It's not worth making this point anymore. Bannon et al have been explicit for decades now they want to destroy the federal government. It's ideological, that's it quite simply.
All these discussions about efficiency, even more so the debt given they just blew up the debt to never before seen levels just shows that sincerity is not deserved when talking to Rs.
Well there's also just the "own the libs durrrrr!" crowd.
Politics has become a sports game. I lack confidence in a good chunk of the population to vote in their best interests, perhaps democracy isn't the right way. Or voting on something should require an exam on the subject.
> I lack confidence in a good chunk of the population to vote in their best interests
That's because for a long time the political system in the US insulated people from the consequences of their decisions. A dum-dum state government from Idaho could vote to slash education and healthcare spending, but the Federal government had always been there to provide a backstop. Whatever the local idiots decide, Social Security, SNAP, Medicare were always there to provide at least _some_ safety net. (and the easy migration within the US helped a lot to alleviate local issues, which is now also gone)
The political system in the US has also always been biased towards conservatism, making any changes difficult. For better or worse. That's how the extremely toxic meme that "both parties are the same" was born.
That's also how political orientation became a part of the identity for many people: "My family has always been voting for Republicans/Democrats".
Now it's all gone. Dum-dum Republicans are destroying the safety net at the Federal level, and they are doing it in a way that will start hurting people within years. Not decades down the line. For once, people will get to experience direct consequences of their vote. And this is the silver lining in this whole mess.
>For once, people will get to experience direct consequences of their vote. And this is the silver lining in this whole mess.
They may experience consequences, but they sure won't care about any consequences so long as they still believe that "demonrats" are systematically raping babies. They'll endure any consequence as long as they think their team is punishing the libs.
the second someone like Trump gets hold of a voter exam setting process, they're either going to abuse it to their advantage, or abolish it entirely, after having used it as a wedge issue to set the working classes against "elites"
also, in the US, taking exams in order to vote is a massively sensitive issue as it was one of the ways that blacks were restricted from voting even when they legally had the right
more technically, where do you draw the line? if it's too easy, you're going to insult people without even getting the desired effect. if it's too hard, then the demographic will skew towards people who work in the industries affected by the policy. for a second that sounds good, and when it comes to something like culture or maybe health, then sure, but there are many industries that would burn the world to the ground if it ensured them 20% annual growth. can you imagine if the only people able to vote on financial regulations were people who know a lot about finance? there'd be famines within the year
I don’t know why the number of employees is a problem when the reduction is offset by instead contracting out that work and just needing to also pay middlemen for that work. It’s the worst of both worlds.
I think GP's point is that it's achingly difficult to believe anyone at this point still buys into the "efficiency" bullshit. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me 20 times...
The "ecosystem" of polticial knowledge is balkanized in the U.S. (and elsewhere). "Making points" to those who are subscribed to a narrative fed from propaganda will not learn what they are told is not true. But noting causative "they say it's 'X', but it's actually 'Y'" feels more like simply properly labeling the information.
It absolutely is worse for one party more than the other. Clinton was the last President to balance the budget. Bush II and Trump made it far worse than any Democrat
Are you really saying that Clinton didn’t balance the budget that Bush II undid and that Trump’s latest “Big Beautiful Bill” is projected to add 3 trillion to the budget on top of what he did in 2017?
"The U.S. budget deficit exploded in fiscal year 2009, ultimately reaching $1.4 trillion under President George W. Bush...The deficit would remain above $1 trillion throughout the 2012 fiscal year, but it was slashed to as low as $440 billion in the later years of Obama's presidency."
Comparing Biden to GWB doesn't make any sense. Their presidencies were 12 years apart and in very different circumstances.
What do you propose to replace those institutions? The needs thereof do not go away. For-profits in the private sector? Are they going to be feeding Gazans?
You don’t fix a house’s plumbing by detonating a bomb under the foundation.
Privatizing government institutions won't do anything to help, but it is nonetheless the case that the American government has a large amount of responsibility for what's going on. The reason why American companies cannot simply sell food to Gaza is because the government of Israel controls access to Gaza and the government of America supports them in this.
Without the American government's various anti-BDS laws, it would be much easier for American organizations to apply pressure to Israel to stop their genocide. Furthermore, without the American government providing support for Israel, they'd be in a much tighter spot and would face significantly stronger incentives to stop.
…sell food to Gaza? The people of Gaza have little way to buy food right now. Gaza does not possess a hoard of wealth to trade to private companies for food et al, just lying in wait for Israel’s violence to cease.
I agree that the American government is complicit but private industry is no less complicit.
Capital wants to remove the population of Gaza and turn it into beachside real estate. This much has been said out loud by the very people who are acting to hollow out the government.
The economic circumstance of Gaza is a consequence of Israel's genocidal policies, and removing the population of Gaza is the goal of Israel, not ""Capital"".
Smack down Israel and their American sycophants and food and investments will both start flowing into Gaza.
The federal government is 36 trillion in debt. How do you run things worse than that? No private company or citizen would survive blowing up their finances as bad as what the federal government has been doing for decades.
I'm inclined to see quite a bit of agency in the hands of both the US and Israel. The US absolutely can and should be doing more to pressure their ally, who they provide both very significant monetary and diplomatic support to.
All these discussions about efficiency, even more so the debt given they just blew up the debt to never before seen levels just shows that sincerity is not deserved when talking to Rs.