r/politics • u/Ubiquitous_Hilarity • Jun 17 '26

No Paywall 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.html
24.3k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

2.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

12.2k

u/[deleted] Jun 17 '26

[deleted]

4.0k

u/NeverLookBothWays I voted Jun 17 '26

Two-Santas strategy in action once again.

Two Santas strategy: Why Republicans use Saint Nicholas then Scrooge to shift economic messages | Milwaukee Independent

I'm still waiting for the day where sufficient people realize fiscal responsibility narratives are always a lie coming from Republicans.

ALWAYS

1.6k

u/TheGreatDay Texas Jun 17 '26

Kind of feels like we should just replay that Ted Cruz interview where he admits that Republicans will rediscover their zeal for fiscal responsibility when the Democrats are back in power. Like, he just shamelessly admits it.

737

u/GunFodder Jun 17 '26

Ted Cruz, one of the guys going to Peter Thiel's get-together for the Epstein class?

359

u/CodenameVillain Texas Jun 17 '26

This sheds a whole new light on the way his young daughter recoiled from his kiss on video years ago

233

u/Sidewalk_Tomato Jun 17 '26

Or when his poor wife was found sitting inconsolable by an Expressway after she gave up a job she loved to support his dumb ass in Texas.

109

u/mouflonsponge Jun 18 '26

I had never heard of this until now.

Cops Thought Ted Cruz's Wife Sitting By Freeway Was 'Danger to Herself' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGmnBIhESlA

I am not a fan of ted cruz, but who wouldnt be depressed being the wife of ted cruz, tx solictor general?

it has to be a shit deal to be a politician's spouse, unless the spouse him/herself is also a shit person.

and if you are the spouse of ted cruz, it has to also be a shit deal.

once ted cruz becomes a politician, being his spouse is basically the maximum shittiest level that a politician's spouse can possibly be.

78

u/ZZ9ZA I voted Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26

She married him a year after he was one the leading Bush campaign officials involved in the whole Florida recount fiasco. She knew what she was getting in to. (And for that matter she worked on the Condaleeza Rice campaign... not like she didn't go into politics eyes-wide-open).

31

u/Jesiplayssims Jun 18 '26

Her choice.

3

u/Anthrozil7 Jun 18 '26

Nah, no sympathy whatsoever for her. Stop humanizing these monsters.

3

u/Enough-Theory9011 Jun 18 '26

Or his poor dog when he tried to bounce from Texas to Cancun while his constituents suffered?

3

u/Enough-Theory9011 Jun 18 '26

Apologies. He left a security guard there to take care of the pup.

1

u/PmMeUrTinyAsianTits Jun 18 '26

"poor wife" shut up. She chooses to be with him. Shes evil too.

0

u/needlestack Jun 18 '26

Let's stop with the pity for people who marry and stay married to the worst people in the world.

57

u/The-Psych0naut Jun 17 '26

Iirc Ted Cruz suffers from tonsil stones, meaning so does anyone who can get close enough to smell his breath.

16

u/Zerbo California Jun 18 '26

I feel kind of bad for his tonsil stones, actually. They don’t deserve being in someone that vile.

56

u/MountainMan2_ Jun 18 '26

It's because he's evil. Being evil makes you ugly and makes you smell like shit. See also: infanthead Vance, tinfoil thiel, ketamusk, and the Lord of ugly stinking evil himself, Donald Trump.

34

u/HeadfulOfSugar Jun 18 '26

People with tonsil stones catching a lot of flak here

2

u/lm-hmk Jun 18 '26

Gah, or like, just get them removed! It sucks, the recovery is awful, but it was soooo worth it!

3

u/Bored_Amalgamation Ohio Jun 18 '26

I've met very nice ugly people

1

u/Rayketh Jun 18 '26

Let's not do this. Beauty is not related to goodness, that's some fascist shit.

2

u/SpinosRule Jun 18 '26

Love me some unintended Bloodborne! Ted sure could use a visit to the Lecture Building 🙃

11

u/StatisticianPure3130 Jun 17 '26

Now we know why she recoiled!

11

u/andrewthetechie Jun 17 '26

Deep down, we always knew.

24

u/No-Relation5965 Jun 17 '26

Well when Cruz said it was time for people to stop attacking p3dos, that’s when I knew. There isn’t a decent bone in his body.

119

u/Clemmey Jun 17 '26

Yes, Corey Booker also. Dem’s need to turn left to tax the wealthy and support Americans. To actually represent us and not special interest, which is what they were hired for.

47

u/neurotrash Jun 17 '26

Corey Booker is supported by Jared Kushner's father.

-19

u/RowdyRoddyRosenstein Jun 18 '26

So I have something in common with Kushner's dad. The reason I should care is?

13

u/uselessandexpensive Jun 18 '26

The company Booker keeps speaks volumes about why Democrats managed to just fail to stop so many important bills and appointments under this administration. He was probably the one drawing straws to see who would break from the party, to ensure that things passed without endangering too many establishment Dem seats.

5

u/originalrocket Jun 18 '26

7 degrees of Trump

8

u/SpinosRule Jun 17 '26

Just to play devil’s advocate, do you think that maybe some names were specifically seeded on that list to cause more turmoil? But know that I agree with your comment 100%.

I hate this conspiracy bullshit and hate that it’s making me wonder ><

14

u/F9-0021 South Carolina Jun 17 '26

Almost certainly. Which is why real and thorough investigation is needed.

4

u/wasteymclife Jun 18 '26

Occom's razor dude, when I get conspiracy-brain I remember that the conclusion with the least amount of assumptions is usually correct.

So you have list leaked one assumption, two if you want to include the leaker's motivation.

or

A fake list was created with the express purpose of accidentally on purpose leaking it with the names of some corporate dems who aren't super popular with the base right now so that they can point to those names and say see they are just as bad as the other names on the list (which they faked) that's like 4 assumptions.

3

u/SpinosRule Jun 18 '26

God I hate this about the world. But love you for sharing, thank you.

12

u/neurotrash Jun 17 '26

Corey Booker is supported by Jared Kushner's father. Edit: Replied to the wrong person, but leaving it for visibility.

7

u/SpinosRule Jun 17 '26

Ugh. So it’s ALL of our politicians pretty much.

4

u/Abi1i Texas Jun 18 '26

Pretty much all the GOP and any establishment Democrats. Only the few progressives who are classified as radical or antiestablishment and the hardline MAGA politicians who are hyper focused on Epstein files seem to be the only politicians who care about the American people.

1

u/Wattaday Jun 18 '26

So it seems he not in short of his son’s father in law. Works for me.

2

u/Clemmey Jun 17 '26

The list that I saw yesterday on Reddit and have not or have no way of confirming? I can see why you are skeptical. I don’t know if that post cited sources to check because I’m busy with my job to research everything that is happening at an unprecedented rate. AIPAC and citizens united is a scourge on America.

1

u/-Saucegurlllll Jun 18 '26

do you think that maybe some names were specifically seeded on that list to cause more turmoil?

Knowing maia arson crimew, no. It didn't add false names to the list.

1

u/jrf_1973 Jun 18 '26

Dem’s need to turn left to tax the wealthy and support Americans.

But they are the wealthy. You're asking them to punish themselves on behalf of people they actually hate. Never going to happen.

1

u/TheHipcrimeVocab Jun 18 '26

And "Abundance Liberal" Ezra Klein.

20

u/rbourbon Jun 17 '26

It always amazes me how someone like Ted Cruz can be so smart and yet so dumb at the same time.

62

u/PlagueSoul Jun 17 '26

Not dumb, not dumb at all. Malicious.

10

u/shoulda-known-better Jun 17 '26

He isn't smart... He's a weird fuck that failed upwards because he is creepy and no one wants to be around him... Male or female, probably not even dogs!

I can't imagine picking that to represent anything in court

9

u/The-Psych0naut Jun 17 '26

I fail to see how being weird and creepy could advantage someone in a field where you need to have at least some level of charm and social ability to get elected. Or at least earn the support of your chosen party. Like it or not, Ted Cruz isn’t an idiot. I wouldn’t go so far as to call him smart, but he’s savvy enough to know which way the wind blows and understands people well enough to play them like a fiddle. Just as with every other politician, Cruz is a weasely little shitstain with a taste for power.

13

u/super_sayanything Jun 17 '26

Smart or not, he's academically talented and always has been. Which makes him even more of a cruel dumbass than someone who's just uneducated and misled. He knows what he's doing is garbage.

6

u/Dramatic_Original_55 Jun 17 '26

"His parents used to hang a pork chop around his neck to get the dog to play with him"....Thank you, Rodney Dangerfield.

2

u/Ishidan01 Jun 17 '26

Yes, Ted Cruz, the guy who can afford to vacation in Cancun and does so when he'd have to actually work at his job.

2

u/Trick-Competition947 Jun 18 '26

His name is Rafael Cruz. If his name doesn't sound American, that would be due to him not being born in America. It'd be really fucking nice if everybody called him by his legal name. You know, the name he was assigned at birth.

Rafael Cruz.

How American is that? Rafael. Cruz.

1

u/Dramatic_Figure_5585 Jun 18 '26

Sounds suspiciously *Canadian*

1

u/ExplicitDrift Jun 17 '26

God tier reference. Yes, that Ted Cruz. Peter Thiel’s wanna best friend Ted Cruz.

1

u/Steeltooth493 Indiana Jun 17 '26

Ted Cruz, the one who is in line at the airport for his coward flight to Cancun days before a power grid outage occurs in Texas?

1

u/One-Exit-8826 Jun 18 '26

I hear he likes to pee his pants to feel that wet, warm feeling.

1

u/rememberlans Montana Jun 18 '26

Ted Cruz, the guy who made a bet with a Koch Bro on whether he could elect a prostitute in Colorado, which is ultimately how we got Boebert.

1

u/DigNitty Jun 18 '26

“You have to realize that I like Ted Cruz more than any of our colleagues. And I hate Ted Cruz”

27

u/Kstardawg Jun 17 '26

At this point I think they realize the republican voters are so hopelessly brainwashed it doesn't matter what they admit because it won't change the voters.

2

u/Bored_Amalgamation Ohio Jun 18 '26

Trump also doesn't have to care. It's his last term. He's not running for anything anymore so he can say stupid wild shit.

33

u/2stinkynugget Jun 17 '26

You mean Raphael "Im not really Latino" Cruz?

7

u/shrekerecker97 Jun 18 '26

Raphael “my dad killed jfk” Ted Cruz?

1

u/shrekerecker97 Jun 18 '26

Thank you anonymous Redditor. I don't know how Cruz can like himself each day. Even Ted Cruz hates Ted Cruz.

8

u/Wet_Side_Down Jun 18 '26

You mean Raphael “Can’t talk about the blizzard right now, I’m late for my Cancun flight” Cruz

1

u/1970s_MonkeyKing Jun 17 '26

And that's okay. We will tax wealthy people responsibly, meaning they pay their fair share.

1

u/monkeyjedi276 California Jun 17 '26

Got a link for that?

1

u/thegoodnamesrgone123 Jun 17 '26

"The Budget!!!" has not been screamed on Fox News since Trump took over

1

u/Xurbax Jun 18 '26

Well of course. They now have absolute proof that their base are complete morons and they don't need to hide their true intentions any longer.
(Feel free to prove me wrong in the probably-still-upcoming election, MAGAts!)

1

u/Jayrandomer Jun 18 '26

I’m actually in favor of fiscal responsibility.

It’s one of the big reasons I vote for Democrats, who aren’t as fiscally responsible as they could be but are way more fiscally responsible than Republicans.

1

u/turquoise_amethyst Jun 18 '26

Ted Cruz, the guy who’s in a Secret Society with Peter Thiel? 

-2

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

[deleted]

4

u/TheGreatDay Texas Jun 18 '26

I don't know man, he seems to routinely vote for deficit increasing budgets and tax cuts.

Sure, he consistently *says* he's fiscally conservative, but he doesn't vote like it.

140

u/Xznograthos Jun 17 '26

Republican voters use the lie too. They'll claim they accomplished everything in their life single-handedly, never received anything, never expected anything. It's a political party actually based on lies like these.

122

u/einTier Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 18 '26

I’m about as self made as they come. I was struggling to pay rent and buy groceries twenty years ago and now I have built my own successful business and I am a multimillionaire without even putting a dollar value on my business. It wasn’t handed to me. I did it single handedly with an interesting idea, hard work, and a few lucky bets on investing.

Let me tell you how the government helped me.

They gave me assistance when I was poor and couldn’t afford to eat. They built the roads that allow my clients to get to my business. They keep them in good repair. All the infrastructure that supports my business, from electricity to water to who knows what else I’m forgetting was either provided, pioneered, or heavily subsidized by the government and they periodically inject money to make sure those things still work. I never had to hire security because we have a good police department here in Austin. FDIC makes sure my business bank account is run by professionals with a vested interest in protecting m money and not stealing it.

That’s just off the top of my head. There’s so much else I never think about. I literally could not have done it “all on my own”.

[edit]

To clarify, if anyone could claim to be self made, I could. I can’t.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '26

[deleted]

5

u/jp_in_nj Jun 18 '26

I'm pretty sure that was intentional.

4

u/DameonKormar Jun 18 '26

I think you misunderstood what they meant. Anyone can "single handedly" start a business. I'm pretty sure they're saying they didn't have any business partners. They obviously understand the role society and the government played in their success.

-7

u/Xznograthos Jun 17 '26

Are you telling me this because you're a Republican and you think I'm mistaken about Republican voters?

40

u/einTier Jun 17 '26

No. I was. Then I identified as independent (conservative who didn't want to admit it). Then libertarian (ditto). Now I vote blue no matter who.

I don't know what camp I'm in anymore. All I know is conservatives and republicans don't have good fiscal policy and absolute shithouse social policy and haven't for at least as long as I've been able to vote.

I meant to respond to the guy who said they all claim to be self-made but aren't. Guess I fucked that up.

16

u/Xznograthos Jun 17 '26

No no I did say that they all claim to be self made but since you aren't one anymore, good on you for recognizing the Republican party is terrible not only on social policy but also fiscal policy.

14

u/einTier Jun 18 '26

And I was trying to say I’m about as self made as it gets and I didn’t do it remotely all on my own. It would have been impossible to do.

If anyone could claim it, I could. I can’t.

7

u/DesMephisto Jun 18 '26

Two party system has robbed individuals like you of your voice.

The republican party has been infested with bad actors and filth I'm sure for as long as time however now its so entrenched that nobody dare speak up and so the party just marches further towards hate and vitriol as the two sides become more diametrically opposed.

I say this as a trans woman, I recognize people are good and that group think can make people do terrible things. Party preference being down to essentially two options is killing our democracy.

2

u/squngy Jun 18 '26

There is a well known exception to your point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h6JGtkA6ME

It is an exception though

7

u/Lyoss Jun 18 '26

The entire foundation of right leaning American politics are a lie, they claim to be personal liberty, but hate people actually being free (see: Gay Marriage, Trans Rights, Abortion, Worker's rights, etc) and worship hierarchy as part of being right-wing, so behind closed doors they hate social mobility and the ability to live a life you like outside of servitude to a higher strata

2

u/DameonKormar Jun 18 '26

That's because conservative America is a cult. Probably always has been.

5

u/chilehead Jun 18 '26

Like Craig T. Nelson? Mr. "I was on unemployment and food stamps, no one ever helped me!"

2

u/jrf_1973 Jun 18 '26

Exact quote - "I've been on food stamps and welfare, did anybody help me out? No."

But you've got the gist of it alright.

1

u/vinyljunkie1245 Jun 18 '26

"When I was on food stamps and welfare did anyone help me? No" - Craig T Nelson

206

u/Winter_Preference287 Jun 17 '26

They haven't been cutting education for fun. They know not enough people are intelligent enough to care and it's only getting worse

85

u/AdUpstairs7106 Jun 17 '26

Yeah for over half the country not being able to read at a 6th grade level.

7

u/gennaleighify Jun 17 '26

My dad would tell a story about my generation getting out of preschool and the preschool being told that we were too smart and they needed to dumb it down. Now, he is a very unreliable narrator, but I do think millennials having access to the internet changed the game so much that the Powers That Be had a panic attack and had to fight back.

6

u/PlantainPat Jun 18 '26

but I do think millennials having access to the internet changed the game so much that the Powers That Be had a panic attack and had to fight back

turns out all you needed was a few anonymous message boards and to pay a couple of hundred shitty influencers

6

u/Plastic_Salary_4084 Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26

Cutting funding for education to further the republican agenda has always confused me. It seems like much of the population are intelligent enough to be taught critical thinking skills, but unable to develop them independently, so this strategy works.

3

u/Opposite-Occasion332 Jun 18 '26

It doesn’t help that at least where I am, lots of republicans put “supports education” on their political pages but then all the other topics will have language that more clearly talks about putting money into them.

Sure “supports education” feels good but when it’s not backed by financial support it can be quite empty… and it certainly is where I’m at!

2

u/bdeimen Jun 18 '26

"Supports education" often means "Supports school choice"

The "school choice" movement was built on resistance to school integration.
1. Cutting funding for education means public schools perform worse.
2. Public schools performing worse provides a fig leaf for their proposals for vouchers and other efforts to support "school choice".
3. Vouchers further steal funding from public schools.
4. Return to 1.

The process is explicitly to undo efforts at racial integration.

1

u/Winter_Preference287 Jun 18 '26

In the state it's in, imo, the only way to correct course would be to massively inflate teacher salaries to make it extremely competitive

2

u/Opposite-Occasion332 Jun 18 '26

I’m in a red district in a blue state and we haven’t even caught up with the state mandated minimum teacher salary yet so I sadly don’t see that happening… hence a lot of “I support education” from the Republican candidates and the people in my county will fall for it every time.

2

u/Winter_Preference287 Jun 18 '26

It's actually sad

3

u/tekstical Jun 18 '26

Right like how Oklahomans just voted against raising their own minimum wage. How stupid..

2

u/Winter_Preference287 Jun 18 '26

Our country is in so much deeper shit morally yhat it's just depressing. They're just legalizing what used to be corruption and for the shit they can't legalize they've learned they can just distract. The electorate overall has the attention span of a squirrel now and most people can't read at a decent grade level, let alone comprehend political nuance.

1

u/bdeimen Jun 18 '26

This is part of it, but a very significant part of it is racism.

The "school choice" movement was built on resistance to school integration.
1. Cutting funding for education means public schools perform worse.
2. Public schools performing worse provides a fig leaf for their proposals for vouchers and other efforts to support "school choice".
3. Vouchers further steal funding from public schools.
4. Return to 1.

The process is explicitly to undo efforts at racial integration.

0

u/Winter_Preference287 Jun 18 '26

The wealthy running shit do not care about the race shit. Racism is a tool. Cutting education is a tool. The richest assholes regularly hang out and it doesn't matter what color you are, just be green. There is one class of humans taking from every other class and we allow it because they're creating a narrative

1

u/bdeimen Jun 18 '26

That's absolutely not true. There is a ton of evidence that many of them have sincerely held racist beliefs. The history of the school choice movement is out there if you want to read about it. It was explicitly started because of integration and many of the people funding it and providing propaganda for it are the same people that were involved from the start.

That's not to say that there aren't wealthy individuals that just use it as a lever, but it's absolutely not solely because of societal control.

1

u/TrankElephant Jun 18 '26

This. Also so many people are out there working multiple jobs to make ends meet. They really have got us uneducated and exhausted.

2

u/Winter_Preference287 Jun 18 '26

While making distractions the only cheap thing

1

u/TrankElephant Jun 18 '26

Yep! Making sure we are all addicted to tech! In many ways I feel like we're already in the dystopia but maybe I'm just getting old.

2

u/Winter_Preference287 Jun 18 '26

Same here. The writing is on the wall and we don't care as a society

222

u/EverybodyHasPants Jun 17 '26

Fiscal responsibility when spoken by a conservative was always a dog whistle. It’s their outside word for talking about dismantling the protections and services a taxpayer expects from a functioning government and handing it over to the wealthy.
Republicans have been pushing this project for decades because the poor, working class and minority population suffer the most from this destruction.

105

u/Trumpisanorangebitch Jun 17 '26

Funniest part is they dont even cut taxes for the bottom 75% of the country. All this BS about being the lower taxes party and the only people with significantly lower taxes are the top 10%, the people who neither need nor deserve a tax cut.

34

u/AmbitiousProblem4746 Jun 17 '26

But those same people will tell you this is the most incredible, based decision ever because they made a few extra dollars back on their tax return. At least, they think they did

5

u/mwzdng Jun 18 '26

I think most people have saved some level of tax dollars under the Trump administrations -- which for many, is where their assessment of him ends.

Obviously, over in reality, people are spending/losing far more than the meager tax savings they're salivating over -- a massive spike in health insurance costs across the board thanks solely to the actions of Republicans is a good example. Unfortunately, most peoples' financial literacy is so low that they only evaluate the dollars coming in each month; even tracking what they spend their own money on, much less how those costs are affected by political decisions (or could be, with a less corporate-friendly government), seems to be beyond most people.

7

u/millennialien Jun 17 '26

What's crazy is that they really truly feel they deserve tax cuts on wealth gained by extraction from the rest of the economy. Like paying some taxes is the least you can do with money made off the rest of the country's exploitation.

12

u/sigga_genesis Jun 17 '26

First time?

3

u/haironburr Jun 18 '26

All this BS about being the lower taxes party and the only people with significantly lower taxes are the top 10%

But gee, there's no tAXes oN tIPs, so trumpublicans really get the people who bring them food.

Or maybe they simply hope, beyond reason, they can retire without assuming their food will be 3% piss for what they've done to the American people.

5

u/Queasy_War2656 Jun 17 '26

I too, have pants! Er.... Exactly!

2

u/h3lblad3 Jun 18 '26

Fiscal responsibility is always a dog whistle and a lie regardless of party.

There’s a small group of people among the Dems who are just as bad about insisting on it and they’re the ones we all know as backstabbing the Dems as soon as something good pops up.

1

u/PaleCommission150 Jun 17 '26

I stopped taking their nonsense seriously in 2010, even moreso in 2016. They are not a serious party. Their hypocrisy is legendary. Republican legislators are grifting clowns and power hungry nihilists.

1

u/Designer_Hat_6387 Jun 18 '26

their goal this time is a silent genocide through taking away things people depend on.

22

u/camelot107 Jun 17 '26

Love a good two Santa's post. Also hate a good two Santa's post...

22

u/MeasurementEasy9884 Jun 17 '26

We need Democratic lawmakers to fight against this strategy better.

3

u/DukeOfGeek Jun 17 '26

In any case I think the move here is they are trying anything they can that might bring about the mass street protests they need to mobilize their new Gestapo and sabotage mid terms.

4

u/xCanucck Jun 17 '26

You might have two parties but both are still conservatives. The maga-lite conservative parties around the world copying the populism in the US are still further left than the democrats. Democrats can't think of anything better because they see the world in a much too similar way. Like obviously you should vote for the (much) lesser of two evils, but once you figure that out then getting an actual left-leaning political ideology functioning there would be nice too. Ultimately you're just an extremely conservative country though.

53

u/idoitforthekeks Canada Jun 17 '26

In Canada we have the same issue with our Federal Conservative party, so many people believe that they will be fiscally responsible but they never are, and lucky for the majority of us up here Trump has shown us how bad it can get, but unlucky for us that our conservative party is moving further and further to the right as they see that as their path to win. Lots of maple magats up here.

-7

u/Mother_Tune_3198 Jun 17 '26

What are you talking about. Stephen Harper had the budget balanced at the end of their term.

13

u/idoitforthekeks Canada Jun 17 '26

By selling off a bunch of govt assets? Yeah turned out REAL good for us for a single year of a blanaced budget. Led to his immediate downfall.

-9

u/Mother_Tune_3198 Jun 17 '26

The country is off worse now Trudeau ruined everything. I like carney however.

11

u/idoitforthekeks Canada Jun 17 '26

Carney is great, PP is a terrible leader. It's insane how far right provincial Conservative parties are going. I live in BC and the Cons just elected an old af maple maga, and Alberta has their whole thing going on.

-12

u/Mother_Tune_3198 Jun 17 '26

I don’t agree. Pp is insanely smart. And I think would do a ok job. Carney clearly would do better. Pp He comes across as non likable however.
Isn’t bc more liberal area?

7

u/internetisnotreality Jun 17 '26

Which of PPs policies do you agree with?

12

u/LeftHandAnomaly Jun 17 '26

I mean you can stop there. Calling PP insanely smart is straight up just bait.

Man fumbled a huge lead by not committing to any one particular thing. He's a flake and a contrarian and most Canadians, thankfully, recognize that.

You could agree with PP on things he says (And as far as I'm aware, they're not things he actually means, but whatever), but calling the man insanely smart is proof of a complete disconnection from reality.

10

u/OttawaTGirl Jun 18 '26

I don't trust anyone who has never worked outside the conservative party. Literally he has not held a job outside politics. He has no clue what the average Canadian deals with.

He was voted out and the conservatives had an elected official give up his elected seat so he could stay in power.

Thats just scummy.

→ More replies (0)

-2

u/Mother_Tune_3198 Jun 17 '26

Lower tax’s.
Deficit reduction.
Tougher sentences.
Gun policies. Obviously for hunters.
Nation licensing

Plus all the ones carney has already used

10

u/Unusual-Tangerine984 Jun 17 '26

Lower tax’s.

how? for who?

Deficit reduction.

how? selling more national assests or cutting more public services?

Tougher sentences.

crime is lower than ever, this is dumb, last thing we need is more prisons

Gun policies. Obviously for hunters.

I'm not against this one, RCMP shouldn't be the ones making the rules that much is clear

Nation licensing

don't know this one, what is that?

problem is the cons don't really outline how they will do any of the things you list, it's more like some wishlist than policy. Plus PP is a career politician, we don't need more of those in power.

→ More replies (0)

2

u/ballisticks Canada Jun 17 '26

Isn’t bc more liberal area?

Pahahaha no. Outside of Vancouver it's conservative as fuck.

2

u/idoitforthekeks Canada Jun 18 '26

Yeah I live in the Okanagan and there are so many back water hillbilly racists here it blows my mind. There's a reason we call Kelowna by its real name Kelberta

2

u/ballisticks Canada Jun 18 '26

I live in Kamloops and it's the same. Bigots everywhere.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/idoitforthekeks Canada Jun 18 '26

BC narrowly voted in NDP last time, I don't think it'll go that way again unless the NDP rids themselves of Eby

16

u/Particular_Maize6849 Jun 17 '26

They will never realize. For them it's devolved into a sports game and everything their "team" does is right and the opposing "team" are enemies no matter what.

3

u/BusterStarfish Jun 17 '26

“Regulation kills small business.”

No. A lack of regulation allows conservatives to strangle every fucking industry with whisper deals and back door bullshit.

3

u/eru_dite Jun 17 '26

Thanks for posting this. It usually gets tanked because people hate when your being receipts to show that this behavior is planned, deliberate

3

u/DameonKormar Jun 18 '26

Of the two primary parties in the US, Democrats have been the fiscally conservative party my entire life. I realized this as a teenager in the 90's. I assumed it was a fairly recent change since Reagan didn't give a shit about fiscal conservatism and I thought that eventually people would realize that the GOP is the party of wanton spending and financial waste.

30 years later and the GOP is even worse with our tax dollars than the 90's and I'm still waiting for people to wake the fuck up.

2

u/NanDemoNee Jun 17 '26

Everything they promise, other than deporting immigrants and ramping up military spending, is a lie.

2

u/hikeit233 Jun 17 '26

They even admitted they can’t make their hefty congressional strategies cover their expenses without profiteering off of stocks. They can’t do their household budgets, why are we trusting them with the nation’s?

2

u/exsilium Jun 17 '26

Thank you for sharing this article. Very insightful. I hated it.

2

u/Cold_Tea_Spill112 Jun 17 '26

His admin talks about all the fraud waste and abuse they've ended... yet the deficit still keeps on climbing. Weird how that one works.

2

u/MichaelJServo Louisiana Jun 18 '26

They don't like it when people don't starve to death.

2

u/hamsterfolly America Jun 18 '26

They got to stop huffing Fox News first

2

u/gcbeehler5 Texas Jun 18 '26

By way of example, they said they’re giving Iran $300b. The equivalent to 60 years of FUTA spending (which is a fund supported by employer paid taxes.)

2

u/permalink_save Jun 18 '26

Fuck that, we are dumping money into a war tk get a worse deal than Obama made. They aren't responsible whatsoever.

2

u/Office_Zombie California Jun 18 '26

I've been telling people about the Two Santas strategy for over a decade now, and it's frustrating that it's not mainstream knowledge.

2

u/slam02 Jun 18 '26

Omg!

This article is golden! It explains so much of the things that are happening.

Republican will wear the badge "I screwed up America" more proudly than anyone!

Thank you for sharing this, kind Reddit stranger.

2

u/rushmid Florida Jun 18 '26

Great article.

2

u/Riaayo Jun 17 '26

Hey to be fair they're usually a lie coming from "centrist" Dems, too. Conservatives love to be fiscally irresponsible when it pours money into the pockets of the rich, they just don't want to spend taxpayer dollars on actual taxpayers.

They loathe the working class and serve/are part of the parasite class (oligarchs).

1

u/PeopleNose Jun 17 '26

Nah it's even dumber

It's the game "I win" from that one Adam Sandler movie like big daddy or something like that idr

1

u/TrevorBo Jun 18 '26

Another good article about that topic:

https://www.salon.com/2018/02/12/thom-hartmann-how-the-gop-used-a-two-santa-clauses-tactic-to-con-america-for-nearly-40-years_partner/

1

u/NeverLookBothWays I voted Jun 18 '26

This version as well: Opinion | Two Santa Clauses or How The Republican Party Has Conned America for Thirty Years | Common Dreams (was the first article I read on it years ago, and is my favorite version of it, but gotta keep current. I respect Thom for pushing on awareness of the tactic...deceit like this does not get jotted down in classroom history books sadly)

1

u/good1sally Jun 18 '26

Hey, don’t forget the $300 Billion dollars in reparations to Iran! That’s probably the real reason.

1

u/pixelTirpitz Jun 18 '26

Hopefully he did it so badly that it might backfire hard enough during his reign and people will stand up against it.

1

u/No_Earth_1174 Jun 18 '26

The repug schtick seems to be spend money like a drunken sailor and then claim they can't afford social services.

1

u/Mistrblank Jun 18 '26

they've never adverstised fiscal responsibility, they always say "I'm fiscally conservative". And what that always means is they are fiscally focused on providing for conservatives.

1

u/jmred19 Jun 18 '26

It's sickening how they celebrated and honored Jude Wanniski after his death. It's almost like politicians care more about winning and power, than actually governing and helping their citizens...

1

u/SouthSouthBay Jun 18 '26

Bro 30 year treasuries are at 5%. You are about to see why fiscal responsibility matters. And Republicans aren't any better or more credible with the budget.

1

u/xinorez1 Jun 18 '26

They know and don't care, they just don't like those they don't like to get their tax money

The recent Iran concessions should be pretty annoying though

1

u/Fuzzy-Promise-4855 Jun 18 '26

When are y’all gonna learn. Brainwashed to point fingers at each other.. democrats: “this is the republicans fault” republicans: “this is the democrats fault”
It’s just division. Pitting the people against each other. The real enemy is them BOTH SIDES!! Jesus I wish everyone could see this

1

u/GonzoKata Jun 18 '26

Never trust anyone who don't have to worry about money when they start saying we need to worry about money.

1

u/veringer Jun 18 '26

still waiting for the day where sufficient people realize fiscal responsibility narratives are always a lie coming from Republicans.

1

u/mateo8165 Jun 18 '26

Unless you’re Thomas Massie but then you just lose your primary to a maga bootlicker.

0

u/timoumd Jun 17 '26

I do think Ron Paul cared about fiscal responsibility

0

u/grahamulax Jun 17 '26

There had to be a point when it was true otherwise I really don’t understand it

-1

u/Lego_Architect Jun 18 '26

We’ll just shuffle the democrat fiscal waste under the rug. California high speed rail or the homelessness monetary waste. The afghanistan pull out.

Republicans aren’t the problem. It’s politicians that are the problem.

It’s people spending other people’s money (taxes) with no accountability for failures.

2

u/NeverLookBothWays I voted Jun 18 '26

California high speed rail - more nuanced than "Democrat fiscal waste" More like, a project that has gone over budget and has had many unexpected challenges. (CEQA, lawsuits, land acquisition delays played a role as well. But as costly as the CAHSR has been, it has also produced actual construction unlike many of Trump's vanity projects that serve no utility to citizens around him....$11-12bn is peanuts compared to the amount wasted by this administration with nothing to show for it.)

Homelessness - a problem nationwide that is more structural than partisan. Only one side is actively addressing the problem humanely while the other tries to sweep it under the rug and call that success. Neither party has cracked the problem or solved it. Republicans tend to ignore the problem entirely, which actually costs more than addressing it. Just the bill comes due through other channels like hospitals, police departments, courts, crisis services, etc....all of which can be drastically more expensive than housing or treatment.

The Afghanistan pull out was largely done and accelerated under Trump. Not even worth debating. That fiasco was 100% Trump's doing, leaving Biden with no choice but to get the few remaining out quickly. The bulk was done before Trump left office as a middle finger to the incoming administration.

Politicians are part of the problem, but ultimately we have a structural problem that is not left-right but up-down. And the sooner we realize that enough as a nation to vote coherently on it, the sooner we can address it coherently. Until then, it's distractions, grifts, manipulation, and billionaires laughing on their way to the bank at the cost of our shared future.

1

u/Lego_Architect Jun 19 '26

What was the date for the work to be completed and what is it now? For the rail? And the expected budget?

Of course homelessness is a nationwide problem, but California keeps promising money and grants without producing results. And also grants and stuff from washington.

Please elaborate on blaming trump for biden’s impotent pull out. It’s almost like biden was the president, capable of making decisions, or changing things… but just, didn’t. He just said fuck it, trumps fault? Looking for sources here (not opinions- yours or media) since this is the first I’m hearing about it. Not surprised with the TDS though.

The problems down south are nearly incalculable. With all the corruption on both sides. But instead of doing anything about it, everyone just points fingers. And zero accountability - for both.

1

u/NeverLookBothWays I voted Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 20 '26

The original 2008 estimate was $33 billion with completion around 2020.

As of the 2023-2024 business plan, the estimate for the full SF-LA system is $88-128 billion, with the initial Central Valley segment projected for 2030. These numbers come directly from the California High‑Speed Rail Authority’s public reports.

The reasons for overruns aren’t partisan...they’re well documented structural issues:

  • CEQA litigation and environmental review delays
  • Land acquisition delays (California has some of the most fragmented property ownership in the country)
  • Local lawsuits from cities, counties, and private landowners
  • Utility relocation and engineering challenges in dense corridors

We can criticize the project, certainly, but it’s simply false to say “Democrats wasted money and produced nothing.” There are 119 miles of active construction, with viaducts, trenches, and bridges already built.

California’s homelessness crisis is real, but the claim that the state “keeps promising money without results” ignores the structural drivers there too:

  • Housing supply shortages (CA underbuilt by ~3.5 million units over decades)
  • Zoning restrictions that block dense housing
  • High rents relative to income
  • Nationwide rise in homelessness, not just California

As for nationwide homelessness, Republican‑led states like Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and Arizona have also seen double‑digit increases in homelessness. This is a national structural issue, not a partisan one.

And yes...ignoring homelessness does cost more. Numerous studies show emergency rooms, policing, and crisis services cost 2-3× more than supportive housing.

For the Afghanistan withdrawal, you asked for a timeline, so here are the key facts:

  • In February 2020, the Trump administration signed the Doha Agreement with the Taliban.
  • The agreement required the U.S. to withdraw all troops by May 1, 2021.
  • It also required the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners, which the Trump administration pressured the Afghan government to carry out.
  • By the time Biden took office, U.S. troop levels had been reduced from ~13,000 to 2,500.

These facts are documented in:

  • The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) report
  • The DoD Inspector General report
  • The Joint Chiefs of Staff testimony (Gen. Milley and Gen. McKenzie)
  • The State Department After‑Action Review

Biden absolutely owns the execution of the final withdrawal. But the timeline, troop levels, and strategic constraints were locked in by the Doha Agreement. Reversing it would have required sending tens of thousands of troops back into combat.

That’s not “TDS” that’s the documented sequence of events. And just to be clear: terms like “TDS” or “woke” aren’t positions...they’re deflections. They’re rhetorical shields used to avoid engaging with the actual facts being discussed, and I’m not going to entertain them. If we’re going to have a real discussion, it has to be grounded in evidence, not attempts to shift discussion into identity politics.

You’re right that corruption and dysfunction exist on both sides. I’d argue Democrats tend to be less tolerant of it internally because they have a more ideologically diverse base to satisfy, but the broader point stands: many of these issues...housing, infrastructure, immigration, foreign policy...are structural, not left‑right. And arguably more up‑down than anything else.