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.
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
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”.
This is their version of it… Make white America great again
Homer Simpson: “White, cishet, christian-fundamentalist America”.
More like Make The Confederacy Great Again.
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.
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.
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.
California should be like: “We will not negotiate with terrorists.”
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.
Democrats: Please remember this moment and when it comes time to the elections constantly repeat this on loop as much as possible. We must never forget this.
I agree, but if Trump putting kids in cages and kidnapping them from their families didn’t sway enough voters the first time around, this certainly won’t either.
I don’t think Democrats hammered this point hard enough. There must be relentless attacks against every bad thing Republicans have done. In addition Democrats must aggressively campaign for their vision with strong simple words.
I think it’s important to understand how a lot of red Americans see California. It’s similar to how a lot of the world sees America. They were once enamored by it thanks to it’s cultural dominance but nowadays they’re disillusioned and sick of its cultural dominance. Even I as a leftist moving west in a few months am sick and tired of orange county deciding what the Republican position is resulting in my gerrymandered legislature attacking locally popular things like Marijuana (say what you will about hillbillies, they do not like being busted for their homemade intoxicants and many grow pot).
So yeah in short, the cruelty is the point and I promise, having once lived in his district, Jim Jordan would gain votes for it
Pretty sure most Californians hate Orange county as well. Problem is that its built up enough that they can largely ignore nature telling them to fuck off. Mind you I may be somewhat biased though since I am an Inland Imperial and am obligated to hate everything west of Colton, except San Diego theyre chill.
Screw that. Political ppl need to start being publicly removed from office by force over this type of thing. Alive or otherwise. The American people need to start sending a message.
None of these people are serving the United States. They need to be removed.
by force
Doing something so cartoonishly evil to so many people who so recently lost everything?
I don’t know, sounds like a safety issue for him. Hopefully his preservation instincts kick in.
California might as well be in the G7. So go right ahead Johnson, be petty and watch what happens when we stop paying federal taxes. You better believe we’ll be able to fund this kind of shit ourselves if we don’t have to share…
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.
Here’s hoping Mike meets his Luigi soon.
The Government of Fucking Putin and their America Last agenda.
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.
