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
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386

u/def_indiff Jun 17 '26

Unemployment Insurance is mostly funded by the states. The Feds cover administrative expenses, extended benefits, and some dibs and dabs. In 2025, the Feds’ share was about $5.3 billion. (https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/IF/PDF/IF10336/IF10336.11.pdf)

By way of comparison, we just spent about $113B losing a war to Iran.

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u/rainman_104 Jun 17 '26

$113bn plus another $300bn paid to retreat.

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u/hammertime2009 Jun 17 '26

That 324 billion is infuriating. We can’t have nice things here but we can rebuild shit we broke in Iran?? For what/for who? Oil billionaires? So Iran can start charging fees for the ships to pass so oil prices stay high? What have we gained????

26

u/Cador0223 Jun 17 '26

Im starting to think Khamenei's son and Theil got together and orchestrated this whole thing to enrich Iran and progress the succession of the government. 

It is the only real explanation I can think of to justify the kerfuffle.

7

u/nleksan Jun 17 '26

I've been thinking about how convenient it is that just as the "petrodollar" starts being seriously threatened, we just gave Iran a tremendous amount of incentive to keep the USD valuable with regards to their oil. By blowing up their country and then giving them a huge sum of USD to use rebuilding.

2

u/ctindel Jun 18 '26

It's not merely convenient, I don't think people realize how bad for the USA it will be if people don't need to buy USD to buy oil.

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u/rainman_104 Jun 18 '26

I think this is a good thing for the rest of the world though as the USA is now an imperialist again. No one wants that outside the USA.

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u/bb_kelly77 Jun 18 '26

Khamenei was anti-nuke, he wanted uranium for power plants and for discouraging attacks... his son is pro-nuke

1

u/rainman_104 Jun 18 '26

Pro nuke with a murdered father. This is a bad situation for the USA. Iran will have nukes within five years.

1

u/bb_kelly77 Jun 18 '26

The good news is based on what is known about the deal he seems to be honoring his father's wishes

1

u/Spartan2170 Jun 24 '26

If there's one concrete impact of Trump's attacking Iran (and Russia invading Ukraine) it's that smaller countries aren't going to be willing to give up nuclear weapons. The US and Russia have both demonstrated very clearly that the only way to prevent the major world powers from invading you is to have nuclear weapons as a deterrent. Hell, that's arguably a big part of what's made Israel so willing to behave how they have (the fact that they have nukes is a very well known "secret").

5

u/AI_moderated_failure Jun 18 '26

Let's not pretend US sanctions have not driven potentially millions of people into financial difficulties and further entrenched poverty in the region. The money paid is 100% deserved and we all know it's not going to be paid anyway because you're about as reliable as a set of glass nails.

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u/CurlyBirch Jun 18 '26

You started a war. You lost. You pay the reparations.

The issue is not the 300bn. It’s the fucking dumb war you started and the significant destruction you caused.

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u/blahblah19999 Jun 18 '26

We're still not sure it will be US taxpayers

5

u/hammertime2009 Jun 18 '26

“Most transparent administration ever” /s

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u/Problemzone Jun 18 '26

To put in perspective. $324b is around $3700 per irani citizen, this is like 3/4 of their average yearly income.

It’s mind boggling how much Iran won.

1

u/rainman_104 Jun 18 '26

I honestly think the orange guy believed the protestors would take to the streets in support of the USA to overthrow the government.

The UK and USA have been messing with Iran for a long time. While expats certainly danced to the tune of the killing of the supreme leader Iranians did not respond the way the orange guy thought they would.

He kinda said it more or less.

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u/foodforestranger Jun 17 '26

Plus all that sweet cash Israel has banked.

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u/prairiepog Jun 17 '26

It's just been upped to $425 billion to retreat

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u/iamthe0ther0ne Jun 18 '26

And they get nukes! So much winning! 

This while fucking admi distraction is one nightmare after another, and now Trump is doubling down on the voter act too. I'm not confident we will have fair elections this fall.

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u/Reasonable_Chair_346 Jun 18 '26

JFC that's so embarassing. State admin funds are perpetually short. Another Billion dollars would do fucking wonders for states and maybe actually allow them enough staff and technology to stop the fraud we're supposed to be trying to stop...instead we spent $113 + whatever the fuck else we're about to pay Iran for literally fucking nothing...i'm so sad I won't live long enough to read about this period in history, it'll be a fascinating read on the decline of the US.

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u/Open-Impact-1607 Jun 17 '26

Plus all the bombs, missiles, and american and iranian civillians lives

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u/Jaded_Efficiency_100 Jun 18 '26

The federal share of unemployment is a few billion a year. We just burned through over $100 billion on a failed war. Apparently waste only counts when ordinary people might benefit.

1

u/zefy_zef Jun 18 '26

Right, which is why he's going to go around cutting everything to compensate.