I know… clearly, it’s the NEA, NEH, and the NSF who are siphoning off so much of our tax dollars that we can’t fund things like welfare and SS and medicare. I mean, it couldn’t possibly be the huge, unaccountable $$$ sink of the defense department and national security apparatus, could it? Nah… must be the things that make us more informed people that’s making country a disaster… /s
14 Likes
I’m pretty sure you don’t know what the word “fascist” means.
25 Likes
I always thought a nice statement would be. “I won. The inauguration will be in the Oval Office, televised, and I will read the speech from there. This will save us $xxx,yyy,zzz.”
How the economy will grow while govt borrowing drops (good long term, bad immediate term) and there are mass deportations … well I didn’t go to Wharton so what do I know.
3 Likes
Defense is big but not what you’d think. Surprised me at least.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/21/news/economy/spending_taxes_debt/
Edit: See @anon61221983’s pie chart (mmmm pie) below who his current not 2020 projection.
2 Likes
Absolutely, the WPA had a very strong arts component; the Federal Art Project was a transformative, innovative program, and its success led to the NEA. I’m hoping that this isn’t the year we see an end to federal arts funding of any kind whatsoever.
9 Likes
Yes. But tax dollars paid for that Washington Statue long, long before the WPA.
3 Likes
Well, but that’s 2020 projections, though. Here is the CBO’s break down, FWIW but from 2011:
https://www.cbo.gov/publication/42636
And here it is from wikipedia’s federal budget from 2015 - heatlh care and SS are the largest chunk, but the defense department is not insignificant:
3 Likes
Awesome I was struggling to find a good link. Hopefully the projections were way off!
3 Likes
We’ll see, of course. Given Trump’s rhetoric, it seems he wants to spend more on the DoD, cut things like we’re talking about here, and if Ryan gets his way, we’ll see major cuts to health care, SS, and welfare, because much of it will be privatized.
I don’t know how that will change those projections, though.
3 Likes
Most people don’t. Neither did I (though I thought I did), as I realized when I read an article not to long ago that gathered input from four experts on the topic. It’s a very specific type of authoritarianism.
None of the former presidents listed by @lolipop_jones meet the criteria. All of them fall far short. In some cases, very short.
8 Likes
It’s only with Trump that the question “is this US president a fascist” goes from easily dismissed to a question that has to be considered with some care.
14 Likes
His encouragement of violence at his rallies is the brightest red light to me. A culture of political violence is one of the core tenets of fascist ideology.
10 Likes
What we know for sure is that he’s a right-wing populist who attained executive office. Sometimes that ends in fascism, sometimes not, but it never ends well.
11 Likes
I believe the cuts Chesterfield is referring to are over 10 years. Which is standard political gobbledygook for kicking the can down the road and avoiding responsibility while giving opponents time to undo it.
And for what it’s worth, the CBO projects the deficit over the next 10 years to be about 9-something trillion. So even if that level of cutting happens (strongly doubt it), it’s just bending towards balancing the budget.
1 Like
Hers is closer to accurate. One thing though, a lot of what should be recognized as defense related spending is likely buried in the ‘Other Nondiscretionary’ slice. The purple slice that is made to look like it covers all our military spending is narrowly labeled ‘Defense Department’.
Like Rick Perry just learned, there is an immense amount of defense related money spent via DoE for nuclear everything. The VA may be grouped into other non discretionary as well. Or medical.
7 Likes
I’d argue he’s authoritarian, rather than fascist.
7 Likes
I find it hard to believe that this image is really a problem for anyone.
1 Like
Even that isn’t quite clear. A populist, yes, but a former liberal Democrat (in the registered-as-one sense) who was strongly pro-choice, pro-drug legalization, and in favor of universal socialized medicine. While these days he claims to have the exact opposite views on virtually every issue, he’ll occasionally still say things that make right-wingers’ heads spin, like “my new health plan will make sure every single American is covered!” Nobody has any idea what his beliefs are, really, beyond money money money.
7 Likes
You’d be surprised. It’s been physically attacked in galleries multiple times, has lost the artist his grant money, and has become a sort of pariah, possibly leading to the shutdown of the NEA.
5 Likes
What he is is a "doesn’t give a fuck."
He’ll say anything, he couldn’t care less about the consequences…
4 Likes
