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Republicans have a condition on aid to Israel

Published on 34 Comments on Republicans have a condition on aid to Israel

Here is Mike Johnson's first substantive action as Speaker of the House:

It's truly impressive how dedicated Republicans are to protecting the interests of the rich. They have fought tooth and nail for over a year against efforts to get audits of wealthy taxpayers back up to a reasonable rate. And they haven't given up yet.

Just to add to the whole wtf nature of this, the official CBO score finds that funding the IRS will raise twice as much money as it spends. So not only do Republicans want to hang the albatross of IRS funding on Israel—who they claim to love more than anything in the world—they'd be increasing the deficit to do it. They are truly a sight to behold

34 thoughts on “Republicans have a condition on aid to Israel”

  2. clawback

    "Republicans Condition Israel Aid on Helping Tax Cheats" is one hell of a headline. Just some real political geniuses here.

    Of course, on the other hand the above headline doesn't get written unless the mainstream press writes it. So maybe they'll be OK doing this stunt after all.

  3. Adam Strange

    "Just to add to the whole wtf nature of this, the official CBO score finds that funding the IRS will raise twice as much money as it spends."

    Ah, but the problem with funding the IRS is that it will make tax cheating by the rich less profitable. Big problem, there.

    Republican insist on "balancing the budget" only when doing so won't hurt the rich, and because the methods by which they will balance the budget will make everyone else more miserable.

    Republicans care about, in order,
    1. Making the rich richer.
    2. Making everyone else more miserable.

    Item #2, however, is only icing on the cake of item #1.

      1. CAbornandbred

        I've been voting since 1970, and I'm so sad that I may live to see the end of democracy in our country. It's disgusting.

        1. smoofsmith

          85% of everybody wants background checks and a ban on assault weapons, yet nothing happens. Pretty sure Democracy is already dead.

          1. cld

            Democracy isn't dead.

            We have the Electoral College, the limitation of representation in the Senate and the mass under-representation for our population size in the House.

            So, democracy hasn't really been tried.

            We're still in a 'wouldn't it be nice if democracy could exist' phase of the late 18th century.

      2. Adam Strange

        40% of every population is not comfortable living in a liberal democracy.

        I hate to think that evolution sometimes selects for the traits of Authoritarianism, but it does. Evidently, it has survival advantages in certain environments.
        Nowadays, most people can read and aren't fighting the rats for their dinner, so you'd think that cooperation and empathy would win the day, but evolutionary changes are slow.

        On the other hand, there are people who can't (or don't) read and who do fight the rats for their dinners, so Authoritarianism may serve them well. But it doesn't serve the rest of us.

        1. Yehouda

          "40% of every population is not comfortable living in a liberal democracy."

          Is that number coming from somewhere?

          What about West-Europe, Australia/NZ, Canada?

          1. Adam Strange

            The figure of 40% is approximate, because the lines shift with the level of fear that Authoritarians can induce in the people who are otherwise neutral in the Authoritarian/Democratic divide. However,

            1. In the decisive July 31, 1932, election, Hitler received exactly 37.3 percent of the overall vote across Germany.

            2. A referendum on whether Augusto Pinochet, the head of a military dictatorship, should become president for eight years under resumed civilian rule was held in Chile on October 5, 1988. The "Yes" side lost with 44% of the vote.

            3. Little change in Americans' views of Trump over the past year. 63% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of Donald Trump, while 35% view him favorably.

            So, societies seem to consist of about 40% Authoritarians, 40% liberal democrats, and 20% who could go either way, depending on how safe they feel or how scared they are of lawlessness at any particular moment.

            Because of this, the news services, which live to deliver fear, are hurting democracy.

        2. golack

          Republicans have been running against governance since Reagan times. The argue that government is not working, then get elected and prove their point.

          People want their roads patched and cleared. Low crime and good schools. But then get caught up in culture wars...

  4. Joseph Harbin

    Now do a cost-benefit analysis on nixing aid to Ukraine, which Johnson is trying to do. Cheaper to fight Putin in Ukraine than when he gets to Poland and the Baltics.

    Of course, not fighting Putin at all is the plan. Because Putin's puppet is Trump, and Trump's puppet is the GOP.

    How the hell is a major party's total capitulation to our county's biggest enemy not the biggest story of the year? (Or any year since '16?) It's not like they buried a sweetheart deal deep in an 800-page bill they're trying to pass. It's all happening right in the open.

    2. aldoushickman

      "How the hell is a major party's total capitulation to our county's biggest enemy not the biggest story of the year?"

      I'm sure that said major party, if induced to be honest, would confess that they beleive that our country's biggest enemy isn't Russia, but people like us.

  5. Brett

    Some of that is donor service (local business men tend to be pretty conservative), but it's also self-service given how many of them own local businesses themselves. Protecting the tax cheats they hang out with and who donate to their campaigns.

    Thankfully, this is dead on arrival in the Senate if they even pass it.

    1. Srho

      Good point. How can the GOP demand a bargain for a policy they favor? Like, "In exchange for giving me what I want, you must give me something else I want."

  8. rick_jones

    So, in the face of their budget being constrained, why hasn't the IRS simply shifted the resources they would have put into auditing the $1M and $5M "buckets" into the $10M bucket?

    1. Austin

      Because somewhere out there is a $10M Christian tax cheat who will howl about how the IRS is persecuting them worse than Jesus.

  9. OwnedByTwoCats

    Clawback beat me to it. In this case, it isn't that the Republicans are defending the Rich. They are defending the Rich Tax Cheaters.

  12. D_Ohrk_E1

    The GOP House could have picked any target for rescission and they picked IRS funding.

    I believe the proper term to describe these Republicans is "a bag of dicks".

  15. Yehouda

    It is somewhat surprising, because defunding the IRS it is not something that helps Trump on either his court cases or his chances in the general election. I thought he Republicans will concentrate on these.

  16. Doctor Jay

    The whole program to defund the IRS has been around a long time, much longer than Trump has been even a candidate.

    So in a way, this is a return to normalcy.

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