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I used 5calls.org again today to call and beg him to do what he can to protect SSA. I prefaced that request with my thanks for all he is doing already. I'm trying to call him, Merkley and Bonamicci every day to reiterate my support and to talk about the pressing issue of the day.
PLEASE use the 5calls.org site to call your legislators every single day. I always provide my full name, street address and zip code to make sure my call is counted. Because my legislators are blue, I express gratitude and make requests, not demands.
It's so easy to call, only a few minutes a day and I'd like to think it matters.
They're fucking public SERVANTS, it's time they learned their place. They don't get to have a "vacation" from their constituents. They're 24/7 support. I don't care R of D. We shouldn't normalize this bullshit.
Trump attending the Super Bowl and Daytona cost more than the total staff budget for some national parks.
The tax cuts are projected to add roughly $4 trillion to the debt in the next few years and up to $20 trillion to the national debt long term. Studies, including a landmark study by King’s College academics in London, have repeatedly shown that tax cuts for the highest earners and corporations do not benefit the general public.
40% of Elon Musks tax cuts haven’t resulted in any savings at all, only a loss in service. Elon Musk makes about $8 million per day from federal contracts.
I’m also not a liberal. Liberals are capitalistic and pro-corporation. I’m a socialist and disagree with many liberal policies, and vote for liberals only because I have little choice in federal elections. This distinction is important for fascists to hear because they are so blind with hate for liberals on the basis that they are “radical leftists.” They aren’t. In much of the world, and historically in some cases, modern Democrats would be considered center or even center-right. I’m a “radical leftist” — I want healthcare to be universal, rights to be equal in effect, and an economy centered around human needs rather than the (dangerous) accumulation of capital for a small asset-owning and rent-seeking class. Liberals, including the Democratic Party, stand for baseline civil/labor rights (in-country, with global exploitation a priority) and stability in a capitalist system that benefits a wider share of the upper class and allows a healthy middle class to exist under some conditions. We came closest to this after New Deal policies and it led to an expansion of civil rights in the 1960s, with the whole period characterized by upper bracket and corporate tax rates often 2-3x higher than today.
Anyway, I’m sure liquidating our national parks for a crypto pump and dump, debt-purchased sovereign wealth fund will be great for the public. And same with trading social security and Medicaid for corporate tax cuts. You fascists are easy marks and require only the shallowest of reassurance from daddy to destroy your own hard-earned public services and civil rights. It’s a shame that there’s a growing likelihood I will have to die in the coming years because of the delusion you folks are experiencing. And you silly people will celebrate when it happens to other people… only to cry about it when it happens to you.
Ha ha fascists? More like true Americans not interested in supporting people who don’t want to better humanity. I’d personally donate to Elon if I could rather than putting cat litter boxes in bathrooms of elementary schools so people can continue their “gender fluid” you make some good points but at this point we can only go up! I guess different strokes for different folks. We have different goals. If just like to see our country get off all its bull shit men in woman’s sports. I have a son and daughter. Not 2 gender fluid pussies. All the minor details as you stated. Even if it cost 30 trillion we will make it back with taxing other countries and giving the job back to legal Americans or legal transplants. Not trans people
And not to mention you have 4 years to survive. We have a good country and after 4 years there WILL be a different person running the country. Let’s hope they weather man or woman can run this country and bring unity over some major issues. Depending on which news source you watch or listen to is gonna be your main source of info based on some one else’s main agenda. I hear all good thing about Trump but in all the areas that really concern me he’s doing good.
How can you seriously look at the random cuts they're making and conclude that they're actually "looking at waste and fraud"? Elon has a track record of destruction. He is not a competent manager.
SSA has needed tweaking many times over the years. That's when Congress negotiated changes to keep it going. In 10 years they estimated that if nothing were done, payments would fall short, not total insolvency.
But that’s because “we” choose to be insolvent, not because of any kind of abuse of the system, which statistically does not occur.
The Germans have had it since Bismarck. And Germany has had a couple ups and downs since the 19th century. Still, they could maintain it.
If the US would stop using it as a piggy bank or, even better, tax rich people like grown up countries do, there would be no problem at all.
And let’s also be honest here: it’s not just for old people.
Part of the whole inception was, sure, stopping old people from being on the streets. But it also meant there was a retirement age where people left their jobs and younger people could cycle through and get employment.
You take away social security, and everyone is going to be white-knuckling good jobs until they die (more so than now). And nobody gets promoted and there will be fewer vacancies.
And this is all preventable with one or two very reasonable things, and those things include people paying their fair share of taxes, ultimately.
And if they continue to refuse, we will see how their children fare after a generation of restless youth grow up on the streets feeding their parents dogfood while begging the czar for more bread.
I agree with you on pretty much all of this. But the current activity is not about cutting the much needed benefits. Congress loves to "borrow" funds from social security for other expenses, without paying back the funds. Ssa has been used as a slush fund for a very long time.
Left to its own devices, ssa would not only be solvent but would run surplus and be available for everyone.
As is, we are looking at benefit cuts for people who's livelihood depend on receiving these benefits.
I do not buy into Drumpf's assertion that dead people are receiving payments. That's ridiculous.
And I agree that wealthy people should be paying into it more. As an example, I earn enough to where I max out my annual social security contribution. Once you earn more than $176,100 in 2025 you stop paying into social security. This should be revoked. You should pay into social security regardless of earnings, with no cap.
Someone shouldn't get a take home pay raise once they earn more than $176k per year.
Turning a blind eye to government waste does nothing to help ssa, though. If we allow our federal government to piss away our money, it won't matter how much we contribute.
That literally a lie. Learn how SS works before repeating lies. Here’s a hint, fyi. Pretty much Everything else the government does is literally fully insolvent within the year.
Oregon is much closer to purple than people think. Portland and Eugene are very blue but the rest of the state is pretty darn red, especially eastern Oregon.
Yes, but Trump doesn’t care. He just wants big crowds to feed his narcissism and fascist goals.
This town hall does impact the people, in best ways! Factual information, shared hope… your story and relayed knowledge impacts everyone who appears your life. Your friends, family, maybe that person on the bus. Your words matter. Even when you’re not talking about red / blue / MAGAgts / any political view.
Isn’t Oregon a blue state and will be for next 40 years at least?
There is no such thing as a blue state or a red state. California, who people will call a blue state, has more Republicans than every red state except maybe Texas and Florida. Even just looking at voting totals Oregon had more people vote for Trump than Mississippi.
If Democrats (as a system) continue to do nothing, and piss off their own base of support then the enthusiasm gap will continue to widen. Democrats have to engage with the people and actually be people. A bunch of theater kids waving signs of disapproval at a Trump rally doesn't do anything but suppress their own momentum building.
You MUST do constituent services, and doing so in areas that you lost shores up the numbers and stops the bleeding. A town hall like this, under these circumstances, is the bare minimum we should expect from elected officials.
At least they had signs! That felt like a strong statement for the people. Better than the disturbing high school cheers from MAGA over very serious, life changing American matters.
I hope this just actualizes reality for on the fence-ers.
I think this and what Rep. Al Green did are the bare minimum for responses from an elected Democrat. Every single other Democrat needs to be primaried by someone who will meet the moment, or let the threat of primary push the official to meet the moment. Hell, if you just waved around a stupid auction paddle saying lies then I don't want you involved in politics at any level, you're just that detached.
Beyond just town halls I think elected Democrats need to be on the ground with mutual aid, distributing relief to the communities they represent. "Conservatives want to destroy America and divide the people. Here we are, united, and helping to restore the American heart" or w/e. Embrace illegalism if you need to, get arrested helping people.
Based on the party's actions and Slotkin's absurd response we can pretty much know what the actual course this will take is though: Be Republicans from 2014, you know, those people everyone hated. They're just going to run back the playbook of compromise at all costs and be Republican-Lite that Harris ran. Having the official Democratic Party response be "I'm a CIA agent and Reagan rocked" is just as bad as sending Torres to Michigan and making the Cheney's fixtures of the campaign.
We should be forming our own special police counter to Ice. Then we should use them to round up all trumpers and deport them to Alabama. They are stealing our jobs and making housing expensive. Not to mention they are all traitors.
Wyden - who won't say publicly that he believes there will not be free & fair elections in 2026 - should have been at the speech and he should have disrupted the Nazi rally so greatly as to be arrested.
But yeah - hold a town hall where you give continual boiler plate answers.
Clearly you know nothing about dealing with narcissists. The Democrats are handling Donald Trump in the best possible way, they are letting him boil in his own stew. They are not giving him a target or a scapegoat.
This isn't your dad, this is a fascist backed by billionaire techno fascists. And they now hold the purse strings of our entire country. If you think the Democrats are doing a good job, then I feel sorry for you. They're in it to save their own skin. They benefit too much from this system of inequity to actually do anything.
And I have gotten off the record comment from Wyden's office - they do not believe that free and fair elections are going to happen, but they don't want to panic anyone. That disrupts their fundraising.
Wyden is a past prime time player. At this point in his career he is only interested in helping his party. Only supporting Oregon’s tri-county area and could care less about Grant, Coos, Curry and other citizens.
The irony is he is actually looking out for them too, he’s actively trying to save them from the people they voted for that are trying to hurt them. It’s like you’re blaming the fire fighter for not allowing the arsonist to burn down your house. Unbelievable how ignorant this comment is.
Wyden has been in politics representing Oregon since 1981 starting in the House of Representatives then the Senate from 1996. 44 years he is one of the prime examples of why there should be term limits. He may appear to provide a firefighter but supplies no water to battle that arsonist you speak off.
I went to a town hall when Trump was first elected. Not worth it. Stump speech, partisan politics and then have their handlers answer questions. Felt pointless and slimy.
No one watched senator what’s his name dude is just a insider trading politician like the rest of them been there since early 2000’s and has accomplished nothing
Dude, if that upsets you wait til you learn about the president and his family. Can’t even run charity’s in New York cause they were stealing from their own charity to help kids with cancer. Absolutely wild dude
Yeah all politicians suck Biden, trump, Obama, bush, Clinton and pretty much all of them besides Teddy Roosevelt but even he was lame the whole system blows but hey at least they are cutting some waste of taxpayers dollars but also passing a deal that will add 300billion to the deficit this year so there’s so right side of anything they all serve themselves and screw the people of this country
They have auditors, and inspectors, and they run notoriously lean with no net increase in federal workers since the 60s. It's objectively a scam and diversion.
Is it surprising that the number of federal workers went up as the population increased? I mean I'd your workload increased wouldn't you want more help? The biggest issue with DOGE and Musk is that they are not trained and do not know what they are looking for.
It was higher in 1990 and 1999 than it is now. It wasn't surprising that it grew, it is surprising that on average, the number hasn't changed much over time despite extensive population growth. Did you not pick that up from the infographic I provided?
No, there is not a single "biggest issue." There are huge issues with Musk in particular. If he paid a fair share of taxes; if he wasn't currently in the business of fixing government contracts for himself and his companies; if he wasn't specifically destroying agencies to avoid regulatory oversight and fines for his corporations, which have well above average the number of violations of federal regulations than other companies; if he didn't keep deleting "cost savings" estimates from DOGEs website as those numbers are thoroughly debunked; if studies or analyses proved waste, fraud or abuse throughout targeted agencies.
There is an agenda being followed. Project 2025 and Musk's desire to be the world's first and only trillionaire are good places to start.
Billionaires also want to tear apart a society that works for everyone in order to build it back in Their Own Image. They will not be affected by societal collapse in any meaningful way. They think they are the arbiters of truth and the only ones who should determine the fate of the wide world.
They won't be saving any money. Between the incoming Trump rescission and the lawsuits from constantly breaking the law it's going to cost the tax payers a lot.
The Biden crime family is gone guys relax lol y’all had your chance to push anything threw when no one ran the show, now pipe down and let the adults in the room fix the country or just move to Canada like you pussys always threaten to do please just leave this state would be better off
Say goodbye to your and your family’s: social security, healthcare, outdoors, environment, well being, and need I go on?
Sure, they’re upending a broken system, but all they’re replacing it with is grift. Billionaires leading the way to become trillionaires, while millions of brain-washed MAGAts think they’re next in line for the next big grift.
Good luck with that. The Republicans will be the ones to come for your guns, they’re already coming for your women, children, and those who once thought of you as friend. They’re out right now trying to get people to revolt so they can call out the military on the population. You are the population they’re coming for, maybe not now, but next.
None of them hated women. Let’s all think about what our government wants to do to the American woman. It’s happening while we are distracted so to your point all of them are awful, our government is awful BUT the past modern day presidents always supported women for the most part. At least Wyden is saying something and willing to let people be heard. I will join him tonight, I would much rather listen to him and his plan than Donald’s.
They're not cutting waste. They're illegally impounding legislatively appropriated dollars. Here's a quick history lesson - impoundment is illegal and Trump was already impeached once for it.
The difference between Trump and the rest of those is that the rest thought they did what's best for America, and most of them actually tried to help people.
Brother if you can not see how the government is not here to help you but more less in salve you take a second to read the files on where this money is actually going yea musk billionaire no good just like George soros right ,
I'm okay with my tax money going to good and useful things. I'm willing to pay even more to have a competent government, in fact.
I'm not okay with illegally impounding money and illegally firing "essential" workers so they can try to use that math to pass a 5 trillion tax cut that nearly entirely benefits the richest people in the county and puts us deeper in debt.
Musk is targeting the agencies who have regulatory authority over his company and is already trying to enrich himself as we know. He has literal racists and children working for him who have no idea what they're looking at as they continue to put up and take down shit from their site as they again, have literally no idea what they're doing or even how to count. This is not any sort of legitimate audit and I feel very sorry for you that you think it is.
Hey thank god I’m a early Tesla investor and happy with my returns/gains so literally could care less with waste full regulation going away yes our government so actually streamline process better so cut cut cut
Oof, must not be happy with your losses over the last month. I was also an early investor but got out because they can no longer deliver.
Regulations prevent abuses and stabilize the system as a whole. Are you a teenager or something or just have this little knowledge of history? Hint: if the market crashes, speculative cash grab companies like Tesla are going to crash even harder.
I have bad news for yeah about the $12billion in $TRUMP coin and the market manipulation of the other cryptos like Ripple with the “strategic reserve” posts by Donald.
LOL. Of course. He showed up for Biden’s SOU’s but not for Trump’s. That is all. Plus, there have been a lot of comments and I thought you said something else. I apologize.
This is not a state of the union, perhaps that is the source of your confusion. What is requiring him to attend? I'm not aware of anything.
He is instead spending the time directly to talk to constituents as their elected representative. This is closer to his actual defined role along with performing legislative tasks, no?
Wyden has done town halls in every county annually for years. That’s a level of dedication to Oregonians that I have yet to see in other politicians from other states.
Cool media talking point, but the Biden admin ordered the killing of the chickens that led to this issue. The new admin has only been in office 44 days.
Because they had bird flu. Is this so seriously difficult to understand? Bird flu epidemic causes prices to go up, trump said he'd fix it on day one. Then he gutted the agencies that are actually trying to get the epidemic under control. This shit isn't hard for anybody with more than two brain cells.
Uh, Bird Flu existed during the Biden administration but MAGA blamed the price of eggs on Biden. The killing of chickens was necessary to stop the spread. Now that this administration has fired USDA workers and put RFK Jr in charge, you won’t have to worry about monitoring bird flu. Enjoy your eggs.
Of course. This is not new information. It just isn’t Trump’s issue that egg prices are high right now. But cool if you just want to parrot media and democrat talking points that are obviously inaccurate. You have the right to hate the admin and the right to not understand basic economics. Best of luck with that.
What does this have to do with Wyden not attending? I’m not a D or R and Trump does many things wrong in my opinion, but overall he is objectively running circles around the previous admin and doing what he said he would do.
Do you have a doctorate? I do. And a masters and bachelors too. I know what the definition of bigot is and used it correctly. I can’t help you if you don’t understand basic words.
He should've been putting our money to good use by hiring white nationalist teens to gut the government so that the richest man in the world can avoid accountability and award himself contracts.
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