this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2025
539 points (99.8% liked)

politics

20340 readers
3435 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

880 billion dollar for would literally be eliminating Medicaid, hope everyone who voted trump and Republicans are good with this, especially those who are poor and have kids with special needs.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] sumguyonline 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's a very strange phenomenon, where people are doing things that appears to help them short term, while actually just screwing themselves entirely. Dooming their entire segment of the population because they simply don't have anyone standing there with violence on hand, telling them: NO! Pretty fucking weird, it would be like me, a dude angry from actions taken against me, harassing my neighbors by stealing their packages. It's definitely going to get the wrong kind of attention, and no ones gonna be on my side for doing it... That's what the GOP is doing. Fucking morons.

[–] sumguyonline 2 points 1 day ago

Trump specifically said medicare and medicaid will be protected at all expense. Just last week. We shall see.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago

A lot of people are going to die under this regime :/

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 days ago

The whole aim of the GOP is to benefit rich people. They're bought and paid for by the 1%. All of their culture war fear mongering is set up as a distraction from the fact that we're losing the class war.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 days ago (3 children)

The thing I don't really get is that we've got a few people on their way to being trillionaires. That's more money and assets than the human brain is capable of fathoming, I can guarantee it. What's even the point? Anything they could possibly want or need is provisioned for, they've got enough money to do all the fun little side projects their hearts desire, and they've still got far more money beyond that. They literally can't even give it away fast enough if they tried. What on earth is more tax breaks for the wealthy going to achieve, even for the wealthy? It just feels pointlessly evil at this point.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] GoofSchmoofer 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's a mental illness that is worshiped by an unfortunately large population of people.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Right. It's just hoarding, but it's money, so it's ok apparently?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Remember that those evil billionaires don't actually care about the money itself. If they did, they would have stopped at $100 million or some much lower number, because that's already more money than anyone could ever spend. To them it's about power, prestige, and control. They are addicts, and they'll never give up the chance for more.

[–] mhague 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think they're like mold or cancer cells, or even a fire. You can't decide to be a billionaire just like a plant species can't decide to grow in crack in the pavement. It's a system of interactions that decides that. Pure chance and a lot of failures that had as much right to succeed as any other.

Billionaires are byproducts of our system weaved into a physical human body. It has a human life to confuse you and camouflage what it really is. It has a human brain and human emotions to generate reasons why it deserves to exist. It looks and feels like a person.

Reminds me of mandrakes from Harry Potter. They scream like they're alive but they're just there to be harvested.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago

Reminds me of mandrakes from Harry Potter. They scream like they're alive but they're just there to be harvested.

Funnily enough, this is exactly how billionaires view us.

[–] MuskyMelon 5 points 2 days ago

Hurt the poor and reward the rich?

Mission Accomplished!!!

/s

[–] 2ugly2live 17 points 2 days ago

Thanks for catching up to the rest of the class. 🙄

[–] [email protected] 108 points 3 days ago (7 children)

Why is everyone surprised? This what republicans wanted. This is what they campaigned for. If you haven't been listening carefully for the past few years, this is exactly what they've always wanted.

This is no surprise.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 3 days ago (1 children)

my fellow americans are various forms of illiterate.

[–] NatakuNox 20 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Willfully ignorant. They know they'll never reach whatever passes for the American dream these days. But as long as people with darker skin are hurt more they'll be happy to watch wealthy people on TV. **Voyeur Capitalism ** is what I call it.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] CharlesDarwin 14 points 3 days ago

for the past few years

This has been the Republican project for decades.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] orclev 67 points 3 days ago

Don't worry, they'll destroy a lot more than that. The entire US economy is about to be absolutely shredded.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm almost 40 and my whole life I've always known I would NEVER see a dime I paid into social security or medicare or anything taken from taxes. 30% of my life robbed because old greedy people are always in charge and can't see beyond their last 2 years on earth at all times.

[–] Kyrgizion 55 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

It's worse than that. If wages had kept pace with productivity (thanks Reagan), we would have been working 2-3 day workweeks at full wages for over twenty years by now.

They literally stole over half of our lives. That amounts to class genocide.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 days ago

yeah, we know.

but thanks anyway to the economists for making it official with numbers.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 days ago (8 children)

I have family members who moved from state to state around 20 years ago until they found one that would approve their disability statuses so they no longer had to work and would qualify for the whole smorgasbord of government assistance programs including medicaid.

They think most people who are receiving these benefits are just lazy and that there would be more money for people like themselves who need that money if these programs were slashed. They believe only those other (i.e. lazy) people will lose benefits.

There's literally no reasoning with that mentality. They seem to think this is all entertaining.

I guarantee you that once they are personally affected, and I'm pretty sure they will be affected at some point, they'll turn on this administration.

I have many problems with this, but the hardest pill to swallow is that I'm going to have to be the bigger person and accept them with open arms because at the end of the day there's no stopping this unless we're all united.

[–] brucethemoose 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I guarantee you that once they are personally affected, and I’m pretty sure they will be affected at some point, they’ll turn on this administration.

Will they?

What are their news habits? Facebook? Cable TV? Are they politically active?

A root cause of all this is that scamming/influencing is extremely effective with modern tech, especially on vulnerable people. If something bad happens, they will just get pushed down the rabbit hole waiting to suck them in.

Nothing will change until that’s regulated away, which is not going to happen now that The owners of Twitter and Truth Social are president, and Meta has their ear.

[–] Doomsider 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Public assistance does not pay anything but poverty wages. Certainly not enough to move from state to state shopping for the best food stamps and Medicaid deals. While I don't disagree with your judgement of their character I do take issue with "smorgasborg" of government assistance.

Adult public assistance, SNAP, Temporary Assistance for needy families are all very limited. They are resource tested and income approved as well. Not to mention work requirements for any cash assistance except APA. BTW APA benefits are usually around $400-600 a month. Sounds very lucrative considering it is designed to supplement people making less that $1,200 a month in Social Security Benefits.

Anyone who has had to apply for disability knows it is a crap shoot as well. It is common for people to apply over the course of several years before being approved for an amount no human can live off of without subsidized housing. That is if they can even find subsidized housing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

If my statement could be interpreted in any way congruent to your first paragraph, then there's clearly been a significant degree of miscommunication and/or misunderstanding.

I've reread my statement and there's no mention of shopping around for the best deal, so I'm going to chalk that one up to you misunderstanding what I wrote. As for the use of smorgasbord, I understand that it might suggest abundance in some way, though in my part of the world it generally conveys the concept of variety more so than abundance. Either way I chalk that up to miscommunication on my part.

[–] Doomsider 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I appreciate your candor about your family members and your illustration of their hypocrisy.

My reply was just to clarify the reality of getting disability and public assistance. You definitely have misconceptions starting with saying your family members moved from state to state until they got their disability status approved.

Disability is approved through Social Security, there is no need or advantage to moving state to state. It is okay to have misperceptions of disability and public assistance. It is pretty normal actually.

I happen to help people navigate these systems everyday for a living. I was working with this woman today whose total income was less than $600 a month.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It doesn't matter one way or the other, but there's either some manner of miscommunication / misunderstanding going on here or that's not completely accurate / applicable to the relatives I mentioned.

For instance, I found this:

ten states that use their own eligibility guidelines are even stricter than the SSA. Moving to one of these states could result in a denial of Medicaid coverage

A couple of things to note: I did actually look around a bit and found multiple sources that suggest the same, just that the one I linked to said it most concisely and one of the states my relatives lived in is on that list. Obviously I'm not claiming that those sources are more accurate than your professional expertise, and I'm aware that just because it's on the internet doesn't make it true. Also, wanted to reiterate that this happened decades ago, which makes me wonder if things could have been a little different back then.

[–] Doomsider 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I appreciate your interest and research in this matter. When it comes to disability this determination is done at the Federal level through social security. This is how people get disability cash payments which is what most people think of when they say they get "disability".

While you are correct that individual states may have different means testing for SNAP, Medicaid, APA, etc. all cash benefits are mostly tied to this disability determination. Generally all states have strict income and resources limitations and in the case of TANF/SNAP also have work requirements. TANF is also limited to 60 months total in your lifetime.

All this money is usually from Federal sources although states will often be required to match funds. This is also why the rules are very similar since they are often dictated by the Federal government.

There really is no misunderstanding as you yourself admit it happened long ago and the details are murky at best. This is what I would call family mythology and helps to inform your world view. I was just pointing out that there is some inconsistency with this view.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I hope they get what they voted for. And I will NEVER accept them. They made this mess, it’s on their shoulders, pocketbooks, and well-beings to fix it.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] Raiderkev 37 points 3 days ago

Republicans - Yes, that was the plan.

[–] RememberTheApollo_ 8 points 2 days ago

It’s not a bug, it’s a feature of reinforcing the hierarchy the conservatives all believe in.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 days ago (3 children)

41% of births and the biggest portion of maternity care are covered under Medicaid. Highest is Louisiana at 64%. Combine this with abortion restrictions and potential loss of access to labor and miscarriage related drugs and you're looking at lots more dead pregnant people, dead fetuses, and dead infants and far fewer rural hospitals handling any sort of reproductive care.

[–] inclementimmigrant 26 points 3 days ago

Because Republicans think that that 64% is mostly black and brown people getting a handout.

[–] Webster 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Don't worry, many people in those situations will blame Obamacare when they get the bill (Edit: \s on the don't worry. Do worry, because this will absolutely happen)

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

This is precisely the outcome that they desire.

Almost certainly, it shall be achieved.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] CharlesDarwin 30 points 3 days ago

Isn't that the entire GOP platform, in a nutshell?

Sure, they have to throw red meat to racist dumbasses to get them to vote for them...

[–] Treczoks 7 points 2 days ago

Normal GOP budget.

[–] blattrules 20 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Removing regulations and dismantling the government doesn’t help anyone but the rich.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Same is it ever was.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 days ago (3 children)

They say that as if destroying programs that benefit the common people and instituting policies that benefit the 1% are some sort of unexpected consequences rather than the exact and explicit point.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] ToiletFlushShowerScream 14 points 3 days ago (2 children)

What happened to "The American Way" that Superman was fighting for? Would he be ashamed now?

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›