The Trump Admin's Very Telling Decisions About Which Gov't Programs to Fund

Originally published at: The Trump Admin’s Very Telling Decisions About Which Gov’t Programs to Fund - TPM – Talking Points Memo

In the hours immediately after the government first shut down earlier this month — which happened only after Republicans refused to work with Democrats to extend Obamacare subsidies in order to secure their votes to keep it open — the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress began publicly hand-ringing about the funding that would quickly…

1 Like

If you ask me (and why not?), providing nutrition for “women, infants, and children” is pretty darned woke. In fact, it’s as woke as can be. That’s why Republicans reduced it in the first place.

Of course, we know they’re hypocrites, but to point it out would be to risk depriving all those women, infants and children who may be the beneficiaries of their hypocrisy.

So the Trumpublicans skate again. Because they are without decency, unlike the left.

12 Likes

Re: ICE to get paid:

It did not spell out exactly where the money would be coming from or what the legal justification would be — only that DHS would “allocate available funding to ensure full and timely payments … for the duration of the shutdown.”

Since no money was allocated for this fiscal year, there is no funds….unless puppy killer has money left over from her video funds.

10 Likes

Case in point: new reporting from the HuffPost today suggests that the Trump administration intends to continue paying law enforcement officers within the Department of Homeland Security throughout the shutdown, per a memo obtained by HuffPost. Those officers include ICE agents who have been conducting the brutal and inhumane raids in cities across the nation for months now.

Called this one nine days ago.

12 Likes

Soooo… Bolton has been indicted for sharing classified information with two relatives ? So I guess we should be expecting an indictment soon for Hegseth ?

https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/5258107-pete-hegseth-attack-plans-signal/

17 Likes

This one made me laugh but, honesty, it’s really ‘baiting’ big time to create conditions where supporting a right-wing shit like Bolton seems obligatory yet there it is. Damn

NB:

14 Likes

I don’t expect that what this article says is true about many people, but I think they’re probably right that it’s true about some. Joe Rogan seems to be not kidding about his surprise and some displeasure with Trump being a meaner and crappier person and ruler than Rogan expected. …

From Alternet/CNN: ’ In an article for CNN published Thursday, Aaron Blake, a senior political reporter for the outlet, argued that conservative podcast host Joe Rogan’s recent surprise at the severity of President Donald Trump’s deportation policies may reflect a broader realization among Americans that Trump is going further than many expected in his second term.

'Blake used Rogan’s remarks as a jump-off point to explore the disconnect between Trump’s campaign rhetoric and how his policies are now playing out in practice — even among those who supported or endorsed him.

'Rogan, who publicly endorsed Trump ahead of the 2024 election, recently expressed alarm over televised scenes of aggressive deportation tactics. “I really thought they were just going to go after the criminals,” Rogan said. “I did not ever anticipate seeing that on TV on a regular basis.”…

’ A CBS News-YouGov poll found only 52 percent of Americans believe Trump is doing what he promised during the campaign, with 48 percent saying he’s doing “different things.” Among independents, 53 percent say Trump isn’t following through on his campaign promises. These figures suggest that a significant share of voters did not anticipate the full extent of his agenda…

'According to Blake, Public opinion appears to be rapidly shifting. The percentage of Americans who say Trump is doing what he promised has declined over time — from 70 percent in February to 52 percent this month. Blake argued that these numbers reflect growing discomfort with how far Trump has gone…

‘Blake noted that Trump’s long-standing habit of making extreme promises — and then sometimes not following through — gave supporters leeway to assume he might not act on his most provocative pledges. Now, as those promises are being realized, public reaction is shifting.’

https://www.alternet.org/trump-support-rating/?u=ebd522ac4aeb0cb8e6f5e2f57572e236832529182ef207d4d7c900c69b4ded96&utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Oct.16.2025_8.39pm

All his life, Trump’s gone out of his way to pretend to people he’s thought might buy it that he’s just a likeable regular guy who jokes, I think…And it seems it’s really hard for a lot of people to suspect somebody whose persona they kind of like of being a deeply malicious cretin whose vicious behavior accepts no boundaries.

Trump’s tried to make Rogan like him and Rogan fell for it – but is certainly not alone… His cultists obviously won’t feel this way, of course, but he got a lot of votes from people who aren’t his cultists. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have won…

Who knows how much this change is worth when it comes to ultimately beating back him and his regime? But authoritarians generally do have to display a certain competence that pleases a lot of the public as well a certain kind of likeability with fairly wide appeal for their regimes to really take hold and succeed…

11 Likes

Yeah its gonna shake awake folks in states that have mostly banned abortion. It will be an interesting read when the stats are released on infant mortality and health. Pretty sure that states can’t step up, or in to replace all the federal $ that aren’t funding WIC.

14 Likes

A little help from an attorney here. If this goes to trial, can Bolton’s defense call up the FBI agents etc that investigated Mal a Lardo to highlight the docs, and their security relevance, to compare with the Bolton crap?

7 Likes

Perhaps we should ask Pope Bob.

3 Likes

15 Likes

I am most certainly not an attorney, but I’m still pretty sure that “this other guy is worse than me” is not, by itself, an effective defense.

7 Likes

That is, of course, assuming that accurate figures actually get released, and not just memory-holed like the maternal mortality stats did. ETA: Food insecurity ditto.

16 Likes

It may be a start. Especially when you’re kicking back at the a$$hole screaming about your guilt.

3 Likes

“More than anything else, what I hear from my constituents is a desire for us to work together in Washington to get things done. My vote today is a reflection of my commitment to do just that.”

What a bullshit rationalization for voting with the GOP. Remind which party refuses to even talk to, let alone work with, the other party.

10 Likes

Yeah they’ll memory hole that info. Maybe by keeping Congress in shut down mode. Can candidates for office in 2026 if the gov’t is shut down? Would this be a first?

8 Likes

trump is doing what served him in the past - kiting checks

8 Likes

Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin of Indivisible alnswer the basic questions around “what the heck are you doing?” for Molly Jong-Fast.

Molly J-F asked “What the heck is it with those Portland frogs?”

Leah G: Trump and Miller are trying to create the stories that will justify further violent crackdowns. They’re trying to generate the excuses to escalate further. A classic response to that is humor that exposes the fundamental contradictions of what they’re doing, In Portland, it’s pretty hard to say we’ve got to increase our presence in Portland because there are a bunch of inflatable frogs walking around. It kind of lets the air out of the cycle of misinformation and posting a new excuse for the next round of escalations.

Ezra L.: Trump and Miller don’t just want not to be ridiculed. They want you to be scared. The other protest days – people were having a good time, they were dancing, laughing meeting new people. If you’re thinking of going to your first protest, have a good time. Make it a place where people want to be. This has got to be a popular movement for democracy. If this is a place where people don’t feel welcome, don’t feel it’s a fun place to be, we won’t have the numbers that we need to succeed.

They want more happiness and creativity like the frogs.

12 Likes

Nor am I, but it might go to selective prosecution

7 Likes

The VIX index is back near 30, although nowhere near the record 60 of Liberation Day. Still, the concern is mainly about debt, something the current Congress and Executive Branch seem to view as a minor annoyance, easily fixed by people such as Big Balls.

Here’s the kicker. Among the things you need to fix a debt problem:

The structure and operations of your institutions must be impeccable.

This used to be a given. The problem globally is that larger countries may engage in a game of debt chicken. For example, the total debt-to-GDP ratios of the US and China are both around 300% of GDP. In the US case, about two-thirds of that is private debt. However, in a crisis, it is the government that bails out troubled debtors. The total debt ratio of the US was about half its current level before the global financial crisis hit in 2007, and we all know how that played out. So, in the next financial crisis, pound sand and whinge about how there’s nobody to call for a bail-out or relief.

6 Likes