FIRE DA BUMS!!!

Posted on by under education, Environmental Issues, Global Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Rants

So, Congress has yet again passed a bill to avert a government shutdown just as they’ve done every year for the past umpteen years … it’s become a joke … wait ‘til the last minute to get your act together and people will praise you while they ignore what you’ve actually produced.  Ho-hum. Yesterday evening, the Senate passed the $1.5 trillion spending bill that the House had passed earlier this week.  $1.5 TRILLION!!!  That is 30 million times what the average wage earner earns!  The first thing that galls me is that the Democrats in the House caved on the issue of helping people when they dropped the $15.6 billion in COVID relief funding that included money for research and development of treatments and vaccines.  When the next surge hits, the next variant arises from the ashes, they may regret that decision, but it was said that the Republicans wouldn’t seriously consider the bill as long as those provisions were part of it.  But they damn sure found it in their shriveled little hearts to include a number of other things, including pay raises for themselves!!!

The bill calls for an increase in funding for congressional offices by 21%, to $774.4 million!  What the Sam Hell have any of our not-so-illustrious members of Congress done to deserve a pay raise?  It would also provide $602.5 million for the Capitol Police, an increase of $87 million. This will allow for the hiring of up to 2,112 sworn officers and 450 civilian members of the Capitol Police.  Now, while I have tremendous respect for the Capitol Police, especially after January 6th of last year, they wouldn’t need an additional 2,000+ officers if the Republicans, led by TFG (the former guy), stopped encouraging radical nudniks to overthrow the government!

The bill also calls for a $675 million increase for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to “improve customer service”!!!  WTF … the IRS doesn’t do ‘customer service’ … they are a strongarm agency, and the intent is to intimidate, to squeeze out of taxpayers every dime they can, not to serve!  I applied for a job with the IRS once shortly after earning my B.A. in Accounting and was told that I was “too nice” to work for them!  And why do they need $12.6 billion, the total amount awarded to the IRS in the spending bill, to run an agency that does no more today than it ever did?

$75 million will go for ‘election security’, money to be given to the states to help them enforce their voter restrictions so that only Republicans can win elections from now on!  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

The increase that raises my hackles the most, though, is the increase in military spending.  The U.S. already has the highest military budget of any nation on the globe!  The United States spends more on national defense than China, India, Russia, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, Italy, and Australia — combined.

All those damned tanks, guns, missiles — tools designed only to KILL people aren’t going to do one damned thing to help the people of this country!  We already have enough weapons to end all life on the entire planet!!!  We the People need things that will help us … food, shelter, clothing, education, medical care … but nooooooo … our tax dollars have to go to support a glutinous military complex, most of which cannot even be used for fear of starting the “war to end all wars”.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Meanwhile, such things as providing funds to help people out of poverty received no increase, no mention.  The U.S. has one of the highest child poverty rates in the world …

But instead of focusing on helping the people of this nation, Congress is more intent on giving themselves pay increases and buying more ‘boys toys’ for the military to brag about!

There is also $13.6 billion in aid to Ukraine … I applaud this one and would have been appalled had it not been included.

At a whopping 2,741 pages, no I have not read the bill in its entirety but rather a few summaries.  However, if you are interested, you can read it if you’ve got the time and patience.   Meanwhile, I am thoroughly disgusted by members of both parties in Congress … people whose salaries WE pay and who just gave themselves a pay raise that WE DID NOT grant them!  Why would we raise their pay when they’ve accomplished almost nothing for years now???  They couldn’t even protect our rights to vote!!!  The Republicans are just asses who pander to big business and the wealthy at our expense, and Democrats are wusses who will cave to the demands of the Republicans!  If my voice reached further, I would try to start a tax revolution … stop paying income taxes until Congress hears us and actually listens!  We pay and pay and pay, and we get very damn little in return.  FIRE DA BUMS!!!

28 thoughts on “FIRE DA BUMS!!!”

  1. 1. Very disappointed with the Democrats on Capitol Hill for not being united as a determined group fighting back against the MAGA affliction.
    2. Sue me, pour wrath and scorn on me, I fully understand, but currently I do not question military spending. Here writes an imperfect creature who subscribes to ‘Si vis pacem, para bellum’ – ‘If you want peace prepare for war’.

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    • I definitely agree with your point #1 — the Democrats are not only infighting, but heck, the Republicans don’t even have to throw them under the bus, for they are willingly lying down under it! As for point #2 … when our military spending is equal to that of the next 11 nations, then yeah, I think somebody is wasting a heck of a lot of money that could be used to put food in people’s bellies. We have enough military hardware in stock right now to fight any war, anywhere. But … in this case, the manufacturers of said military hardware have large appetites and are greedy for profit. Just like the fossil fuel industry, they must be kept happy so they will keep feeding more and more money to Republican election funds. Sigh.

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      • 1. Reminds me a bit of Labour under Corbyn.
        2. Leaving out the stain in the Whitehouse, professional presidents of all stripes, Secretary for Defence and their military probably reckon they are actually spread thin on a Global Scale as long as the US maintains it role. With China looking Taiwan and pacific-wards, and Japan getting edgy, and now we have a war in Europe, along with the insurgencies across the globe, they’ll see problems in all directions.
        (There is also the words which no one likes to talk about apart from the most shadowy places of the FBI & CIA – ‘with these wing-wing militias; you’ll never know’ type of talk).
        It would be nice to reduce spending and not get involved in wars you can’t win -Iraq and Afghanistan-. But the gloomy assessment is it’s going to be business as usual for a while…
        Sorry about that Jill.
        Scratch a European and get you’ll get an opinion on a war, past, present or forthcoming.
        Prepare for Worst, Pray/Hope for the Best.

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        • Yeah, I know … SIGH. What I find interesting is those same arseholes who push hard for more military spending are now objecting to us helping Ukraine by sending them resources such as planes, etc. I’ve heard from two of ’em now who said, in essence, “Send Ukraine thoughts and prayers, but don’t spend any money — America first, y’know.” I hate this country more and more these days. When I return as a wolf, I hope I don’t land here!

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          • Now there’s a fine example of ignorance of ‘How Things Work’
            The whole idea of having weaponry is to either extend or hold your status and positioning. When a nation is in one of pre-eminence, that also requires acting beyond your own physical borders. (for better or for worse- usually the latter, but that’s how it goes)
            You know Jill, Internal Relations…Realism Theory 101.
            Honest to Goodness, I swear some would keep pushing against a ‘Pull’ door if the sign said ‘Push’.

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            • I often compare allied relationships to neighbors … you help your neighbors in times of need, and then hopefully they will help you on that day when you have car trouble, your child gets hurt, or your house catches fire. That’s just how things work, as you noted. Nations, families … it all works about the same if you think about it. Physical borders are drawn by humans … and often redrawn time and again. These same ‘hawks’ who vote year after year to raise our already bloated military budget were so eager to run to Iraq after 9/11 and overthrow Saddam Hussein, then to Afghanistan to “root out terrorists”, then they complained that we were there too long, then bitched when President Biden withdrew our troops from Afghanistan. And now they don’t want to help an ally. There’s no pleasing these people!

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  8. Did Biden get a raise too? Probably. I’m surprised the Republicans did not demand a decrease in the President’s pay equal to the raises Trump gave himself. After all, “He doesn’t do nuttin’,” according to them.
    $1.5 Trillion USD, hunh. Who the hell can keep track of those kinds of expenditures. I would be looking for embezzlers.

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  9. Jill, this frustrates that they wait until the last minute every time. It is not like they have a lot to do, except for fundraising which is about 1/3 to 40% of their time. Those who claim to be debt hawks, pick this time to grandstand with the money already earmarked for spending, but to be frank, those same folks passed bills to increase the debt religiously – that includes Republicans and Democrats. Keith

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    • I think it’s a ploy … increase the drama, then people will be so relieved to have averted a government shutdown that they won’t complain about what’s in the bill. Plus … the politicos get attention and kudos for “saving the day”. It’s gotten old and tiresome, not to mention counter-productive. I don’t mind the increase in spending so much — at this point it was inevitable — but that relatively little of the spending is going toward helping those who need help most. Instead, we’re giving raises to members of Congress who haven’t done their jobs for years now! Sigh.

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      • Jill, you may recall the only major spending cuts that occurred in the last dozen years came through a Sequestration bill which was passed to go in motion only if Dems and Republicans could not agree on a budget deal, which they did not. These folks need to get their act together. Keith

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        • True. And even if we don’t cut spending, we could cover our output by simply taxing the wealthy and corporations at the same or a slightly higher rate than the rest of us pay! It’s not rocket science! And what we do spend should be more geared toward helping people in need of help with education, housing, medical care, food, etc., rather than raising the salaries of the wealthiest Congress ever to serve!

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