Low credibility
MAGA elite insultingly calls it
“reliable and credible”
(well, reliably not credible)
djt and MAGA elites continue their campaign to corrupt sources of facts, truths and sound reasoning. MAGA lies, slanders, crackpottery revised history and fake science will be on the broadcast menu. This time they are subverting the VOA (Voice of America), a long-standing source of reasonably unbiased news based on facts, truth, and sound reasoning that is delivered in a pro-democracy and pro-human rights framework. MAGA elites want to convert the VOA from the voice of democracy to the voice of kleptocratic tyranny and crackpottery.
NPR reports: “Kari Lake says OAN's far-right coverage will fuel Voice of America -- Senior presidential adviser Kari Lake appears to have resolved any doubts about what she wants to do with the Voice of America. Lake seeks for it to look and sound a lot like the far-right One America News Network: on Tuesday night she announced that she had struck a deal to serve up the pro-Trump outlet's news reports for Voice of America's foreign audiences, at no taxpayer cost. “I can ensure our outlets have reliable and credible options as they work to craft their reporting and news programs,” Lake wrote on social media posts on Elon Musk's X and on Truth Social.”
MAGA Republicans in congress want to extend djt's tax cuts from 2017. Various sources have reported that MAGA elites claim there will be no added federal debt, but reliable estimates put the added debt at ~$400-$550 billion/year for the next 10 years. If additional proposed tax cuts, eliminating taxes on Social Security benefits, overtime pay, etc., are included, the total cost rises to approximately $7.8 trillion, or $9.1 trillion with interest in 10 years.
The federal government owns approximately 620 million acres about 27% of U.S. land. A 2009 estimate valued federal land holdings at approximately $1.8 trillion, about $2,903 per acre. A current Republican proposal mentions selling 11,000 acres in Utah and Nevada. That would need to be vastly increased to make any noticeable dent in the added debt.
This comes after djt’s March executive order that put over 1,000 staff on leave and suspending VOA broadcasts. OAN is well-known for promoting false claims about Covid-19, the 2020 election, and djt’s January 6 coup attempt. NPR points out that OAN reached settlements to resolve separate defamation lawsuits filed by the voting software company Smartmatic, a former executive at Dominion Voting Systems, and two Georgia election workers. OAN spread disproven claims that they had helped rig the 2020 presidential elections for Biden.
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To get tax cuts passed while falsely claiming there will be no added debt, MAGA senate Republicans plan to ignore the Byrd Rule and side-step the senate Parliamentarian. Senate Republicans plan to circumvent Byrd Rule constraints by procedural maneuvers that avoid direct violations, and they will ignore the senate Parliamentarian if they have to. Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham plans to unilaterally set a “current policy” baseline MAGA thug Graham will just say that extending Trump tax cuts maintains existing policy rather and creates no new new costs. This accounting trick (i) nullifies the impact of added trillions of deficit, and (ii) bypasses the Byrd Rule’s 10-year deficit neutrality requirement. Senate MAGA thugs plan to override Parliamentarian rulings will be overridden by simple majority votes if MAGA gets challenged.
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To pay for the allegedly non-existent added federal debt (yes, I know, that is incoherent, but MAGA is incoherent), congressional MAGA thugs plan to sell off federal lands, presumably to bidders who bribe djt by buying into his bitcoin scam. The amount of money they can get is maybe ~15% of the debt that MAGA wants to add. In the meantime, people who get our land for cheap, will be free to ravage the hell out of it and turn it into a desolate or polluted hellhole. examples of developer hellholes in progress or completed:
The federal government owns approximately 620 million acres about 27% of U.S. land. A 2009 estimate valued federal land holdings at approximately $1.8 trillion, about $2,903 per acre. A current Republican proposal mentions selling 11,000 acres in Utah and Nevada. That would need to be vastly increased to make any noticeable dent in the added debt.
Q: How good an idea is it to sell off our precious public lands to pay for MAGA’s allegedly non-existent added federal debt to extend djt’s 2017 tax cuts, mostly for high income people?[1]
Footnote:
1. djt’s 2017 $1.3 trillion corporate tax cut overwhelmingly benefited high-income shareholders and executives. According to a study by the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Federal Reserve, 81% of the gains from the corporate rate cut went to the top 10% of the income distribution, with the top 1% alone capturing 24% of the benefits. For individual tax provisions, the top 5% of households (those earning more than about $450,000) received over 45% of the benefits from extending the TCJA, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. The top 10% of households received 56% of the value of the proposed tax reductions in 2026, while the bottom 80% captured only 29%. The law also created a 20% deduction for pass-through business income, which mostly benefits the richest 1%, and significantly raised the estate tax exemption, allowing married couples to leave more than $27 million tax-free-changes that overwhelmingly benefits wealthy households.