I see that we're back to playing an old favorite game:
Trump on Fox & Friends vows to entirely cut the department of education, cut the department of interior, and also do big cuts to "environment agencies," which he says are "so bad for us." pic.twitter.com/mu8klKJo6z
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 2, 2024
Wait. The Department of the Interior? Where did that come from? Republicans are always talking about cutting the EPA and Education, but until now Interior has been famous only as the third agency that Rick Perry wanted to cut but couldn't remember.
So what's Trump's beef with the Department of the Interior? Well, part of the department is the Bureau of Land Management, and back in the day it was dedicated to making sure oil companies could drill on federal land. Another part is the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which was dedicated to screwing Native Americans.
But times have changed, and now the BLM is often an obstacle to drilling and spends a lot of time on preservation and environmental concerns. They were also mean to the Bundy family, who only wanted to illegally let their cows graze on federal land. Meanwhile, the BIA is trying to make up for its past bad behavior by treating Native Americans more decently. President Biden even appointed a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe to head the entire Interior Department!
This is bad. We're spending about $5 billion per year on Indians—who vote for Democrats—and another $5 billion on bureaucrats meddling with environmental nonsense and making life difficult for hardworking ranchers—who vote for Republicans. The rest of the budget is for parks and wildlife, another big liberal wonkathon. The whole department is a liberal sinkhole. Best to get rid of the entire thing.
So there you have it. We can privatize the national parks, let timber and oil companies do whatever they want on federal land, and tell the natives to stand on their own two feet. Problem solved.
And here's the best part. If we really and truly gut the entire department we'll save $17 billion per year. That's one quarter of one percent of the federal budget. Gone! Just like that! And Cliven Bundy will be avenged.
But Trump supporters are not knowledgeable about these numbers. They believe, much like when you ask about Foreign Aid, that we are spending a huge percentage of our budget on this stuff. Besides which these are the departments that in their minds hold us back from being great again.
Steve
"Trump wants to get rid of the Interior Department"
No.
Trump says he wants to get rid of the Interior Department.
Treating what Trump says as if he actually means it is dumb, and makes it easier for him to pretend that he is really is trying to make America great again, rather than make it something between Russia and North-Korea.
It's just something inflammatory to spit out, causing centrist pundits to go running after it analyzing the details as if he's actually proposing something he believes in.
And it works great.
It works because the media, and Kevin, go along with it.
Your about to get on a bus when you hear the driver say, "Traffic laws are for suckers. Why people stop at stop signs is beyond me."
Treating what the driver says as if he actually means it is dumb. Hop on and enjoy the ride.
BTW, have you written a will?
I think that Yehouda's point is that Trump is full of shit.
Not full of shit in a way where you'd say "This bus driver claims he's going to drive off a cliff and kill us all, but it's ok because he's full of shit" but more like "This game show host claims he is a billionaire and the best golfer and that he has detailed plans for the best health care system ever and to prudently eliminate entire federal Deparments. He's obviously full of shit and shouldn't be put in any position of authority, including busdriver."
Announcing plans to get rid of Interior and bulldoze Native land rights is going to turn out the Native vote in key states like AZ and NV, which Trump can't afford to lose. Folks haven't forgotten the Dakota Access Pipeline protests and what Trump did there.
Why can't you be the messaging czar for national Dems, Mr. Drum? What's remarkable, and so acidly effective, is every word of your biting sarcasm is - of course - literally true for the "Don't tell me what to do" Party. With some minor editing I can see/hear this post as one of the more effective political hit ads in a long time. You and Josh Marshall should team up and form a PR firm for Dem/liberal campaigns. Seriously.
I second that emotion. I've constantly wondered why Dems seem to resist Lincoln Project-savvy "messaging" like Mr D and Mr M are constantly generating. Plus, they're capable of using the Big Words that we Libz seem to crave, but in such a manner that they mean what they say and imply!
(unlike "defund the police" and "occupy wall st" and "only Black lives should matter" and other ivory tower brainwaves)
Don't be distracted by my clumsy(mis??)reading of Cherished Lib Sloganizationalism. My actual point is that Drum and Marshall say it good, better than the too-familiar Democratic mealy mouthed, carefully hedged, very long winded dissertation-level responses.
+1 unleash the Drum.
"Lincoln Project-savvy 'messaging'"
Show me how any of the Lincoln Project messaging has moved the needle. I get that I think it's good stuff, and you think it's good stuff, and presumably George Conway and I guess some of his friends think it's good stuff, but all I see is the Republican party falling more and more into line behind a clown in orange makeup.
Biden has been closely associated with _three_ successful presidential campaigns/elections. I'm not saying I'm not worried about November 2024, but I don't think that the missing ingredient is glossy inside-the-beltway snark.
This is not bad advice.
Because conservatives are confident climate change isn't really happening or isn't really a big deal we should initiate a national program to, with one quarter of one percent of the Federal budget, relocate the majority of them to an island paradise somewhere in the South Seas where they can sit on the beach, in the beautiful sunset, sipping some digestive insulin, while they slip beneath the waves.
How about Bikini Atoll?
+1 hmmmm, invigorating. No dosineters.
Drilling would be such an almost rational basis relative to Trump - one should suspect a motivation rather more petty such as having spoiled a supposed Golf course view somewhere for him.
Well, the EPA mandates showerheads that he's complained about already, plus weak-ass lightbulbs that don't give out any light, so that accounts for "the environment agencies being so bad for us." But we all know that if he hears "interior department" he thinks hotel housekeeping.
"Interior Department" is likely a term he picked up from some of his nutjob staffers who have big plans to take us back to 1787, or, even more probably, it's a phrase he was given by one of the billionaire captains-of-industry groups he's been meeting with lately, trying to bribe campaign and legal-expense millions out of them by giving away the national patrimony.
That last part of what he's doing, btw, isn't materially different from Teapot Dome and Albert B. Fall-- national resources and policy for sale, the proceeds a personal benefit to the seller. It's in character.
It's the same reason he's against independence for Ukraine: he was paid to say it.
Here's what I think about cardboard boxes: I use them if they're useful. Otherwise, they're utterly irrelevant ... unless they get in the way, and then I discard them.
With the exception of himself, Citizen Donald thinks about everyone the way I think about cardboard boxes.
In case Citizen Donald wins in November, here's some advice from Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen: Hope like hell he keeps thinking you're utterly irrelevant.
It was the Department of Energy, not Interior, that Rick Perry famously forgot that he wanted to eliminate. You know, the department of which he later became Secretary.
Amon Bundy ring a bell with anyone?
He's listed as an unaffiliated voter but he damn sure sounds like a country version of Trump
Besides Interior has a say in oil drilling permitting.
What Trump doesn't get is that all he's doing is letting oil companies drill and sell our oil overseas while we IMPORT foreign oil because its so much more profitable to refine into gasoline. (Thin Saudi light crude or Brent sea crude)
Democrats should really start running ads on all of this nonsense.
Trump wants to ELIMINATE student loans and Pell Grants and make it unaffordable for middle class Americans to attend college (All student loans and Pell Grants are administered by the Department of Education)
Trump wants to stop enforcing clean air and clean water regulations across America and give all polluters a free pass to despoil your neighborhoods (EPA)
Trump wants to eliminate our national parks and wildlife refuges (Department of Interior)
Trump wants to eliminate oversight of offshore oil drilling (minerals management service, part of Interior).
etc. Take his word for it and describe what the United States would look like if those agencies didn't exist.
Blithering blather blasted w a basting of BS
Stop talking as though policy is all that separates Biden from Trump, unless you want the public to believe that all that separates Biden from Trump is policy. So far, a chunk of Americans seem to believe this, having memory-holed all the criming that happened.
+1
I made this point earlier.
Talking as if it is Trump's claimed policies that is the problem is helping him in preventing people from realizing he is going to terminate democracy.
Can't we lock his n.g.mouth up? I know it would cut down on his spewing pollution into the air we breathe. Kitties know...
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