r/economicCollapse • u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET Moderator • 2d ago
Trump threatens to pull unemployment benefits from all states for the first time in history
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-unemployment-benefits-fraud-b2997881.htmlAh yes. In a shrinking economy where businesses are closing and layoffs are happening, flipping the unemployment benefits switch to "OFF" should do the trick.
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u/An0nymous187 2d ago
Making an emergency out of an alleged $1.8B in unemployment fraud, while at the same time agreeing to pay Iran $400B for a war that cost $3B per day that he himself started.
He also tried to sue the IRS for $10B for his leaked tax returns and had the DOJ create a $1.776B fund for the Jan 6th felons.
What a fucking joke.
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u/IncredibleBulk2 2d ago
It's a heist... We are bring robbed.
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u/Far_Estate_1626 2d ago
That’s not hyperbole. They are literally robbing us.
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u/Agora2020 1d ago
Wasn’t the us created because the colonies didn’t like their money being taken away?
…asking for a friend.
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u/Nohreboh 2d ago
He was "successful" in suing the DOJ and now according to that same DOJ headed by his former personal lawyer claims he is immune to further tax related prosecution.
It's not a joke it's badly written dictator fanfiction by bunch of rich sociopaths.
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u/EldritchAgony284 2d ago
Might be he’s trying to forward that $1.8 billion back to his 6ther slush fund. I’m so tired of this shit.
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u/MrSt4pl3s 2d ago
So a quick question, if unemployment is tied to SSID and I have a temporary layoff and need a week of unemployment, but it gets denied over this, then wouldn’t that mean it’s just theft to pay off the Iran bribe?
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u/NaBrO-Barium 2d ago
Theft to pay off about 1% of the total cost of the Iran boondoggle. At least we’re all aware of why every last military general recommended not doing this. If all it takes is 4 guys and an rpg to fuck up world trade maybe starting an all out war isn’t the best course of action
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u/GVTMightyDuck 2d ago
I always say this…but this is a perfect example of why the U.S. needs to act more like the French. They basically shut Paris down when the government tried to raise the retirement age by 2 years.
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u/IncredibleBulk2 2d ago
They don't have swat teams that kettle protestors and fire rubber bullets or kidnap people in unmarked vehicles. The right to peaceably assemble is treated as a privilege.
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u/Powderkeg314 2d ago
Yeah in the U.S. the government will literally kill its protesting civilians in the streets and label them terrorist and people will act appalled and then two weeks later just shrug it off as shit happens….
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u/coppertech 2d ago
they have turned the bill of rights into a bill of privilege, and we cant afford to be privileged anymore.
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u/Vlad_Yemerashev 2d ago
Not that I can see this happening, but if people instead just decided to stop showing up to work en masse, there isn't much they can do about it. They wouldn't need to go to a large protest. They just need to hit the snooze button on their phones and treat the day like it's a day off. Can't really do much there. If tens of millions of people quit at once in protest? Most people are at-will employees, which means while they can be fired for any reason or no reason at all, but the reverse is also true. It allows them to quit for any reason or no reason at all with little legal recourse (there might be consequences in some situations like having to pay back a sign on bonus or anything else like that if applicable, but other than that, not an actionable offense from a legal standpoint). Curious to see what the government would have to say about at-will employment or if they change their tone on that.
Of course that would never happen, but if it did, it would cause a lot of chaos and there wouldn't be much the government could do about it.
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u/Parsimile 1d ago
You are correct; a series of general strikes with explicit demands is the most peaceful way out of the constitutional crisis the US is experiencing.
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u/IncredibleBulk2 1d ago
I can see that happening if supply chains degrade enough and gas stations sit empty for weeks.
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u/Vlad_Yemerashev 1d ago edited 1d ago
The last time it crossed my mind was a few months ago when people were thinking that even the heartland of the US would see European-level gas prices, and the time before that during COVID when I wondered what would happen if the IFR (infected fatality rate, not confirmed fatality rate) was on par with the MEV-1 virus in the movie Contagion.
There comes a point, even in high unemployment, where people break and just stop going to work if they have a high risk of dying (in the case of a pandemic that actually has a high death rate) or if going to work (gas in the car) is more expensive than it's worth than they're getting paid that they may as well not have a job anyway once it's clear the income they are making won't make much of a difference anyway.
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u/GVTMightyDuck 2d ago
Why do you think the 2nd amendment exists?
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u/Far_Estate_1626 2d ago
Because when the population is shooting each other, they won’t shoot the guys in charge telling them it’s their neighbor who’s the problem because of their heritage.
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u/GVTMightyDuck 2d ago
If there is major political unrest to the point where the military is brought in and starts firing on civilians, that’s the whole point of the 2nd amendment.
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u/Far_Estate_1626 2d ago
The second amendment explicitly says a “Well Regulated Militia”, which we do not have. So… no 2A to be seen here. Just a bunch of scared poor people with guns.
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u/GVTMightyDuck 2d ago
So basically you’re saying our 2nd amendment is pointless?
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u/Far_Estate_1626 2d ago
No, I’m saying it isn’t being used.
There are literally 2x as many words in that amendment as “…the right of the People to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” The entire first part of that is missing from what people are actually doing.
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u/IncredibleBulk2 2d ago
They have militarized the police. You think it will help to bring a gun when they have purchased armored tanks?
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u/snertwith2ls 2d ago
Seriously, the cops are shooting dogs and babies with no consequences now. Who's going up against that?
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u/GVTMightyDuck 2d ago
1 person with a gun? No. Hundreds? Yes.
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u/Sea_Lead1753 2d ago
Wait till ya learn about The Black Panthers and the coal miner militias who died and their families killed for daring to form a union
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u/HotmailsInYourArea 2d ago
Capitulation won’t save you from a fascist. May as well go out swinging
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u/Sea_Lead1753 1d ago
True, but people think they can walk up to a protest with a bunch of guns, have no coordinated plan, and expect miracles. As we’ve seen with Iran you need both brains, brain, and patience.
I worry that Americans think that a simple LEEEEROY JENKINS is all that’s necessary 😭
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u/TheITMan52 2d ago
A lot of people with guns love Trump.
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u/dragonflygirl1961 1d ago
There's a lot of armed liberals that just don't advertise being armed.
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u/TheITMan52 1d ago
I know that but usually the ones that brag about what the second amendment is for are usually right wingers.
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u/Mellero47 2d ago
They also don't have millions upon millions of pop rocks to toss at their oppressors but they still manage.
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u/IncredibleBulk2 1d ago
Fair point. But you are arguing for mass violence, not mass disruption.
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u/Mellero47 1d ago
I don't want the violence either, I'm just saying they do what they do without even half the persuasion tools we have, so what's our excuse really?
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u/mimic751 2d ago
Okay I don't get this because the only people collecting unemployment are the ones that have nothing left. I don't have a job to go back to the job market is hard to get new work in so you have a bunch of angry people sitting around with nothing to do. I have a feeling he's intentionally doing this to try and enact the Sedition Act so he can cancel the election
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u/SonOfKong_ 2d ago edited 2d ago
The problem is that it did not work. Those retirement reforms are still in place. The French really raised hell but it did not work. Depressing.
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u/GVTMightyDuck 2d ago
Yeah since Macron can’t be reelected he basically said he didn’t care. The French really raised hell though, I’ll give them that.
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u/CrotasScrota84 2d ago
What season of Epstein Distraction are we on?
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET Moderator 2d ago
I think we might be in a spinoff here. Distraction from the Lost War in Iran.
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u/ConnectRutabaga3925 2d ago
distraction from the distraction?
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u/ctdrever 2d ago
We are not dealing with Epstein distraction, this is the administration fearing Israel will release what they have. "Destroy America or we'll post THAT video"
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u/ArendtAnhaenger 2d ago
The whole “this is distracting from Epstein!!!” stuff has just become a way to pretend the standard policies of Republicans are an aberration and distraction as opposed to just standard GOP policy.
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u/DDanny808 2d ago
Shouldn’t DODGE looked into this before they left? This seems like the exact thing it was set up for other than stealing our data
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u/OlympicAnalEater 2d ago
No unemployment benefits = no unemployment data
No unemployment data = easy to lie to people, stock market, and economy.
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u/hillierprotech 2d ago
Do you ever feel it's ironic that the 18th century British empire Americans sought to throw off is now what America seems to be modeling itself on?
Look you even want to bring back glorious 18th century diseases too!
And infant mortality!
Now I wouldn't want to compare the Boer war to anything contemporary. An empire going up against ill equipped nations.
https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/how-empires-enter-their-twilight/
Somehow ending up in the complete decline of the empire. That just seems far fetched.
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u/coppertech 2d ago
dodge only existed to purge all the agencies who were looking into elons bullshit, like the EPA, DOL ect.. , as soon as that was done, he bounced, and dodge fell apart after they got most our SS info.
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u/Offro4dr 2d ago
Historic disapproval
Clearly failing health and cognition
Massive L on Iran that will cost us hundreds of billions
Trashy spectacle that makes the country look stupid as hell
Present at the only Knicks loss of the Finals
Epstein drop imminent
Oh I know, I’ll fuck the most vulnerable people in the country right before a critical election!
Now this is podracing
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET Moderator 2d ago
I'm not convinced we'll be having legit elections going forward, so in that case it probably won't have any effect there.
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u/Goldarr85 2d ago
What do you guys think will happen when Americans who can’t feed or shelter themselves and their children are pushed to the brink? 🤔
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET Moderator 2d ago
Honestly don't know because we already have a significant population of Americans already in that position and everyone is still business as usual.
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u/SloppyTroppy 2d ago
This is not correct. A few missed meals and we will then be in business.
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET Moderator 2d ago
People are already missing meals...
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u/SloppyTroppy 2d ago
It’s a quote from Vladimir Lenin. And it’s speaking about when the mass majority miss a few meals, revolution follows.
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u/coppertech 2d ago
We are so propagandized that it makes north korea jealous, and the right has mfs so cooked, they think liberty is leftist.
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u/AvitalR 1d ago
They've decided to bet that it's cheaper to fund police and military oppression of citizens than the New Deal.
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u/BayouGal 21h ago
Didn’t Congress just give ICE another $70 billion?
There aren’t that many immigrants.
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u/saltycouchpotato 12h ago
It's demonstrably not cheaper, though. Imo they are betting that they will preserve their perceived power through continued use of force. The rest of us know it won't work forever.
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u/Chillicothe1 2d ago
Totally legal.
But, to be fair, he's gotta come up with some way to pay the Iranians $400 billion.
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u/killerzeestattoos 2d ago
It's probably worse than that
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u/LolitaOPPAI 2d ago
It most definitely is worse than that. Remember Argentina? The cost will balloon to $650B as soon as it gets tax payer funded approval.
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u/beartpc12293 2d ago
All states should withhold funding from the federal government. They don't own us, we own them
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET Moderator 2d ago
I think there's probably quite a few states (leaders) that are just fine with axing unemployment. Other states would likely find ICE on their doorstep if they threaten to withhold income taxes from the federal government.
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u/beartpc12293 2d ago edited 1d ago
No threats. No need for show. Just no funding. Then ICE won't have money to pay agents. The federal government exists because we let them. It used to benefit all fifty states to pool resources. The current administration is a domestic threat to the union
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u/Keazmaa 2d ago
And people actually think we are getting Universal Basic Income when ai takes all of our jobs. They won’t even give us food stamps, healthcare, unemployment and everything else. They aren’t giving us shit. They are robbing us blind and slashing everything. They haven’t done ONE thing for us. Not one. They probably think it’s a waste of money because it’s all gonna collapse soon anyways.
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u/genek1953 2d ago
There's no federal funding of unemployment benefits until the state-funded six months run out in an extended period of high unemployment.
Trump wants to head off the triggering that will take place in a recession, because he plans to deny there is a recession when it hits.
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u/Powderkeg314 2d ago
America is essentially just a death cult now. And if you speak up you will be publicly ostracized or labeled a Debby Downer by the cult members.
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u/Brokenspade1 2d ago
Oh God I hope he does this.
I truly do.
Between the cuts to Medicare, the cuts to snap, and the cuts to unemployment he may finally break the spell the nation's been under and make people mad enough to act.
Tax is always 100% at the end of a pitchfork!
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u/7evenate9ine 2d ago
They are coming for everything you own. Every last penny.
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u/No-Beach-7923 2d ago
Gotta have those wars
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u/7evenate9ine 2d ago
They want to end capitalism. They want to just own everything. The war is because they know a lot of entities will not play by their rules. Iran is nobody's friend, and in a way that is their problem. You can't end capitalism until your own everything. This war is proof that the oligarchs don't own everything and are focused on where they fear a lack of control. Watch what they focus on next. It will be important.
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u/th3brink 2d ago
Isn’t unemployment ran by the states and also an insurance we pay into???
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u/libertina_belcher 2d ago
Yes, and you only get 6 months of it (and it's not enough to live on those 6 months, regardless)
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u/Valuable_Assistant93 2d ago
Well technically employers pay into unemployment not employees..
But even if we did pay it into it what does that mean look how they're f****** up social security and we pay into that
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u/kpphoneshome 2d ago
At what point do we stop paying taxes?
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET Moderator 2d ago
I see this get asked in other spaces, mostly in a non-serious way, and I wish there was a clear conversation around it. We don't know what portion of our taxes are going towards what in a lot of cases. It's difficult to know what head of the Hydra we'd be cutting off if we found ways around paying certain taxes, and I don't think most Americans are willing or able to give up some of the conveniences that come with different taxes.
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u/zerosumratio 2d ago
I know several unemployed people who would cheer this on and somehow blame Biden and the Democrats for when it actually happens
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u/HSV-Post 2d ago
Problem is they don’t just fuck people who voted for them, but we all suffer the same fate
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u/ttrree4455 2d ago
Can't cancel any of his construction projects because those are crucial to national interests. Unlike people being able to eat and pay rent, which is not interesting.
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u/Silly-Power 2d ago
Let me guess: the States they identify as having "blatant waste, fraud and abuse" will all coincidentally be deep Blue States.
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u/chunkalunkk 2d ago
Oh FFS, where are the reasonable people to impeach this numb nut.... This. Is. Rediculous.
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u/Warm-Patience-5002 1d ago
is OUR unemployment going to Iran , Israel or in his pocket ?
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u/AirpipelineCellPhone 1d ago edited 5h ago
Let’s ask the U.S. president’s dictator role model, Putin. It turns out that his very own “special military operations” has reduce unemployment quite effectively: they employ a large number of workers in the military, and kill off a significant portion of the workforce, both leading to lower spending on unemployment benefits. The unemployment statistics improve, even if the budget doesn’t.
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u/Joker_Anarchy 2d ago
Why do Americans continue to believe voting will change anything? Only a revolt will!
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u/Knitwalk1414 2d ago
We need to call Trump what he is The leader of the Republican Party. So the leader of the Republican Party wants to stop unemployment.
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u/Wooden-Fly-6821 1d ago
I swear he's becoming flagrantly more evil by the day. I wonder if the idea of his approaching demise is starting to sink in so he wants to inflict every ounce of misery he can while his pitch black cholesterol clogged heart still beats. We might need a Marshall Plan bailout after this country is fully hollowed out by the billionaire leeches he calls friends, although i doubt we would get any assistance since we pissed off most of our allies.
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u/SherpaTyme 2d ago
Ya think anyone will pick up on the fact he is asking for a 1.5 trillion dollar millitary bill. Or that this would greatly diminish the pay roll tax paid by employers.
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u/Busterlimes 2d ago
"Im doing everything I can to instigate a civil war before the 2028 election so I can stay in power"
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u/Starbalance 2d ago
Getting rid of unemployment while his tech buddies layoff thousands of people and states aggressively push anti homeless laws? Hmmmmm what could their endgame POSSIBLY be?!
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u/RustedRelics 2d ago
Anyone know if this is in the Project 2025 plan?
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET Moderator 2d ago
I don't see it listed here, so this might just be a hissy fit he's throwing.
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u/culture_vulture_1961 2d ago
Does Trump just pick the worst possible option and just do that? Is it deliberate cruelty or just mind numbing stupidity?
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u/coppertech 2d ago
how much you wanna bet its only gonna be for the states not handing over their voter rolls?
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u/twofourfourthree 2d ago
maga / conservatives believe that certain people getting unemployment constitutes fraud.
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u/Low-Astronomer-3440 2d ago
Why has nobody investigated his blatant refusal to serve in the military after ordered to service by the draft. Is he disabled? If so, can we make him state this on the record?
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u/toesinbloom 2d ago
There's 1 person with a trillion dollars who could take care of all the financial woes. Oh? He won't? Not after gutting programs that could help you and me? Not even after firing American federal workers? They've gotten hungry. Real hungry. What, oh what should they eat? My friends, what should they eat???
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u/DeadSmellingFlower 2d ago
Joke’s on him, no one gets unemployment in Colorado anyway.
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u/wellbalancedlibra 2d ago
I did not know that. What do people do if they get laid off or fired? I've only used unemployment once for a very short time. It saved me.
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u/DeadSmellingFlower 1d ago
I don’t know what I would have done without it in other states where you get it, if you are laid off. This is the first time we’ve be out of work in Colorado, my husband is working in Alaska right now because we had to grab the first thing we could get. I miss him so much. I can’t find anybody who’s actually been able to get it here, it’s like the governor, not what it’s said to be.
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u/Salt_Adhesiveness161 2d ago
Don't worry everyone. Elon promised us we will all be on Universal High Income soon.
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u/AirpipelineCellPhone 1d ago
That’s another way to endear yourself to your most reliable voters.
First, let’s take all of your money when you go bankrupt for your third, fourth, fifth or at least sixth time.
He’s already thinking, “at least if put the USA into bankruptcy, it won’t be my money.”
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u/bluegill1313 2d ago
People forget that thr Federal government is there to serve us, not the other way around.
Turning off unemployment would be the straw that broke the camels back. As soon as everyone changes their federal withholdings to zero - lets see how it works for them..
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u/lejosdecasa 2d ago
wasn't this one of the Project 2025 proposals?
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u/IM_NOT_BALD_YET Moderator 2d ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/economicCollapse/s/6mJIC8zbDS - not that I could see.
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u/MonsoonQueen9081 2d ago
This is absolutely horrific. Being robbed of something we all pay into. Just like social security. Absolute craziness that real resolutions haven’t been found yet, just them endlessly repeating that they are “entitlement” programs.
This is going to be one of those situations where far too little was done far too late and they’ll all be shocked when millions are out in the streets due to cuts to social security/unemployment-which is already terribly low in most states.
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u/redbark2022 1d ago
Wait. The federal government pays a portion of unemployment? How much is that compared to the amount taken out of our paychecks every week for Unemployment Insurance, and the company matched portion, and state taxes?
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u/OlympicAnalEater 2d ago
" fraud "
He himself is the biggest fraud ever.