So there was this little program that I read about on Reddit the year before or the first year of COVID (in the USA) called the “Affordable Connectivity Program”.
If you were poor enough or already qualified/signed up for some other government assistance programs, the program would reduce your internet bill by about 20~30 dollars a month. Last year, it seems like Congress decided not to extend funding to this program.
But 95 Billion bucks for Ukraine and Israel instantly passes, just to set the money on fire.
Also TikTok ban. Don’t forget the TikTok ban
But 95 Billion bucks for Ukraine and Israel instantly passes
Instantly? The Ukraine part took over 6 months and forced at least one, and perhaps two, changes in leadership in the House of Representatives. It was about as contentious as it could possibly be and still get done.
The funding for Israel was a whole different story.
That shit slapped, my family had free internet, and my own was finally a manageable price. But now it’s back up to over $70 a month
I have a friend who’s mom passed away last year. He is still working through her taxes, but he had to deal with the IRS going back to a 2020 settlement his mom had with the IRS about her 401k for that year. Long story short, he had to pay $27 to settle up with them, which was interest that they forgot to calculate. At today’s pay rates I think I can unequivocally say that someone at the IRS spent more than $27 worth of time to collect this on a 4 year old transaction with a now deceased person, but like you said, with no questions asked or accountability required we just toss billions of dollars over to another country. Yet we are literally harassing our own populace for their dead relatives $27…
They can, but the issue is that increasingly larger portion of the budget is allocated to debt payments reducing overall operating budget.
Only because they sell bonds to make up the deficit. They don’t have to do that.
They don’t, but that’s what they do in practice.
This is a bit tangential, but a part of me is pleased that leftists and Marxists are adopting some of these basic chartalist monetary principles. When I dove into the MMT world for a brief period a few years ago, my basic takeaway was that their analysis of the state and money isn’t far off the mark, but they have a severely underdeveloped class consciousness. The end call to action - at least from the liberal voices within that ideological space - was always “well if we educate people about all this, then they can go harder, and we can finally have funding for healthcare and education”
very much agree
its amazing how debt is only ever brought up during democratic regimes… when the dems are in power its 'oh noes all the debt, whatever will we do! must cancel all social programs and increase military!"
but when conservatives are in charge, the debt does not exist , and its time for tax cuts for rich people, and expanding the military.
Oh no, the United States may one day have to repay a debt measured in United States dollars, whatever shall we do
print more money and devalue the currency obviously
I’m generally on the “money isn’t real and debt is just one of a myriad of excuses that dems use to not do something,” but even in marxist economics, “national debt” isn’t able to increase forever without collapsing the monetary system. I don’t know the full effects of that occurring, but I’m sure that the people benefiting from it right now, will be the least affected by the monetary system collapsing.
the US can only keep themselves ‘rich’ because they own the global currency
And now we’re seeing countries increasingly moving away from the dollar which directly shrinks the size of the financial system US controls.
and the us populace is the one paying for that.
that’s how empires implode
The national debt has always been an imaginary bugbear. When compared against rates of inflation and the increasing gross tax revenue–it’s been a while since I’ve run these numbers–the national debt amounts to something similar to a car loan. It would take about five years to pay off and that chunk of it does get paid off. In those intervening five years, the nation acquires another “car-loan” of debt proportional to the rate of inflation and the rate of increasing tax revenue.
This analysis isn’t considering the trustworthiness of the United States’ credit. That’s another conversation.
so this is Reagan’s fault?
I don’t understand
