comment: >
  
  I came in here to ask how they’re spinning this to their base…I should’ve known.
context: During the 300 speaker votes every single republican who nominated McCarthy talked about crime, boarder security, fentanyl, etc. with such urgency and passion. What is the first thing they do out of the gate?  Protect their wealthy donors of course!!! >
  
  Remember the first thing Republicans did when they came into power in 2017? Gut the ethics committee and pass tax cuts. What are they doing this time? Same damn thing. They're all criminals. >
  
  So anyway I started grifting >
  
  
  All you have to do is tell your peeps back home their neighbors are taking from their pockets and only you can protect them. They don't even notice when you rob them because they're too busy being angry and scared in their hometown to notice you in D.C. 
  
  -Grifter's Almanac: Politics >
  
  Is this a quote from a book I can’t find on Google or are you riffing on a Lyndon Johnson quote? >
  
  riffing like Tom Servo >
  
  And just like that all pretense of budget concern is gone from so-called "conservative" House leadership. Didn't even last one Mouche. >
  
  They’ve never passed fiscally responsible legislation. Republican policy has been responsible for a huge portion of our deficit increase - increased military spending, tax cuts for wealthy people, and unfunded bills. Increasing the deficit gives them justification to cut social services. They’re already planning on cuts to SS and Medicare.. probably to “reduce the deficit.” 
  The ACA is a great example of party differences - it insured millions while saving the government money. Republicans tried like 60 times to repeal it which would increase the deficit and leave millions uninsured. They don’t give a shit about governing.
  Edit: since this has blown up, please vote for a Dem in your next election to help stop this shit. If they’re not left enough, vote in your primary as well. Write your current and desired representatives to help them understand your beliefs. Also consider volunteering and donating to the candidates that best represent your ideology so they have a better chance at winning, or joining local activists groups to try and pressure politicians to change. >
  
  Yeah, fiscally conservative just means irresponsible policy at this point. >
  
  "Fiscally conservative" is just code for "I'm a nasty bigot but don't like having to argue about it"
  Laughing my entire ass off at the "fiscal conservatives" replying to this comment like I give a fuck what their smoothbrain has to say 😂 >
  
  Just like "Libertarian" now means "Republican but embarrassed to admit it". >
  
  I thought Libertarian meant "I feel special and don't have to share"? >
  
  "I like weed but fuck poor people" >
  
  Where do I go if I like weed AND poor people? >
  
  LA? >
  
  
  Progressive U.S. lawmakers on Monday took House Republicans to task after the Congressional Budget Office said the erstwhile deficit hawks' first bill before the 118th Congress—a measure critics say is meant to "protect wealthy and corporate tax cheats"—will swell the federal deficit by more than $100 billion.
  "They all run on reducing the deficit and now the House GOP's first... bill will increase the deficit by $114 billion," tweeted Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). "Make it make sense."
  The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the euphemistically named Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act—which faces a vote as soon as Monday evening—would "decrease outlays by $71 billion and decrease receipts by $186 billion over the 2023-2032 period."
  
  Ok, so this is the first law that will die in the Senate.  Whats next on the list?  The more time they spend on bills that will never get signed is fine.  They can pass crap like this all day.  And for what its worth, Biden has said he will veto it.   Not likely that the GQP will ever get to a veto-override on any of their bills in the next two terms. >
  
  True, but it's worth pointing out nevertheless. Hopefully it'll get through to future voters and they can see these asshats for what they are. >
  
  I upvoted you for your unbridled optimism that future voters will learn.  It’s been my experience that they become dumber and dumber each year. >
  
  They'll just forget because it's a dead bill >
  
  And bc it’s happening at the beginning. When voting comes around again they’ll be voting for things that’ll chum up their base and the base won’t even remember this. >
  
  They'll point to the Dems and say they want to tax you to high heaven and the media will help that message too. >
  
  And the same old tired "Republicans are better for the economy" rhetoric that's been around for half a century and has almost no bearing in reality. >
  
  It has bearing in reality, in the fact we aren't the economy to them. The corporations that line their pockets are. >
  
  It's all so goddamn short sighted. The regular people they fuck over are the ones making the big corporations worth anything. >
  
  As far as they see it, the regular people they fuck over exist for the purpose of being fucked over. Regular people are just here to do all of the undesirable work. Regular people are solely here to suffer so that the wealthy may prosper. Why would anybody care about their well-being? >
  
  I guess they want more pics. >
  
  Don't kink shame >
  
  It’s not a kink to want dick pics without consent. That’s called being a fucking creep. >
  
  Now if only I made enough money to be able to cheat on my taxes.... >
  
  You could try it my way.
  I simply make so little that when I pay my taxes, the government gets sad and gives me some back >
  
  My state keeps giving all of mine back and I’m like quit it and fix the roads you mushrooms! >
  
  Hey now, let’s not give mushrooms a bad name. Leave ‘em out in the sun and they’ll gather vitamin D. That’s a pretty cool thing to do, unlike leaving potholes everywhere. >
  
  The Republicans continue to defund the white-colar police.
  Specifically, they have pushed to defund:
  • The US Chemical Safety Board, which polices major industrial accidents.
  • The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which polices corporations’ compliance with civil rights laws.
  • The Consumer Products Safety Commission, which polices industries to make sure their products don’t harm or kill people. The agency now acknowledges that its “funding level has been insufficient to keep pace with the evolving consumer product marketplace.”
  • The Internal Revenue Service, which polices the tax system and which is responsible for making sure the wealthy and large corporations pay the taxes they owe. Thanks to this successful effort to defund the police, the agency “conducted 675,000 fewer audits in 2017 than it did in 2010, a drop in the audit rate of 42 percent,” according to ProPublica. With 30,000 fewer tax cops on the beat, a recent Treasury Department report found that 800,000 high-income households have not paid more than $45 billion in owed taxes.
  • The Department of Labor, which polices employers and makes sure they aren’t stealing wages, breaking workplace safety rules, ignoring overtime laws, and/or violating workers’ union rights. Amid this particular Republican effort to defund the police, there are now fewer cops scrutinizing employers than ever before and workplace inspections have plummeted – as workplace injuries, deaths and disasters have increased.
  • The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which polices the accounting industry.
  • The Securities and Exchange Commission’s reserve fund, which was established after the financial crisis to bolster the agency’s work policing Wall Street. The agency reports that the number of law enforcement staff “supporting our investigation and litigation efforts remained almost 9 percent lower” today than it was at the start of Trump’s term – and now white collar prosecutions have hit a historic low.
  • The law enforcement agencies that police corporate mergers. This effort to defund the antitrust police has come as mergers have accelerated (and there has been some recent effort to reverse the defunding).
  • The independent law enforcement agency that policed agribusiness monopolies.
  • The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which polices the financial industry and works to protect consumers from fraud.
  • The law enforcement offices that police federal agencies and root out waste, fraud and abuse.
  • The federal program that polices local law enforcement agencies.
  • The Environmental Protection Agency, which is responsible for policing polluters. Trump’s first budget proposed to reduce EPA “spending on civil and criminal enforcement by almost 60 percent,” and laying off 200 environmental cops, according to the New York Times. By the middle of Trump’s first year in office, the EPA had “fewer than half of the criminal special agents on the job” during the George W. Bush administration, according to one environmental advocacy group. Bloomberg News noted that Trump’s most recent budget cuts “could hamper the EPA’s efforts to link contamination at hazardous waste sites to companies and others that may be responsible for the pollution.” The result: environmental prosecutions have now hit a historic low.
  Source post, with supporting links, here. >
  
  Basically 70% of Charles Koch's wishlist. So fucking transparent jfc >
  
  At this point, I think it's safe to say that modern support for the Conservatives' strategy comes from the areas:
  
  Greed (fill donors pockets)
  Ignorance (refuse to accept contrary evidence)
  Intolerance (us vs them mentality, with 'them' being non-white non-republican)
  Gullibility/Stupidity 
  
  Too many people forfeiting their ability to make an informed opinion, handing their vote to mainstream media and politicians that lie to them regularly and would abandon them at a moments notice if it means more money or control. 
  At the end of the day, some people will just refuse to learn, and that's their prerogative. 
  I hope they one day step outside of themselves and realize just how much of their life is a lie. >
  
  
  Ignorance (refuse to accept ~~contrary~~ actual evidence)
  
  The Republicans are the contrarians - they are the fake news, they are the "alternative true", they are the ones making up their own eViDeNcE to suit their own agenda, even if what they call evidence is made-up nonsense.
  That's why I had to FTFY. >
  
  Grifting is their number one priority, this is clear. >
  
  Oh man, on r/conservative they think this doesn’t go far enough and they should just abolish the IRS and the ATF and the FBI. Jesus Christ, these nut jobs want to live in a third world country…..