Comment on What did Musk and Trump fall out over?
Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 1 day agoThe bill give massive tax cuts to the extremely rich, and it attempts to pay for part of that by:
- kicking many low income and disabled people off of federally funded health insurance
- closes poor rural hospitals that depend on Medicaid money
- cutting subsidies for manufacturing jobs that make emerging green tech, like EVs
- food and child care assistance will disappear for many poor families.
- and there is a bunch of weird little sneaky things hidden in it that people hope don’t get noticed because the bill is 200+ pages
When you do the math, the rich will get a lot of money, the very poor will have lose money, the and middle class will break even but many will be put on unemployment.
And it costs an extra $4,000,000,000,000, which is fucking bonkers.
LadyButterfly@lazysoci.al 1 day ago
This sounds ludicrously bad. What are the perceived benefits? How is it being sold to peopl? It sounds abysmal
10001110101@lemm.ee 7 hours ago
From the people I know, who do depend on these programs and like Trump, they don’t believe they will have their benefits reduced. The think the other people, “taking advantage” of the system will be kicked off. It’s being sold as reducing fraud and abuse. The right-wing has been pushing this framing for decades, and many people have bought into it.
LadyButterfly@lazysoci.al 4 hours ago
Yes that’s true. And most people agree fraudulently claiming benefits is wrong
10001110101@lemm.ee 1 hour ago
Yeah, that’s how they sell it. Problem is, studies have shown the fraud in these programs isn’t much of an expense, in the broader context. And, Trump has granted clemency to Lawrence Duran, who stole $205M from Medicare, which tells you they don’t really care about that. These programs are actually pretty efficient, and spending funds to investigate small-time fraud would often cost more than just letting it happen. It’s not like tons of people wish to be on our shitty social programs that don’t even supply enough help for the people that absolutely need it.
butwhyishischinabook@lemmy.world 1 day ago
A lot of people still buy into trickle down economics despite consistently not working for the several decades we have tried it and reflexively support tax cuts for the wealthy reflexively. A lot of those same people also think that kicking people off of what they consider to be “welfare” will somehow magically result in those people quickly becoming employed, thinking that the reason they aren’t employed is because they aren’t facing serious enough consequences for unemployment.
grue@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It has literally never worked, even over a century ago when it was called “horse and sparrow economics,” and it never will.
Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I guess the big argument is that giving a bunch of money to the wealthy will stimulate the economy. Although, that’s an argument that many nations, including the US, have 50 years of data on, and there isn’t much to support that argument. Trickle down economics hasn’t been shown to work.
I also, if you’re in the camp that doesn’t believe in climate change and or thinks poor people are poor because of character flaws, then you probably like this thing. Or if you’re a wealthy person who donated a lot of money to republican politicians, you probably like this thing, because it’s a return on investment.
It’s not particularly great. Many people on the right only voted for it because they’re afraid Trump will primary them, and end their political careers, if they oppose.
grue@lemmy.world 1 day ago
FTFY