Donald Trump Signs Funding Bill to Avoid Government Shutdown

  And are you are upset when Federal workers refused to return to their offices and desks to work? Does that look different to you?

Yep, it does.

Federal workers are not slaves. Their work is voluntary. If they think they'll be fucked over by the Turd and his lackeys yet again if they return, it's their prerogative not to.

For the next 500 times you say that: I don't take your orders. Demand all you want.

And the definition of "waste" varies according to ideology. MAGA thinks that all government expenditures that help people are "wasteful." But they think that Da Wall was a noble and worthwhile endeavor.

RFK Jr. thinks that all the money the government spent to develop the covid vaccine was "wasteful." Do you agree?

I would rather that the persons I encounter in schools, churches, stores, busses, airplanes, anywhere be reasonably clean, healthy, nourished, educated, and so on.  Since I won't factually know who is legal, illegal, homeless, unemployed, has a felony on his record, is a single mom with kids, and so on, I am OK that the government takes some out of my income to help.  Basic health care, food stamps or whatever it is called now, access to organizations that can help them.  It used to be that neighbor helped neighbor, but that ship has sailed, and it takes organization(s) to accomplish much of it, e.g. the government.  FDR enacted SS for that reason, because humans were starving after the market crashed and something had to be done.  

It went from "old age survivors" to much more, and I know that some of our fellow humans game the system to get "free shit" as many of you call it.  I do have a bit of selfishness in my soul and I don't always respond to the panhandler as God would have me do, i.e. hand them cash from my purse, so if it is done within the laws and systems so designed, let it be done.  I know it isn't perfect, that massive "fraud, waste, and abuse" has occurred and always will because serving massive numbers of people creates a lot of opportunity for that plus human error and incompetence and greed.

I'm just thankful for what I was given to be able to work and be self sustaining.  I also think that anybody, myself included, who engages in casino gambling, doesn't need to begrudge government support for those who are in need.

Candy

Candy, you don't even need to be a Good Samaritan or whatever to support basic services for the poor. Anybody with a functional cerebrum knows that they'll be safer, we'll all be healthier, cities and towns will be cleaner and more orderly, etc. if even the lowest stratum of society have food, shelter, and medical care.

The so-called "dilemma" has always been that a choice has to be made between a) making aid easy to access, which will inevitably attract some people to game the system, and b) making it difficult to access, which will mean that some who are truly entitled to aid won't get it. I favor a), because I'd rather see everyone get help even if some who get it don't really need it. The cost to me is trivial.

there's a persistent myth among the ignorant, that GUMMINT AM BAD and therefore, everything the government does is wasteful, or useless, or excessive, or counterproductive.

In 2019 federal spending was $4.5T.  It is now $8.4T  By almost doubling spending what has improved with govt services? 

How much of the 4 TRILLION Dollars of the increased spending was due to having more government workers and their salaries/benefits?

This is the kind of question that goes 10 feet over Tom's head.   Tom thinks our government debt is anchored in the wages of Park Rangers and Social Security phone operators.     That his big takeaway from reading this graph.   And thats why you should never put people like Tom in charge of numbers.     Unfortunately thats exactly what we have with the DOGE team and president dipshit.

The population has increased; the population has also aged; therefore, government spending had to increase simply to maintain the same level of services.

Your numbers are also way, way off. The total federal expenditure for FY2024 was 6.75 trillion.

There was an increase in spending when covid hit, and that started during the Trump administration. If you don't know what the government did to deal with the pandemic, look it up.

I know that you believe that GUMMINT AM BAD, stupid Tom.