#BUDGET POLICY

[robot-roadtrip-rants]

my feed is full of blueberry fuckers and i aim to please

#warhammer 40k #roboute guilliman #is there anything sexier than pages and pages of budgeting? #talk tax policy to me baby

[very-lost-hobbit]

"US proxy war in Ukraine" Beating u with lead pipes

#Ukraine. is. fighting. a. genocide. Yes USA foreign policy has a lot to be critisized but a TINY SLIVER of a defence budget #being sent to Ukraine is NOT one of them (except the fucking. lack of actual teeth and backing but that's not unique to the US) #UKRAINE. WOULD FIGHT. ANYWAYS. YOU GODDAMN DINGDONGS. #And the more information that comes out from liberated territories the more I'm pissed off that people piss and moan #about arming Ukraine (WHICH THE US ISN'T EVEN DOING RIGHT NOW BECAUSE OF YOUR STUPID INTERNAL POLITICS!!!!) #rusbots fuck off it'll be block on sight I'm not arguing about this lmfao #I'm taking a break from internet I've seen too much of this shit lately peace gang see you in a few days ✌ #current events #kat gets personal #me #ukraine

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

In March, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s colleagues laughed as the California Republican mocked President Joe Biden’s age, saying he would bring Biden “soft food” so they could negotiate over the debt ceiling.

But McCarthy apparently did not bring Biden anything to eat during their talks, and the President chewed up the GOP’s debt limit proposal instead. Republicans aren’t laughing anymore.

“Republicans got outsmarted by a President who can’t find his pants,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) tweeted on Tuesday, making clear she opposed the compromise legislation that came out of Biden and McCarthy’s negotiations.

Biden, 80, is the oldest person to serve as President of the U.S., and his age and alleged senility have been a constant focus of Republicans and right-wing commentators, despite assurances from his doctors that there’s nothing wrong with his mind. Polls have also shown that voters have concerns about Biden’s age.

During the debt limit standoff, McCarthy repeatedly said that by refusing to negotiate with Republicans, Biden was “bumbling” the U.S. toward a potentially catastrophic default. Even some Democrats criticized the President for not publicly engaging as much as McCarthy has in recent weeks. But as of Wednesday, default seemed unlikely, and the outlines of the deal appeared favorable to Democrats.

Asked if Biden had gotten the better of McCarthy, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), replied, “Yeah, I think that’s a fair assumption.”

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), meanwhile, said he believed McCarthy had simply been “misled.” He didn’t say by whom.

Even McCarthy conceded that he had been impressed with Biden’s negotiating team during the talks, calling them “very professional, very smart” and “very tough at the same time.”

But the Speaker has denied that he was outsmarted, touting the bill’s reductions to government spending and stricter “work requirements” for federal food benefits that Democrats opposed. The legislation would reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years, in large part due to cuts to non-defense programs, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

“How were we outsmarted? The largest cut in the history of Congress. The biggest ability to pull money back,” McCarthy told ABC News on Tuesday. “We’ve got work requirements for welfare where the Democrats said was a red line.”

Still, Biden got plenty of wins in the bill, which cuts federal spending far less than Republicans initially hoped. And in a twist, the CBO said the work requirements won’t reduce spending or enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The program supports 20 million households and already limits benefits for unemployed adults without children or disabilities who are between the ages of 18 and 49, unless they work or perform some other qualifying activity for 20 hours a week. Republicans proposed expanding the work requirement to people in their early 50s, as well as restricting states’ discretion to exempt some recipients. The CBO estimated the Republican proposal would have saved $11 billion and reduced SNAP enrollment by 275,000.

Biden signaled early on that he was open to stricter work requirements for SNAP, just not “anything of any consequence” — a statement that drew mocking laughter from McCarthy and his colleagues as someone, apparently a lawmaker behind the Speaker, shouted, “Loser!”

Sure enough, Biden agreed to expand SNAP’s work rules to people as old as 54 — but the White House also won changes that render the net impact of the bill inconsequential, at least from a budget perspective. The CBO said that, thanks to brand-new work requirement exemptions for veterans and homeless people, the bill would actually increase SNAP enrollment by a small amount and boost federal spending by $2 billion.

The analysis was not a surprise to the White House; a senior administration official said Sunday that “we expect that the number of people subject to SNAP work requirements will stay roughly the same under this agreement.”

The deal also preserves key Democratic priorities like student loan debt relief, climate change funding, and the bulk of investments aimed at making sure the wealthy pay their taxes.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) likened the bill to a “shit sandwich” that Republicans would have to eat — a sentiment shared by other Republicans planning to support the bill in a vote on Wednesday.

That doesn’t mean Democrats don’t have concerns about the legislation. Progressives, in particular, are furious that Biden was forced to negotiate over the debt limit at all, warning that he set a precedent Republicans will exploit time and time again if the debt limit isn’t abolished.

“It rewards the hostage-taking that the Republicans have gotten so damn good at,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Tuesday.

Still, Democrats maintain the GOP has underestimated Biden at every turn, pointing to his many legislative accomplishments in the last Congress, including bipartisan investments in infrastructure and semiconductor research, and his signing of a historic climate change bill.

“If you haven’t figured out by now that our president is in the top 1% of negotiators, you haven’t been paying attention the last two and a half years,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told HuffPost.

#us politics #news #huffington post #fiscal responsibility act #2023 #president joe biden #biden administration #republicans #conservatives #gop policy #gop platform #gop #rep. kevin mccarthy #Rep. Nancy Mace #Sen. Rand Paul #Sen. Mike Lee #Congressional Budget Office #supplemental nutrition assistance program #work requirements #Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene #Sen. Elizabeth Warren #national debt #debt crisis #debt ceiling #Sen. Chris Murphy

[thefact0rygirl]

My villain origin story is the 'Super Bowl increases sex trafficking' myth.

#if i see one more tiktok post or news article i will riot #there is no data to show a correlative link between s trafficking and the super bowl #but there IS data that shows that more consenting s workers are arrested during the super bowl #and that police and policy makers perpetuate this false narrative in order to gain support and increase their budgets

[sparklecryptid]

ace would make a good king but he'd be So Fed Up the entire time. and he's good at politics in royal bastard au canon!!!!!

Noctis keeps trying to toss the crown and related responsibilities at Ace who keeps dodging like the fucker he is.

"JUST TAKE IT ALREADY!" Noctis hollers and he tries to pin Ace down and shove the responsibilities of being Crown Prince and The Future King onto Ace.

He fails because Ace grew up with Ardyn and Ardyn's training involved rotten fruit being thrown at Ace who wasn't allowed to use magic to dodge.

"Maybe if you catch me," Ace says as he steps around Noctis and lightly breaks a potion on him because Noctis just warped into a wall, "Until then I don't think so."

("You're better at this than I am," Noctis grouches as he slips deeper into Ace's couch, "Why don't you take it? You'd be better than I am!"

"I'm only better because I have experience, you'll get where I am and outpace me soon enough."

"Yeah? And who gave you the experience of managing state affairs?"

Ace pauses.

Noctis' face takes on a look of horror.

"I could get Ardyn to come and teach you like he did me-"

"NO THANK YOU I'M GOOD.")

#royal bastard au #ace is very good at politics! he just hates it with a passion! #he wants to live without people bothering for opinions on budgets and immigration policies and stuff #let him make people food!!! and leave him alone!!

[beldaroot]

mind you minnesota's uncommitted goal was 5000 votes and we ended up with 45000 votes and sending 11 delegates to the DNC :)

#the main organizer is a friend of mine and they literally only had one week to organize with a v limited budget! #i'm just really proud of my state sometimes - definitely have to give props to our somali community too haha #thankful for the michigan uncommitted organizers that really rallied this movement across the nation :) #a lot of people are trying to downplay the uncommitted votes esp in mn since it's always a blue state #but the message is still clear: we don't want biden even if he's on the ballot so you better change your candidate and policies before nov #politics

[biphbia]

having different opinions on this site is like a crime

#i have so many thoughts on economic policies and the budgeting that would get me doxxed its insane #econ major stereotypes go crazy

[floraleevee]

The international carnivorous plant society is having their meeting in Austria this year and I want to go so bad 🥲 I’ve been wanting to do a solo euro trip for years and this would coincide with my main interest. It could also be a great way to network with botany/ecology professors in Europe since I’ve all but decided that, should I do a phd, it’ll be in a program abroad.

But on the other hand, I dislike a large portion of the carnivorous plant community that’s super active on social media. At least, those here in the u.s. I don’t want it to just be a bunch of assholes who promote unsustainable practices (if I read someone say “seed grown is ALWAYS better than tissue culture” one more time, the muscles holding my eyeballs in place might rip from how hard I’m rolling them) and have price gouged the market the past 4 years. I want it to be an academic conference, but I’m worried it won’t be that.

Also. Money. I’m hoping to move into a new position by then that’ll pay better, but spending that much money on a holiday seems so irresponsible.

#I probably won’t do it #the only time I ever got close to going on a solo vacation like that was when ticket prices dropped to like $300-400 round trip to Berlin #budgeted a super cheap two weeks in Germany and Italy #but my job didn’t approve the pto until prices jumped back to normal and I was a sucker for that job and followed the ~official policy~ #runon post

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Canada will extend a $2.4 billion loan to Ukraine this year to help prop up the embattled country's finances.

The measure is contained in the latest federal budget, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. It builds on Canada's previous fiscal supports for Ukraine, intended to offset the economic devastation wrought by Russia's full invasion of the eastern European country last year.

The budget earmarks $200 million for military equipment and donations. Federal officials acknowledge that most of that money has been spent already; the sum includes the recent donation of heavy tanks. The measure is being backdated on the government's books to the current fiscal year, which ends on March 31.

The Liberal government also has set aside $605.8 million over five years to replenish the Canadian military's stocks of ammunition and explosives — stocks that were drawn down heavily to supply Ukraine. The new budget offers the first clear indication of how deeply in dollar terms the federal government has dug into its existing store of shells and munitions to support Ukraine's defence. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

#cdnpoli #Foreign Policy #budget plans #Ukraine

[partisan-by-default]

The assumption of a certain kind of stability over time is hardwired into many of the kinds of economic models used today. That even if the economy is temporarily knocked off-balance, it will swing, eventually, back to its steady growth path, plodding on into the future. “Shocks” such as sudden hikes in the price of oil, or wars in eastern Europe, may happen, but, like a roly-poly toy, the economy springs back to where it was before.

Any deviation from this stable, long-run growth path is assumed by the models to be temporary, with the deep structures of the economy – demographics and technological change, primarily – asserting themselves over any short-term fluctuations. The big question is how quickly the economy can respond to a shock, and get back to its long-run path.

From the birth of modern economics two centuries ago until now, this unstated assumption didn’t matter. The Earth’s climate was broadly stable. But what if the environmental shocks just keep coming? Think about the last few years: from peat fires in summer 2019 to the extraordinary (and ongoing) disruption of Covid, to the extreme heat this year. The shocks have not ended, and, if the climate forecasters are correct, they will most likely get bigger and more frequent from this point onwards. The serious danger is that economic models insisting on a return to stable normality will lead our policymaking dramatically astray.

#economics #economic policy #bank of england #andrew bailey #office for budget responsibility

[swashbucklery]

Trying to quell the existential dread re: [local election] results tonight so if anyone wants to send me prompts/knock knock jokes/vampire taylor conspiracy theories/really cool emo songs from 2004 this is a GREAT NIGHT to do so.

#polls close at 9pm i hate it #will we have the normal government party #or the neon*zi convoy lover anti science anti human party #WHY IS IT CLOSE #oh no the normal government party might not balance the budget KAREN THE PLANET IS BURNING #anyway i don't want to talk about how [party leader]'s words actions and policies are utter garbage #it is my goddamn day off and worrying won't make her any better at having opinions or doing her job #ugh

[thelinkfactory]

European governments shrinking railways in favour of road-building, report finds

#europe #train #car #ecology #politics #policies #roads #choices #budgeting #infrastructure

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

By Prem Thakker

States across the country are moving to provide universal free school meals to all our children. Meanwhile, Republicans are trying to stop them from doing just that.

The Republican Study Committee (of which some three-quarters of House Republicans are members) on Wednesday released its desired 2024 budget, in which the party boldly declares its priority to eliminate the Community Eligibility Provision, or CEP, from the School Lunch Program. Why? Because “CEP allows certain schools to provide free school lunches regardless of the individual eligibility of each student.”

The horror.

Of note is that the CEP is not even something every school participates in; it is a meal service program reserved for qualifying schools and districts in low-income areas. The program enables schools that predominantly serve children from low-income backgrounds to offer all students free breakfast and lunch, instead of means-testing them and having to manage collecting applications on an individual basis. As with many universal-oriented programs, it is more practically efficient and, as a bonus, lifts all boats. This is what Republicans are looking to eliminate.

It’s the kind of provision that many would want every school to participate in. Why not guarantee all our children are well fed as they learn and think about our world and their place in it, after all?

But indeed, as California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, and as of this week, Vermont, all move to provide universal free school meals in one form or another—and at least another 21 states consider similar moves—Republicans are trying to whittle down avenues to accomplish that goal.

Along with trying to stop schools from giving all their students free meals, the proposed 2024 Republican budget includes efforts to:

• cut Social Security and Medicare • make Trump’s tax cuts for the top 1% permanent • impose work requirements on “all federal benefit programs,” like food stamps and Medicare • extend work requirements on those aged 55–64 • bring back all of twice-impeached and twice-arrested former President Donald Trump’s deregulations, including the weakening of environmental protection.

And that’s just a taste of their hopes and dreams. But don’t mistake it all as just wish-casting: “The RSC Budget is more than just a financial statement. It is a statement of priorities,” the party assures in the document.

#us politics #news #the new republic #2023 #republicans #conservatives #gop platform #gop policy #gop #Republican Study Committee #2024 Republican budget #Community Eligibility Provision #School Lunch Program #universal free school meals #California #Colorado #Maine #Minnesota #new mexico #Vermont #social security cuts #medicare cuts #trump tax cuts #work requirements #deregulation

[knockabout-pigeon]

ok obviously everyone is entitled to their own opinions about ao3 and they are not some perfect model non profit but can you all please learn how non-profits work and how much running a website costs before you spam the same comment on every damn discourse post

#they have very transparent budget reports #and yes they do have some left over bc itd literally be insane not to #if u have 0 dollars at the end of the year u are fucked. u need leftover money bc shit happens #they also like can't even use the leftover money for anything unrelated to the nonprofit work #u are allowed to dislike ao3 and their policies but for the love of god dislike it for a reason that isnt uninformed #knockabout blogging #the ddos attack is the worst thing to happen to me bc i have to see the SAME FUCKING DISCOURSE--

[sataniccapitalist]

#economics #office for budget responsibility #economic growth (gdp) #economic policy #recession

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

May 30, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

MAY 30, 2023

“[O]ne of the things that I hear some of you guys saying is, ‘Why doesn’t Biden say what a good deal it is?’” President Joe Biden said to reporters yesterday afternoon before leaving the White House on the Marine One helicopter. “Why would Biden say what a good deal it is before the vote? You think that’s going to help me get it passed? No. That’s why you guys don’t bargain very well.”

Biden’s unusually revealing comment about the budget negotiations was actually a statement about his presidency. Unlike his Republican opponents, he has refused to try to win points by playing the media and instead has worked behind the scenes to govern, sometimes staying out of negotiations, sometimes being central to them.

The result has been, as Daily Beast columnist David Rothkopf summarized today, historic. Biden has worked to replace 40 years of supply-side economics with policies to rebuild the nation’s economy and infrastructure by supporting ordinary Americans. The American Rescue Plan gave the United States a faster economic recovery from the COVID pandemic than any other major economy. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has already funded more than 32,000 projects in more than 4,500 communities in all 50 states, Washington D.C., and U.S. territories.

The Inflation Reduction Act made the biggest investment in addressing climate change in our history, and according to University of Washington transportation analyst Jack Conness, it and the CHIPS and Science Act have already attracted over $220 billion in private investment, much of it going to Republican-dominated states: Tennessee, Nevada, North Carolina, and Oklahoma have each attracted more than $4 billion; Ohio, more than $6 billion; Arizona, more than $7 billion; South Carolina, more than $9 billion; and Georgia, more than $13 billion.

Victoria Guida in Politico yesterday reported that the reordering of the economy under Biden and the Democrats has reversed the widening income gap between wage workers and upper-income professionals that has been growing for the past 40 years. The pay of those making an average of $12.50 an hour grew by almost 6% from 2020 to 2022, even after inflation.

Those gains are now at risk as pandemic measures end and the Fed raises interest rates to bring down inflation, although the wage increases are only a piece of the inflation puzzle: Talmon Joseph Smith and Joe Rennison of the New York Times today reported that companies raising their prices to “protect…profits” are “adding to inflation.” In other words, companies pushed prices beyond normal profit margins during the pandemic and the economic recovery, then maintained those higher profit margins with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and continue to maintain them now.

The fight over the debt ceiling is both an example of the different approaches to negotiation on the part of Biden and Republicans like House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and part of the larger question about the direction of the country.

On January 13, 2023, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned McCarthy that the Treasury was about to hit the borrowing limit established by Congress and that she would have to resort to extraordinary measures in order to meet obligations until Congress raised the debt ceiling.

On March 9, as part of the usual budget process, Biden produced a detailed budget, which was a wish list of programs that would continue to build the country from the bottom up. He told McCarthy he would meet with the speaker as soon as he produced his own budget, which McCarthy could not do because the far-right House Freedom Caucus (these days being abbreviated as HFC) wanted extreme cuts to which other Republicans would never agree.

On April 26 the House Republicans passed a bill that would require $4.8 trillion in cuts but was quite vague about how it would do so apart from getting rid of much of the legislation the Democrats had just passed. HFC members said they would not raise the debt ceiling until the Senate passed their bill. That is, they would drive the United States into default, crashing the U.S. and the global economy, until the president and the Democrats agreed to their policies. Even then, they would raise it only until next spring, with the expectation that it would then become a key factor in the 2024 election.

Biden insisted all along that he would not negotiate over the debt ceiling, which pays for money already appropriated under the normal process of Congress and which Congress raised three times under former president Trump even as he added $7.8 trillion to the national debt. Biden said he would happily negotiate over the budget. McCarthy, meanwhile, was out in front of the cameras and on social media insulting Biden and insisting that it was Biden’s fault that talks took so long to get started.

Late Saturday, the two sides announced an agreement “in principle” to raise the debt ceiling for two years—clearing the presidential election. As the Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell noted, it protects current spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; keeps tax rates as they are; increases spending on defense and veterans’ programs; leaves most other domestic spending the same; cuts a little from the expanded funding of the Internal Revenue Service; and tweaks both the permitting process for energy projects and the existing work requirements in the food assistance program.

As Rampell points out, “this much-ballyhooed ‘deal’ doesn’t seem terribly different from whatever budget agreement would have materialized anyway later this year, during the usual annual appropriations process, under divided government. To President Biden’s credit, the most objectionable ransoms that Republicans had been demanding are all gone.”

Now the measure has to get through both parties, with congressmembers back in Washington today after the holiday weekend. Freedom Caucus members are howling at the deal. Representative Chip Roy (R-TX) is threatening to bottle the measure up in the House Rules Committee, which decides what bills make it to the floor. The Freedom Caucus forced McCarthy to stack that committee with far-right extremists as part of his deal for the speakership (it has nine Republicans but only four Democrats on it). But Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo suggests that McCarthy’s alliance with Representatives Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) might pay off here, since the two have thrown their weight behind the measure.

Even if the measure does pass before the June 5 deadline when the Treasury runs out of money, it has had an important effect. As Rampell noted, it has weakened the United States. It has enabled both China and Russia to portray the U.S. as unstable and an unreliable partner. As if to prove that criticism, Biden had to cancel a trip to Australia and Papua New Guinea, where he was strengthening the Indo-Pacific alliances designed to weaken Chinese dominance of the region. (And Russia continues to involve itself in U.S. politics: today Tara Reade, the woman who in 2020 accused Biden of sexually assaulting her, appeared on Russian television next to alleged spy Maria Butina to say she has fled to Russia out of fear for her life in the U.S.)

Writing in Foreign Policy, Howard W. French sees a more sweeping problem with the debt ceiling fight: it “highlights America’s warped priorities.” “[W]hen a rich and powerful country finds it easier to cut back on the way that it invests in its people, in education, in science, and in making sure that the weakest among them are not completely left behind than to curtail useless and profligate weapons spending,” he said, “there are reasons to worry about the foundations of its power.”

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#debt limit crisis #crisis #Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson #political #US House of Representatives #budget #foreign policy #America's warped priorities