The president and his allies are justifying cuts on allegations of ‘waste’ to pay for his tax plan

Summary

Donald Trump and Elon Musk are falsely claiming that tens of millions of dead people collect Social Security to justify cutting “waste” and “fraud.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick echoed this, calling Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid “wrong” while supporting Musk’s plan to slash $1 trillion in spending.

Despite Trump’s public assurances, House Republicans’ budget proposals include deep cuts to these programs while prioritizing massive tax breaks for the wealthy.

Experts note improper Social Security payments are minimal, contradicting Musk’s claims.

  • dream_weasel
    41·
    1 day ago

    Seems to me like kind of a long pivot from

    Every single bit of progress was led by people doing more, by people standing up, by people applying pressure between election days.

    Why not just DO that?

    I don’t disagree that the shift in the Overton window is alarmingly far gone, that Dems are out of touch, or that the country is failing in real time. I disagree with the supercilious presentation of “political (in)action” by the people who ought to be easiest to motivate to go raise some hell.

    Instead of punching all the way right, you’re doing a big sad to your adjacent right in a huge lefty echo chamber. By letting perfect be the enemy of less worse we are only left with worse, and you still gotta live in it with us.

    • leftytighty@slrpnk.netEnglish
      21·
      1 day ago

      I don’t disagree with you, my position is that I think people should have done damage mitigation by voting Harris in, but people that couldn’t stomach supporting genocide are not my enemy.

      I’m just betting that the people rushing to these threads to smugly feel superior for voting were also the ones trying to silence any opposition to Biden and Harris for their bad positions. The vibe in any discussion on Lemmy was “if you mention Palestine you’re a Trump supporter” and those same pieces of shit are now saying “told you so” as if the way forward is to do LESS resistance.

      That’s what I’m talking about. Congrats, you voted and lost. Maybe don’t fucking suppress actual progress the whole time between elections. If these people joined the left in holding Democrats accountable many elections ago, FUCKING GENOCIDE wouldn’t have been a background policy common to both parties.

      Now they’re still finger pointing at the people who actually demand more from their politicians.

      “Vote blue no matter who” got us here, THAT’S apathy.