Street Fighter said:
pagerman @ work said:
AgNav93 said:
Teslag said:
Good.
Can't wait to see the heads explode here when Trump continues it if Putin doesn't play nice.
There are other ways to support Ukraine without emptying the treasury. For starters, Trump's energy policy should make oil prices go down. Shrinking a large part of the way Russia is funding this war. It might actually end it if Russia can't afford it.
"Emptying the Treasury". That's comical.
We're broke, there's nothing in the f'ng treasury but borrowed money.
Total spending on Ukraine for 2024 was $61.3 billion.
That amounts to 0.907% of federal spending for 2024.
Annual spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and interest on the debt (mandatory spending) account for the entirety of the tax revenue the US brings in annually. That means that every penny of the money it takes to fund the actual day-to-day operations of the government (i.e. what people think of as what the government "does") has to be borrowed.
The irony is that the actual functions of the government are now completely considered "discretionary".
If the entire US federal government ceased operations beyond mandatory spending for an entire year, we would not save a penny.
We don't have a government. We have a retirement/healthcare plan with a sizeable interest payment also.
Spending is the problem, but it isn't spending on Ukraine.
Mandatory spending (SS, Medicare, Medicaid) has to be addressed. There is no possible way that "cutting waste, bureaucracy and regulations" is going to make a dent in the spending crisis in facing the US government.
And Trump's only statement with regard to any mandatory spending item is that he wants to make SS tax free.
That's a revenue cut, not a spending cut.
"Well, it's a start."
No, it's not. Any discussion about fixing spending that does not start with significant changes to mandatory (i.e. entitlement) spending is utterly and completely worthless for anything other than cheap meaningless political points.
“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. It's inherent virtue is the equal sharing of miseries." - Winston Churchill