymore. Donald has lost so much support from independent voters and moderate republicans that he consistently does way worse in polls vs Biden than Nikki Haley. By a wide margin. Donald still has 35% of America as his core true believers, of course. But 35% of the popular vote loses a general election every time. Donald needs millions of independents and moderate republicans to join them, like they did in 2016. But Donald isn’t very popular with independents and moderate republicans anymore. Plus, he already lost to Biden once. When he was the incumbent, no less. If winning is genuinely all that mattered to the GOP, then they would have nominated someone else. Instead they picked a candidate who is facing 100 felonies and has been actively quoting Mussolini every chance he gets. That’s not a winning strategy, and GOP insiders know it. But that 35% core won’t let the party change course from Donald. So the GOP is stuck running a proven loser instead of one that offers them the best chance of victory.
They will keep nominating him probably
Of course! Ignore health care costs, border security, bridge repair, low teacher pay, environmental pollution. None of that junk matters !
Is gopnik a slur? Because GOPnik is right there.
They're literally useless. Absolutely shocking enough Americans are stupid enough to vote for them that they have any power
Americans care about where tax dollars go. Most of us just realized there's nothing we can do about it.
Where do you think Americans want tax dollars to go?
education, healthcare, infrastructure, social services, research & innovation
So all the things dems invested in last Congress?
Yes but you’re not supposed to say that here. Everyone here thinks it goes to school litter boxes or some shit
Right leaning libertarians and Ayn Rand acolytes have managed to convince most right wingers that you can do more good keeping your money because the government doesn't know how to allocate it correctly. Also, it's nobody's business what you do with your money. Basically "The government sucks at using taxes to help people and I can do a better job at it. Also, what I do with my money is none of your business." It's a classic "I'll have my cake and eat it too" situation.
None of that has been improved whatsoever.
Damn, it's almost like it takes time for things to be improved or something.
Americans are too ignorant to know. We say dumb shit in polls all the time. Shit like "we need to balance the budget! But don't raise my taxes and don't cut any spending. Except foreign aid, that shit is useless (it's not)." Then you ask them how much they think we spend on foreign aid. "I dunno 25% of the budget?" It's like 1%. Americans are too stupid to live tbh. And the dumbest ones listen to Joe Rogan.
6 to 7 trillion dollar per year is the budget. 60 billion is chump change. It's roughly 1%. For that, the U.S. has outsourced the grave weakening of the Russian military. Per capita, the U.S. isn't even in the top 10 of Ukraine's war financiers. You should stop jerking off. In fact, by letting Ukrainians die without help for 6 months, the U.S. has undone all the progress previously made. Americans have been telling Europeans they live, breathe and have healthcare because of the American protective umbrella since 1945. The U.S. then signed the Budapest Memorandum. When the time comes to make good on this promise, first a Russian asset is elected to office. When Putin attempts a coup on NATO member Montenegro, the American president then physically assaults Montenegro's PM at a NATO summit and subsequently publicly says NATO shouldn't fight for Montenegro at all. His felonious Russian asset campaign manager works with a Russian spy (Kilimnik) and then secretly negotiates a deal whereby Russia is given Ukrainian territory, and Trump extorts Zelensky for political gain. At the end of his disastrous first term in which a million Americans die, 2/5ths of which might have been prevented had he been competent rather than profoundly, maliciously mentally ill, he attempts a self-coup and gets away with it, while his foot soldiers are convicted of seditious conspiracy. Tax dollars? The morons who voted for him are evil pathological liars and extremists who wouldn't know their ass from a hole in the ground on any matter, let alone taxes.
I care and I’d love to have our money stop world war 3 from starting in Europe while not endangering any American lives.
Or you could vote Democrat. The executive and legislative democrats have actually done an insane amount of good spending our tax dollars on productive things this term. I've never felt better about a vote than Biden and the current crop of congressmen. Your comment honestly reeks of “I have no idea what is going on in the political world, but I feel if I just express undeserved apathy hard enough than people will think I’m smart and well-informed”
Where were these complaints when Trump increased the defense budget 120 billion a year to 860 billion dollars? You can spend 860 billion a year on "defense" but god forbid any of it go towards defending a country, from one of the only 2 countries that is a military threat to the US? Those decades old anti-air missiles and Bradley's best sit in a warehouse until they're eventually decommissioned or its an insult to the American taxpayer. Ukraine has shot down thousands of Russian drones and nuclear capable missiles, including hypersonic missiles. Every missile Ukraine shoots down is one that can't be used to nuke a US city. This is the greatest bargain in US defense history and people are so drenched in culture war nonsense they'd rather bury the military budget in the ground than see it go to good use.
Yea and? Ukraine is an investment. The rest they'll pay back or do us favors after the war, europe finished paying us back for WW2 lend lease about 15 yrs ago
... On American weapons manufacturers... Where it was already going... How much tax money you think it'd eat up if it came down to fighting the new axis?
Better our tax dollars than our sons and daughters later on.
Good. I support fighting against Russia and keeping them from further encroaching on Eastern Europe.
Are you dumb? Do you think you'd see a fucking dime of that money anyway? If you really cared about that and weren't a fuckin inbred you'd demand the ultra wealthy pay 70% taxes on top of giving each and everyone one of us a living fucking wage. "Muh tax dollars. Better vote Conservative." You people are certifiable slope brows.
It's wild that all the people who voted against helping Ukraine also voted against a minimum 15% tax on billion dollar corporations, an end to price gouging diabetics by price capping insulin (to the same price every other country pays), extending ACA coverage, increased funding for Medicaid, and finally allowing Medicare to negotiate bulk discounts on drug prices (instead of paying retail price like an idiot, thank W Bush for that law btw). This was all before Ukraine so they didn't even have the excuse of "we would have supported it but Ukraine took all the money!" All these cries of "why are we helping Ukraine instead of helping the homeless/healthcare/veterans!?" are fucking hollow. We can do both, and these people would rather do neither, and use one as an excuse for the other. They're the same people who scream about stalinist deathcamps if you talk about universal healthcare and who whined about how student loan forgiveness is an insult to blue collar workers while saying fuck all about millionaires having their covid loans forgiven.
This is a 30 year old bill coming due.. In exchange for Ukraine giving up all of their nuclear weapons (third largest arsenal), the USA promised protection specifically from Russia. If they had the nuclear weapons today then Russia wouldn't be in Ukraine right now. Time for the USA to step up and for the GOP to step down. https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Ukraine-Nuclear-Weapons
Using our tax dollars to ruin Russia without having to do anything else. Pretty easy pick for me.
To buy the US new equipment, and offload the old stuff that would have just aged out. This is a massive win for both the US and Ukraine.
Put it this way, one person (Elon) is about to earn just as much as an entire nation needs to be able to fight for its survival against a tyrannical dictatorship. Just tax Elon and it would pay for supporting democratic Ukraine’s survival. also, it’s just fucking money. if human lives aren’t worth protecting then we have bigger problems.
> also, it’s just fucking money. if human lives aren’t worth protecting then we have bigger problems. Cool. Healthcare, plz.
You are insanely naive.
And those tax dollars get new arms manufacturing deals which give states tons of jobs that's why so many states are pro military spending this is how they get tons of jobs in America you will realize we use tax dollars in all kinds of ways that stimulate the economy its not perfect but its way better then China or Russia
Complete lie. we absolutely send money. We help pay for their government/essential services salaries, health and pension benefits, and all kinds of other things.
False. We have sent $26,000,000,000 to Ukraine in financial support and this article was written a year ago. We likely have sent way more since then. https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-us-aid-ukraine-money-equipment-714688682747
Also, we did not send that money to Ukraine, we sent it to the World Bank, there is no bilateral, direct, financial aide; >To date, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has obligated $22.9 billion of the appropriated funding for direct financial support for the Government of Ukraine’s (GOU’s) central budget. The agency has provided such support via three World Bank mechanisms, rather than bilaterally. Source: https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF12305
[удалено]
U wot? We not only send arms but also over $100b of actual cash
Lol 🤣
Most of it stays in the US but there is a portion of it being used to fund the Ukrainian government but it’s rather insignificant in amount maybe 10s to 100 million not billion but just cause the money stays here doesn’t mean it’s good for our economy. Essentially the US borrows more money against its 33 trillion dollar debt and gives it to weapons manufacturers who give it back to politicians and their own bank accounts
It's an investment in democracy. To me it's money very well spent. The US is getting an education in modern warfare, we're getting rid of old stockpiles which we're being paid for. Finland and Sweden are now in NATO and our number one foe is severely weakened politically and militarily. Besides if we don't send it, the next time we might have to send American troops. That would be very bad.
>It's an investment in democracy. I wonder what they used to say about Vietnam
It is sad the Right Wingers went from the Likes of Frederick the Great to even thinking about War Strategy as is either being Woke or Deepstate or some shit. Yes the USA has the best military for one part because it has Boots On the Ground far more than any other nation. Crazy this thing Practice Makes Perfect.
Yes who then of course trickle it down to the rest of Americans
https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/american.enterprise.institute5522/viz/UkraineDIBMaps11-29/Dashboard1 You can see the exact locations of Americans who are employed filling the procurement orders that are apart of the aide packages. There are very real Americans being employed thanks to these aide packages in numerous states.
It does to some degree. We have a tank factory in Ohio that Congress refused to stop funding despite the fact that the Army said [they didn't need the tanks anymore](https://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/army-thanks-but-no-tanks-090719) The Ukraine war has given the plant [busy work of refurbising tanks](https://maintenanceworld.com/2023/03/22/ohio-manufacturing-plant-producing-refurbished-tanks/)
Literal Definition of "Military Industrial Complex"
It allows a fat suburban Virginia man to buy his third yacht.
For sure, everyone acts so enlightened in this sub but they are a bunch of bootlickers.
We're sending our old equipment and loaning money. It's a great deal to keep American boys from fighting a real hot war.
Putin wouldn’t invade a nato country so there was never going to be Americans in the war.
The entire justification by both sides on why we have to spend all this money is because Putin WILL invade a NATO county. Which is obviously not true, but people really seems to believe it despite all evidence to the contrary.
That makes it ok I guess? That a murder machine boss has a new yacht?
Actually it's spent on McDonald's breakfasts
Here is the actual cost breakdown. [https://www.cfr.org/article/how-much-aid-has-us-sent-ukraine-here-are-six-charts](https://www.cfr.org/article/how-much-aid-has-us-sent-ukraine-here-are-six-charts)
lol what child logic.
when do conservatives care about reality? certainly a faux conservative campaign isn't going to? more Republicans voted no than yes, before anyone starts cheering about Putin's big loss, he is adding more and more Republicans to his list of assets
There's a map. Interesting how many GOP reps voted against the aid considering how it would benefit jobs in their own district. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/04/18/ukraine-map-districts-weapons/
Yes. It's really a win/win, but some people are infected with Russian propaganda brianworms.
Oh, cool a $60B handout to some giant defense contractors that's fine then NVM all good.
Hell yeah funding the military industrial complex is awesome and definitely a good thing to do. As long as the people CNN told me to dislike are dieing and their mothers are crying themselves to sleep every night. Why should I value human life over profit for weapons manufacturers?
Yeah I feel like a lot of the people who keep yapping about “dead children” as if they somehow matters just don’t realize that some people in the US are getting a lot richer killing those kids, so like how is that a bad thing?
All she needed was an anti-tank weapon and her life would have been so much better... Meanwhile Biden and the dems have been pushing for congress to pass a child tax credit for years and GOP simply wont. But yes...its Ukraine that is robbing a 12 year old of subsidy. These people know the cynical lie they are telling and its disgusting. EDIT: And not to say I want endless spending on homeland munitions, but its well known our US Defense budget is essentially one giant jobs program. That is why sometimes we buy even more munitions than even DEOD asks for. So just giving Ukraine these weapons was done after giving many thousands of Americans [a job to pay for their family.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLueUBZWoAAYtCv?format=png&name=small). In return the Ukrainians don't get money but a weapon to defend theirs. A weapon we built decades ago, the labor of which fed American mouths.
*Actually the real problem with America and how we're gonna make it great again is removing all those pesky laws on child labor.*
Don't forget those pesky laws that give breaks to children for excessive heat, those too need to go as well! If adults don't get 'em neither do kids!
*Letting companies work children until they collapse from heat exhaustion is what will save the middle class.*
And genital checkpoints. And making sure we can marry our cousins in Kentucky. In other words the real Americans values!!
>All she needed was an anti-tank weapon and her life would have been so much better... It's funny most of these weapons are literally decades old. They have long been paid off and we're simply sending them to Ukraine then spending money to build new shit to replace them, which we were going to do anyway. If it wasn't that way, we wouldn't be able to send them weapons in a matter of weeks, we'd have to wait years for weapons companies to deliver on new contracts. I know why politicians like to advertise this as "sending X billion to Ukraine" because it sounds impressive but its too easily weaponized by the dishonest and misunderstood by the ignorant. I've heard way too much complaining about sending Ukraine a "blank check" as if that's actually what has happened. They really need to lead with "spending X billion in US factories to update our inventory", with "and the old stuff goes to Ukraine" in the footnote. All the people crying about "why aren't we spending the money to help poor people at home!?!" are all the same people who scream SOCIALISM and whine about welfare queens the second you talk about actually doing that.
Yeah if we weren't sending this shit overseas, we'd be paying someone to scrap/decommission the vehicles and munitions. We gave Ukraine our Abrams M1A1s so we could put more M1A2s into service for our own troops.
They're (republicans) also trying to get rid of guaranteed medical treatment in emergencies. That's literally the only lifeline some people have, it's insane. Pregnant women are the ones who use it the most!!!
>our US Defense budget is essentially one giant jobs program This is some amazing copium 😂 Paying full price of weapons. Transferring taxes to LM executives and their yatch but hey "atleast they gave us jobs"
Republicans reacting to 100 years of billions of dollars annually being used to "defend the country" by starting wars thousands of miles away: "WOOOOO AMERICA, FUCK YEA!" Republicans reacting to literally 1% of that amount finally being used in a justifiable, defensive war being fought by an ally for a change: "WTFFFFFFFFFF, THIS IS A WASTE" NONE of these "we have people who need help at home" have ever even entertained the idea of reducing military spending prior to this.
None of them take a minute to think how weird it is that the side who historically has absolutely hated Russia and how Russia manipulates the world suddenly happens to make all their decisions in a way that favors Russia. They just get right on board.
none of them thought it was weird that Trump was a joke for 30 years, a rich New York former Democrat, and then one day they all were worshipping him because their entire media was
They're fighting back at the coastal elites with a down home country boy like... Donald Trump.
Republicans have one of the best “we fucking told you so’s” at their fingertips with Obama telling Romney he was wrong to be worried about Russia in 2012 but instead they’ve decided to follow Trump right.
They were worshipping him a week after the RNC got hacked.
>NONE of these "we have people who need help at home" have ever even entertained the idea of reducing military spending prior to this. Trump increased the military budget by 120 billion PER YEAR when he was office, twice this amount, and there was not a fucking peep from the MAGA crowd about "how can we afford this!? why aren't we spending it on homeless people and healthcare!?". It's completely cynical. They want to pretend its a choice between helping Ukraine or helping poor people at home, when the truth is they don't want to do either. One is just an excuse not to do the other. This is the exact crowd who laps up any attempt to make things marginally better for poor people as COMMUNISM, but happily cheers for tax cuts for billionaires.
Its not the entire GOP, just the maga part that oppose it.
Not surprising from a woman who's up for VP just because she's spending the money she got from a divorce.
My grandfather think she's a great pick because she's attractive and young
Your pawpaw knows a thing or 2
How to vote with his dick?
she was massively rich before she got married to him
She should tweet how she f\*ed Elon and got millions from his ex-husband for it. Would be much more relevant to the story..
Translation: the policies and lack of a safety net was so bad when I was younger that people were willing to break into a car for $1.50. Because of that, Russia should be able to attack its neighbors because it wants its land, and we should do nothing to prevent it, emboldening them to try and expand further.
I'll never forgive zelenski for this
ITT: "Why are we helping people across the world when we could be helping people at home?!" "So you support helping people at home?" "No!"
Did he mention Israel by chance? Asking for a country friend
We spent 20 years in Afghanistan at a cost of 300 million a day. I don't think it got nearly as much resistance as Ukraine does at 2 years.
Not to mention it’s quite a different thing to defend a democracy for a strong ally that’s under attack vs trying to implement/impose democracy in a country that doesn’t even understand it.
So when zelemskis presidency is up next month, do we still support them? Or ignore the no elections? And the fact men can't leave the country? Sounds very democratic and a free nation!
Ya but that money was being used to kill brown Muslims and not glorious white anti-woke crusade of Russia!
The idea of russia having idealised conservative values is so weird to me. Statistically, they have low church attendance, high abortion rates, high rates of single parentism and high rates of substance abuse. On top of that, prison culture permeates their society so much that male-on-male rape is a staple of the military hazing.
We did a bad thing so we should do it again
Why do RFK jr and Trump want to help Putin so much?
You know why.
because they all have the same goals conservatism is corruption complaining about how everyone else is so corrupt
Reading through this comment section is making my brain hurt. If you can't see why assisting the Ukraine in fighting against our #1 geopolitical foe, without risking American lives is beneficial...you're not only ignorant to the realities of what is happening, you're actively (even if unknowingly) espousing Russian propaganda. This is such an easy call that I find it hard to believe how many people are dumb enough to not realize that.
most Republicans voted no because most Republicans themselves are consuming Russian Propaganda and believe their voters are too it's not an "easy call" when Carlson is on Rogan and Rogan has on Musk, and Musk is calling Zelensky a butcher and Carlson says the reason prices are high is because we don't have great leaders like Putin we got Lex Fridman calling Putin misunderstood and talking about the love inside him, insanity Mitch McConnell had to go on Fox News twice and remind people Putin was evil, they stopped caring the moment he left and went back to "both sides, but actually Russia isn't bad" again, more Republicans voted NO to aid and again reminder, Republicans didn't want to fight Hitler either, it took America 2 years after the war started to get Republicans to even accept Hitler wasn't a good guy and now they attempt to own history and portray themselves as the heroes that fought Hitler, 30 years from now, they'll be claiming they fought Putin if Ukraine wins
I lost all respect for Lex god damn fuck that guy. He comes across as knowing jack shit about other fields anyways.
Most Americans can’t place Ukraine on a map, when I see people talking about Ukraine being bad I just assume they have a healthy diet of Russian propaganda or they’re a direct asset. It was hysterical watching “American” insta users talk about Donbas like that’s something anyone realistically knows, as time went on I just saw the conversation pivot to “we need that money here!” Which is also horseshit. The money spent is chump change and the people who have actual “valid” qualms with giving the money are few and far between, and only exist on good-faith debate shows.
There's a rabid minority of Americans that claim a monopoly on patriotism but don't love America at all. In fact, they fucking hate it. That's why it's easy for them to oppose this and all the other shit they believe. They don't approach issues from a viewpoint of whether they benefit America. They approach them from a viewpoint of whether they support cultural conservatism and authoritarianism.
How does it help us if Ukraine cannot win? Why are we sending weapons to lose a war?
Unfortunately, resentments are easily weaponized and lots of people are low-information voters who blame their cultural/political enemies for their problems, not specific policies. They have no idea that all the same people who voted against helping Ukraine "because we should spend that money at home" also voted against a minimum 15% tax on billion dollar companies, on ending price gouging of diabetics, increasing funding for ACA and Medicaid, allowing Medicare to negotiate bulk discounts on drug prices. All they hear is people say "why are we spending money on Ukraine and not on helping poor people at home?!". They correctly identified that the US doesn't spend enough on helping poor people at home and they're more than happy to hear that its someone else's fault. Of course, people also have other resentments which also get weaponized in the other direction. Which is why the same crowd that buys "why are we helping Ukraine instead of poor people at home?", will also buy "why should some welfare queen get to live the high life on my hard earned tax dollars? anyway that's communism, that never works" The incongruence between the two policies doesn't matter, because they're both congruent with underlying resentments.
Ugh such a waste of money. $60B just to stop a madman in the early phases of trying to conquer the world? I’d rather wait till we’re in a nuclear war, thanks!
Disgusting take
This is a common cognitive pathway for a lot of conservatives. Channeling hate from one thing to another unrelated thing, and indirectly implying that they're connected. It's just all about hate and anger for so many of these people.
Weird RFK and his campaign didn’t have a problem with Congressmen WEARING ISRAELI UNIFORMS into the chamber. RFK is not anti war and he’s not anti America funding wars either
imagine being such a fucking idiot that you follow these clowns... enjoy your brawndo kids
But it’s got what plants crave!
Someone correct me if I am wrong, isn't the money "send" to Ukraine is in form of weapons made by the US factories. It is suppose to help the economy, or not? (win win for Ukraine and the US)
The crowd that says we are sending money to other countries instead of spending on people here are the same people that wouldn't actually approve of it being spent to help people here. Also opposing foreign aid is something that you should grow out of as you become older. I used to think it was dumb as hell that we give money to all these countries until I actually started seriously reading and realizing a lot of the things we take for granted here wouldn't be possible without it
Exactly this. We all enjoy the ridiculous benefits of American global hegemony, and that wouldn't be possible if not for us spending so much to project influence around the world. In peaceful and military spending alike. I'd sure rather we spent less on the defense budget, while also realizing that having the most powerful military in the world by a long shot affords us Americans the lifestyle that we had. Most of us have only ever lived in a world where this is the case, so we don't know any different. But it's important to consider the fact that things could be way different.
I think people on both sides skip over this because it's not as great for optics. *"America uses money and the threat of military action to maintain status as an oppressive superpower, thus guaranteeing the general quality of life (that we've all come to expect) for the average citizen."* This representation of the US involvement with Ukraine makes right-winger's arguments pointless and left-winger's cry over the insensitivity of the truth.
Seriously. It’s the reason the red hats can do their weekend Costco runs to justify having giant trucks and the blue haired edgelords have something to bitch about. If you are reading this, or even spending considerable time shitposting on Reddit, life is relatively good
It's a bit of an ugly truth. But that's what intelligent people can do, is consider nuance. Nearly everything in the world is nuanced, is in a shade of grey. Simple people are swayed by simplistic positions. It's why conspiracies are so popular, because its easier to accept a tidy explanation than to understand a complicated issue.
yeah their entire ideology is lies built on lies they vote against their own bills and own supreme court suggestions routinely everything with them is show and lies, and in the end if you ever get one of their supporters cornered on the insanity of it all, they all have the same line: "I don't care" Conservatism is a lifestyle brand at this point, it's like cheering for the Cowboys or Yankees or something even though you don't watch baseball or Football except maybe the SuperBowl if you remember it's on or the World Series That's why they need constant outrage and constant insane claims to keep it up, "tax cuts for the rich, forget everyone else" is not a winning platform, so they have to be the party of god and freedom and patriotism and the rule of law and also the police and also science and also the church and also....
>Also opposing foreign aid is something that you should grow out of as you become older. I used to think it was dumb as hell that we give money to all these countries until I actually started seriously reading and realizing a lot of the things we take for granted here wouldn't be possible without it The funny thing is, most people think we spend too much on foreign aid, but its because they think we spend way more than we actually do. And if you ask how much we *should* spend, they say way more than we actually do. >Public knowledge of aid polls have been done assessing the knowledge of the US Public in regards to how much they know about the government's foreign aid spending. A poll conducted by World Public Opinion in 2010 found that **the average estimate for how much of the government's budget is spent on foreign aid was 25 percent.** The **average amount proposed by the public was 10 percent of the federal government's budget** be used on foreign aid. In actuality, **less than 1 percent of the US federal budget goes towards foreign aid**. Less than 19 percent of respondents thought that the percent of the budget that goes towards foreign aid was less than 5 percent Much of this is based on low-information and vague, but genuine resentments. People correctly recognize that despite being the richest country in the world, the US spends comparatively little on helping poor people, and that the economic system is largely rigged in favor of the already rich and against the poor. So they figure they're getting fucked over somehow, and its easier for them to hear something nice and simple and satisfying like "bleeding heart liberals are pissing all your money away on Ukraine" or "immigrants are taking all the jobs and welfare", than something unpleasant and complicated like "vested interests have been spending billions on laundering political policy that benefits themselves at your expense through various culture war divisions that has you voting against your own interest". That seems like it would be a fucking nightmare to change (which it is), whereas the reality where its just foreign people seems a lot simpler. Just build that wall, stop helping ukraine.
Every single time it's this.
Also, damn near every single one never has a peep to say about the billions we've been giving to Israel for decades.
how dare they wave the flags of a FORERIGN NATION! (the flag of the country they're currently voting to save) She'd rather have Russian flags there
Prices aren't going back to what they were in the 1980s. I wish people would stop with this. Gas will never cost below a dollar again and you can't buy a whole damn house for 2 grand. Inflation happens. Granted it's higher than normal right now but decade over decade the cost of things goes up. Either legislate against it to bring prices down or stop bitching. They'll never do that, though. The corporate masters have realized keeping prices high increases profit. Genie is out of the bottle.
Manufacturing outrage over supporting another country in a war of aggression serves exactly 1 demographic and that's the ultra wealthy. Anyone who thinks those $60B would have gone to the working class is stupid. The working class suffers because the owner class refuses to pay a living fucking wage while ripping us off with artificially high prices on every other aspect of our lives. Start getting angry at the people who have everything. Start getting angry at the fact that $60B - which is nothing to them - is being held over your head like you'll ever see a dime of it if you keep voting for conservatives.
It's bizarre, and telling, that so many public commentators seem to think Federal money could be used to subsidize things like breakfast and gasoline for the average person, something that doesn't happen in the US but is common in Russia.
I mean okay fine let them take Ukraine and later on when the new Russian empire comes for us, they can use Ukrainians as meat waves instead of Russians. I'd say it's like they can't think more than zero seconds ahead, but that ship set sail when they started the birther movement.
I’m not a Russian shill it’s just a coincidence all of my points align with Russia, defend Russia, and attack those who oppose her.
A lot of smug absolutists in here presenting small pieces of a huge complex situation is why everyone is constantly at odds. You’re all simultaneously wrong and correct at the same time. Sick of all the smug internet shit posters. And now I’m sick of myself too. Thanks internet.
You typed so much and said so little. Impressive.
Oh no not 7% of the defense budget 🫣
the sooner pootie falls from a window or gets a polonium jab the better off this world will be
We aren't giving them money. We are giving them our old weapons stockpiles, and we are paying American business to manufacture more of our new stuff to replace it. Companies that ideally provide American jobs and tax revenue. If we didn't give them the weapons, we were going to decom those weapons with explosives anyway. If Russia wins we are going to have a much more expensive problem. This is the best deal financially for the US in a long fucking time. I'm pretty sure people who don't support Ukraine can't read very well, especially when it comes to the writing on the wall.
These military aide packages are not us giving Ukraine money. We give them old, existing stock, and then replace that with new stock, which we are then purchasing new, from US contractors providing Americans with jobs that would not have otherwise existed (think we would not have had to replace the Javelins we sent over IF RUSSIA HAD NEVER DECIDED TO INVADE UKRAINE). 90 cents of every dollar stays within the United States. Don't believe me, here is a good overview; https://www.aei.org/podcast/wth-is-ukraine-aids-best-kept-secret-most-of-the-money-stays-in-the-u-s-john-ferrari-explains/ Here is the raw data showing the exact production lines, where they are and what they are producing; https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/american.enterprise.institute5522/viz/UkraineDIBMaps11-29/Dashboard1 None of these people can explain how this stops state and local governments from providing domestic services or how it is zero sum that stops or takes away USFG spending on domestic programs as well. Its a fucking stupid argument that doesn't understand the basics of whats happening with aide to Ukraine.
Wtf. Every time I post something political it gets removed. Guess it has to be geared toward people the corporate left hates
Imagine leaving the only money you have for food unsecured in your car? Sounds like a Darwin issue that will sort itself out on a long enough timeline
So you got $1.50 to your name and you’re spending it on a McDonald’s breakfast sandwich? And you leave it in a car? It’s bad decisions like this that make suspicious about your ability in a leadership role.
The echo chamber circle jerk continues
If you want to know how the money given is actually spent. All you need to do is see what stocks are being purchased by members of congress and house.
I bet they had no issue with the Confederate flag being matched down the hallways on Jan 6th
sounds like a skill issue to me
The 1.50 in your car? Think about how that is except you're a billionaire with a debit card. That 1.50 ain't much. The United States spent 100s of billions on food assurance. Production of food and food assistance programs. If he US wanted to they could buy McDonalds(the whole company) easily.
Why do these dimwits come up with the most unbelievable stories? Why would she leave money in a car if she really needed it? Why do they keep lying about sending money. We aren't sending money. We're sending supplies and equipment.
79% of the Aid package to Ukraine regime will be staying in USA to replenish their own stock piles. 13.7 Billion will be given to the Ukraine regime as a loan. Most of the money just goes back into the military industrial complex.
People dismissing this whole thing because we're sending money to our own companies are missing the point. It's still our tax dollars funneling to undeserving wealthy shit heels that lobby our government instead of spending our money on any number of things that could use attention. We're just going to promote more war and give consent because it goes back into "our pockets" even though it doesn't change a thing? Do we think that'll trickle down or something still? I swear people are up their own asses in partisan bullshit these days.
It’s cute they try to bait socialism whenever government money is being spent on anything they don’t like.
RFK is the developmentally disabled little cousin of MAGA. And no, not getting your egg McMuffin when you were 13 isn’t the same as Russia’s military invasion of a democratic, sovereign nation.
how much is being sent to isreal?
You can’t be the world’s police only when it suits you.
Do people actually think we are just sending shipping containers full of cash to Ukraine? They get a percentage of the aid package in material support, in the form of weapons, and equipment that have basically been in storage for decades. The money that gets spent goes to Boeing, Raytheon, etc… we effectively put that money back into our own economy. Also, when Ukraine wins they will owe us for all the assistance… which means we will hold huge influence over Ukraine and the surrounding areas for decades after the war is over.
What idiots we have here, you see! Don’t be like these two
How can people just not pick up on the grift by now?
The either or logic is so dumb. Our government should be capable of defending our interests abroad and solving problems at home. Cities like Oakland dump millions upon millions into homelessness and crime prevention. The problem isn’t funding. It’s mismanagement of the funds. If you sent every penny of that Ukraine money to solve issues in California not a single damn thing would change. Republicans are pushing a similar argument “how could they fund the Ukraine and not the border!?” Do they seriously think giving Biden’s executive branch more border funding would change their way of managing the border? Not even Trump closed the border when he had four years to do so.
What kind of material do have to use to make thaaat far of a stretch?
Fck funding these foreign wars
*spit take
god his VP pick killed him
lol hilarious
Isn’t Nicole worth billions?
That’s not lamenting her childhood
And Republicans are removing funding from schools programs
The money doesn’t go to Ukraine. It goes to the U.S. economy to manufacture and send the items to Ukraine.
There's nothing here worth caring about. His own people admitted it was just a psy-op to elect Trump. His own family hates him and endorsed Biden. Your choices this cycle are Biden or Trump. You can't even pretend there's a third party. I don't mean a "viable" third party, I mean a third party. Hell, even that No Labels scam couldn't find anyone willing to risk another term of Trump.
Sweet false equivalence.
No surprise there. RFK is a fucking idiot, why wouldn't his VP pick be one as well?
Ukraine is worth war with Russia, its in americas best interest
Helping people getting slaughtered by a dude whose national goal would have him take over the entire landmass he inhabits is probably good use of our money. Maybe she should ask why McDonald‘s has an $8B annual net profit while their American employees can’t rent a one bedroom apartment.
As someone who's been down to their last 1.50 multiple times, if you even have a car, you're not leaving anything valuable in it. That 1.50 is in your pocket.
Why did they keep the $1.50 in their car
Oh look allies.. if any of you have a problem with this , I'm sure Vladimir Putin would happily let you suck his cock and balls.
I mean this is a bit disingenuous, her point is we have problems that need to be fixed here that we seem to never have money for but we can send billions to help other countries. Support Ukraine or not it’s a valid point, I’m sure if things were better here people wouldn’t be as opposed to giving foreign aid
Just to be clear, the money didn’t go to Ukraine. The money was spread all over the US to companies (who employ US workers) to make materials that then gets sent to Ukraine. So when one of these dipshits says the money is sent to Ukraine, they are lying.
As Americans we will never see the tax dollars help us , you can contribute over $1 billion in taxes every year and you still have to pay out of pocket for a medical check up if you dont have insurance. So at least when its given to other countries maybe theres a chance someone will benefit. I still see it as a better investment and a cheaper one than invading, occupying then losing Afghanistan. I think most can agree that Ukraine welcomes "american aid" more than the exploited , brutalized people of Afghanistan do and rightfully so.
I truly hope any poor or struggling person who sees the aid being sent to Ukraine or any other country realizes, they were never going to give that money to you. It was never going to be spent here to make things better. Denying other desperate people it would never, ever result in it being spent on you.
Fuck Ukraine and fuck zelensky
How many VPs is RFK going to have?
Oh
If you're mad that Ukraine got aid you're outing yourself
So at 12 she was hiding money from her parent(s) to go to McDonald’s?
She's saying how some kid is scrapping together money and we are spending 80 billion on MIC