James Borum
@toxicslurpy
1/ A thread and data on Inspectors General, government spending, and “waste, fraud, and abuse.” If you prefer alternate data, at least require it to reflect audit and analysis, and not just opinion, cynicism, simulation, or retracted "receipts" (as much of DOGE’s work has been).
My kids know an American flag when they see one – but they don't yet know all that it represents. When they're old enough, here is what I'm going to tell them:
30 years of MMT: The government can't run out of money, but it can run out of things to buy. Inflation is the relevant constraint on spending. COVID lockdowns/shortages: You ran out of things to buy. MMT: Told you so.
Vaccines are the greatest biomedical innovation of all time:
Why does the government almost always spend in excess of taxes --i.e. run a budget deficit ? A 🧵 1/
Trump in 2016: “She shouldn’t be allowed to run...If she wins, it would create an unprecedented constitutional crisis. In that situation, we could very well have a sitting president under felony indictment and, ultimately, a criminal trial. It would grind government to a halt.”
This moment from the new Steve Martin documentary where he’s remembering John Candy…damn man.
The reason we keep telling lies is because our political base would punish us for telling the truth…
Rep. Ken Buck on MSNBC on why Jordan and Scalise won't affirm that the 2020 election wasn't stolen: "There's a large group of Trump followers in this country that would disagree with that and there would be a political penalty for saying such a thing."
“Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence? Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the revolutionary army,…
“The kindest person in the room is often the smartest.”
In Washington, this country’s basic strength has become a license for irresponsibility. My take:
What the debt limit fight is actually about interc.pt/3AXQHZc by @Schwarz
The Department of Defense (DOD) has just announced that the Military Trust Funds will be insolvent in 2025, 3 years sooner than previously projected. This will force cuts of nearly 25% unless Congress acts.
New @AP poll neatly captures the paradox of budget politics. Americans say abstractly the government should cut spending, but show them the list of things it actually spends money on and they say nice, spend more on that. apnews.com/article/spendi…
THIS WAS ON A FRIEND’S PAGE: An anguished question from a Trump supporter: ‘Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?’ THE SERIOUS ANSWER: Here’s what the majority of anti-Trump voters honestly feel about Trump supporters en masse: @realDonaldTrump
My Saturday fun project: using AI, every US president as a Pixar character.