Bobby Kogan

Oh, is that bad?

The $2.5 trillion and the $7.4 trillion are the respective 10-year total increases above Obama levels, 2027-2036 (so like the conceptual equivalent of a CBO score)

After adjusting for inflation, the defense budget this year is $217 billion above when Obama left office. Over a decade, the increase would total ~$2.5 trillion in ⬆️ defense.

Trump wants to further boost that another $450 billion a year for a total defense boost of $7.4 trillion above Obama levels.

The biggest problem here is that in basically every way Donald Trump could try to rock the boat on the economy, he has. Trade wars, mass deportation, oil price surges, etc., the man has been working to destabilize things.

This is absolutely right. What I'd say is that the labor market has continued to show significant weakness and there is worry it's not strong enough to weather significant shocks — like for instance a huge spike in gas prices stemming from an immoral war in Iran, along with mass deportation efforts.

Jobs report uniformly weak: 92K jobs lost (with job losses in almost every industry), household survey employment down too, unemployment rate up to 4.4%, participation down, avg weekly hours flat.

Main sign in the other direction was strong wage growth.

Apparently the White House is shooting for just below zero hiring

NEC Director Kevin Hassett just said, positively, about the jobs loss: “on net, it’s almost a wash”

This is a real video from the official White House account on a war that is currently killing people. I don’t know how the US is going to come back from this.
The post was “JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY. 🇺🇸 🔥”

Job losses started after Liberation Day

We were definitely liberated from something

Great thread from Chuck

Democrat’s plan would eliminate federal income taxes for half of U.S. workers Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s tax relief plan could benefit tens of millions of middle-class workers, with a focus on those making at or below a living wage.

The latest Democratic affordability proposal–this one from Senator Van Hollen– was previewed in the Washington Post by @jeffstein.bsky.social this morning. While we don’t have all the details, it seems like a case of good intentions but some problematic results www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

[Exit Murderer.]

We should not be remotely surprised that the person who kills animals and who likens humans to animals mistreats and sometimes kills humans. Good riddance.

After adjusting for inflation, military funding this year will be 26% larger than under Obama's last year. That's more than $200 billion more for the military this year than when Obama left office.

$1 billion could give 120,000 people free tuition for a two-year Associate’s Degree, or it could provide free child care for a year for $71,000 kids. That’s the cost of this war every single day.

Steve King 9 @SteveKinglA + Follow Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny. We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies. ESTERN ILIZATION Voice of Europe @V_of_Europe Hundreds of Islamists shouting "Allahu Akbar" in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Wilders is right for over 10 years. #turkijerel RETWEETS LIKES 516 688 10:40 AM - 12 Mar 2017 from lowa, USA

I'm teaching about early 20th century eugenics today and was reminded that 9 years ago Republican Representative Steve King was stripped of his committee assignments by his GOP colleagues for this post that simply states what is now bog standard GOP policy/rhetoric on immigration and "civilization."

Jar jar joker meme wesa live in a galaxy

Why should Santa Clara subsidize Trinity? Why should rich neighborhoods in Santa Clara subsidize poor ones? Why should rich blocks in rich neighborhoods subsidize poor ones? Why should rich neighbors subsidize poor neighbors? Why should the rich subsidize the poor at all? Because we’re all human.

More people are on Medicaid than Social Security or Medicare, and yet Medicaid just got the largest cuts in history while the same president is out there pledging to never touch Social Security or Medicare. There’s a reason for that.

Programs are safer from cuts when we all contribute.

To clarify, I'm talking about our bifurcated funding system. Everyone pays into Medicare & SS, so those don't get cut

It's everything else, which just got huge cuts, that I'm worried about. If we further make it so the folks who need SNAP, Medicaid, etc., don't contribute, they become easier to cut

Taxes aren't primarily a punishment for people we dislike. They are a mechanism to fund the programs that make the country less unfair. The govt lifts more than 30 million people out of poverty each year. We can and should do better than that, and we need tax revenue for that.

To this point, one of the things that protects Medicare and Social Security from cuts is the recognition that we all fund them. We fund the govt, so we've all earned the services it provides through our labor. It's our money.

The more we hollow out our contributions, the easier to cut programs.

Jar jar joker meme wesa live in a galaxy

Aside from the raw math, we just don’t want our society set up this way. We want a society where we’re all contributing, and we’re all benefiting, like how we fund Medicare and Social Security, not one where we’re somehow convinced ourselves that the middle class can’t contribute a dime.

Using up some of the limited revenue we have at the very top on tax cuts is not what we should be doing. That money should be used on things like child care, pre-k, housing, food, health care, etc., or hell, I dunno, reversing Trump's historic cuts to SNAP and Medicaid.

Not on tax cuts.

Roughly half of U.S. workers wouldn’t pay taxes under Democrat’s plan Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s tax relief plan could benefit tens of millions of middle-class workers, with a focus on those making at or below a living wage.

Very unfortunately, a very rare L from Senator Van Hollen. We cannot continue to hollow out the tax base if we want to be able to fund the programs that will make our country less unfair. There simply isn't enough money only at the top. If we wanna look like Europe, we have to tax like Europe.

CNN: More than 1,000 civilians killed in Iran since war began, rights group reports By Helen Regan More than 1,000 people, including children, have been killed in Iran since the war began on Saturday, according to US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). The rights group said as of Tuesday afternoon ET, at least 1,097 civilians had been killed, including 181 children. More than 5,400 civilians, including 100 children, have been injured, HRANA reported. The group said its report is preliminary and is veritying hundreds more reported deaths.

At least 1,097 civilians had been killed in Iran so far, including 181 children.

follow ryan

Gas prices jump

Thinking back, way back, to the State of the Union, when Trump bragged about gas prices being low (picture unrelated)

Donald J. Trump @realDonald Trump The United States Munitions Stockpiles have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better - As was stated to me today, we have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons. Wars can be fought "forever," and very successfully, using just these supplies (which are better than other countries finest arms!). At the highest end, we have a good supply, but are not where we want to be. Much additional high grade weaponry is stored for us in outlying countries. Sleepy Joe Biden spent all of his time, and our Country's money, GIVING everything to P.T. Barnum (Zelenskyy!) of Ukraine - Hundreds of Billions of Dollars worth - And, while he gave so much of the super high end away (FREE!), he didn't bother to replace it. Fortunately, rebuilt the military in my first term, and continue to do so. The United States is stocked, and ready to WIN, BIG!!! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP

Trump, in an attempt to undercut the leaks saying we’re running low on munitions, says we can fight wars forever on our current supply level.

Completely undercuts the need for supplemental war funding they’re about to ask for (that Dems should reject).

Setting aside the specifics of this particular b.s., Democrats have to be more alert to the fact that there are prob. north of $10 trillion in unrealized gains among the top .1% and R officials are going to be looking for ways to let those gains get wiped out @ low tax cost before Ds can tax them.