Ramaswamy wants to defund unauthorized government programs - like veteran healthcare

as equal authority, I propose we just lock them up.

I'm sure we can find something to actually justify it. Like, you know, betraying classified secrets to the russians, as well as providing intelligence and military aid;

Give 'em an Archie Slap for even suggesting that shit.

I know what you mean but he does, quite literally, speak for us now. This is what we asked for.

As a former military child, I largely agree with cutting tricare. It's pretty good, and military people take for granted that they get socialized Healthcare but not the rest of us. Yeah, "serving the country" and all that, but most military personnel aren't doing anything that anyone else isn't doing. Most military personnel are not in combat roles. Everyone should be treated well because everyone benefits the nation. Take away the socialized healthcare of the military and vets and maybe we'll get socialized healthcare in general.

I doubt this will work, but it'll at least force military people to come to terms with the fact they have socialized healthcare and how well it works. My dad at least used to argue with me whenever I called it that. I'm not sure if he still thinks it isn't true. I'm sure other people haven't even considered that that's what it is.

NASA is definitely a target. Musk wants to make SpaceX America's privatized space agency.

The last conservative government silenced the government scientists from discussing climate change and destroyed decades of research as they didn't believe in it and it didn't fit their Alberta oil jobs first objectives.

We are looking at another Conservative government coming our way again in the next year and it's going to be a super shit storm when our Cons and the US Cons are firing on all cylinders destroy everything they don't like or believe in. I fear it's going to take decades again to come back on the science again.

NASA is and has always been a way for the US to maintain a literal military high ground. If it gets defunded, I don't think you'll have to resort to violence, our rivals will do it for us.

Back in the day they funded NASA because they were worried about being eclipsed by the USSR. Now they may worry about belong eclipsed by China. But yes they might move a shit ton to spacex.

The leopards are eating our faces!!

Buyers remorse or will they blame someone else?

The right wing has never supported veterans

At best, "support our troops" was a version of that dumbass magical thinking that, in earlier times, held that the U.S. lost in Vietnam because Americans didn't clap for Tinkerbell, err, I mean, support the war. Mostly, it was a thought-terminating cliché.

Yeah, as you rightly point out, it was never about the soldiers themselves.

They confirmed, for anyone paying attention, that that was always performative bullshit.

The good old days when it was republicans who were "if you're not with us I will enjoy watching you die"

Agreed. They must have gotten better in the last decade too, because I don't see the horrible things that people have said about the VA. Yes there are long wait times for appointments, but that's happening in private care now as well.

The status quo is just a lot more visible, now.

I want to see these fucks do this then ask for the military to keep them in office when they violate the constitution

If you hear back well they did not realize... you answer with yes, this is how little they care

If it’s gone it’s gone. Those people in rural America who live off handouts and vote R can live with the long term consequences. The only way you will see a change is if they are no longer insulated from the consequences of their actions. Fox News Propaganda is going to be spinning itself in circles to justify why their “gubment program” was ended under Trump.

Perhaps they will vote blue in the future and we will have enough of a majority that more liberal policies can be enacted.

Just know that there are people in the US that feel the same. And it's horrifying.

They’ve learned their lesson from 4 years of failure to repeal and replace Obamacare. “Replacing was hard and expensive and anything that addresses people’s concerns or doesn’t ensure failure to re-elect was to the left of this, so we’ve decided to just repeal and not replace. Get over it loser.”

And people will eat it the fuck up like the hogs they are

"And Goober Nation will believe it when we say that 'the libs' are responsible. Despite the fact that we control the presidency, the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court and the news media, because they have the collective memory of a goddamn goldfish. "

I think it's because there is a difference between the Budget and Appropriations in Congress. The budget is a plan, where programs are authorized and an overall budget is set. The appropriations process is what assigns particular dollars to particular discretionary programs. (Certain programs deemed "mandatory" by Congress, like Social Security, Medicare, and interest on the debt, get allocated money automatically and are not involved in appropriations)

If I had to guess, I would say that once a program is authorized once under a budget, it can continue as long as it (or the Federal department it is part of) is not specifically de-authorized, and as long as it continues to receive appropriations specifically for that program.

So, it is likely that this is all about Ramaswamy's total ignorance of how Congress works. Which tracks pretty well with what this DOGE is all about.

NASA gives SpaceX fat government paychecks. He doesn't want anything to happen to them.

Is the tide changing? I feel like the GOP has been dicking the veterans over my whole life and they're still like their biggest and strongest supporters. Leopards and faces and all that.

There is a reason Trump is talking about replacing all of our generals (can you imagine the national security risk?) and replacing them.

I'll let you work it out on your own...

Goddammit, fuck this country. Good luck to you.

Don't know anything about top superpower, but Russia already has better healthcare than american veterans. Even tourists have better healthcare in Russia than americans in America.

Days after the election, I was talking to coworkers who literally said that was just propaganda and he's not actually going to do it. Because he said that.

Turns out all people needed was a little bit of plausible deniability...

Wait, a firearm is complex or am I misunderstanding?

Firearms aren't really that complex.

It was authorized, but it had an expiration date. Now it's something that we just take for granted so much we never even thought about having to re-authorize it.

Unfortunately for veterans, they aren't risking their lives for their country. They're risking their lives for the special interests of corporate oligarchs who couldn't care less about them.

Nice of you to assume you won't get mandatory military service.

Universally leave you to die if you don't pay, sure.

If they really go whole hog and sell off the hospitals and stuff then I would think the next president would just go to a Veteran's Public Option. There's a world in which 5 years from now we prove Medicare for All works because they deleted the entire side of the VA that does healthcare.

The problem is that it appears as though there are tens of millions of Americans who are literally unable to FO. Or they FO, but are entirely unable (or perhaps unwilling at this point) to connect it to all the FA they've been doing.

Doesn't matter. Everyone enjoys their face being eaten. They can blame it on the damn (outgroup) and feel better about themselves. Rage and being better than some other tribe is all that matters anymore.

Sorry, but that unicorn is illegal and should be deported!

Conservative to both questions

Given the rest of trump's cabinet about 50/50 shot at being someone who assaults children.

So during the Republican primaries there were several people trying to demonstrate themselves as similar but different to trump. Desantis was trump but able to force his policies through. Haley was trump but not as anti woman. Ramaswamy was trump but younger and possibly less sane somehow.

He’s a venture capitalist from and focused on fucking Columbus Ohio (and no he is not known or liked there, it’s a weirdly blue city)