For those who are aghast, take some heart. Even republicans in Congress are pushing back.
Politically, it looks horrible for them (as does Trump’s obsession with a ballroom). I don’t think they want to be associated with this prior to the midterms - the timing is what makes it problematic, since people are dealing with increased costs of living, and this is just gluttony.
Nevertheless, I’ll take opposition wherever I can find it.
There’s already a bill to block any appropriations.
Not a legal settlement. The IRS can go back to what they do in 2029.
Right.
The IRS can simply reject a 1040X without an audit.
So, give us a list of what they have so ruled. AFAIK, it was a pretty niche ruling.
The other thing is that any money Trump pockets is money they themselves can’t use.
It’s bad enough that even Fox News is reporting on it. That’s how you know that it’s rankling the Republicans. And Fox News points out that the GOP doesn’t like the idea of giving up that money.
Full title of article:
Republicans recoil as Trump’s billion-dollar DOJ ‘slush fund’ for allies threatens ICE, Border Patrol plan
Even they’re going with the angle that giving up this money to Trump is interfering with the Republicans’ own plans.
I think that’s the easiest part to fix: the next administration just declares it null and void. Since it wasn’t enacted by any law it can be negated by executive order.
The next Democratic administration, you mean. Whether that be in '28 or '32 or '40 or whatever. I still think we’re being awfully cute assuming the next president will be a Democrat.
I’m sure they’ll apply the old “One for you, one for me, one for you, two for me…” rule to any payouts. The traitors wouldn’t get any money if it wasn’t for Trump, so every cash out has to be matched by an appropriate payout to Trump in gratitude for him being the bestest president ever.
What if it’s a brilliant plan by the actual brains behind the GOP national party (there’s got to be some smart people up in there right? They can’t all be falling upwards.)
I brought this up in the “Fox News is a bunch of Lying Fucks” thread. They are not reporting on this! At least when I looked, this topic was not on their website. You know it’s bad when they have to hide major news like this from their cult.
And yes, lying by omission is a thing Fox News.
Fox News is probably only a scandal or two away from starting to refer to Trump as a Democrat.
At one time I’m sure they weren’t, but now they are. There’s even a link to it on the main page. Here is a screenshot:
Again, they’re framing it differently; the only problem they see is that it’s interfering with the effort to get more funding to ICE and CBP. Which is still totally reprehensible. But it shows that this move is not going over well even with his base and his own party.
They are, but as you say, they are framing it in a very slanted way, and you also have to scroll down the page to find that “news” article. But, good for them to finally mention that $1.8B slush fund. I expect Trump will want someone at Fox News fired over this.
I do too, and I like it because I think the more the right tears itself apart, the better it is for the country, and I also like that specifically this could interfere with his attempts to pull of this theft.
I’m extremely cautiously optimistic that this could start to turn them away from Trump. Of course, I’ve said this roughly a thousand times since 2016. Hence the “extremely”. Also, there were some on the right that actually voted to impeach him and those that remain in public offices have now done an about-face and are fully on the Trump-Train so I doubt this will really make a difference.
If they are smart, they’ll realize that nothing can satisfy a glutton, and he’s too easily distracted for this to occupy him for very long. Capitulating just feeds his greed.
Except that Trump remains strong with the faithful, and being too distant risks being undermined and thrown under the bus.
I just don’t see that as a cogent strategy. GOP republicans achieve success when their most faithful voters show up. I have a hard time believing that they’d ever consider the anti-Trump faction to be their base constituency.
Yeah, I don’t know if I said it in this thread or elsewhere, but every time I get hopeful, I remember what happened January 6. Immediately afterward, Republicans were calling out what Trump did and vowing that there would be consequences. It seemed like that didn’t even last a week, and pretty soon just about everyone fell in line and started gaslighting the public about what had happened, insisting it was nothing, or at least that Trump hadn’t done anything wrong.
And now we are discussing “reparations” to the violent thugs that rose up against the government, wanted to kill the VP, and attacked police. The party of law & order needs to do a bit of soul searching here.
Sadly, my parents and in-laws will never know about this. They watch Fox News and going by their website, this won’t be discussed.
Way back in the day, it irritated me that instead of getting a refund on my taxes, I owed money. Ronald Reagan was in office and getting his agenda put in place. Social programs were getting cut. There was news about death squads in Central America.
A reasonable seeming hypothesis held that Bonzo the chimpanzee had been Reagans actual boss since discovering him at a drug store lunch counter. As a director, at the time, he was looking for fresh talent for his latest project. It turned into a life-long working relationship.
I made the check out to ‘Bonzo’s Death Machine’. The bank returned canceled paper checks in those days. The first year, that check went through even though it had been torn in half and stamped multiple times with ‘Internal Revenue Service’.
The second year, the IRS returned it with a form for documents returned to taxpayer. They checked the reason for ‘Other’ and wrote ‘sent to us in error’. A month or so later, I got a letter charging penalties for being late with my taxes along with a statement for penalties and interest. After a little back and forth, I finally paid what they were demanding.
Do you suppose this slush fund could reimburse me for the political weaponization from the IRS?
I’ll know that Trump’s grip on the Republican Party is truly loosening when two things happen: a) Republicans willing to speak out against Trump or his antics start winning primaries and b) Fox News starts “accidentally” labeling him a Democrat.
And showing all those photos from the 90s and 2000s of Donald posing with Bill and/or Hillary.
Of course there is- Vote, damnit Vote. And Vote early and vote Democratic.
Dont let the perfect get in the way of the good.