US 2024 Presidential Election

Schadrach

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No it's not, that would be political suicide.
You could say the same about Medicaid, but a court injunction is the only reason Medicaid monthly grant disbursements got paid on time for January. Like, seriously, in my state the Governor called an emergency meeting with state Medicaid staff to try to figure out how to operate without 2/3 of their funding in case the injunction didn't stand. And now Musk is talking about wanting to remove judges the GOP opposes...
 

Phoenixmgs

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And much the same, I'm sure you'd be here offering excuses and quibbles if he dismantled social security.
Nope.

You could say the same about Medicaid, but a court injunction is the only reason Medicaid monthly grant disbursements got paid on time for January. Like, seriously, in my state the Governor called an emergency meeting with state Medicaid staff to try to figure out how to operate without 2/3 of their funding in case the injunction didn't stand. And now Musk is talking about wanting to remove judges the GOP opposes...
Wasn't the Medicaid freeze a mistake?

You can say what you want, it's not like the judge could get removed without going through official processes. If I were to follow the left's logic, how dare an unelected official have so much power!
 

Agema

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No worries. Private, profit-motivated orgs like the Cha Zuckerberg Initiative will pick up the slack.
Overheads, as far as I can tell, often involve a certain amount of... let's call it "padding": overestimates of costs in way that universities and research institutes can make profit out of research.

On the other hand, overheads also to some extent reflect genuine costs. If a University is running a building to do research in, people funding that research need to pay some of the upkeep and maintenance. If the suggestion is that Universities should take a loss for the research they do, then, broadly, Universities will stop doing research.
 
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Schadrach

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Wasn't the Medicaid freeze a mistake?
End all federal grant disbursements. No, we didn't mean those ones now that we've been told by other GOP politicians that none of them will ever get reelected if we destroy Medicaid!

If I were to follow the left's logic, how dare an unelected official have so much power!
This was literally a right wing talking point right up until 2025. Unelected bureaucrats wielding uncontrolled influence to destroy the country was literally the argument behind "drain the swamp", at least until Trump has his own pet unelected bureaucrat given even more power than is normally invested in the civil service with a specific goal of dismantling parts of the civil service, effectively at his whim. Literally an unelected bureaucrat wielding uncontrolled influence to destroy the country. Apparently, we needed to drain the swamp to make room for the troll.
 
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Agema

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The short answer is that Trump sees tariffs as a threat to get other countries to do what he wants, but is also too stupid/unaware to know if they are already doing that.
I'd also suggest that Trump launching these tariffs is an implicit admission that his trade wars and renegotiations from his previous administration were a failure.

End all federal grant disbursements. No, we didn't mean those ones now that we've been told by other GOP politicians that none of them will ever get reelected if we destroy Medicaid!
This is the plan.

Essentially, via DOGE Trump has handed the government to private equity bosses and this is right out of their playbook. It's what Musk did with Twitter. One of the key goons he's installed is Tom Krause, and he did this to Citrix. Effectively, gut everything, and if something breaks, put the bare minimum back in to prevent a collapse. This sort of thing is, for instance, a reason the USA has loads of fucked hospitals (because it's particularly good to target something no-one can do without).

One has to suspect it is likely there will be - as very often happens with this tactic - a substantial drop in the US government's ability to handle all sorts of functions.
 

Agema

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Well, duh. Trump's going to put one of his sons in the big chair (no election necessary). Every emperor needs a dynasty!
Actually, I don't think so, and there's a much simpler explanation.

Imagine you are narcissistic, power-hungry, transactional shitbag who wants everything to revolve around you. You don't do stuff for other people for free: you make them offer you something or beg for favours. Trump will thus endorse who offers him the best deal and or bends the knee the most.

I am also sure that Trump cannot help but wonder if he can remain in power in 2028. At a certain level he knows he can't Constitutionally, but he obviously wants to. If he can't make anything happen to keep the presidency, he will certainly want to try to make the new president as beholden to him as possible.
 
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Chimpzy

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Phoenixmgs

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No worries. Private, profit-motivated orgs like the Cha Zuckerberg Initiative will pick up the slack.
That means more money will go towards actual science.


End all federal grant disbursements. No, we didn't mean those ones now that we've been told by other GOP politicians that none of them will ever get reelected if we destroy Medicaid!



This was literally a right wing talking point right up until 2025. Unelected bureaucrats wielding uncontrolled influence to destroy the country was literally the argument behind "drain the swamp", at least until Trump has his own pet unelected bureaucrat given even more power than is normally invested in the civil service with a specific goal of dismantling parts of the civil service, effectively at his whim. Literally an unelected bureaucrat wielding uncontrolled influence to destroy the country. Apparently, we needed to drain the swamp to make room for the troll.
So then why are ya'll worried about social security?

I don't really care who's talking point it is. It's stupid, regardless of who does it, to say "how dare unelected officials having so much power!" Our system is setup that way to elect representatives to the government to make such appointments.
 

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Schadrach

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So then why are ya'll worried about social security?
It's one of the biggest budget items, and as such is a juicy target. But it's also super important to a huge chunk of their base, which means they can't do anything to it unless and until they don't need old folks voting for them to stay in power any more.