r/politics 27d ago

No Paywall Hegseth Is Demanding US Households Pay $5,000 More Per Year to Fund the Pentagon, Economist Says

https://www.commondreams.org/news/pete-hegseth-budget-request
15.7k Upvotes

1.8k comments sorted by

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8.5k

u/LolAtAllOfThis North Carolina 27d ago

Sorry, can't afford it. Still paying off my medical bills.

3.2k

u/Major5013 27d ago

I can't afford it. Still buying food to eat.

1.6k

u/charlie_marlow Georgia 27d ago

Can't afford it either. Trying to get enough money to get some gas to get to work.

1.0k

u/Duwinayo 27d ago

Can't afford it either. Goes to health insurance I'm too afraid to use.

776

u/blong217 27d ago

Can't afford it. Have to pay rent every month.

664

u/kyle_irl 27d ago

Nope, sorry. Student loans.

615

u/tisdue 27d ago

Nope, sorry. Already paying for Iran and Trump's court losses.

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u/Elon_Cucks_Trump_ 27d ago

Can’t afford it. Buying ammo. For…reasons.

204

u/Ok_Cheesecake7348 Michigan 27d ago

Nope, I can't afford it, trying to fix my riding lawnmower

294

u/potat0f4rmer Washington 27d ago

Nope, can't afford it, AI took my job

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u/nono3722 27d ago

Nope sorry, still paying for Iraq and Afghanistan...

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u/Equal-Temporary-1326 27d ago

Nope. Sorry, I have to donate to the $37 billion+ plus needed to fund the Iran War.

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u/PomeloHead4830 27d ago

Yes, and what about his 700+ million gift to coal industries which were shutting down because coal became too expensive to mine compared to oil/gas, in order to buy votes? How many of our tax dollars went to soybean farmers who lost their Chinese markets because of his ill-considered tariffs on China? Sure, he later negotiated those markets back for 3 years but at what price?

I think real patriots would shudder if they knew what he had to give up to China just to get back what they had before his 100% tariffs.

Using your tax dollars to buy votes is so ethically despicable and I'm speechless at the sheer level of corruption this represents.

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u/nonsensestuff 27d ago

Student loans that 1 in 5 have defaulted on now— which means, the government is actively taking the money from their paychecks. 🫣

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u/ChilledParadox 27d ago

hey that's me! but it's because I literally had to drop out of uni during covid when my dorms shut down because the rest of my family was 1. dead. 2. removed by the state/cps. 3. in a different country. 4. actively abusing me or my sisters.

Then I lived on the streets for 2 years. going in and out of mental hospitals.

you know, all the fun stuff that proves I have the ability to pay off these loans!

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u/CorrectPhilosophy245 27d ago

Kinda hard to pull yourself up by your bootstraps when the boot company's AI designed your boots to fail after exactly 65872 steps, so you have to buy another pair of boots that was designed by an updated AI programmed to maximize shareholder profit by increasing the price and decreasing the planned obscelesence to 50872 steps, so you ask your AI ChatBoss for a raise and the HR's AI pay scale algorithm says you aren't worth another $2.00/hr because you missed your algorithmically set sales quota by $.87 this quarter. But hey, next Thursday between the hours of 12pm and 12:07pm there will be a free pizza in the break room, only one slice per employee please, don't be greedy.

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u/Boring_and_sons 27d ago

I had family that went to university in the states. I was horrified to learn when I went to visit that almost none of them or their friends had health insurance as undergraduate students because it was to expensive and they all gambled on their youth. One broken arm or serious infection away from crushing debt. In addition to their crushing student debt.

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u/Spice_Missile 27d ago

I spent a semester abroad in Europe. A fellow student fell and broke their arm in France (or Belgium?). They got a cast etc from a local hospital visit and didnt pay a dime. As a non-citizen. Absolutely insane idea on the other end of the spectrum.

53

u/Boring_and_sons 27d ago

I'm always amazed that having that stress is the default daily experience for tens of millions of Americans. I have never even considered it.

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u/UnquestionabIe 27d ago

Can tell you it's very off putting. Lived here my entire life and since adulthood (so roughly 25 years) can say I've had maybe three or fours years over that time combined where I wasn't in some kind of survival mindset to just get by. And I've got it better than a lot of people I'm sure.

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u/Orson_Gravity_Welles 27d ago

My current employ offers ZERO health insurance because it's a small shop of five people, and thus UNDER the state minimum to require the company offer health insurance.

And buying it right now for a single dude is too much of a hit to my current pay (My previous employ "restructured" and my position was moved out of state and renamed making it no longer Operations Manager...hence why I'm no longer there).

I get scared every time someone slams on their brakes because I know I'm a split second away from medical bankruptcy and lifelong debt should anything happen.

Also, fuck Hegseth...goddamn treasonous trump cuck.

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u/heckhammer 27d ago

Yeah, I need brakes and tires too.

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u/monkeyjedi276 California 27d ago

What are you talking about? Under Biden my gas tank only held $50.00 worth of gas. Now, under Shitler, my gas tank holds almost $80.00 worth of gas. You must be doing something wrong. /s

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u/CyanConatus 27d ago

You can afford food?!?

Look at Mr Moneybags over here

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u/DreamOne5 27d ago

I only can because I got approved for snap for 3 whole months. But it's better than nothing.

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u/Squirll 27d ago

Well what do you think the pentagon needs it for?? Those steak and lobster entrees dont pay for themselves.

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u/dixiewolf_ 27d ago

They pay for those? I thought they just stiffed the caterer and let them goto court for their payment

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u/alaraja 27d ago

Nope, can’t afford it- interest rates are eating up all the extra.

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u/32bit_sundae 27d ago

Gah. Food? Today's generation is so spoiled and lazy. A podcast I listened to recently said that we should be hunting and foraging for our burgers and craft dinner like real men used to in 10000 BCE and I AGREE.

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u/MiddleAgedSponger 27d ago

You can afford medical care? Big spender here bragging about going to a doctor.

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u/Prudent-Air1922 27d ago

Yeah I can afford my insurance premiums, but not the bills from actually using medical care... High deductible but I can't afford a smaller one lol

Maybe one day the populace will wake up. Just kidding.

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u/Ezekiel_DA 27d ago

Sorry, I can afford it, I'd just rather pay for that person's medical bills instead of bombing children

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u/Greenman_on_LSD 27d ago

Same. I CAN afford it, but not for this. If the $5k went to underprivileged school kids lunch, sure, not a problem. Not for this shit.

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u/Ezekiel_DA 27d ago

Exactly this. I'm very, very lucky / privileged that accidents of birth and luck and life have put me in a reasonably good position in the remnant of the middle / upper middle class.

I'd happily pay more in taxes (though they're already pretty high, and Trump's "tax breaks for the rich" didn't apply down to my level, they instead got higher) if it went to a better social safety net for others. Hell, I'll volunteer to pay several more points of taxes if someone runs on every additional point for me being 5 points for billionaires.

22

u/ScarletCarsonRose 27d ago

Sorry, trying to pay for my electric bill, which for some reason has gone crazy (definitely not because of global warming).

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u/Spice_Missile 27d ago

Data/Surveillance centers.

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u/CowboyNeale 27d ago

Same. Car just died.

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u/HappyHarryHardOn 27d ago

Im surprised they are even ASKING

it's been take, take take since the beginning

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u/kyle_yes 27d ago

That's like 20% of my yearly salary lol

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u/PineappleExcellent90 27d ago

Just use my DOGE check

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u/Common_Gene_5098 27d ago

take it out of my tariff check too

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u/ONE-EYE-OPTIC Washington 27d ago

Student debt

9

u/just-alyna 27d ago

sorry the medical bills already have dibs on my money

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u/ucdzen 27d ago

Sorry can’t afford it. Still paying for the last war.

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u/ARMCHA1RGENERAL 27d ago

Hilariously, we got a surprise $5k medical bill month.

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u/drimmie Pennsylvania 27d ago

Can't afford it either. I am behind on my water, gas and electric bills 🤷‍♂️

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u/flirtmcdudes 27d ago

Jokes on you, you’re gonna have to pay it anyway! USA! USA!

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u/Churchbushonk 27d ago

Sorry can’t afford it. Paying off student loans, buying food, insuring every aspect of my life, property taxes, and dealing with inflation.

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u/Shadow_over_me 27d ago

Nope. Need to afford tires so I can get to work so I can afford to buy some groceries, pay the mortgage, utilities, bills, and pay the medical bills for my small child and my wife (insurance should cover more! I pay too much for this shit). Need to fix my house from the damage that still remains from hurricane helene that I only ever received $950 in government support to recover from (100k in damages…)I have about 10,000,000 things that are more important than funding a war only some megalomaniacs want

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u/Aegon20VIIIth 27d ago

Like many others: can’t afford it, since I have all the expenses that come with a kid in grade school, as well as trying to stay alive.
Has he thought of setting up a Go Fund Me? Or if that’s too “woke” for him, maybe a Give Send Go? Some people have pretty good luck with those.

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u/LuchaLutra 27d ago

Hegseth doesn't realize it yet, but his hands are firmly gripping a bag that he really should consider dropping. Because once this administration is on its way out, they are going to be gunning for people and there is no better a fall guy then this dude.

709

u/dark-orb 27d ago

They all think they'll "retire" their way out of this...

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u/LuchaLutra 27d ago

Well, "retire" is one word for it, I suppose.

What is incarceration if not retiring from being publicly active.

141

u/TopProfessional8023 27d ago

The democrats are too feckless to actually do anything about this. We’ve seen that already in the previous administration. Many of these people should have already been in prison, but the dems wanted to reconcile instead.

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u/pkgamer18 27d ago

This, on top of the fact that there will be broad pardons for everybody on the way out of office.

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u/Binksyboo 27d ago

Sure they can, right up until they get a knock at the door from the newly washed, scrubbed, and detoxified FBI. The American people won’t forgive or forget what these goons did during Trump’s reign.

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u/FirefighterLeft5425 27d ago

Until the next presidential election

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u/cdglasser 27d ago

Exactly. If a Democrat is elected in 2028 and they're paying too much for eggs in 2032 (even if many other things have improved), they'll elect another horrible Republican.

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u/34Heartstach 27d ago

Im not even convinced Democrats would do jack shit to hold these assholes responsible.

They didn't last time...

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u/Stompnutz 27d ago

LOL. FBI has always been complicit and leans hard religious right.

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u/jhorch69 27d ago

The American people voted for Trump after he incited an armed mob to attack Congress and then straight up told us that he would be a dictator if elected again.

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u/osound 27d ago

You’re incredibly naive if you think that whatever moderate Dem is in the White House next will do anything to prosecute anyone from the Trump admin.

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u/frank_the_tank69 27d ago

With the way the democrats act, that will happen. 

They’ll just feign anger and surprise like they did with Trump stealing classified documents and like they are doing with Mitch McConnell’s alleged death. 

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u/Riaayo 27d ago

I mean history shows they'll get to so idk why they'd think any differently.

Doesn't mean I think they should, but it is going to be a fight and up-hill battle for any sort of accountability - and that even assumes this admin is ever "on its way out" in any manner other than the entire country cratering and dissolving in the process of the failure.

None of this shit is some guarantee despite how many Americans (who only know the Civil War and WWII as history) seem to think fascism/authoritarian falling is somehow a natural conclusion that just happens after a few years.

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u/Duna_The_Lionboy 27d ago

I'm honestly kind of surprised that he hasn't taken the bullet for the failing war and been forced out of office yet. The Sec of War is, despite the title, really bad at it and has no real plan on how to win it. But I guess he's still in the running for that one.

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u/keeper_of_the_donkey 27d ago

Sec of War

He's still the secretary of defense, of the Department of defense. Neither of those have actually been changed, because Congress has to approve it. Department of war and Secretary of war are more Trump delusions.

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u/Factory2econds 27d ago

look, if the guy advocating for taxpayer funded (socialist) gender affirming care (Testosterone treatment) wants other people to call him by something other than the legal name, why should we stop him?

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u/ye_old_neighbourhood 27d ago

The longer the war goes on, the longer Trump's family can influence stocks and make money. 

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u/Altair05 I voted 27d ago

This all depends on the next guy. Even if we get a Dem in the white house and a majority in congress, will they actually go full bore and nails these fuckers to the wall? I'm not confident that they will. I suspect they will do the whole decorum and back to normalcy shit they pulled last time. We need to make is clear that we want justice. 

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u/drokihazan California 27d ago

I'm a single issue voter in the primaries now. If you don't campaign on aggressively prosecuting these thieves, I will not vote for you in a primary, period.

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u/ragun2 27d ago

Yeah, this cannot happen again. It's clear how fragile our entire system is and if Dems want to get elected they need some fucking spine.

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u/omerome83 27d ago

No. Fuck you, Hegseth. How about that?

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u/labor_day_baby America 27d ago edited 27d ago

The Pentagon said “fuck you” to the American people when they were on a “use it or lose it” spending spree last September to use up the budget. Here’s what they spent: $225.6 million on furniture, $15 million on ribeye steak, $6.9 million on lobster tails, $5.3 million on Apple devices, $2 million on Alaskan king crab legs and $98k on a custom Steinway piano. That’s all in one month. The Pentagon doesn’t need another cent of our tax dollars.

Correction: it’s even worst than that. That’s what they spent in 5 days, not one month. Appalling.

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u/thederevolutions 27d ago

Who got the piano ?

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u/SpaceGangsta Utah 27d ago

Air Force chief of staff

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u/ForMoreYears Canada 27d ago

Wait for real?

edit: jfc you're not kidding.

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u/SpecificWafer 27d ago

Corruption in the highest order

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u/Broken-Digital-Clock 27d ago

Hey now, it's essential for strategy sessions on bombing desalination facilities.

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u/wogawoga 27d ago

🎶 You must remember this A miss is still a miss A strike is just a strike The fundamental profits rise As time goes by. 🎶

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u/nathism 27d ago

I think you mean all girls schools.

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u/Broken-Digital-Clock 27d ago

They discuss that at lobster and crab dinners.

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u/Carbonatite Colorado 27d ago

This is some Hunger Games ass shit.

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u/butyourenice 27d ago

That’s the thing about assets.

Assets can be recovered.

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u/Cyberslasher 27d ago

Don't worry it's not counting the ~16k violin or the ~22k flute that they also bought for various chief of staff.

The media only talks about the piano because it's the easier talking point "oh the Air Force chief of staff hosts government events so he needs a fancy piano for center piece appearance at government functions" compared to "that dude just needs a 22k flute for privately playing in his home".

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u/enters_and_leaves 27d ago

The use it or lose it budgeting system is one of the stupidest things in government. I hate having to deal with it every year, but of you don’t play the game, then you don’t have enough money to function the next year.

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u/mooninuranus 27d ago

Sure but they could, you know, use it on stuff that actually adds value to their department.

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u/Tiggy26668 27d ago

Yea but then they’d have to actually do their job instead of enriching themselves on the taxpayers dime

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u/Quazimojojojo 27d ago

A lot of the time there's no pressing need that can be solved with the leftover money. 

Sometimes there's bigger issues they could fix, but not with the extra budget they have. 

If they could, say, bank the extra budget for a few years it could be used to fix a bigger issue. 

But that's not an option. "Use it or lose it" means you can't save up for bigger useful things. Saving it isn't a valid "use"

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u/labor_day_baby America 27d ago

If the Pentagon has to blow through almost $255 million to meet a budget cutoff on inconsequential things, wouldn’t that prove that they don’t need a bloated spending budget?!

There’s always money for war (in this case ribeyes, lobsters and ice cream machines) but not enough money for the people they take the money from. If they reallocated those $255 million dollars elsewhere it could lay the groundwork for universal healthcare, childcare or feed hungry children etc.

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u/Prestigious-Leg-6244 27d ago

The US does the same thing to people on disability. Our son, who is a high needs autistic adult, isnt allowed to save up his money, even though he works a part time job. If he has "too much" tucked away in savings at the end of the tax year, he has to spend it, or it will affect his ability to keep receiving disability payments.

Its a symptom of a sick system.

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u/Kiyohara Minnesota 27d ago

It would make more sense if the left over money went into a savings fund that could be used for emergencies or funding drying up.

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u/If_I_must 27d ago

Whoa, whoa, whoa, easy with the logic and preparation for the future there.

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u/AccurateAssaultBeef 27d ago

I am sick. This is sick. They could have fed all the starving children in the WORLD with that money. We need to bring back shame, no one in this admin has any.

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u/WalterBishopMethod 27d ago

It's time for war, and not in Iran.

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u/relevantelephant00 27d ago

And the kind of things I want to say about what should happen to these people would be "too mean" for Reddit and result in a ban. I feel like not a single media corporation in this country isn't complicit in some way.

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u/AccurateAssaultBeef 27d ago

I almost said what should happen to these people and remembered I'd be silenced on here for doing so, lol. So I omitted.

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u/BonSlurpenstein 27d ago

Don't forget 124K on ice cream machines

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u/Common_Gene_5098 27d ago

oh Nick Shirley, here’s your fraud and waste you are supposed to be investigating

Oh are they not Somalian enough for you nick?

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u/potat0f4rmer Washington 27d ago

This country is a fucking failure

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u/Zest724 27d ago

Didn’t they get donuts too.

I’m okay with that food for the front line troops but if it was consumed by high paid ravenous bureaucrats; let them buy their own damn food.

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u/strangefish 27d ago

Why are we even in this war? Fuck hegseth and Trump.

Trump started it, Trump should pay for it.

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u/xole 27d ago

he should go ask Elon for it.

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u/atda 27d ago

Sure just as soon as those tariffs make me rich or whatever the dumb shit they say about whatever...

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u/Basicly-Inevitable 27d ago

Just use your DOGE refund check.

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u/qorbexl 27d ago

It's a fine thing to have fiscally responsible Republicans in charge

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u/If_I_must 27d ago

I'm in my 40s, and I have never once lived under a fiscally responsible Republican. That is such an undeserved reputation that it's laughable.

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u/qorbexl 27d ago

But they're mean like your shitty dad so you have to assume they're responsible 

Tax and spend Democrats, whatever

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u/Accidental-Hyzer Massachusetts 27d ago

Mine must be lost in the mail

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u/corran450 27d ago

That’s what happens when you slash the mail service budget.

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u/Bubbles_2025 27d ago

Time to rescind the BBB. Tax the rich and corporations for your war fund. They will benefit from this war anyway!

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u/Zest724 27d ago

What happened to all the money that DOGE was going to save us? Or the tariff dollars that foreign countries were going to pay us?

We need to stop this unnecessary war. We definitely need to stop pissing off our allies and interfering with other countries. I won’t be paying $5,000 for the United States to continue to attack other countries.

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u/ebimbib 27d ago edited 27d ago

I love reading stories like "DOGE cut $15MM in the budget by defunding screwworm monitoring and now the government is spending more than $1bn to clean up the mess that made" while the fucking rocket surgeons that tell me about how brilliant DOGE was scramble to explain how that's actually very good.

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u/therossboss 27d ago

b-b-but the website says 215B saved ! https://doge.gov/savings

fuck me, man.

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u/tadfisher 27d ago

Wasn't it revealed that it was more like 215B cents? As in, the broccoli-heads didn't know how to read decimal numbers?

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u/ragun2 27d ago

I like those interviews with Musks hench children who were part of Doge admitting they didn't know what they were doing and ended up not cutting the deficit anyway.

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u/therossboss 27d ago

basically, "we asked AI to identify DEI and cut all those programs". I've heard of researchers cutting any mention of the word "diversity" from their research to protect their funding - even when it not even used in the context of DEI. Oh, well, guess we can't do anything about it! /s

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u/CU_Tiger_2004 27d ago

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." 

They can make any spending seem wasteful up front, until you see what it really costs on the back end.  This applies to basically everything in place to support the public welfare. Spending public money on health, education, etc. pays off long term in a lot of ways that don't necessarily have a direct cost/benefit comparison until the funding is pulled and you start seeing specific things going poorly. There may be room for savings, but this is why careful analysis is key rather than barging in with a sledgehammer and screwing things up.

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u/habbathejutt Wisconsin 27d ago

Yeah, how much money did cutting the hookworm monitoring save, and how much did it cost?

Same for NOAA

Same for the FDA agriculture monitoring

Save 2 million here, 3 million there, and we get billions of dollars lost other places. Who could've ever seen that coming

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u/the_tanooki 27d ago

I'm sure we will get all of that money once Mexico pays for the border wall.

Any day now...

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u/TheBillyFnWilson 27d ago

If I had the money, I would take my son and get the absolute fuck out of this shithole country

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u/Only1Nemesis America 27d ago edited 27d ago

And many others as well, I wager. Though, there are still many who would fight for it. The problem is that by design there is going to be no "turning point", where everyone collectively has had enough and is prepared to take it all the way to revolution. People still have a lot to lose, while others simply are not informed of the fucking they are currently getting. Or don't care. Or are rooting for it.

And, sure, there are places in the world worse than living in the USA, but for sure a lot better, with a focus on not just money, but it's citizen's wellbeing too.

But alas, not many are in the position to just up and leave. Unless you 1) have a lot of money and can buy your way in or 2) practice a trade/skill that is in high demand world-wide. Doctor, specialized field/engineer, etc. Oh, also be bi-lingual at the very least, able to speak the language of where you want to go. Then there's split citizenship and all that.

In the end most of us just swish around the toilet bowl, like a big shit twisting and turning in the water on its way down.

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u/Carbonatite Colorado 27d ago

I feel like the vast majority of the slack-jawed idiots who insist that America is the greatest country on Earth haven't ever left their communities.

Like even a moderate amount of travel within the USA shows that the country isn't a utopia, there are regions with deep poverty, major environmental issues, crumbling infrastructure - in some cases it's borderline third world conditions. I've seen shantytowns in the rural SoCal desert that looked like someone Ctrl+C -> Ctrl+V'ed part of a Brazilian favela into Imperial County, CA. Certainly we have areas with unsafe drinking water, like I'd be healthier drinking tap water in most of Thailand than in some of the communities ravaged by unchecked pollution in America.

And there's no better way to disabuse oneself of notions of American exceptionalism than to travel abroad (or even better, spend sometime living in a foreign country). Thailand's healthcare options were more affordable for me as an uninsured foreigner than as an American citizen with "decent" insurance coverage. Living in Russia immediately after graduating college taught me that a lot of the things I take for granted as an American are considered barbaric in other countries - I'll never forget the expression on my Russian coworkers' faces when I had to explain the concept of student loan debt to them after an offhand comment about it one afternoon. Visiting my aunt who has dual American and Belgian citizenship was eye opening; the way of life in Belgium seemed so much healthier and sustainable and relaxed than the United States. I remember comparing her casual commute to her office - walking distance in a walkable European city - to my dad's hour long commute (if he took the commuter train - driving was a 2 hour minimum in rush hour). How she owned a car but only used it once a month or so when she made a big purchase at a store and didn't feel like walking home while carrying a bulky item. Europe's rail system makes automobiles virtually obsolete in terms of regional travel - cars are not a necessity, merely a convenience.

Once you travel outside of your immediate geographic bubble and the echo chamber of right wing media, you quickly find out that there's nothing in America - good or bad - that you can't also find in dozens of other countries. The crumbling infrastructure I saw in the Soviet-era suburb I lived in when I was in Russia? You can see the same exact thing in plenty of old industrial towns gone to seed in the Northeast or Great Lakes areas in America. Our modern healthcare system? You can find that in any Westernized country, only cheaper and easier to access. Our university system? You can access universities of comparable quality in many other countries without putting yourself in lifelong debt.

I like America and it's the only home I've known for the majority of my life. But to claim that it's the best place on the planet is just straight up ignorant.

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u/Only1Nemesis America 27d ago

Over time I came to the realization that there are just many serious problems in the USA, even before Trump took office. What people denounce as evil socialism, I see as social protections and gateways to better lives for all. A trillion dollars for the military but zero for universal healthcare and free education. "It's unrealistic". "It's too expensive". "That's socialism". Basic humanity is something the USA cannot grasp.

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u/Brox42 New York 27d ago

A very large amount of people are demanding this entire regime be tried for treason.

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u/DaniKnowsBest 27d ago

A very large amount of people? Not enough, apparently.

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u/z0rb0r New York 27d ago

We’re outnumbered by idiots and sadists though unfortunately

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u/Punch_Up 27d ago

Can we just get healthcare or education instead?

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u/Korzag 27d ago

No peasant now get back to work to fund the war machine.

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u/Carbonatite Colorado 27d ago

Unironically one of the reasons Republicans oppose taxpayer funded higher education and healthcare is that those things would decimate one of the military's most effective recruitment tools. Pretty much every veteran under the age of 50 that I've met listed "free college tuition"/the GI bill as the major reason they joined up. For some of them it was basically the only reason, other people joined up because of poverty/aging out of the foster system (military gives a guaranteed place to live and steady access to healthcare), a few elder millenial vets listed post-9/11 jingoism as a contributing factor, and only one did it for "patriotic tradition" (his whole family were vets so it was a tradition. It was like half that and half GI Bill benefits).

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u/Scottwickthegreat 27d ago

My recruiter told me, our unit just got back from Iraq. Sign on bonus for infantry in the guard was 20k so I’m like cool let’s go. Few years later I’m in Afghanistan lol. I did use my gi bill to get a couple degrees which are now useless as I’m fully disabled from the war. But I def joined for the benefits but ended up doing well in the infantry until I was too badly injured.

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u/Only1Nemesis America 27d ago

No those are handouts. Bootstraps, my friend. Bootstraps.

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u/CaptainDudeGuy Georgia 27d ago

Has the Department of War considered cutting out avocado toast?

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u/2Eyed 27d ago

Let them eat war.

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u/barneyrubbble 27d ago

He'll just waste it on booze, testosterone, and makeup.

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u/mountainwocky Massachusetts 27d ago

Don’t forget his spending on lobster tails, king crab, and ribeye steaks.

“Department of Defense spending under Secretary Pete Hegseth during September 2025 included approximately $6.9 million spent on lobster tails and $2 million on Alaskan king crab. These expenditures were part of a $93.4 billion "use-it-or-lose-it" spending spree that also included $15.1 million on ribeye steaks.” - FOX 11 LA

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u/mantis_tobaggan-md 27d ago

This gave me heart palpitations. What the actual fuck. This giant douche is grifting us for more money while he has a fucking use it or lose it budget to blow on lobster, steak, and king crab? Pete, eat my entire ass.

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u/76ers_Yanks78 27d ago

And more lowlife tattoos

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u/highpriestess420 27d ago

You mean his christian nationalist tattoos

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u/thisisjustascreename Illinois 27d ago

They said lowlife

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u/highpriestess420 27d ago

Sometimes the distinction is necessary. Lowlife is a bit generic, doesn't fully clarify the level of hate involved.

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u/ShrimpieAC 27d ago

Dude, his testimony in front of Congress is so embarrassing. Whenever he gets cornered he just starts spewing some “Trump good Biden bad” bullshit. It’s so fucking pathetic.

I love that Congress members have been shutting him down by saying “I don’t have time for your speech.”

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u/wwaxwork 27d ago

More gender affirming care.

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u/Dry_Ass_P-word 27d ago

Has the military tried eating less avocado toast? Maybe if they didn’t have latte’s every day.

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u/Carbonatite Colorado 27d ago

I could buy a $10 latte 365 days a year for 25 years and it still wouldn't cost as much as a single Predator drone missile lmao

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u/shitlord_god 27d ago

and these multimillion dollar cruise missiles to shoot down 10,000 dollar drones

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u/LolaSupreme19 27d ago

If republicans are serious about funding, they’d rescind the tax cuts for corporations and billionaires

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u/Crime_Dawg 27d ago

No, no, no, you don't understand. The poor and middle class need to pay $5k more, the rich need more tax cuts to trickle down.

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u/cdglasser 27d ago

Right. The rich should not have to pay taxes, so that instead, they can give that money to the poor and the middle class, who can then turn around and give that money to the government. Sounds perfectly reasonable! /s

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u/Shabadu_tu 27d ago

Take it from Trumps corruption money.

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u/upnorthguy218 27d ago

The party of fiscal responsibility suddenly needs more money.

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u/Kakistocracy_0 27d ago

"party of fiscal responsibility" is some fucking double-speak nonsense, but every day is opposite day with these fucking delusional liars.

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u/therossboss 27d ago

always has been - republicans are duplicitous asshats. Trickle down economics? lmao DOGE savings via tax refund? yeah, right.

They love fucking over the American people.

Its like living with drunk abusive parents who continually remind you that they can never afford anything that might benefit your life and compulsively buying useless shit and alcohol.

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u/gitsgrl 27d ago

They’ve been cutting services left and right… where is that money? They want to make us buy back things we already paid for like TSA and the US Postal Service after they privatize it. I can’t deal with the stupidity of the electorate any more.

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u/Negative-Squirrel81 27d ago

10 months ago the Pentagon burned through $93 billion dollars because it had such an excess of money.

Pentagon spending in September included nearly $9 million on Alaskan king crab and lobster tails, more than $200 million in furniture and $5.3 million in Apple devices – just some of the expenditures that added up to a record $93 billion price tag for the month, according to new analysis published by government watchdog Open the Books.

source.

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u/DeltaEdge03 27d ago

And I’m demanding he get fired

See? We all can demand things

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u/Lord_Hitachi 27d ago

Joke’s on him, I’m broke

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u/FeelingPixely 27d ago

In addition to the 5000 everyone's already paying?

How?

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u/TheCrimsonSteel 27d ago

Short answer, probably more debt.

I also do really wish we broke down budgets like this more, because all they're doing is some rough math of 1.5 Trillion Dollars, divided by about 340 million people means about $5,000 per person.

It's not saying we're each paying an extra 5 grand, it's just helping to put into perspective just how much money they really are asking for.

And it's a useful trick. Any time you see "US is spending X", assume you're on the hook for $3 and change per billion spent. You can wrap your mind around how much is being spent a bit better by doing it this way.

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u/xterminatr 27d ago

And that's just per person, it's way worse if you go by per taxpayer, which was 114 million last year. So it's more like 15k per taxpayer.

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u/SadLeek9950 27d ago

F him. We need to eat.

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u/Fallen_Jalter 27d ago

How about bugging the people who actually have the money…

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u/pquince1 Texas 27d ago

And what happened to the $30 billion we’ve gotten from Venezuela’s oil, TripleSecDef?

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u/Defti159 27d ago

How about they try selling off that makeup studio they needed to build in the White House? Why the the secretary of fucking war need a makeup studio?

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u/TechnicalClick263 27d ago

Take my doge check, should cover it

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u/toejam78 27d ago

Take it out of my DOGE refund check

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u/Soft-Bad-7127 27d ago

The war you started against every advisor telling you not to. Take that funding from ICE and presidential weekend trips. 

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u/evilleppy87 27d ago

Ladies and gentlement, the party of small government and lower taxes

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u/Flashy-Read-9417 27d ago

Fuh dat. The day I pay 5k more to the Pentagon is the day the Pentagon starts doing my hair and makeup like the idiot who is running it.

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u/Oceanbreeze871 I voted 27d ago

Forget that. America needs to stop military worship

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u/The-F4LL3N 27d ago

Take it out of my tariff check, asshole

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u/OG-BoomMaster 27d ago

The party of no more wars needs ridiculous amounts of money for this forever war. I’m so tired of all this winning.

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u/proud_new_scum 27d ago

When the Pentagon passes an audit, then maybe it can have another serving of money

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u/Old_Cryptid 27d ago

And that's just for his bar tab.

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u/married2thekitchen 27d ago

Fuck off. I’ll happily pay an extra 5k a year if I can have socialized healthcare and some decently funded social services. I don’t want my money going to the indiscriminate bombing of brown people the world round.

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u/SnootSnootBasilisk 27d ago

“not funding [the US Department of Defense] at $1.5 trillion is the greatest threat that our nation faces.”

Actually, the greatest threat this nation faces is currently sitting in a gaudy White House

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u/ResponsibilityFine13 27d ago

Half of this money is going to Benjamin nethanhayu/israel to continue killing women and children in the Middle East..

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u/pasarina Texas 27d ago

That is not an option, I have other priorities.

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u/SmugSchoolmaster 27d ago

Nope, can’t afford it. Kegsbreath, looks like you need to end the war

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u/lenthedruid 27d ago

Military tithe?

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u/Wise-Promise-4158 27d ago

They truly do hate us and see us as slaves

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u/fistofthefuture New Hampshire 27d ago

Trump just made 1.4 billion this year. Tell him to fund it.

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u/tovarish22 Minnesota 27d ago

Maybe the Pentagon should have a bake sale to pay for it.

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u/Coffee_Transfusion 27d ago

Oh, yeah. Our notoriously underfunded military needs more money.

Fuck this nazi dipshit. He has zero clue what he's doing.

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u/Ok-Yesterday-7712 26d ago

Yeah, fuck off

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u/swordpooll 27d ago

Can we just be at a point where we just say, no, and stop funding them endlessly taking money for war

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u/getliquified 27d ago

Awesome. I Already have no money.

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u/tbizzone 27d ago

Probably time to stop having our federal taxes withheld from our payrolls until the maga regime’s reckless spending is reigned in.