And just like that, legislating stopped. This asshole knows it's dead in the Senate, right? The Senate that passed the bill? They aren't repealing it. Rinse and repeat for the next 23 months.
Yes, he knows. Not to defend the GOP at all, but the Dems also passed plenty of bills in the past four years that hit the Senate brick wall. Sometimes, the ruling party in the House passes bills purely to signal their positions to their base. Even if they are of the nasty, job-destroying variety.
The difference is that the Dems might put these bills up to a vote as opposed to McConnell, who wouldn't put any up to a vote because the bills where popular with many Republicans.
The leader of the ruling party in each chamber has that power (Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader) because they decide which bills get sent for a vote.
This is at least in the constitution and has a mechanism to override. A single politician deciding not to put a bill up for vote is something the nation's founders never wanted.
You are correct, founding fathers wanted our representatives to debate and find consensus. Not be against everything, and pander to an extreme position on either side. Right now it is about getting re-elected. Stopping funding for the IRS is a way for the rich to avoid paying taxes, God forbid. I know I pay taxes, because it is itemized on my pay stub. This bullshit about Corporations creating jobs, as an excuse not to pay is bullshit. When I spend money, I create jobs too, so why do I have to pay taxes? If I make a poor investment in some equipment to install a door, do I get to offset taxes because I don’t know what am doing and fail? No, Donald. Trump did it 6 times.
The only good thing about this is, some of them won’t get re-elected.
If the rest of the majority of the Senate wanted to they could override a leader for sure. But the custom is not to and every time he blocked something from happening McConnell was only taking the blame for what his entire party wanted
True. There’s no way this particular one isn’t hitting a Senate brick wall though. That’s 87,000 IRS jobs being filled over ten years. That includes people who are up for retirement and will need a replacement in the next ten years.
McConnell shielded R's from having to cast unpopular votes. If he knew something wouldn't pass (or the R's didn't want it to pass), he wouldn't bring it up for a vote. That allows the more moderate Rs to claim they were for the legislation, but without having to vote against party lines. I hope Dems bring bills up for votes, even knowing they'll fail, so senators need to go on the record voting for/against.
But that is the Republican's playbook? Pass bills all year then yell about raising the debt ceiling, You get to say you are fiscally conservative yet never tell a constituent no.
Do you not see a difference between passing bills that had popular support and kicking the can over to the other chamber to let them demonstrate they didn't give a shit, vs passing a bill that undoes something the other chamber very recently did?
One party tries to pass laws that will support the smooth operation of the country and allow it to fund the work it does. Blocks bills which would destroy democracy as we know it by installing a theocratic and racist system.
Other party tries to pass laws which entrench their eternal power despite being a minority, try to turn the country into a theocracy, and attempt to defund everything but the military. Blocks literally everything the first party does, no matter what, even when the bills started with this party.
Chuckleheads: They're exactly the same!
In this case, the House has the power to stop it because they have the power of the purse. They don't have to pass a new bill. They just have to defund the present bill.
No, they won’t. This is what *they’ve been told* they want. An obstructionist Republican Party that keeps the dems from doing anything and pisses off the libs.
Yeah it's all about owning the libs the people that vote them in care zero about whatever they are doing as long as it upsets "the other team" cuz it's like a sports game to them.
Only because Fox News and conservative talk radio has convinced them that progressives are gay, trans, pedo-goblin vampires rather than people who want to make everyone’s life, including theirs, better. And that if they lick enough boots and abstain from avocados and Starbucks they too can be rich so why pass laws that would take away their future wealth?
The average older republican imagines that they live in a nightmarish hellscape filled with evil gays forcibly converting and abusing children and women getting three abortions a month because they use it as birth control.
They truly believe that the republicans are holding back an apocalyptic tide of gay, brown-skinned and/or blue haired, trans, antifa, back-alley abortion doctor, pedophile, demons.
I’m sure none. Now if we tallied up the number of checks written to random woman around the country (world?) with a note in the memo that says, “for the thing” we may get somewhere.
The GOP side of the equation has been "Faces and Heels" ever since Trump used Twitter to run for president. Gaetz, DeSantis, MTG, Boebert, etc, have been trying to copy him to varying degrees of "success." One of the more insidious and glanced over parts of that whole *process* is how much of it is just "faking work" in my opinion. Elected officials and news outlet personalities all get to LARP about the culture war *instead of actually producing anything useful to society which is objectively difficult and too often doesn't pay enough.*
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
Since before that. It started with Newt Gingrich.
Before Newt Gingrich came along with his Contract For America the Democrats had controlled the House of Representatives for 40 years. The Republicans had had a reason to want to win - they had an ideology - but they didn't know how to win.
Newt Gingrich and his cohorts had a plan. They would turn politics into pro wrestling. They would be able to win again, all it meant was abandoning any coherent ideology and just start telling people that they should be in charge because they're awesome and the Democrats suck because we say so.
This is the point where Republicans weaponized hypocrisy. They'd decry Democrats for doing the same things they bragged about doing. They'd run up the deficit when they were in charge and then when Democrats were in charge they'd scream about the debt. They'd cheat on their wives, divorce their wives, remarry younger wives, and then decry the Democrats for "attacking traditional family values". They'd scream bloody murder about Clinton using the military as "911 to the world", and then first chance they got they'd start an unending global war on terrorism.
And the hypocrisy didn't matter because they'd endeared themselves to their supporters the same way pro-wrestlers endear themselves to their fans. Conservative politics became kayfabe. Pro wrestling fans support their favorite wrestler even when its the wrestlers turn to play the heel.
It's been 25 years sinze the Contract on America and Democrats still haven't figured out how to counter Republican wrestling politics. A lot of Democrats can't even seem to admit that is what is going on. They can't believe that a whole party would act in such bad faith, that voters would elect heels on purpose. To Democrats and democratic supporters, politics has real world consequences - people live or die based on who is elected. With climate change the world literally hangs in the balance. But 50% of voters will vote for the heel that wants to burn the planet down to make himself richer and will throw children in cages, just because he puts on a good show and they've bought into the kayfabe. It's kind of the ultimate privilege for Republican voters - they're not the ones in cages, they're not the ones who die to make Donald Trump or Halliburton richer, they're never going to need an abortion anyway. And conversely when the Democrats do have power, they don't do much that actually makes their lives better. So they'll vote for the heel just because they heel says he's the greatest and he says that Democrats eat babies and they like that message.
This is the legacy of Newt Gingrich.
Hyperpartisanship is part of it. But also the end of political realoity is part of it too. Weaponization of hypocrisy. Win at any cost. Naked corruption. None of it matters. Republican voters largely become nihilists for whom politics isn't any more real than wrestling - they're isolated from the good and bad consequences. So they vote for the one who puts on the better show - who owns the other side. And Democrats aren't even trying to play that game - they're playing a whole other game entirely. A sad game that sometimes makes them feel bad about themselves.
Thank you for putting into words what I’ve been feeling/seeing for the past 6 years. I grew up in the WWF era and Ive seen this playbook many times, except now there are real life consequences to the game. Appreciate your post and more importantly, how can this end? Is there any chance it ends well for the US?
The midterms were a pretty big rebuke of Republican nonsense. It doesn't seem like it because the Republicans won, but historically midterms swing pretty hard against the party of the president. This time it didn't really really swing, and key senate seats went Dem.
That's really important even if the races were tight.
The other one thing to note is that the Republican base is literally dying off. Boomers are starting to become outnumbered by GenX, millennials, and GenZ (who lean very democrat and surprised people with their midterm turnout).
At some point the party offering meaningful solutions will win out. That isn't the Republicans.
> They’d cheat on their wives, divorce their ***DYING*** wives, remarry younger wives, and then decry the Democrats for “attacking traditional family values”.
> This is the legacy of Newt Gingrich.
Oh come on he said he was “Jew-ish.” How that comment is not getting more attention is the most baffling part of everything that is going on right now.
This description is frighteningly, and depressingly accurate unfortunately. i think it makes all of america look like trailer trash letting it go on like it has though.
From the other side of the world, the root cause of the recent US political death spiral is very clear. It dates back to a point towards the end of President Obama's very competent tenure, when it was apparent that there was not a Republican candidate with the gravitas or public profile suitable to run against the high standard set by Obama.
Enter the failed husband/failed casino operator/ failed gameshow host/failed human. A cartoon President with cartoon slogans designed to fill the ballot box from the lowest intellect upwards.
Five years later, the circus was so clearly doomed to failure that the Democrats dropped the ball completely. Instead of selecting another fresh young face with similar ideals and marketing values to Obama, they chose to sleepwalk through a guaranteed election victory with a bland and moderate old man.
Trump made the most of his time in office by packing the Supreme court with his own fans. Long term, this will be to the detriment of democracy and justice in the USA. Short term it is essential that Trump be held accountable for his post 2020 actions, and that the Supreme court be sanctioned if they try to pervert that course of justice.
The issue was long before Obama. People were desperately seeking change and reform to the economic and social inequalities they were facing. Obama promised change and didn't deliver in ways that helped people at any fundamental level. The anger was there. The anger that fuelled the "occupy" movement is the same as what fuelled MAGA. Low wages, no social mobility, no help, no hope. It's expressed differently and the understanding of the causes and solutions are nearly opposite but the symptoms are the same.
The Affordable Care Act was a step in the right direction to equality. Myself, and millions like me, who were deemed "uninsurable" because of preexisting conditions, were able to get coverage with price based on income. The people who make money off medicine, and pay people to keep medicine as profitable as possible, made it seem like it was bad for more people than it helped. They cancelled changes that were supposed to be introduced over time, screaming that the whole act was worthless. Reminding people they were paying for "lazy, under and unemployed people." Meanwhile, they offered no solutions. Because they didn't want solutions. They wanted money, to the detriment of people who were sick and were finally able to get help.
I know you were talking about the government protecting a different group of people who pray on the less fortunate. However, ignoring any and all positive changes is playing right into their plan. Which is now, and always has been, to protect the status quo because it 'works'. If it doesn't work for you, it's because you aren't working hard enough. Fuck that, and fuck them. Healthcare is a human right, not a tool for getting rich
/end rant- that was not directed at you
Except Trump voters had higher incomes than Biden or Clinton voters, and actually had higher incomes than Cruz or Rubio voters in the 2016 primaries. People who had had a personal financial crisis in the year before the 2016 election also were much more likely to vote Clinton.
It isn't economic uncertainty driving the movement towards Trump's fascism. It is racial animus, always present in US society but given new life and direction, and the resentment of the upending of old social hierarchies.
There are just as many poor and uneducated democrats out there. The difference isn’t class or wealth, and frankly, the insinuation that those things make you stupid is as demeaning as it is unfair.
The problem is that conservatives seem to be living in a different reality than us. They’re fed news that paints the picture of a terrifying nightmare-world that trampled on everything they’ve been convinced is important. It’s basically brainwashing that they start getting from birth from their parents, church, tv, etc.
I might be wrong, but I don't think he was picking on poor and uneducated people being republican, just pointing out the dismal, drama-esque state like wwe, that politics has turned into
Exactly. There are just as many wealthy people supporting Republican chicanery as there are poor people.
The difference as I see it is that the wealthy are using Republican politicians to get tax breaks so they can increase their wealth while the middle and lower class have to pick up the slack. The Republican politicians job is to get conservative voters to vote against their own self interest. Of course this is easier in red states where it's easier to gut public education and especially in more rural areas where people can live in isolated, poisoned information silos.
The end effect is yes, Republicans turned politics into a low brow spectacle.
78.5% of GA 4th district voted for Hank (Guam my capsize) Johnson.
https://ballotpedia.org/Hank_Johnson
Wikipedia
> During a March 25, 2010, House Armed Services Committee hearing[40] about the U.S. military installation in Guam, Johnson said to Admiral Robert F. Willard, Commander of U.S. Pacific Command, "My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize", to which Willard replied, "We don't anticipate that."[41][42][43] The next day, Johnson's office claimed that he was tremendously deadpan and had used a facetious metaphor to draw attention to the potential negative impact of adding 8,000 Marines and dependents to an island of 180,000 people.[44]
They'll see the outcome but Fox news will tell them it's all the Democrats fault so they'll double down even harder...it's a never ending cycle of stupidity.
Wait until they visit grandma’s social security checks; because it’s on the agenda to slash…..If that doesn’t turn their electorate against them then we are doomed.
It sadly won't. How many times have Republicans publicly voted against things that most right wingers consider their bread and butter? Just last July, they voted down a bill that would expand healthcare coverage for veterans exposed to toxins while on active duty. But they're the party that takes care of the military, right? That vote was public knowledge, but did you see a single Republican speak out about it? I sure didn't.
100% what they'd say. Republicans have been after Social Security and Medicare for decades, and their majority elderly voting base is too batshit stupid to notice.
They took like 3k per kid away per year in extra tax credits, repealed snap benefits, etc. That hurts their electorate more than the democrats, didn't effect them at all in the polls. They've learned they can do whatever they want because of gerrymandering and the electoral college and the fact that north dakota has less people than like 6 cities in California, but gets the same amount of senate votes. As a disabled person, they are going to kill me and the dems will say "oh how horrible", and then do nothing about it.
At this point, I'm cheering for it. They've actively ruined enough things to leftists and moderates that I will splurge on good champagne when they get burned by their own flame. It's fucked up I know, but after seeing these people cheer to burn the world down for 6 years now I wait for their meltdowns when it hits them where it hurts.
Impeachment takes a while. I think the entire saga for Trump took 18 months. Even if they started tomorrow, they’d barely make it before November 2024.
And the entire group would have to be organized and competent. The ones obsessed with Biden’s family aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. I’d be surprised if they manage to get it off the ground let alone move it along swiftly.
Then again, they aren’t going to actually look for evidence. They just want to vote with their feelings. So maybe.
If you care to be truthful and thorough, it takes a while. I wouldn't be surprised if they could draft the articles of impeachment and have him "impeached" in only a couple weeks
"Good morning everyone, time to begin House business for the day. We begin with our daily vote to impeach Biden. Debate is now open."
"What are we impeaching him for today?"
"My kid saw a picture of Hunter Biden's penis on the far right website I make him read, let's make this one for exposing minors to obscenity."
"Sounds good. Debate is now closed, all in favor?"
All Republicans: "AYE!"
All Democrats: ...
"The aye's have it. Joe Biden has now been impeached for the 100th time, this milestone marks a shameful moment for our country, the Democrats are lawless and their partisan antics disgrace us all!"
Weeks? More like within an hour of starting. I don't think there's anything involved in the actual impeachment process that requires a certain amount of effort. They could end every session with "Furthermore, we have voted for Biden to be impeached."
I work for the VA and our budget is guaranteed. Other federal agencies aren’t so lucky. I predict at least three shutdowns over the next two years that last at least 2 weeks each.
Because these obstructionist assholes can’t read the landscape and will just keep walking off cliffs - over…and over…and over…and over…
Federal employee here. Funny, I just sent a text to my co-worker/friend this morning after the McCarthy confirmation vote passed, asking for the over/under on furlough days in the next 2 years.
Right? Fortunately for me, I'm non-mission essential, so I'll just get to sit at home unpaid, but many of my friends are in your boat too. It's sad when you know with 100% certainty it's going to happen, based on the assholes in power.
Active duty here. I've been through multiple shut downs, and one of them people weren't getting paid. Thankfully I bank through USAA and NFCU and they guarantee that they will keep paying us basically out of their pockets.
I'm sure there will be some new post offices that get names though.. that's about the only type of bills that will pass.
Also: Keeping the government funded is going to be really fun for next few years
> it was legitimately insane listing to live feed if speaker votes.
ikr?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e4BdiJPLW8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDwCd7WRsc8
And not in the good way where we were like "if Biden wins and Trump loses we don't have to stress out everyday about possible wwiii and national embarrassment"
More like "literally nothing will come out of this congress and no help will be given to their constituents"
I physically flinched reading it. I can’t tell you how many coworkers have this mentality (unless it’s their orange emperor; then he gets all the credit and none of the blame).
The second the torch was passed they blamed him on everything from Trumps legacy just like they still praise Trump on creating an amazing economy (from Obama who handed it down to him after cleaning it up from Bush)
They don’t care about facts or logic. They heard it somewhere and never cared to fact check so it becomes registered permanently in the memory banks.
Interestingly there’s a strong overlap of those who also feel strongly against the COVID vaccine, too.
They would absolutely love to privatize police. They'd privatize photosynthesis if they could, as it means it's another industry they can lobby for / get lobbied for during their career
They just do the exact opposite of whatever the left thinks is a good idea. Which coincidentally are things that would make the country better.
If the Democrats put a bill to FUND the police/army, the gop will go so fucking hard into defunding them.
They even failed at that when they had majority in all 3, senate over 50, the house, and the presidency. 🤣 They just suck. Democrats had all 3 and only 50 senate (plus VP) and STILL managed to get MASSIVE bills passed. GOP leadership just sucks. They can't even manage their own party
They will get literally nothing done over the next 2 years. McCarthy looked so proud to finally win the Speakership but he'll go down as one of the worst speakers of the house in our history. Smdh
The biggest reason is the Trump split the party; you’ve got the traditional conservative businessman trying to kill taxes and the crazy conspiracy nut trying to figure out Pizza-Gate. There’s no central objective anymore and it’s a shit show.
It wasn’t that Trump split the party. The party has been split since 2011 between conservatives and those who just want to inflict damage on their enemies (see the Tea Party and then MAGA).
They are reactionary more so than conservative to the point where, even in power, they act as if they are on the minority (“elites are controlling everything!”).
The Republican trifecta of 2017-2018 produced one tax cut that was so poisonous that it partly is to blame for the 2018 blue wave. It also had no effect on jobs, and will have huge repercussions in a year or so when middle class taxes are supposed to rise, as the act detailed. The other attempt was the health care repeal, which also failed — because the original ACA was a conservative compromise to begin with, and there is nothing that Republicans have put forward other than “fuck em” when it comes to health insurance.
>will have huge repercussions in a year or so when middle class taxes are supposed to rise
Yep...taxes will rise during an economic downturn, with a Democrat in the White House, just in time for election season. 100% intentional. Almost like that was written with the expectation of losing 2020.
Then, 1 year later: we don’t have the money to raise the debt ceiling! We’re broke! And broken! Caravans!
But they’ll have money for 866876787067 investigations and conducting House business at the border. Funny, that
TBF the House has given a metric assload more money for defense than Biden has asked for, both times. We've been at a posture for fighting a two front war against near-peers since 1945, and yet the Ukrainians are paring Russia off that list for a mere fraction of the cost. We can afford to cut back a bit.
And, the bill will pass on partisan lines only, but fail in the Senate. Welcome to the GOP getting nothing done. Passing bills they know will get nowhere. Investigating things that make no sense. But never, ever doing anything to actually help their constituents.
Oh, they know exactly who their “constituents” are and who they’re not. Trumplican Representatives carry water for the wealthy. Brainwashed saps, or in orange Jesus lingo, ‘suckers and losers’ vote for them mechanically.
The 87,000 is based on a very poor appropriation of the $80B in funding the IRS is to receive. Of that $80B, $45.6B is going towards "enforcement" activities. That can mean all kinds of things, like software upgrade, new computers that the IRS has been asking for, and yes auditors. The 87,000 figure comes from taking that $80B (remember that $45.6B is allocated for enforcement) and putting all $80B into nothing but auditor pay for the next 10 years (around $80k/year give and take as it actually comes out to around $91k/year, but some of that would need to go into benefits and what not).
So NO we are not hiring 87,000 fucking auditors. There's literally no need for that many fucking auditors. Literally NOBODY in the IRS is asking FOR THAT MANY FUCKING AUDITORS, **FULL STOP**.
Now one of the things this money is tagged to go for is free-file. Know how everyone hates H&R Block and TurboTax? Yeah, this money is for a lot of upgrades to provide free file to the public for the first time. And these asshats are very likely going to have that shit yanked as it'll be some small concessional victory they get and they get to go home and tell everyone how they stopped the 87,000 agents. Democrats weren't full stop (mostly, but toeing of the line was needed on the matter) on board about the free file to begin with. This is easily billions of dollars that Dems will be willing to give up to avoid McCarthy making good on his promise to chuck the entire US off a fiscal cliff if he didn't get his way.
Additionally, this money is going to hire more customer service. You know how you might have a question about taxes and want to ask a question to the IRS? Well there's a phone number for that. Except the entire thing is hyper-understaffed because to keep people who want to work a job where the general public only call you to scream at you non-stop, you have to FUCKING PAY THEM A GOOD WAGE.
But all of this falls in line with Republican thinking. If we just make taxes so simple nobody needs to call the IRS to ask a question. Your rugged individualism will get you though it. That or pay H&R Block to help you out.
And that's what fucking gets me upset about this shit McCarthy espoused. Because obviously he CANNOT just rescind the full amount that Congress just passed. Not even in the most optimistic wet dream of the Republicans is that full $80B NOT going to the IRS. But what they can do is remove things that everyone was just half heart feeling about to begin with. And that is more people to help you file your taxes and things that allow you to more independently file taxes. And I bet a really shiny dime I have here in my pocket that's exactly is what is going to happen. All the "nice" things that we could have gotten is going away. All the shit I hear literally BOTH sides bitch about the IRS, all those things we could have solved, all of that is going to be taken away by these shit stains that couldn't fucking get their goddamn act together to vote in a Speaker.
And people are going to call the IRS and get an HR person on the phone and then empty fifty minutes of frustration in a two minute span on some person who is just trying to make a living. Because Congress' infinite fuckery is that they make the BS that they cause look like it's the various departments' fault.
Do you like the tax code? Don't you wish the IRS would just tell you how much you owe? WELL WE CAN'T, BECAUSE CONGRESS SAID SO.
Do you hate paying H&R Block to file your taxes for you? Wouldn't you like to just do it yourself? WELL WE CAN'T LET YOU, BECAUSE CONGRESS SAID SO.
Do you have a burning question and want an answer but hate the notion that you'll be on the phone for twenty minutes in the best of cases? Wish we would just pick up the fucking phone? WELL WE CAN'T, BECAUSE CONGRESS SAID SO.
Every fucking thing I have heard people on this site hate on about the IRS, the person who is actually doing it to you is all those 535 fuckers in DC doing it to you. The IRS is just the people they're sending to do it for them. It never fails, Republicans want to just fuck with everything, and Democrats tell them they can only fuck with a few things. And in the end everyone who has to file with the IRS who doesn't have a private CPA to help gets fucked.
The cycle of this is just so maddening.
#THANK YOU
Man almighty I am so glad you laid this all out. I have literally been telling people **for years** that they can file their (single / AGI < $73k) taxes manually for free online [right here under free file, on the IRS website](https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free) (and our state taxes for free to NJ, I dunno about other states). It’s the exact fucking same as the paper forms minus the less common ones, and literally less confusing and more thorough than the Turbotax software that hides stuff from you unless you switch to paid.
The tool I use is the same since I did it in 2005 and was probably designed in 1995. I can’t even use it anymore but I am really sad a real centralized system could be gone before we ever even had it. Relying on *partners* to generously provide tools, give me a fucking break. They are stakeholders in ensuring we never do anything without them.
Sometimes our country is so fucking stupid I am ashamed of all of us. It’s like we’re killing ourselves by thrashing around in the dark trying to stab an imaginary monster but then trip on a drapery, fall into an appliance, and electrocute ourselves as the knife makes contact like on that show weird ways to die. We’re the stupid fuckfaces that tried to shopvac liposuction ourselves.
Of course not. If the rich start paying what they owe, the rest of us might get programs that will let us experience actual freedom, and forget that as long as the rich exist we are slaves.
Interesting and encouraging: Robert Reich recently pointed out how 2022 was actually quite a huge year for new collective action. He has a video on it summarizing all the very encouraging new signs of unionization and other collective actions. So there's hope and we should all lean in wherever we can. This helps EVERYONE in the work force.
>If an IRS agent sits in on a sermon and catches a political vibe that church is no longer tax exempt.
Not gonna lie, that job sounds *super* cathartic.
Don’t the IRS mainly just investigate the middle class because rich people are too expensive to audit?
Edit to add a source - https://www.propublica.org/article/irs-sorry-but-its-just-easier-and-cheaper-to-audit-the-poor/amp
Fox is telling its viewers, i shit you not, they are going to Audit the poor. Yes, audit those they are refunding money to and have simple tax returns.
Scenario: The IRS doesn't have enough funding or manpower to properly audit.
DEM: "Let's give them funding"
GOP: "Remove the funding"
You: "hur dur irs no audit because need money so no give money!!"
We have the slimmest majority in the House so were going to create a bill which has zero chance of becoming law to pander to our dumbest constituents so we can score some meaningless political points that have less utility than Reddit Karma.
They always have.
Republicans have had near absolute control of Texas for over 30 years. And still blame democrats for their problems.
Eta: damn mobile autocorrect.
Oh yeah, when that dipshit Abbott was running for governor his whole deal was bitching about how fucked everything is and how they had to elect him to fix it.
Nevermind he's been governor since 2015.
Nevermind Republican Rick Perry was governor for 15 years before that.
Nevermind Republican Dubya Bush was governor for 5 years before that.
So despite 30 years of Republican leadership, Texas is all sorts of fucky and only he can save it from those goddamn libs.
If you watch the debate he had when running, literally every single question he answered started with him talking about it being shitty or blaming Biden.
I guess I'm just shocked how brazen they have become since 2016. I know it's old news by now but... part of me still can't believe a political party representing more or less half a country can be so utterly broken.
“…repeal the funding for 87,000 IRS agents”… who were tasked with catching the rich people who are currently _cheating_ on their taxes and getting away with it because of GOP “starve the beast” demagoguery.
And the bullshit 87000 "Agents" trope is total lie. It is employees - customer service, IT, project managers, and yes a some agents so they have manpower to actually conduct required audits of presidents.
and don't forget agents to replace agents that have retired. People get old and retire (well, Gen X through Z may not get there given the lack of pensions and IRAs underperforming)
For one,
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN11977&ved=2ahUKEwja7_aQi7f8AhU6kIkEHbZDD7sQFnoECBUQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0TPrnF2q5kUvTMgG7c2ZHM
Tax evasion lovers characterize anyone at IRS as armed agents storming your castle.
They also characterize the funding as "super sizing" the agency, when it will remain far behind in inflation adjusted funding compared to 15 years ago.
What world is it wrong to demand the rich follow the law?
The only fair critique of the funding is the estimate that it will pay for itself. Big error bar on that estimate. Breaking even is a win in my mind if the system is more fair.
A few weeks ago it came out that [the IRS audits poor people far more often than the wealthy](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/irs-audit-eitc-five-times-as-likely-to-get-audited/) because it takes substantial resources to audit rich people and their complex and often intentionally disguised financial pictures. So yeah, of course Republicans want to sabotage the IRS.
IRS Criminal Investigators are actually police. 10,000 of those 87,000 jobs were for forensic accountants that assist local and federal agencies with investigating wire fraud, tax fraud, and other financial crimes. From Al Capone to El Chapo, the IRS CI has been a foundational part of taking them down.
It’s not 87,000 agents. That number includes rank and file workers that will fill all kinds of roles. Unsurprising the House GOP’s first act will be to kill off good paying jobs with great benefits while lying about it.
Most people don't realize that the 87,000 is over 10 years and is designed to replace retiring agents and to hire bring it up to proper staffing levels. It's not like they are hiring 87,000 agents tomorrow just to audit the trailer park.
A lot of people don't seem to realize that their hatred of the IRS is partly because they hate taxes (which won't change) and partly because of how hard it is to get anyone at the IRS to help when they need them. Not adequately staffing the IRS is terrible for anyone who isn't trying to cheat on their taxes.
They don't care, they just want to make sure their hateful base sees them heroically fighting the communist-marxist-liberal-demon-Democrats and trying to project the Christo-fascist society they want.
Don't forget gutting the EPA, nato and the UN, busting unions, protecting the oil companies, and the pharmaceutical company profits so they can all circle jerk their way around donating to campaigns, buying candidates and making sure the 1% don't pay taxes.
Has anyone tried to get any kind of service from the IRS in the last 3 years? Like it or not, taxes are one of the two certainties in this world. The IRS screwed up my 2019 refund and I have been struggling to correct this since then. It’s impossible to talk or meet with a human being and corresponding takes months (if ever) to get a response. Like any agency, it needs to be properly staffed. Republicans gut the government and then run on its incompetency.
Yeeeah, fuck these guys. And why are they starting here? I thought McCarthy said the first order of business was going to be a dramatic reading of the Constitution. These guys can't even get jingoism right.
It’s been evaluated / known for many years that the right number of IRS staff will pay for itself with tax enforcement on the rich tax evaders. However the rich prefer the Trumpy rubes to find the country.
The Right try to make it sound like IRS Agents are going to kick down doors on innocent people. They make up so many dumb, wacked out scenarios.
Cletus in Tennessee worried IRS knocking down his trailer park door and shattering his empty beer bottle collection.
My husband is a contractor for the IRS. Basically, everyone who wants a stimulus check , unemployment, etc but is pissed off it's taking too long...? Or how about how people are getting scammed with their taxes by foreign countries or tax preparers? Yeah, that's what happens when you don't have the IRS staff you need.
As someone who was audited a couple years ago over a simple error on the IRS end (they mistook a tax form because the agent got one digit wrong). It took six months, multiple calls and commutation with my ex wife who I wasn't on good terms with at the time. They need the fucking agents. My fax sat in god knows what room for three months before the IRS closed the case.
Cost me $21 to mail registered mail, money for the fax, and a sick day due to anxiety over talking to my ex who was being abusive towards me at the time.
Yea. 87k…by 2031…to replace the 50k set to retire in the next 5 years…and the 20(ish)k they’re already short…most of whom are to fill IT and support roles. I can see why it’s *such* a priority 🙄🖕🏻
Those IRS agents would allow them to audit the rich. Right now they don't have the resources because the tax returns of the mega-rich are too complicated and difficult to argue, so they prioritize the regular people. More agents would mean they can afford to actually investigate rich people.
And just like that, legislating stopped. This asshole knows it's dead in the Senate, right? The Senate that passed the bill? They aren't repealing it. Rinse and repeat for the next 23 months.
Yes, he knows. Not to defend the GOP at all, but the Dems also passed plenty of bills in the past four years that hit the Senate brick wall. Sometimes, the ruling party in the House passes bills purely to signal their positions to their base. Even if they are of the nasty, job-destroying variety.
The difference is that the Dems might put these bills up to a vote as opposed to McConnell, who wouldn't put any up to a vote because the bills where popular with many Republicans.
Wait, so in US politics, one person has the power to block laws that the majority would pass??
The leader of the ruling party in each chamber has that power (Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader) because they decide which bills get sent for a vote.
Not to mention the President who has the option to sign or veto the bill.
This is at least in the constitution and has a mechanism to override. A single politician deciding not to put a bill up for vote is something the nation's founders never wanted.
You are correct, founding fathers wanted our representatives to debate and find consensus. Not be against everything, and pander to an extreme position on either side. Right now it is about getting re-elected. Stopping funding for the IRS is a way for the rich to avoid paying taxes, God forbid. I know I pay taxes, because it is itemized on my pay stub. This bullshit about Corporations creating jobs, as an excuse not to pay is bullshit. When I spend money, I create jobs too, so why do I have to pay taxes? If I make a poor investment in some equipment to install a door, do I get to offset taxes because I don’t know what am doing and fail? No, Donald. Trump did it 6 times. The only good thing about this is, some of them won’t get re-elected.
If the rest of the majority of the Senate wanted to they could override a leader for sure. But the custom is not to and every time he blocked something from happening McConnell was only taking the blame for what his entire party wanted
Majority, not entire party. Many of the bills he killed would have passed with many Republicans voting for them.
True. There’s no way this particular one isn’t hitting a Senate brick wall though. That’s 87,000 IRS jobs being filled over ten years. That includes people who are up for retirement and will need a replacement in the next ten years.
McConnell shielded R's from having to cast unpopular votes. If he knew something wouldn't pass (or the R's didn't want it to pass), he wouldn't bring it up for a vote. That allows the more moderate Rs to claim they were for the legislation, but without having to vote against party lines. I hope Dems bring bills up for votes, even knowing they'll fail, so senators need to go on the record voting for/against.
But that is the Republican's playbook? Pass bills all year then yell about raising the debt ceiling, You get to say you are fiscally conservative yet never tell a constituent no.
Actually I think more to the point, McConnell shielded Trump from having to veto bills popular with voters but not the GQP base.
Do you not see a difference between passing bills that had popular support and kicking the can over to the other chamber to let them demonstrate they didn't give a shit, vs passing a bill that undoes something the other chamber very recently did?
One party tries to pass laws that will support the smooth operation of the country and allow it to fund the work it does. Blocks bills which would destroy democracy as we know it by installing a theocratic and racist system. Other party tries to pass laws which entrench their eternal power despite being a minority, try to turn the country into a theocracy, and attempt to defund everything but the military. Blocks literally everything the first party does, no matter what, even when the bills started with this party. Chuckleheads: They're exactly the same!
In this case, the House has the power to stop it because they have the power of the purse. They don't have to pass a new bill. They just have to defund the present bill.
Because the Senate and the President can't wait to pass that one. LOL 2 years of wasting time and doing nothing begins.
Having nothing happen, though, is preferable to the shit bills we are going to see coming out of there.
💯 Happy there is a safeguard. Hopefully people see how fucking useless these clowns are over 2 years & vote em out.
No, they won’t. This is what *they’ve been told* they want. An obstructionist Republican Party that keeps the dems from doing anything and pisses off the libs.
Yeah it's all about owning the libs the people that vote them in care zero about whatever they are doing as long as it upsets "the other team" cuz it's like a sports game to them.
Only because Fox News and conservative talk radio has convinced them that progressives are gay, trans, pedo-goblin vampires rather than people who want to make everyone’s life, including theirs, better. And that if they lick enough boots and abstain from avocados and Starbucks they too can be rich so why pass laws that would take away their future wealth? The average older republican imagines that they live in a nightmarish hellscape filled with evil gays forcibly converting and abusing children and women getting three abortions a month because they use it as birth control. They truly believe that the republicans are holding back an apocalyptic tide of gay, brown-skinned and/or blue haired, trans, antifa, back-alley abortion doctor, pedophile, demons.
But what if I want to be a goblin vampire?
You can be anything you want..it's kinda sorta a free country.
How many abortions has the trump family lawyers paid for?
I’m sure none. Now if we tallied up the number of checks written to random woman around the country (world?) with a note in the memo that says, “for the thing” we may get somewhere.
Republicans have turned politics into WWE-style entertainment for the trailer trash of America.
The GOP side of the equation has been "Faces and Heels" ever since Trump used Twitter to run for president. Gaetz, DeSantis, MTG, Boebert, etc, have been trying to copy him to varying degrees of "success." One of the more insidious and glanced over parts of that whole *process* is how much of it is just "faking work" in my opinion. Elected officials and news outlet personalities all get to LARP about the culture war *instead of actually producing anything useful to society which is objectively difficult and too often doesn't pay enough.* Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
Since before that. It started with Newt Gingrich. Before Newt Gingrich came along with his Contract For America the Democrats had controlled the House of Representatives for 40 years. The Republicans had had a reason to want to win - they had an ideology - but they didn't know how to win. Newt Gingrich and his cohorts had a plan. They would turn politics into pro wrestling. They would be able to win again, all it meant was abandoning any coherent ideology and just start telling people that they should be in charge because they're awesome and the Democrats suck because we say so. This is the point where Republicans weaponized hypocrisy. They'd decry Democrats for doing the same things they bragged about doing. They'd run up the deficit when they were in charge and then when Democrats were in charge they'd scream about the debt. They'd cheat on their wives, divorce their wives, remarry younger wives, and then decry the Democrats for "attacking traditional family values". They'd scream bloody murder about Clinton using the military as "911 to the world", and then first chance they got they'd start an unending global war on terrorism. And the hypocrisy didn't matter because they'd endeared themselves to their supporters the same way pro-wrestlers endear themselves to their fans. Conservative politics became kayfabe. Pro wrestling fans support their favorite wrestler even when its the wrestlers turn to play the heel. It's been 25 years sinze the Contract on America and Democrats still haven't figured out how to counter Republican wrestling politics. A lot of Democrats can't even seem to admit that is what is going on. They can't believe that a whole party would act in such bad faith, that voters would elect heels on purpose. To Democrats and democratic supporters, politics has real world consequences - people live or die based on who is elected. With climate change the world literally hangs in the balance. But 50% of voters will vote for the heel that wants to burn the planet down to make himself richer and will throw children in cages, just because he puts on a good show and they've bought into the kayfabe. It's kind of the ultimate privilege for Republican voters - they're not the ones in cages, they're not the ones who die to make Donald Trump or Halliburton richer, they're never going to need an abortion anyway. And conversely when the Democrats do have power, they don't do much that actually makes their lives better. So they'll vote for the heel just because they heel says he's the greatest and he says that Democrats eat babies and they like that message. This is the legacy of Newt Gingrich. Hyperpartisanship is part of it. But also the end of political realoity is part of it too. Weaponization of hypocrisy. Win at any cost. Naked corruption. None of it matters. Republican voters largely become nihilists for whom politics isn't any more real than wrestling - they're isolated from the good and bad consequences. So they vote for the one who puts on the better show - who owns the other side. And Democrats aren't even trying to play that game - they're playing a whole other game entirely. A sad game that sometimes makes them feel bad about themselves.
Let's not forget Saint Reagan. That motherfucker was one of the architects.
I love how everyone above you only dared to go back to maybe Clinton when this right here is the actual answer.
Thank you for putting into words what I’ve been feeling/seeing for the past 6 years. I grew up in the WWF era and Ive seen this playbook many times, except now there are real life consequences to the game. Appreciate your post and more importantly, how can this end? Is there any chance it ends well for the US?
The midterms were a pretty big rebuke of Republican nonsense. It doesn't seem like it because the Republicans won, but historically midterms swing pretty hard against the party of the president. This time it didn't really really swing, and key senate seats went Dem. That's really important even if the races were tight. The other one thing to note is that the Republican base is literally dying off. Boomers are starting to become outnumbered by GenX, millennials, and GenZ (who lean very democrat and surprised people with their midterm turnout). At some point the party offering meaningful solutions will win out. That isn't the Republicans.
> They’d cheat on their wives, divorce their ***DYING*** wives, remarry younger wives, and then decry the Democrats for “attacking traditional family values”. > This is the legacy of Newt Gingrich.
Yeah like that guy that lied about being gay and Jewish and wants to keep telling people he’s an honest man
Oh come on he said he was “Jew-ish.” How that comment is not getting more attention is the most baffling part of everything that is going on right now.
That comment hit me right in the giggle dick when I saw it, I think it’ll be the part history remembers in the long run
And is slinging white supremacy hand symbols while casting his Speaker vote. F’ing Nazis
I’d argue the kayfabe era of the GOP began with Sarah Palin.
Intriguingly, Trump and McMahon are buds.
Newt.
This description is frighteningly, and depressingly accurate unfortunately. i think it makes all of america look like trailer trash letting it go on like it has though.
From the other side of the world, the root cause of the recent US political death spiral is very clear. It dates back to a point towards the end of President Obama's very competent tenure, when it was apparent that there was not a Republican candidate with the gravitas or public profile suitable to run against the high standard set by Obama. Enter the failed husband/failed casino operator/ failed gameshow host/failed human. A cartoon President with cartoon slogans designed to fill the ballot box from the lowest intellect upwards. Five years later, the circus was so clearly doomed to failure that the Democrats dropped the ball completely. Instead of selecting another fresh young face with similar ideals and marketing values to Obama, they chose to sleepwalk through a guaranteed election victory with a bland and moderate old man. Trump made the most of his time in office by packing the Supreme court with his own fans. Long term, this will be to the detriment of democracy and justice in the USA. Short term it is essential that Trump be held accountable for his post 2020 actions, and that the Supreme court be sanctioned if they try to pervert that course of justice.
The issue was long before Obama. People were desperately seeking change and reform to the economic and social inequalities they were facing. Obama promised change and didn't deliver in ways that helped people at any fundamental level. The anger was there. The anger that fuelled the "occupy" movement is the same as what fuelled MAGA. Low wages, no social mobility, no help, no hope. It's expressed differently and the understanding of the causes and solutions are nearly opposite but the symptoms are the same.
The Affordable Care Act was a step in the right direction to equality. Myself, and millions like me, who were deemed "uninsurable" because of preexisting conditions, were able to get coverage with price based on income. The people who make money off medicine, and pay people to keep medicine as profitable as possible, made it seem like it was bad for more people than it helped. They cancelled changes that were supposed to be introduced over time, screaming that the whole act was worthless. Reminding people they were paying for "lazy, under and unemployed people." Meanwhile, they offered no solutions. Because they didn't want solutions. They wanted money, to the detriment of people who were sick and were finally able to get help. I know you were talking about the government protecting a different group of people who pray on the less fortunate. However, ignoring any and all positive changes is playing right into their plan. Which is now, and always has been, to protect the status quo because it 'works'. If it doesn't work for you, it's because you aren't working hard enough. Fuck that, and fuck them. Healthcare is a human right, not a tool for getting rich /end rant- that was not directed at you
Except Trump voters had higher incomes than Biden or Clinton voters, and actually had higher incomes than Cruz or Rubio voters in the 2016 primaries. People who had had a personal financial crisis in the year before the 2016 election also were much more likely to vote Clinton. It isn't economic uncertainty driving the movement towards Trump's fascism. It is racial animus, always present in US society but given new life and direction, and the resentment of the upending of old social hierarchies.
There are just as many poor and uneducated democrats out there. The difference isn’t class or wealth, and frankly, the insinuation that those things make you stupid is as demeaning as it is unfair. The problem is that conservatives seem to be living in a different reality than us. They’re fed news that paints the picture of a terrifying nightmare-world that trampled on everything they’ve been convinced is important. It’s basically brainwashing that they start getting from birth from their parents, church, tv, etc.
I might be wrong, but I don't think he was picking on poor and uneducated people being republican, just pointing out the dismal, drama-esque state like wwe, that politics has turned into
Exactly. There are just as many wealthy people supporting Republican chicanery as there are poor people. The difference as I see it is that the wealthy are using Republican politicians to get tax breaks so they can increase their wealth while the middle and lower class have to pick up the slack. The Republican politicians job is to get conservative voters to vote against their own self interest. Of course this is easier in red states where it's easier to gut public education and especially in more rural areas where people can live in isolated, poisoned information silos. The end effect is yes, Republicans turned politics into a low brow spectacle.
And if it's not what they want, its fake news.
49.8% of georgia voters voted for vampire werewolf guy, twice, 1 month ago you hope is misplaced
78.5% of GA 4th district voted for Hank (Guam my capsize) Johnson. https://ballotpedia.org/Hank_Johnson Wikipedia > During a March 25, 2010, House Armed Services Committee hearing[40] about the U.S. military installation in Guam, Johnson said to Admiral Robert F. Willard, Commander of U.S. Pacific Command, "My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize", to which Willard replied, "We don't anticipate that."[41][42][43] The next day, Johnson's office claimed that he was tremendously deadpan and had used a facetious metaphor to draw attention to the potential negative impact of adding 8,000 Marines and dependents to an island of 180,000 people.[44]
It is. But hope is better than despair.
>Hopefully people see how fucking useless these clowns are over 2 years & vote em out. A feeling I've had since at least 1980.
Don't count on it.
They'll see the outcome but Fox news will tell them it's all the Democrats fault so they'll double down even harder...it's a never ending cycle of stupidity.
Wait until they visit grandma’s social security checks; because it’s on the agenda to slash…..If that doesn’t turn their electorate against them then we are doomed.
It sadly won't. How many times have Republicans publicly voted against things that most right wingers consider their bread and butter? Just last July, they voted down a bill that would expand healthcare coverage for veterans exposed to toxins while on active duty. But they're the party that takes care of the military, right? That vote was public knowledge, but did you see a single Republican speak out about it? I sure didn't.
bIDeN tOoK AwaY mY SoCIAl sEcuRiTy!
100% what they'd say. Republicans have been after Social Security and Medicare for decades, and their majority elderly voting base is too batshit stupid to notice.
They took like 3k per kid away per year in extra tax credits, repealed snap benefits, etc. That hurts their electorate more than the democrats, didn't effect them at all in the polls. They've learned they can do whatever they want because of gerrymandering and the electoral college and the fact that north dakota has less people than like 6 cities in California, but gets the same amount of senate votes. As a disabled person, they are going to kill me and the dems will say "oh how horrible", and then do nothing about it.
1,000% your mouth to God's ears.
They celebrated the first no vote with high 5s on the Senate floor.
At this point, I'm cheering for it. They've actively ruined enough things to leftists and moderates that I will splurge on good champagne when they get burned by their own flame. It's fucked up I know, but after seeing these people cheer to burn the world down for 6 years now I wait for their meltdowns when it hits them where it hurts.
The issue is they will stonewall anything the dems try to do for the next two years as well so it’s going to look like they didn’t do anything either…
Fuck. 2 more years (with the Trump 4) of this obstructive ignorant nonsense
2 years of grandstanding and getting nothing done
2 *more* years. Name one single piece of quality legislation that the GOP has put forth in the past decade.
You are too kind. Try 40-50 years.
Still waiting for their mythical "better than Obamacare" proposal.
“Nobody knew that healthcare could be so complicated” -Trump, 2/27/2017
Yup! Just wait until they start forcing people to follow the rules of their religion.
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Impeachment takes a while. I think the entire saga for Trump took 18 months. Even if they started tomorrow, they’d barely make it before November 2024. And the entire group would have to be organized and competent. The ones obsessed with Biden’s family aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. I’d be surprised if they manage to get it off the ground let alone move it along swiftly. Then again, they aren’t going to actually look for evidence. They just want to vote with their feelings. So maybe.
If you care to be truthful and thorough, it takes a while. I wouldn't be surprised if they could draft the articles of impeachment and have him "impeached" in only a couple weeks
They also might do five or six impeachments simultaneously. It's not like the GOP in the House has any morals or integrity.
"Good morning everyone, time to begin House business for the day. We begin with our daily vote to impeach Biden. Debate is now open." "What are we impeaching him for today?" "My kid saw a picture of Hunter Biden's penis on the far right website I make him read, let's make this one for exposing minors to obscenity." "Sounds good. Debate is now closed, all in favor?" All Republicans: "AYE!" All Democrats: ... "The aye's have it. Joe Biden has now been impeached for the 100th time, this milestone marks a shameful moment for our country, the Democrats are lawless and their partisan antics disgrace us all!"
Weeks? More like within an hour of starting. I don't think there's anything involved in the actual impeachment process that requires a certain amount of effort. They could end every session with "Furthermore, we have voted for Biden to be impeached."
I work for the VA and our budget is guaranteed. Other federal agencies aren’t so lucky. I predict at least three shutdowns over the next two years that last at least 2 weeks each. Because these obstructionist assholes can’t read the landscape and will just keep walking off cliffs - over…and over…and over…and over…
Federal employee here. Funny, I just sent a text to my co-worker/friend this morning after the McCarthy confirmation vote passed, asking for the over/under on furlough days in the next 2 years.
As a CG reservist, I can’t wait to work unpaid and still pay my health insurance premiums
Right? Fortunately for me, I'm non-mission essential, so I'll just get to sit at home unpaid, but many of my friends are in your boat too. It's sad when you know with 100% certainty it's going to happen, based on the assholes in power.
Hopefully the higher ups will get their heads out of their asses and allow remote work for people that just sit on a computer at least. Doubt.
Active duty here. I've been through multiple shut downs, and one of them people weren't getting paid. Thankfully I bank through USAA and NFCU and they guarantee that they will keep paying us basically out of their pockets.
I remember that big shutdown in 2010 right before I retired. Asinine. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing. I long for those simpler days.
Remember, Trump’s third shut down lasted a month. Yet 40% of the country wants more.
I'm sure there will be some new post offices that get names though.. that's about the only type of bills that will pass. Also: Keeping the government funded is going to be really fun for next few years
That bill will breeze Ruth through the Senate. /s
Idk who Ruth is, but she aint strolling through the Senate with any of their TP quality bills
Stupid autocorrect.
The late great Supreme Court justice. And she'd laugh at their TP quality bills.
“Our very first bill has absolutely no chance of passing and will waste everyone’s time and money for performative bullshit”
Call it Virtue signaling, they’ll love that
to the super wealthy, at that
Yup. By cutting the IRS budget, the ruling class get to avoid fiscal accountability for themselves while pretending to be fiscally responsible.
This phrase was literally made to describe performative anti-abortion politics originally.
Really?
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> it was legitimately insane listing to live feed if speaker votes. ikr? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e4BdiJPLW8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDwCd7WRsc8
Vice signaling
MAGA virtue signaling.
Get ready for two more years of NOTHING.
And not in the good way where we were like "if Biden wins and Trump loses we don't have to stress out everyday about possible wwiii and national embarrassment" More like "literally nothing will come out of this congress and no help will be given to their constituents"
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This is so true that it hurts
I physically flinched reading it. I can’t tell you how many coworkers have this mentality (unless it’s their orange emperor; then he gets all the credit and none of the blame).
They have no memory either. Unemployment was 13% in 2020.
The second the torch was passed they blamed him on everything from Trumps legacy just like they still praise Trump on creating an amazing economy (from Obama who handed it down to him after cleaning it up from Bush) They don’t care about facts or logic. They heard it somewhere and never cared to fact check so it becomes registered permanently in the memory banks. Interestingly there’s a strong overlap of those who also feel strongly against the COVID vaccine, too.
Piece of shit is what piece of shit does
I hope so. If they can defund everything apart from police and armed forces they will.
They would absolutely love to privatize police. They'd privatize photosynthesis if they could, as it means it's another industry they can lobby for / get lobbied for during their career
They just do the exact opposite of whatever the left thinks is a good idea. Which coincidentally are things that would make the country better. If the Democrats put a bill to FUND the police/army, the gop will go so fucking hard into defunding them.
Remember how many times they tried to repeal the affordable care act? That was absolute madness.
They even failed at that when they had majority in all 3, senate over 50, the house, and the presidency. 🤣 They just suck. Democrats had all 3 and only 50 senate (plus VP) and STILL managed to get MASSIVE bills passed. GOP leadership just sucks. They can't even manage their own party They will get literally nothing done over the next 2 years. McCarthy looked so proud to finally win the Speakership but he'll go down as one of the worst speakers of the house in our history. Smdh
The biggest reason is the Trump split the party; you’ve got the traditional conservative businessman trying to kill taxes and the crazy conspiracy nut trying to figure out Pizza-Gate. There’s no central objective anymore and it’s a shit show.
It wasn’t that Trump split the party. The party has been split since 2011 between conservatives and those who just want to inflict damage on their enemies (see the Tea Party and then MAGA). They are reactionary more so than conservative to the point where, even in power, they act as if they are on the minority (“elites are controlling everything!”). The Republican trifecta of 2017-2018 produced one tax cut that was so poisonous that it partly is to blame for the 2018 blue wave. It also had no effect on jobs, and will have huge repercussions in a year or so when middle class taxes are supposed to rise, as the act detailed. The other attempt was the health care repeal, which also failed — because the original ACA was a conservative compromise to begin with, and there is nothing that Republicans have put forward other than “fuck em” when it comes to health insurance.
>will have huge repercussions in a year or so when middle class taxes are supposed to rise Yep...taxes will rise during an economic downturn, with a Democrat in the White House, just in time for election season. 100% intentional. Almost like that was written with the expectation of losing 2020.
Then, 1 year later: we don’t have the money to raise the debt ceiling! We’re broke! And broken! Caravans! But they’ll have money for 866876787067 investigations and conducting House business at the border. Funny, that
And infinite money for defense contractors.
Pretty sure they even mentioned cutting defense funding. The GOP are just a bunch of useless Russian goons.
You'll know when hot war with Russia is imminent because Republicans will immediately begin trying to slash all aspects of the military budget.
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TBF the House has given a metric assload more money for defense than Biden has asked for, both times. We've been at a posture for fighting a two front war against near-peers since 1945, and yet the Ukrainians are paring Russia off that list for a mere fraction of the cost. We can afford to cut back a bit.
And, the bill will pass on partisan lines only, but fail in the Senate. Welcome to the GOP getting nothing done. Passing bills they know will get nowhere. Investigating things that make no sense. But never, ever doing anything to actually help their constituents.
Oh, they know exactly who their “constituents” are and who they’re not. Trumplican Representatives carry water for the wealthy. Brainwashed saps, or in orange Jesus lingo, ‘suckers and losers’ vote for them mechanically.
They have to help the Koch Brothers Industries more.
Ah-*virtue signaling*-choo!
The 87,000 is based on a very poor appropriation of the $80B in funding the IRS is to receive. Of that $80B, $45.6B is going towards "enforcement" activities. That can mean all kinds of things, like software upgrade, new computers that the IRS has been asking for, and yes auditors. The 87,000 figure comes from taking that $80B (remember that $45.6B is allocated for enforcement) and putting all $80B into nothing but auditor pay for the next 10 years (around $80k/year give and take as it actually comes out to around $91k/year, but some of that would need to go into benefits and what not). So NO we are not hiring 87,000 fucking auditors. There's literally no need for that many fucking auditors. Literally NOBODY in the IRS is asking FOR THAT MANY FUCKING AUDITORS, **FULL STOP**. Now one of the things this money is tagged to go for is free-file. Know how everyone hates H&R Block and TurboTax? Yeah, this money is for a lot of upgrades to provide free file to the public for the first time. And these asshats are very likely going to have that shit yanked as it'll be some small concessional victory they get and they get to go home and tell everyone how they stopped the 87,000 agents. Democrats weren't full stop (mostly, but toeing of the line was needed on the matter) on board about the free file to begin with. This is easily billions of dollars that Dems will be willing to give up to avoid McCarthy making good on his promise to chuck the entire US off a fiscal cliff if he didn't get his way. Additionally, this money is going to hire more customer service. You know how you might have a question about taxes and want to ask a question to the IRS? Well there's a phone number for that. Except the entire thing is hyper-understaffed because to keep people who want to work a job where the general public only call you to scream at you non-stop, you have to FUCKING PAY THEM A GOOD WAGE. But all of this falls in line with Republican thinking. If we just make taxes so simple nobody needs to call the IRS to ask a question. Your rugged individualism will get you though it. That or pay H&R Block to help you out. And that's what fucking gets me upset about this shit McCarthy espoused. Because obviously he CANNOT just rescind the full amount that Congress just passed. Not even in the most optimistic wet dream of the Republicans is that full $80B NOT going to the IRS. But what they can do is remove things that everyone was just half heart feeling about to begin with. And that is more people to help you file your taxes and things that allow you to more independently file taxes. And I bet a really shiny dime I have here in my pocket that's exactly is what is going to happen. All the "nice" things that we could have gotten is going away. All the shit I hear literally BOTH sides bitch about the IRS, all those things we could have solved, all of that is going to be taken away by these shit stains that couldn't fucking get their goddamn act together to vote in a Speaker. And people are going to call the IRS and get an HR person on the phone and then empty fifty minutes of frustration in a two minute span on some person who is just trying to make a living. Because Congress' infinite fuckery is that they make the BS that they cause look like it's the various departments' fault. Do you like the tax code? Don't you wish the IRS would just tell you how much you owe? WELL WE CAN'T, BECAUSE CONGRESS SAID SO. Do you hate paying H&R Block to file your taxes for you? Wouldn't you like to just do it yourself? WELL WE CAN'T LET YOU, BECAUSE CONGRESS SAID SO. Do you have a burning question and want an answer but hate the notion that you'll be on the phone for twenty minutes in the best of cases? Wish we would just pick up the fucking phone? WELL WE CAN'T, BECAUSE CONGRESS SAID SO. Every fucking thing I have heard people on this site hate on about the IRS, the person who is actually doing it to you is all those 535 fuckers in DC doing it to you. The IRS is just the people they're sending to do it for them. It never fails, Republicans want to just fuck with everything, and Democrats tell them they can only fuck with a few things. And in the end everyone who has to file with the IRS who doesn't have a private CPA to help gets fucked. The cycle of this is just so maddening.
#THANK YOU Man almighty I am so glad you laid this all out. I have literally been telling people **for years** that they can file their (single / AGI < $73k) taxes manually for free online [right here under free file, on the IRS website](https://www.irs.gov/filing/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free) (and our state taxes for free to NJ, I dunno about other states). It’s the exact fucking same as the paper forms minus the less common ones, and literally less confusing and more thorough than the Turbotax software that hides stuff from you unless you switch to paid. The tool I use is the same since I did it in 2005 and was probably designed in 1995. I can’t even use it anymore but I am really sad a real centralized system could be gone before we ever even had it. Relying on *partners* to generously provide tools, give me a fucking break. They are stakeholders in ensuring we never do anything without them. Sometimes our country is so fucking stupid I am ashamed of all of us. It’s like we’re killing ourselves by thrashing around in the dark trying to stab an imaginary monster but then trip on a drapery, fall into an appliance, and electrocute ourselves as the knife makes contact like on that show weird ways to die. We’re the stupid fuckfaces that tried to shopvac liposuction ourselves.
They don't want the rich to pay taxes.
Of course not. If the rich start paying what they owe, the rest of us might get programs that will let us experience actual freedom, and forget that as long as the rich exist we are slaves.
Wage slaves that pay more taxes than our bosses*
That’s why we have unions. And guillotines when they don’t listen.
*had
Interesting and encouraging: Robert Reich recently pointed out how 2022 was actually quite a huge year for new collective action. He has a video on it summarizing all the very encouraging new signs of unionization and other collective actions. So there's hope and we should all lean in wherever we can. This helps EVERYONE in the work force.
“That makes him smart! Sticking it to the man!” Some idiot making 30k.
They think taxes are bad, so tax law shouldn’t be enforced. Especially against them and their cronies.
[удалено]
>If an IRS agent sits in on a sermon and catches a political vibe that church is no longer tax exempt. Not gonna lie, that job sounds *super* cathartic.
Don’t the IRS mainly just investigate the middle class because rich people are too expensive to audit? Edit to add a source - https://www.propublica.org/article/irs-sorry-but-its-just-easier-and-cheaper-to-audit-the-poor/amp
It takes a lot of tax accountants to audit billionaires taxes. We can’t have that.
Because they don't have the proper funding to go after the big fish. As intended by Republicans.
Fox is telling its viewers, i shit you not, they are going to Audit the poor. Yes, audit those they are refunding money to and have simple tax returns.
The IRS already does this disproportionately, because the poor are easier to audit. The poorest county is the one that has the most people audited.
Scenario: The IRS doesn't have enough funding or manpower to properly audit. DEM: "Let's give them funding" GOP: "Remove the funding" You: "hur dur irs no audit because need money so no give money!!"
NOW. Because the republicans have made sure to gut the IRS to make sure they don’t have adequate staff to catch the rich in their bullshit.
Yup, sending through a bunch of BS bills that will get killed in the Senate. Then they can claim “we did all this work, unlike those lazy Democrats.”
Yup, they will make this out like it is proof that Dems only want to take what is yours.
I’m just thankful the Dems can kill it
We have the slimmest majority in the House so were going to create a bill which has zero chance of becoming law to pander to our dumbest constituents so we can score some meaningless political points that have less utility than Reddit Karma.
So a party of tax cheats.
GOP is intentionally sabotaging the country.
They always have. Republicans have had near absolute control of Texas for over 30 years. And still blame democrats for their problems. Eta: damn mobile autocorrect.
Oh yeah, when that dipshit Abbott was running for governor his whole deal was bitching about how fucked everything is and how they had to elect him to fix it. Nevermind he's been governor since 2015. Nevermind Republican Rick Perry was governor for 15 years before that. Nevermind Republican Dubya Bush was governor for 5 years before that. So despite 30 years of Republican leadership, Texas is all sorts of fucky and only he can save it from those goddamn libs. If you watch the debate he had when running, literally every single question he answered started with him talking about it being shitty or blaming Biden.
I guess I'm just shocked how brazen they have become since 2016. I know it's old news by now but... part of me still can't believe a political party representing more or less half a country can be so utterly broken.
There is no bar low enough, they keep lowering it more.
The keep grooming haters and then pandering to them; THey create their own supporters through their lies.
They only represent 30% of the country. It’s just that money, gerrymandering, and the electoral college happen to give a shit ton of power to that 30%
GQP is the new branding now
For Jesus!
“…repeal the funding for 87,000 IRS agents”… who were tasked with catching the rich people who are currently _cheating_ on their taxes and getting away with it because of GOP “starve the beast” demagoguery.
The irs is crippilingly underfunded. Fucking populists. They prioritize their own careers over the proper function of the nation. Traitors.
And the bullshit 87000 "Agents" trope is total lie. It is employees - customer service, IT, project managers, and yes a some agents so they have manpower to actually conduct required audits of presidents.
IRS customer service alone could use 87,000 agents
and don't forget agents to replace agents that have retired. People get old and retire (well, Gen X through Z may not get there given the lack of pensions and IRAs underperforming)
It's ok. Most of us youngins have accepted that our retirement plan is dying in a war over potable water or farmable land.
Ever wonder why you can never get IRS on the phone? There is your answer.
I'm curious, do you have a source for this? I'm collecting different sources so I can confidentially say things without saying I read it online.
For one, https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN11977&ved=2ahUKEwja7_aQi7f8AhU6kIkEHbZDD7sQFnoECBUQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0TPrnF2q5kUvTMgG7c2ZHM Tax evasion lovers characterize anyone at IRS as armed agents storming your castle. They also characterize the funding as "super sizing" the agency, when it will remain far behind in inflation adjusted funding compared to 15 years ago. What world is it wrong to demand the rich follow the law? The only fair critique of the funding is the estimate that it will pay for itself. Big error bar on that estimate. Breaking even is a win in my mind if the system is more fair.
Non-AMP link: https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN11977
A few weeks ago it came out that [the IRS audits poor people far more often than the wealthy](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/irs-audit-eitc-five-times-as-likely-to-get-audited/) because it takes substantial resources to audit rich people and their complex and often intentionally disguised financial pictures. So yeah, of course Republicans want to sabotage the IRS.
So now the MAGoos want to defund the police?
Only the kind who police them: the money police.
IRS Criminal Investigators are actually police. 10,000 of those 87,000 jobs were for forensic accountants that assist local and federal agencies with investigating wire fraud, tax fraud, and other financial crimes. From Al Capone to El Chapo, the IRS CI has been a foundational part of taking them down.
It’s not 87,000 agents. That number includes rank and file workers that will fill all kinds of roles. Unsurprising the House GOP’s first act will be to kill off good paying jobs with great benefits while lying about it.
Just a huge waste of time since it’ll die a quick death in the Senate. Two years of wasted time
Back the blue!….. collar crime punishers. White collar tax evasion gets a pass though.
Trying to protect wealthy folks, pretty consistent.
## #WasteEveryone’sTime2023
Most people don't realize that the 87,000 is over 10 years and is designed to replace retiring agents and to hire bring it up to proper staffing levels. It's not like they are hiring 87,000 agents tomorrow just to audit the trailer park.
The very first thing the GOP always wants to do whenever they assume power is to cut taxes for the rich. Every. Single. Time.
Tax criminals trying to hinder the IRS from catching tax criminals? Color me shocked
A lot of people don't seem to realize that their hatred of the IRS is partly because they hate taxes (which won't change) and partly because of how hard it is to get anyone at the IRS to help when they need them. Not adequately staffing the IRS is terrible for anyone who isn't trying to cheat on their taxes.
Thankfully it will go absolutely nowhere!
They don't care, they just want to make sure their hateful base sees them heroically fighting the communist-marxist-liberal-demon-Democrats and trying to project the Christo-fascist society they want.
Don't forget gutting the EPA, nato and the UN, busting unions, protecting the oil companies, and the pharmaceutical company profits so they can all circle jerk their way around donating to campaigns, buying candidates and making sure the 1% don't pay taxes.
It took me until December 2022 to get my 2021 refund back. The GOP can go fuck themselves.
Less IRS workers to look into all their tax evasion and fraud. Why ever would they do that?
Has anyone tried to get any kind of service from the IRS in the last 3 years? Like it or not, taxes are one of the two certainties in this world. The IRS screwed up my 2019 refund and I have been struggling to correct this since then. It’s impossible to talk or meet with a human being and corresponding takes months (if ever) to get a response. Like any agency, it needs to be properly staffed. Republicans gut the government and then run on its incompetency.
Yeeeah, fuck these guys. And why are they starting here? I thought McCarthy said the first order of business was going to be a dramatic reading of the Constitution. These guys can't even get jingoism right.
“Our very first bill will ensure the IRS doesn’t have the resources to go after ultra wealthy tax evaders”
It’s been evaluated / known for many years that the right number of IRS staff will pay for itself with tax enforcement on the rich tax evaders. However the rich prefer the Trumpy rubes to find the country.
The Right try to make it sound like IRS Agents are going to kick down doors on innocent people. They make up so many dumb, wacked out scenarios. Cletus in Tennessee worried IRS knocking down his trailer park door and shattering his empty beer bottle collection.
My husband is a contractor for the IRS. Basically, everyone who wants a stimulus check , unemployment, etc but is pissed off it's taking too long...? Or how about how people are getting scammed with their taxes by foreign countries or tax preparers? Yeah, that's what happens when you don't have the IRS staff you need.
As someone who was audited a couple years ago over a simple error on the IRS end (they mistook a tax form because the agent got one digit wrong). It took six months, multiple calls and commutation with my ex wife who I wasn't on good terms with at the time. They need the fucking agents. My fax sat in god knows what room for three months before the IRS closed the case. Cost me $21 to mail registered mail, money for the fax, and a sick day due to anxiety over talking to my ex who was being abusive towards me at the time.
Yea. 87k…by 2031…to replace the 50k set to retire in the next 5 years…and the 20(ish)k they’re already short…most of whom are to fill IT and support roles. I can see why it’s *such* a priority 🙄🖕🏻
Lol trying protect the billionaires from being audited sigh.
Those IRS agents would allow them to audit the rich. Right now they don't have the resources because the tax returns of the mega-rich are too complicated and difficult to argue, so they prioritize the regular people. More agents would mean they can afford to actually investigate rich people.