Despite aggressive cost-cutting by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, federal spending has reportedly climbed by $154 billion since Donald Trump returned to office.
Government spending is significantly higher under Trump’s second term compared to the same period in 2024 under Joe Biden, according to the analysis by the Wall Street Journal, citing the Treasury Department’s daily financial statements.
The increase—$154 billion—comes even as DOGE, led by Elon Musk, touts $150 billion in cost savings through job cuts, contract terminations, and the rollback of diversity and aid programs.
Their voters seem to only care about what these politicians say, rather than what they actually do.
They’re never going to hear this on fox much less conservative radio, or Sinclair much less farther right sources.
Proving my point about them caring about what politicians say, instead of figuring out what they do. But you’re right, these people are being indoctrinated by the media they follow.
They were indoctrinated by their church, the media reinforced it.
Honestly, though governmental budgets are so beyond the pale for the average citizen and walking them through the downstream effects is probably not doable wih the average attention span.
It’s frustrating because it’s really not fucking hard to pull up the federal budget for any given FY, which is presented in giant labeled blocks showing relative size, and each of them break down into their components when you click on them. When you pull it up, you see the absolutely massive blocks of Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security, and Defense, then everything else, where even a literal child can point and say which blocks are really big and which ones are small.
Yes, but cutting a “big block” for instance social security doesn’t give any real sense of what it does economically.
The average person seems to lack the ability to follow a cut to the social security block reducing payments and/or increasing retirement age much less the other downstream effects when millions of old people are suddenly spending less because they no longer have as much cash month to month. Once it occurs to someone they know, then they see it, once it happens to them then they care.
Totally agree, which is why trustworthy independent media is so important (and taking that away is so effective in dictatorships).
Which means we have to tell them. It might mean they don’t want to hang out with you anymore, oh no such a loss.
It’s not even that. Have you seen what they say? It’s incomprehensible sludge that they contradict the very next day. All they really care about is that there is some consistent underlying tone that the people in power hate others that are “different” as much as they do. That’s it. That’s really all there is to the cult of Trump.