Summary
House Speaker Mike Johnson stated that federal aid for California’s devastating Los Angeles wildfires, which have killed at least 24 and displaced nearly 200,000 people, should come with conditions, citing alleged failures by state and local leaders.
Johnson also hinted at tying aid to debt ceiling negotiations.
Other Republican leaders, including Senators John Barrasso and Ron Johnson, expressed similar views, blaming liberal policies for exacerbating the fires.
Critics denounce these positions as cruel, given the scale of destruction, with over 12,000 buildings lost and massive evacuation orders in effect.
Tell me republicans, what California policies have the evil democrats done to cause the fires or made it worse?
I was told there would be no fact checking.
None of these people are serving the United States. They need to be removed.
by force
Here’s hoping Mike meets his Luigi soon.
The Government of Fucking Putin and their America Last agenda.
You know California could just not pay the federal government taxes for a year and we would be back to 100 real quick.
No reason to giving money to other red welfare states that this state earned.
I want this to happen soooo bad. Signed, a New Yorker (State, not city)
That would be a very dangerous escalation. I love the idea of the red states finally finding out but that’s not how that would go unfortunately. We’re in this union for life for the worse.
It’s supposed to be for better or for worse. Lately it’s just been better if you’re a red state that refuses to invest in education and worse if you’re a blue state that actually generates money from your educated and well-paid citizens. Enough is enough.
You’re essentially arguing for succession. That means civil war. You can assume neither of us survive that if anyone does. This echo chamber has gotten real dumb
Sometimes you gotta fight a civil war…sometimes people need to die for their ideas…
You’re a troll or an idiot if you believe that. A civil war in a country with this man nukes could be the end of humanity and would absolutely cause unbelievable devastation for California even if it somehow won so much worse than paying into federal taxes. That is a lose lose. I would think you’re a Chinese troll but even China would lose one of it’s biggest trade partners and it would be devastating for their economy
The thing is that it is us, who pay the federal taxes. We would have to stop paying them and then redirect it to state government. The problem would be how California could change that?
The GOP also cut funding to the IRS. Who is going to do that collecting?
Kentucky would be sad
California should be like: “We will not negotiate with terrorists.”
Is this how you Make America Great Again? Is this America First?
Mexico is helping while “America first” government officials are deliberately withholding aid. Absolute demons.
Mexico takes the high road and helps after all they have said and done. It speaks volumes about the Mexican politicians and shows that our conservatives are the enemies they make everyone else out to be.
they’re worse than enemies. we’ve seen enemies help each other during devastating natural disasters. countries with long history of animosity still send each other humanitarian aid in times like this.
This is “Republican America First”.
More like Make The Confederacy Great Again.
This is their version of it… Make white America great again
Homer Simpson: “White, cishet, christian-fundamentalist America”.
The entire qon thing of “California bad” is just so very fucking stupid. It’s clear they are very jealous of California, which is arguably our most important state.
I guess California and other blue states should also tie federal taxes to things of their own. Maybe even leave the union altogether, alongside with other states.
Maybe the more than 6 million people in California who voted for a Republican candidate will learn from this… Guessing not though.
That’s what a fucking cock sucker is.
Jesus, wasn’t it like a month ago and all Republicans could talk about was how biden was withholding aid from Florida. What’s the point of all these arguments if one side decidedly won’t argue in good faith?
Being hypocritical is something they embrace. It shows weakness to argue with them and they know it. They are essentially terroristic in nature and no one should ever have an actual good faith discussion with them since they have proven time and time again that they are incapable.
There’s no point, just distraction. They both want the dollar out of your pocket, all the pointing fingers is just so people don’t notice it’s ultimately the same hand.
How much longer do they think California is going to keep paying into the federal government if the federal government keeps pulling this shit?
California is the single largest net contributor to federal spending.
That’s the neat part, they don’t think.
It’s worse than you think. Many of them don’t think. But for many of them that’s the dream. Without the blue States contributing to federal government you’ve just starved the Beast that much more and hurt that many more people. It’s enough to push them over the edge and make them cum. Thinking about California doing that. It would be handing them exactly what they want.
It’s much easier to destroy than it is to build. And they are gleeful little arsonists.
They want to knock CA down because it’s a wealthy, successful state with mostly Democrats, but they don’t think far enough to realize if they succeed in damaging CA’s economy then CA can’t contribute as much to their red welfare state.
Nah, a good chunk of them know it would hurt them. They hope it would hurt the people they hate worse.
Having quite a few family members like this, trust me when I say there’s plenty of them who THINK they would happily deal with an economic crash if it meant that black/brown/gay/leftist people starved to death.
When can I stop paying federal taxes? I don’t get anything in return for them.
I honestly think this is going to be the start of hopefully cold civil unrest. GOP will block federal aid, California and maybe other blue states will stop paying federal taxes. Red states start imploding.
Yeah except Democrats are generally too cowardly to actually go that far. The most we’ll probably see is lots of lawsuits against the federal government from blue states like during the last Trump admin.
One can only hope
States don’t pay taxes – people do. *
*And corporations.
Johnson also hinted at tying aid to debt ceiling negotiations
Some of us here will be directly affected by Johnson’s debt ceiling concessions. How does it feel to be commoditized like this, to the point of your household becoming a bargaining chip?
You, personally, are worth no more to Johnson &co than the number of services Newsom is willing to cut (and thus how many citizens will be pressed) in order to meet Johnson’s demands.
That’s infuriating, and it flies in the face of humanitarianism. Slaps it right in the face.
e: I can’t spell
The guy who represents one of the welfare states that takes a lot more money from the union than they give back… is doing this to one of the big blue states that gives to the union a lot more than they get back?
Fucking pathetic, greedy, immoral little shit. I hope his home gets wiped out in the next natural disaster that hits good state.
