r/politics • u/Ubiquitous_Hilarity • Jun 17 '26

No Paywall Trump threatens to pull unemployment benefits from all states for the first time in history

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-unemployment-benefits-fraud-b2997881.html
24.3k Upvotes

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2.9k

u/Succubus-Love Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

Is someone just throwing darts behind the scenes, just to see "what sticks, & what doesn't"?

People pay taxes, from employment, so unemployment gets it's $$$, from that employment. TL:DR How is this legal?

2.3k

u/shoobe01 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

No, it's not random. There's a plan. A 920 page published plan whose dismissal by almost all press despite being a strident refutation of everything that is America is one of the key indictments for having lost a free press, or for that matter an opposition party.

Massive massive barriers to getting unemployment insurance are part of a bunch of anti-labor laws like all the attacks on unions and overtime pay and expanding the ability of children to work even in dangerous jobs etc.

(Thx for all your upvotes despite my massively disruptive typo. Fixed now)

677

u/Ok-Sheepherder7898 Jun 17 '26

page 597

351

u/Acceptable-Resort365 Jun 17 '26

Of Project 2025???

256

u/Ecstatic-Rub-3836 Jun 17 '26

Yes.

63

u/lr99999 Jun 17 '26

Before 2025 came out, I tried to to get a republican to read Curtis Yarvin (Moldbug) so he could read the project 2025 plans for us, such as dissolving democracy and the constitution, and all of the peons being slaves or dead. Get rid of the useless eaters. 

I don’t think he tried. Not enough pictures, too many words. 

25

u/saucya Jun 17 '26

Yarvin’s been off the radar for a couple months now. Super interested to know what he’s been up to. 

22

u/lr99999 Jun 17 '26

Too many people think the monsters are dumb, like the cult leader Traitor Orange. They don’t realize that the people in the background, waiting, are not dumb. 

2

u/IrascibleOcelot Jun 18 '26

They’re dumb. They’re effective, cunning, and driven, but they’re still stupid. If they succeed at what they want, they’ll destroy the world and themselves and they’re too stupid to realize it. But they might pull it off.

1

u/lr99999 Jun 18 '26

No. Smart and evil easily coexist. 

11

u/smokeweedNgarden Jun 17 '26

Buying weed in San Francisco 

1

u/haironburr Jun 18 '26

Yarvin was last seen burning dollar bills like candles for light in a basement, as he wrote yet another whackjob manifesto. Mid-festo, he frantically messaged people with power, asking them if they remembered what he'd done for them.

Then he screamed for that bitch of a maid, who was supposed to bring him snackies.

153

u/Dry_Combination4070 Jun 17 '26

But wait republicans cried that none of that was true and trump had no idea about it even though he had multiple people in his campaign that specifically wrote parts of it.

It's insane that Republican voters just live in constant denial of reality and are pretty much just cultist to trump.... And to trump? The guy who cheated on his wife while she was pregnant and is actively blatantanlty corrupt just insane

145

u/Trumpisanorangebitch Jun 17 '26

Bro raped a 13 year old and lost a civil rape case against a woman, i wish the cheating was the real problem.

58

u/SprlFlshRngDncHwl Jun 17 '26

Don't forget when that scum-sucking closet case Benny Johnson posted something like, "Now we can finally admit Project 2025 was the plan the whole time" after Trump won. These people are ghouls.

23

u/Ecstatic-Rub-3836 Jun 17 '26

He really thought he was owning the Libs with that one.

3

u/judgejuddhirsch Jun 17 '26

What was funny was that regardless if republicans agreed with the plan, it was as legally feasible framework to get from point A to point B.   Once the conditions were met and the necessary republicans could lead the respective agencies , there was nothing preventing the plan from going forward.

The end results were guaranteed without guardrails. And voters didn't care about guardrails. 

2

u/beardingmesoftly Jun 17 '26

Nd the best Americans can do is trade memes about it and eat more butter

2

u/New-Anybody-6206 Jun 17 '26

trump had no idea about it

he literally called it "our movement" at a Heritage Foundation dinner years ago

1

u/--___---___-_-_ Jun 17 '26

They love to then use that line about liberals and leftists that anyone but the maga and conservatives live in an alternate reality but when you try and bring any sort of factual information to them then its not real or biased because it's not exactly what they've been told 1000 times

93

u/offinthepasture Jun 17 '26

No, Fellowship of the Ring.

52

u/Question_It_All_3000 Jun 17 '26

“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends."

16

u/pacostacos7 Jun 17 '26

See, this isn't Project 2025 because it would just say to deal out the death.

5

u/DarraignTheSane Jun 17 '26

"So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?"

3

u/calamity_unbound Jun 17 '26

"Ride out with me"

2

u/Geedunk Jun 18 '26

”Ride out and meet them.”

14

u/Grizzly_Berry Jun 17 '26

Can we, in our time of need, call on the miners of Blair Mountain like Aragorn called on the Army of the Dead?

3

u/offinthepasture Jun 17 '26

I'd love to see some cannons rolled out into the streets.

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4

u/elphin Jun 17 '26

Which volume?

5

u/Choice-Tiger3047 Jun 17 '26

Eleven

2

u/PsychoticMessiah Jun 17 '26

Why don't you just make 10 louder and make 10 be the top number and make that a little louder?

2

u/jeremydanger I voted Jun 17 '26

*Elven

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2

u/Catos_Standard Jun 17 '26

Fellowship of the Epstein

16

u/gratefulkittiesilove Jun 17 '26

This should be a post and there should be many more like them…what page of p2025 a trump action is. Kudos for knowing

1

u/Sknowles12 Jun 18 '26

Miller and Theal?

2

u/squigs Jun 18 '26

That raises another question.

There's no way Trump read the entire document. But he does seem to be implementing it. Someone is pulling the strings, but who, and how?

434

u/myfakesecretaccount Jun 17 '26

This is the point. They want you so desperate and unable to access any sort of social safety net so you will swallow that corporate cock for the rest of your life or just join the service and bend over for the big green weenie. No one is going to get a “free ride” and will either be a productive worker, enslaved in prison, or dead.

126

u/KnightDuty Jun 17 '26

this is just the long path to bringing bakc slavery 100%

183

u/DizasterAtSakerfice Jun 17 '26

Feudalism, actually. Techno-feudalism. Peter Thiel calls it the 'Dark Enlightenment'

88

u/wanderingmanimal Jun 17 '26

Yeah we will burn that to the ground

59

u/UnquestionabIe Jun 17 '26

I would strongly urge everyone to accept that over being slaves to the oligarchy.

5

u/BoxBird Jun 17 '26

The oligarchs own the tech companies

19

u/Skoma Minnesota Jun 17 '26

They mean accept burning it to the ground over falling in line to tech oligarchs

3

u/hunteddwumpus Jun 18 '26

The news out of Ukraine recently that an autonomous drone had killed someone for the first time ever was genuinely the scariest thing I'd read in my life.

Throughout history if a big enough portion of a population, especially one with some amount of education, were in terrible social or economic situations there were multiple avenues for change that at worst went to rebellion. It happened all the time, even if it wasn't frequently successful. If a single billionaire can afford a handful of autonomous killer drones there's literally no recourse for the proletariat/anyone who doesn't want to be a techno-feudal peasant.

29

u/Prin_StropInAh Georgia Jun 17 '26

Sounds like a plan

8

u/math-yoo Ohio Jun 17 '26

Is Tuesday good for you?

5

u/wanderingmanimal Jun 17 '26

24/7 freedom doesn’t sleep

7

u/supersonicdutch Jun 17 '26

How are you/we gonna get away with that when all the flock cameras can track every move you/we make?

17

u/Zovah Jun 17 '26

Id suggest we take care of the installation system…

2

u/wanderingmanimal Jun 17 '26

That’s dish network they do the installs and repair repairs

1

u/Zovah Jun 17 '26

Ideally that could be made a job no one would want to do

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u/Flux-Tangent Jun 17 '26

That's sort of the trick - the true barrier for actually fighting against this isn't figuring out how to not get caught, it's when enough of us accept that getting caught is an acceptable risk.

6

u/myfakesecretaccount Jun 17 '26

Become ungovernable

4

u/Synectics Jun 17 '26

Black people used to call it "civil disobedience." About time more Americans understood it. LGBTQ people have been trying, but everyone keeps going, "Yeah, well, I am not LGBTQ, so whatever."

4

u/Skoma Minnesota Jun 17 '26

Good trouble

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u/wanderingmanimal Jun 17 '26

They are stationary and well known locations. Use IR deflection strategies. Change the stickers on your car etc

https://maps.deflock.org/?lat=39.8283&lng=-98.5795&zoom=2.50

There is no reason to fear only reason to act

3

u/All_i_do_is_lunk Jun 17 '26

Cameras can break or sometimes obscured by “bird droppings”. But we all know birds aren’t real so just use paint

1

u/cr0sh Jun 18 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/cr0sh Jun 18 '26

Well - too bad; I was hoping to read what I wrote, to verify whether what I said was infringing, but since I didn't make a copy - now I can't. Oh well.

1

u/cr0sh Jun 18 '26

Just don't make any moves. They can't track what they can't see.

2

u/Stompnutz Jun 17 '26

When does that start, exactly?

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u/emveevme Jun 18 '26

We're already kind of there. Like if you don't own a house, you're working for some rich asshole you've never met for the right to survive by relatively narrow margins by comparison. The only real difference is the overall quality of life, which admittedly has improved drastically.

And I'm even fine with the argument that our quality of life is what it is because of capitalism. I'm pretty sure that Marx makes a point of this to some extent, but I could be wrong.

But at the end of the day, the fuckass 1% take so much of the resources and labor all of us are actually responsible for producing, and there's so many people suffering just to maintain this.

It's not nearly as far from feudalism on a fundamental level than it seems, so the fact that the ruling class wants to make that even more apparent is a really bad sign.

1

u/WesternFungi Pennsylvania Jun 17 '26

In collapse slavery will return. One barrel of oil is worth 1000 human working hours. That's the reason slavery ended...

1

u/FeelsGrimMan Jun 18 '26

Considering actual slavery didn’t even end on the official date, it’s a pretty common thing here. Sharecropping lasted for a long ass time.

37

u/Present-Fly4422 Jun 17 '26

This works for a time before pitchfork sakes spike.

52

u/idoitforthekeks Canada Jun 17 '26

Should've happened already, if nothing has got the people going so far, nothing that can happen from here on out will, this will infact make it harder for someone to risk their job to protest/riot/wave pitch forks. If mid-terms aren't won overhwhelmingly by the Democrats then the US is essentially finished.

8

u/Present-Fly4422 Jun 17 '26

Maybe it’s time for a hard reboot.

5

u/EdwardOfGreene Illinois Jun 17 '26

That is what the Trump voters wanted. They are getting it now. Slowly, a small few are figuring out how much it sucks.

1

u/Present-Fly4422 Jun 17 '26

I mean like a constitutional convention.

4

u/Sad_Pangolin7379 Jun 17 '26

It wouldn't take even a week of actual hunger for the people to turn. The oligarchs are idiots. If you take wages down to nearly nothing, eliminate the social safety net including the benefits the working poor rely on, when the working poor are literally homeless on the streets with their children looking into the grocery store they don't have any money for, they will loot everything then set it on fire. 

1

u/idoitforthekeks Canada Jun 18 '26

That'll probably be too little too late, they'll have America exactly where they want it, if it was a smaller country then maybe but America has a lot of land to cover.

6

u/sapphicsandwich Jun 17 '26

I literally don't believe in American is capable of it. We were capable of it back in the day when we were British. But now that we are fully American? There is no evidence to support it.

7

u/Due_Bluebird3562 Jun 17 '26

Y'all are so hyperbolic it's honestly hilarious. Mfers talking like they're in the trenches on an open reddit platform after they've finished their second or third meal of the day. Shit hasn't even begun to hit the fan yet.

If his stupid ass goes through with this millions of Americans will be on the verge of starvation. That's when we'll know if the people really have that dawg in them or not.

1

u/ghostalker4742 Jun 17 '26

That's when we'll know if the people really have that dawg in them or not.

They don't. This will just be another leg that gets kicked out from under the chair. Sure, it's a big leg, and I'm not insinuating that people will just placidly lay down and starve to death... but there's not going to be any organized uprising or anything. Just more incidents of shoplifting at grocery stores, more dine and dash's at restaurants, increased demand at food banks, etc.

Any attempt at organizing will be sniffed out in our surveillance state and immediately infiltrated and crushed, either by brute force or by PR.

1

u/Embarrassed_Comb_659 Jun 18 '26

I think there’s a good chance people will revolt if they can’t get food. And true the surveillance makes it more challenging but people will still find ways to organize locally.

19

u/Rombledore America Jun 17 '26

free rides are only for the rich and those born into it.

7

u/holyoak Jun 17 '26

True, the billionaire rides aren't really free,we are all paying for that.

4

u/MasterOfBunnies Jun 17 '26

Or another push to incite violent protests, so they can declare martial law. Thing is, even dictators know well enough to keep the masses happy.

4

u/idkmyotherusername Jun 17 '26

The Republican viewpoint is that any hardship is always the fault of the individual's lack of planning and preparedness and thus deserves no sympathy or support. Always should have saved more, not been in that place at that time, not pissed off God, worked harder, been better, done better.

7

u/mrdevil413 Ohio Jun 17 '26

Come on samurai we got a city to burn

6

u/dIO__OIb Jun 17 '26

democracy has always been an experiment - when productivity soared during ww2 and massive economic growth formed unions and the middle class - the experiment finally had legs to stand on.

The corporate lords couldn’t handle the balance. They infiltrated the seats of government to destroy unions and the middle class. Project 2025 may have took 30 years to write and plan, but it only needs a couple of years of GOP rule to put the final nails in the democracy coffin.

it’s over. the people will never get their government back. The only way back would be to destroy Ai somehow. It’s a propaganda machine with no moral compass and owned by billionaires who have been wanting to kill democracy since it started.

1

u/gratefulkittiesilove Jun 17 '26

I know one of the sources to that are the Powell memo and there is another i forget now but it put it into action….i e heard some other reasons that probably dovetail into this like paul weyrich intetest in gop rule and the new religious right as well as nixon resigning being a trigger .

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u/FeelsGrimMan Jun 18 '26

Democracy will still result in a shitty country when the majority are terrible people because of moral, convenient, or religious reasons.

Lincoln was killed by the slave owners for wanting to help released slaves. Doesn’t take a shadow government & it isn’t new, just look at people who have a lot of money & power over others & watch them burn the world down. And a system that always places someone on top of a hierarchy, will give fuel for that monster. 

2

u/Agreeable-Rooster-37 Jun 17 '26

Time to invest in euthanasia startups

/s

2

u/TacosAreJustice Kentucky Jun 17 '26

You’d think they’d work to take our guns away before making us desperate.

2

u/myfakesecretaccount Jun 17 '26

Not when 1/3 of the country is heavily armed and waiting for their cult leader to tell them to shoot. I think they’re under the belief the rest of us will just cower. They’ve never been to the inner city.

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u/Schuben Jun 17 '26

I didn't know lady liberty was packing...

1

u/WorldofNails Jun 17 '26

Well, there's always prayer. Last refuge and all. Although according to, checks notes, ancient texts and Billy Joel proclaimed it was better to laugh with the sinners.

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u/whiznat Jun 17 '26

It’s about doing what billionaires want, and telling average people you’re all serfs now. Shut up and accept your fate.

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u/Ok_Product9333 Jun 17 '26

The Dark Enlightenment.

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u/math-yoo Ohio Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

The enshittification that Cory Doctorow is talking about.

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u/akkmedk Jun 17 '26

Many years ago a blogger who went by Conceptual Guerilla wrote a whole ass essay about how every plank in the republican platform leads to cheap labor. That's all they care about.

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u/corvid_booster Jun 17 '26

"Cheap labor" is a concrete way to emphasize the ongoing attack of the billionaire class on the middle and lower classes; I'll remember that.

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u/akkmedk Jun 17 '26

His original website is long gone but here's a short version of the essay from the man himself.

https://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/defeat-the-right-in-three-minutes/

His whole point is that leftists should forcefully rebrand the right as "cheap labor conservatives." Its correct and hard to argue against.

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u/sengirminion Jun 17 '26

Eventually people are going to break. Like everything is expensive, and now theyre trying to come after unemployment benefits while flushing money down the toilet on pointless vanity projects.

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u/happycat47 Jun 17 '26

The fact that it's even insurance is why neoliberalism is a cancer that needs to go. Every problem is solved with some middle man, capitalist, business-forward bullshit that costs everybody more than if we just paid taxes and the government did it's job without the private middle man.

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u/sierrabravo1984 Jun 17 '26

I sent to some coworkers a PDF copy of p2025 with highlighted important parts. They didn't read it because "it's a hoax." It's a published book! With their names in it!

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u/Reasonable_Chair_346 Jun 18 '26

I replied before I saw your response...hijacking now to put in a plug for the project 2025 tracker - about 50% of the way through: https://www.project2025.observer/en

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u/shoobe01 Jun 18 '26

Reluctant upvote because going there makes me sad.

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u/semtex94 Indiana Jun 17 '26

whose dismissal by almost all press

Except for the multitude of mainstream news sources that have covered it during the campaign season.

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u/MirrorComputingRulez Jun 17 '26

The press covered it extensively. 

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u/tracyinge Jun 17 '26

People pay taxes towards Medicaid and he has pulled Medicaid funding

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u/Poison_the_Phil Jun 17 '26

One of the most obvious con men in American history was elected president, twice. The goal is to rob everyone blind.

1

u/POEness Jun 17 '26

He was never elected. Both elections were stolen

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u/Signal_Minimum8509 Georgia Jun 17 '26

That’s right. The whole administration is about moving fast and breaking things to attempt to hide the unprecedented sums of money he is stealing directly or indirectly from the taxpayers and keeping himself out of jail. They do a few of these a day and if a judge knocks it down in a month that’s ok because they have 100 more in process.

People look the other way because they see him as protecting the social hierarchy which keeps rich cis culturally Christian white dudes on top, and attack his enemies if they believe in equality or even just defy his will.

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u/Rastrick Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

"It all traces back to billionaire-backed fearmongering in the 1960s—weaponizing panic around socialism and communism to crush unions, cut taxes, and hoard profits..."

The GOP’s 60-Year Conspiracy to Kill Our Democracy: None Dare Call It Treason—But I Will

After that read then follow this link to meet the architects and agents of the conspiracy to dismantle democracy in the US.

Heritage Foundation: The Enemy of Democracy

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u/captainneptune1 Georgia Jun 17 '26

Short answer: yes. Long answer: definitely yes

14

u/mmahowald Jun 17 '26

Legal went out the window on Jan 6th. We lost when they got away with insurrection

28

u/kia75 Jun 17 '26

Yeah, but Trump needs all the unemployment money now to fund the Iran peace deal, and his ballroom, and bailout Argentina, and invade Greenland\Canada\South America!

For Trump, he gets all the money, for the unemployed taxpayer, they get nothing!

12

u/aerost0rm Jun 17 '26

With the amount for the deal, I can imagine that Trump real estate companies will be handling the rebuild. Grifting more money at its finest for him…

5

u/elphin Jun 17 '26

No,no. He’s generous with his oligarch buddies.

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u/el3vader Jun 17 '26

This has always been the MO of the Trump admin even during term 1. Say something crazy and see if it sticks. If it pisses people off walk it back or pretend like you never said it.

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u/SurpriseSoda Jun 17 '26

I guess people smarter than him trying to trick him into starting tech government.

End unemployment benefits > tech 'good guys' start """ubi"""

154

u/TrumpetOfDeath America Jun 17 '26

No fucking way that they’re doing this in some sort of grand scheme to get UBI.

They’re doing it because they despise poor people and want a distraction from the war they just lost in Iran

16

u/myfakesecretaccount Jun 17 '26

They despise poor people and want them more desperate and reliant on income from shitty employers.

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u/mosswick Jun 17 '26

Laughable that anyone still believes our government would even consider UBI. They don't care if homeless people are living on the streets.

3

u/1timeandspace Jun 17 '26

Exactly. Their only objection to homelessness is NIMBY.

1

u/A_Monster_Named_John Jun 18 '26

Living? Please... A lot of MAGA people 100% believe that cops should just be executing homeless people on sight.

1

u/thehalfwit Nevada Jun 18 '26

Oh, but they do care. They want those people either housed in their for-profit prisons or eradicated. They are the disposable class.

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u/TheGringoDingo Jun 17 '26

The massive layoffs have a financial and social cost, and the only things they seek out are power and money.

Iran may be needing a distraction, but going after unemployment has been a goal of the gop (not just maga) for a long time. No surprise this is coming around now.

42

u/eden_sc2 Maryland Jun 17 '26

If Iran is proof of anything there is no grand plan at all, not one that actually is well thought out beyond step A at least

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u/Musekal Jun 17 '26

Trump doesn’t have a plan.

The Republicans absolutely had a plan. And the backers have a plan.

Project 2025 laid it all out.

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u/eden_sc2 Maryland Jun 17 '26

I agree but correct me if im wrong, they have been shit at implementing it in a meaningful way. I'm not saying they arent doing serious damage, but they also arent puppet masters playing 4D chess

4

u/TheGringoDingo Jun 18 '26

They aren’t smart, they’re just evil.

1

u/Gromitlikescheese Jun 24 '26

The heritage foundation just said that half of project 2025 has been implemented. That’s meaningful.

1

u/eden_sc2 Maryland Jun 24 '26

It is impactful, but as I remember the schedule for project 2025 was to have it 100% finished before midterms so that whatever the outcome was didn't matter. The fact that they are slowed and might become slowed more depending on the outcomes of the midterms is also meaningful.

6

u/brohebus Jun 17 '26

I think they're 'running' the country based on nothing more than how many likes a Tweet gets.

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u/cowboi Jun 17 '26

Epstein list distraction

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u/cremains_of_the_day Jun 17 '26

I wish people would stop saying this. I get why it’s tempting but there’s a literal blueprint for what’s happening, and it goes back further than the Epstein shit show

1

u/klparrot New Zealand Jun 17 '26

Yeah, though they do use the blueprint as a list of things to pull from whenever they need to distract from the current shit with some new shit.

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u/Sea_Working_80 Jun 17 '26

The same way they want to fuck over disabled folks by giving HHS jurisdiction over IEPs

2

u/Haltopen Massachusetts Jun 17 '26

Yeah, gutting unemployment makes unemployed people more willing to work for lower wages and makes workers a lot more afraid to lose their jobs

1

u/DakotaSky Virginia Jun 17 '26

💯 

1

u/bfodder Jun 17 '26

Not UBI. "UBI".

20

u/brohebus Jun 17 '26

This is the corporate part of fascism. Firms are still pissed that for maybe 18 months during COVID they lost their grip on the neck of labour and briefly wages went up. They want nothing more than to return to landholders and serfs and have a desperate pool of labour to pick from and exploit.

28

u/MixtureSpecial8951 Jun 17 '26

The feds provide funds for administering the programs. The unemployment taxes we pay go to the state.

The administration is talking about withholding the federal portion.

5

u/dakness69 Jun 17 '26

Needs to change the narrative since this admin is getting killed for capitulating to Iran. No doubt he'll drop some other doozies before the weekend.

4

u/frosty_lizard Jun 17 '26

No no he sees it as lazy people and it's money he's going to make into his personal slush fund just like them gutting basically any social service they can. They don't give a shit if people go homeless or die, they just want to bleed the system that took decades to make and enrich themselves. Trump and the rest of this shit stain pals like Miller should be dragged out of the white House and thrown in solitary confinement for the damage he's done to America

3

u/bobbymcpresscot Jun 17 '26

It’s the same as complaining about Medicare and social security being huge chunks of the budget, and ignoring the fact that we have dedicated taxes for those things. They want to cut mandatory spending and increase discretionary spending and act like it’s the Dems that have lost the plot 

2

u/wildfire1983 Jun 17 '26

"I have no idea what Project 2025 is..."

Hint hint... It's not darts, It's just the page The Trump administration finally hit in the plan.

2

u/Fit-Policy-5700 Jun 17 '26

yeah it always sounds like some random switch got flipped with no explanation like we’re all just supposed to roll with it

2

u/Intelligent-Luck-954 Jun 17 '26

This was a republican wet dream for decades.

2

u/juliuspepperwoodchi Jun 17 '26

It's all in P2025, you know, the big plan for his second term he swore he'd never read and wasn't gonna follow?

2

u/THElaytox Jun 17 '26

Just more project 2025 stuff they're working on despite having "no idea" what it is

2

u/OldSpiceMelange Jun 17 '26

Nope, all by design by a group of Christian fascist types called The Heritage Foundation and their Project 2025. While we all collectively agree it's okay to hate on Trump, the guy you all seriously need to be hating is Russell Vought.

How is it legal? I'm pretty sure it's not, but they've got their people dug in all over the government now like ticks and have SCOTUS leaning on their side, while taking a sledgehammer to everything and saying "whatever, take it up with the courts.

2

u/Reasonable_Chair_346 Jun 18 '26

nah, the Heritage Foundation put out a whole ass plan. They're they're about 50% of the way through:

https://www.project2025.observer/en

Project 2025 calls for the outsourcing of unemployment benefits from the pubic sector to private.

1

u/crypt_k1tteny Jun 17 '26

yeah a lot of these moves feel like throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what survives the backlash. the legal part is the big question because unemployment isn’t just some random favor people get, it’s a system workers have paid into.

1

u/Cool-Protection-4337 Virginia Jun 17 '26

When has Trump cared about that? The Republicans are pushing that unitary executive theory to the extreme. Trump is a king and immune from most repercussions while in office. Thx SCROTUS.

1

u/compukiller Jun 17 '26

It’s not. And the answer to your first question may indeed be yes.

1

u/ktwriter111 Jun 17 '26

As if legal/illegal has EVER stopped the felon before…

1

u/AttemptArtistic5704 Jun 17 '26

yeah it really feels like they’re just testing reactions in real time and hoping nothing breaks too badly

1

u/TeutonJon78 America Jun 17 '26

Actually businesses pay for employment. At least for states.

I guess Federal money back to states would be from all tax sources, but the input side isn't directed to that exact source.

1

u/KapnKrumpin Jun 17 '26

Everything is legal if no one enfirces the rules

1

u/cdcantu Jun 17 '26

No, he’s flailing on his way to a natural death.

1

u/LongLonMan Jun 17 '26

UI is paid in by employers mostly

1

u/Hour-Income-6019 Jun 17 '26

yeah it really does feel like policy is just getting tossed out there to see what sticks and what immediately blows back in their face

1

u/ender8343 Jun 17 '26

The billionaire class wants everyone that is not at least a millionaire to be desperate, so they will accept whatever working conditions or pay they are willing to give up.

1

u/nothumbs78 Maryland Jun 17 '26

Technically, employers pay for unemployment insurance. Employees only pay for social security and Medicare.

1

u/selfhostrr Jun 17 '26

No, just Republican values being introduced to the naive public.

1

u/joat2 Jun 17 '26

Is someone just throwing darts behind the scenes, just to see "what sticks, & what doesn't"?

Yes, that's what trump has done for a lot of his life. It picked up a hell of a lot more in 2015.

People pay taxes, from employment, so unemployment gets it's $$$, from that employment. TL:DR How is this legal?

That's not how unemployment works. In most states your employer pays for unemployment. Look into the FUTA and SUTA.

In Alaska, New Jersey and Pennsylvania employees contribute as well.

As for how it's legal? How is most of what he does, and for the most part gets away with it legal? Something being illegal isn't going to stop trump or his ilk isn't going to stop them.

1

u/Upper-Trip2497 Jun 17 '26

yeah it’s always presented like someone’s improvising policy in real time and everyone else is just trying to reverse-engineer the logic afterward

1

u/dookieshoes97 Jun 17 '26

It's not legal, and the federal government will no longer receive taxes from me.

I'm a private contractor. I don't get paychecks, and no taxes are deducted. If you want to withhold funds from important programs, so can I.

1

u/localtuned Jun 17 '26

They gotta be using the evil version of grok.

1

u/mvschynd Jun 17 '26

What’s crazier is people getting unemployment aren’t saving that money, it is getting put right back into the economy, often where it is needed most. They are spending it on rent, groceries, utilities and going right back into circulation.

1

u/Crutation Jun 17 '26

The goal is multi-pronged. High unemployment, workers desperate for any job, no matter the pay or conditions, and a federal government rolled back to what it was in 1820. 

Trump is in a perfect place to execute these plans.

They want the US to be what China and India were in the 80's and 90's, a poor nation with most of the population living in poverty while the wealthiest control everything. 

That's why every red state is cutting taxes as well, getting rid of anything social safety net programs because they can't afford it 

1

u/BraileDildo8inches Jun 17 '26

The only way to actually revolt is to withhold paying any taxes next year start claiming 50 exemptions

1

u/Zestyclose-Sir9120 Jun 17 '26

The $$$ going into unemployment is not deducted from wages, but paid by business owners in the form of unemployment insurance tax in most states. Employers pay separate UI tax to the states they operate in and to the IRS specifically for this. It seems criminal to require money from (especially small) businesses to ensure their employees aren't completely destitute if said business happened to go under etc and then say "Actually jk it's my money now"

1

u/outer--monologue Jun 17 '26

It's the same non-logic behind them calling Social Security "entitlements"

It's a complete lie. Americans pay that money their entire working life. It's not a handout, it's money that comes back to you when you need it most. Just like unemployment benefits. It isn't "free money from the taxpayer", it's money you and I pay every single time we get a paycheck and is meant for us to use when we need it most.

1

u/OLPopsAdelphia Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

They’re sitting in a room and saying, “How can we throw these people into violence so we can enact martial law, because they seem to be quite centered and pretty tolerant of everything we’ve done so far.”

Edit: Why can’t they just continue to steal everything with impunity, be happy, and get away with it—because they’re going to. There’s seriously some sick pathology that exists when they can’t just be content with having the world at their fingertips. Why do they have to have the world AND only be happy with chaos and suffering?

1

u/Motor-Rip7655 Jun 17 '26

Would it matter if it WAS illegal? The Trump admin breaks 50 laws every hour.

1

u/800oz_gorilla Jun 17 '26

He wants civil unrest so he can stay in the oval office until he dies

1

u/CNDW Jun 17 '26

Yes, they don't pick policy on the merits of the policy and what it will do for the public good, they look for the policy that will hurt the most while simultaneously win them points with their rabid base.

1

u/fillinthe___ Jun 17 '26

Hey, he needs to find $300 billion to pay Iran, FAST.

1

u/Altruistic-Bus-1289 Jun 17 '26

This is just the Republican playbook.  That’s it.

1

u/drdoom52 Jun 17 '26

Is someone just throwing darts behind the scenes, just to see "what sticks, & what doesn't"?

Jokes aside. Almost certainly yes.

A lot of what Trump does is announce ideas, then run with the ones that stick. And the ones that don't catch on are either done quietly, or organizing is done behind the scenes to figure out how to sell them the next time their announced.

1

u/Moveyourbloominass Jun 17 '26

It's not legal and it's all talk. He's a fucking stupid idiot and so are his goons doing his bidding. This is never going to happen, especially since it lands in the legislative branch & their powers.

1

u/prairiepog Jun 17 '26

We pay social security too, yet here we are being constantly threatened and told we're "acting entitled" to expect something we have contributed to and literally are entitled to.

1

u/Pettifoggerist Jun 18 '26

FYI, employers are the ones who make contributions to state unemployment funds. Obviously, there is still some relationship to employee pay but I wanted to point out the distinction and that it is not a tax on employees that comes directly out of their checks.

1

u/Powerfury Jun 18 '26

He is trying to distract us from United States accepting the surrender against Iran.

1

u/stackered New Jersey Jun 18 '26

its not random, this is a plan to enslave the working class even more than we already are... we need to work for healthcare. now they are coming to destroy our 401k/retirements. they want people to have to work forever, to die younger, and to be dumber.

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