As Republican senators consider President Donald Trump’s big bill that could slash federal spending and extend tax cuts, a new survey shows most U.S. adults don’t think the government is overspending on the programs the GOP has focused on cutting, like Medicaid and food stamps.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) June 16, 2025 at 11:18 AM
… Americans broadly support increasing or maintaining existing levels of funding for popular safety net programs, including Social Security and Medicare, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. They’re more divided on spending around the military and border security, and most think the government is spending too much on foreign aid.
The poll points to a disconnect between Republicans’ policy agenda and public sentiment around the domestic programs that are up for debate in the coming weeks…
Voters, when questioned, don’t actually approve of the GOP’s Big Ugly Bill. It would be to the Repubs’ advantage if their Very Serious Media cronies could keep all eyes focused on the usual summertime trivia, but Don TACO must have all the attention at all times, and we Democrats need to leverage this to highlight the truth.
Our June Strength In Numbers/@verasight.bsky.social poll:
– Trump approval 42/56. Underwater on 10/11 issues.
– Dems +8 in House
– 62% are worried about presidential conflicts of interest
– LA, deportations lead news recall
+ more on messaging & Abundance
www.gelliottmorris.com/p/trump-appr…— G Elliott Morris (@gelliottmorris.com) June 16, 2025 at 8:05 AM
===
In our new Strength In Numbers/@verasight.bsky.social poll, we asked people to tell us what they had read or seen on the news over the last month.
We fielded from June 6-12. Responses were overwhelmingly about Trump, deportations, LA, Musk, and tariffs. All bad issues for the White House.— G Elliott Morris (@gelliottmorris.com) June 16, 2025 at 9:20 AM
Score One for E. Jean Carroll
Baud
Abundance?
H.E.Wolf
@Baud:
Abaudnance.
Baud
@H.E.Wolf:
Now your talking.
Suzanne
#headdesk
Parfigliano
Pity that people who agree with DEM policy positions would rather drown in a cesspool then ever vote for a DEM.
Baud
@Parfigliano:
They like who would drown first.
matt
It’s interesting how low the undecided numbers are going.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Parfigliano:
And we’ve been seeing this phenomena for a loooooong time.
Old School
@Baud:
They polled an Ezra Klein thing:
Spanky
Who cares what most US adults think? It’s more important to consider what US adults with billions of dollars think.
Baud
@Old School:
That tells me enough to dislike it, but not what it is.
catclub
But foreign aid is gone.
Also note the way question was apparently asked: “Are we overspending on….?”
How about “Are we underspending on…?”
oldgold
US Gov spends approx $7 trillion a year. It has revenues of approx $5 trillion. The GDP is approx $30 trillion.
You would think a competent government could figure out how to get spending and revenues to about 20% of the GDP or $6 trillion/ year.
Hunter Gathers
Ah yes, ‘Abundance’ – the latest ‘try this wierd trick to cure depression/lose weight/maintain an erection’ from a bunch of prep school dorks who think they are hot shit in Excel and find Joe Rogan hilarious.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Hunter Gathers:
Yup.
The so-called “Abundance” crap being labeled as “broadly popular” is a massive overstatement but given the author of the piece (he’s part of the entire Ezra Broder Klein/MattY/Smith/Shore/Thompson/Vox/New Liberalism crowd), that’s not surprising.
They asked about very specific policy positions, not all of which are exclusive to the so-called “abundance” agenda which is nothing more than rebranded, trickle-down Reaganomics when looked at in toto.
The irony in one of the questions was about cutting back on environmental reviews, a classic right-wing goal for the last 40+ years. And yet, you’ll see plenty of greenwashing from the same “abundance” types when it comes to justifying certain policy positions on how they’re supposedly environmentally better, etc. And yet, they’re all for killing environmental review because it gets in the way of abundance!
Belafon
@oldgold: But then we’d only have the largest military in the world, and not the largest two militaries in the world.
artem1s
VJ, during the campaign, made a point of criticizing Biden because the child tax credit and SNAP were sun-downing. He claimed that he would be supportive of increasing food and other child subsidies that helped families. Why is he going back on his word? Of course the media has the memory of a fruit fly and will never ask that question.
catclub
They are also idiots who think the foreign aid budget is 15% of the total… or more.
Not even 1%. AND the primary recipient is Israel, which they want to do more for.
kindness
‘Abundance’….. I figure their people just got finished watching the latest Mad Max sequel and liked the word.
Jeffro
@oldgold: the NYT had a ‘balance the budget’ calculator a while back…lemme see if I can find it…YUP! It’s from 2013
(doesn’t seem to have a gift link available)
Suffice it to say, I got there by a mix of very modest cuts and getting rid of the W and trumpov tax cuts for the wealthy.
(and then once it was balanced, I really piled on and added a wealth tax and carbon taxes, too!)
Oh and btw getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan saved me/us over $100B as well
Suzanne
@Jeffro: I am watching, with a mix of schadenfreude and horror, how the FFOTUS coalition is being pulled in opposite direction right now, between their desire to blow up Iran and take Israel’s side, but also not wanting to get involved in any wars.
catclub
The pros know to always calculate the savings over ten years.
Hunter Gathers
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I am sick and tired of being lectured on What The Working Class Actually Wants from a bunch of white boys with daddy’s money.
lowtechcyclist
@Spanky:
Absolutely! They can tell the rest of us what to think.
trollhattan
Dubious achievements, recent chapter edition.
Steve LaBonne
@lowtechcyclist:
Hey, my Soros checks have stopped coming, so my thoughts are for sale!Jay
@catclub:
USAID is gone. You know, the miniscule part of the budget part that “heals the sick, feeds the poor, educates, empowers and trains the poor” part of “Foreign Aid”.
The free bombs, missiles, artillery, guns and Death Squad Training part remains that was 99% of US “Foreign Aid”
Scuffletuffle
So what, shithead still has 3 and a half more years to destroy everything…stupid time to decide they disagree with him.
Jay
https://bsky.app/profile/kathleenbush.bsky.social/post/3lrqlilk26s2l
Jeffro
@Jay: looks like yet another thing to #CallCongress about
BlueGuitarist
I’m guessing no one ever polls whether the public approves Elon Musk getting $8 million per day in taxpayer $ and the power to fire any government employee who notices any of the laws he breaks or ways that he cheats.
RaflW
Know what is popular? Fighting.
What isn’t? Compromising with “friends” from across the aisle who would stab you if you turn your back on them for 10 seconds.
TONYG
Good. But if the majority of people who are opposed to this shit decide (again) to keep their asses home on Election Day because they’re too goddamn pure to vote, then nothing will get better.
Baud
@RaflW:
Oh, c’mon. The conclusion may end up being right but that poll question is so leading that even I can spot it.
Shalimar
@Jay: First question that occurs to me, do the other Feds get to see who the ICE agents are under the masks, or is it a secret from them too?
Jeffro
@Suzanne:
“DEPORT ALL THE NON-WHITES…EXCEPT THE ONES THAT KEEP MY GROCERY BILLS LOW AND HELP BUILD MORE BADLY-NEEDED HOUSING!!!”
“BOMB IRAN…BUT MAKE SURE THERE’S NO U.S. TROOPS INVOLVED AND GAS STAYS CHEAP!!”
and so on, and so on
I have been saying that Dems’ messaging for 2026 and 2028 and beyond is simple: “End MAGA GOP corruption”. They might need a second one: “The reason things aren’t jibing, MAGA, is that your leaders and news sources have been FLAT-OUT LYING TO YOU, FOR DECADES”
jonas
Maybe they wouldn’t stab you in the back themselves, but if some unhinged MAGA loon were to, they would post on X that that’s what you get for coddling illegal Marxist immigrant gang members or whatever.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@RaflW:
This seems appropriate:
https://badfaithtimes.com/melissa-hortman-didnt-play-republican-games/
We lost a good one to an assassin.
Betty Cracker
This is from the NYT live update feed on the MN assassinations:
Too late, you dumb, murderous fuck. Also:
What? Doesn’t everyone have $10K in cash, handguns and passports for their children lying around the house?
stinger
The terms “abundance” and “abundant living” are strongly associated with the prosperity gospel among fundamentalist Christians. What it means for Klein and Thompson is that Democrats’ pesky environmental protection and construction regulations and small-business preferences have stymied the American dream of home ownership and rapid transit.
“It is Democrats who have stood up policies and practices that have allowed scarcity to fester in their own states, fueling a cost-of-living crisis unparalleled in Republican-led jurisdictions.”
azlib
@trollhattan:
The warming of the Arctic at a much higher rate than the average has been predicted for many years. I heard about it in the 90s.
Baud
@stinger:
There’s probably some valid criticism in there, but Republican led jurisdictions tend to be more rural and low population.
Harrison Wesley
@stinger: Maybe we should make sure everyone has Enough before we chase off after Abundance.
jonas
@trollhattan: This comes on top of the crab fishing season being cancelled for two years in a row due to collapsing populations. Scientists are fairly certain now that marine heatwaves over the past several years due to climate change are to blame. I’m sure the NOAA and federal wildlife agencies are now banned from talking about stuff like that, so no worries, I guess!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@stinger:
It’s why every time I see a self-professed progressive spew some policy point that was sourced from places like AEI, Mercatus, Niskanen, CATO and all the rest, or from a financed astroturf group from billionaire tech bros like Theil, etc., then laundered for the Totebagger Radio crowd by the likes of Vox, the Atlantic and a host of online “influencers”, I get chippy.
Places like the glibertarian Niskansen Center have explicitly written about how their end goal is to engage in factional warfare through an “abundance movement” so they can take control of the Dem party.
Klein’s even said that he based part of his main inspiration for this garbage on a Niskanen Center paper called “Cost Disease Socialism”. Said paper actually used MattY blog posts as references.
The only “abundance agenda” worth fighting for is right here:
JML
Terrifying the hear that we could have lost even more legislators, except that one was not home when this evil bastard showed up, and he ran into law enforcement at another site before he could act.
It’s too easy for lunatics, morons, and violent thugs to get guns. To buy body armor (who fucking needs body armor as a private citizen?). To fake being a cop. And of course, the Orange Asshole with his ICE “enforcement” have made law enforcement less trustworthy than ever, and we’re almost certainly going to see imitators with masks, as right-wing scumbags start acting out their gun fantasies with ski masks.
Enough. Fire up the foundries and start melting down the guns. Time to amend the constitution to fix the 2nd amendment, since the right wing SCOTUS and Bishop Alito got it so goddamn wrong.
And it’s horrific that we need to have the state charges get heaped on to anything federal, because I don’t trust this administration not to pardon this evil bastard. (he’s not ultra wealthy, so probably won’t happen, but still) Guessing the administration will go for the federal death penalty so the Current Occupant can glory over killing someone.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Well, you know, preppers.
The passports are a bit of a giveaway, though.
Harrison Wesley
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I didn’t know I was echoing FDR. Must have heard it somewhere, as I’m neither bright enough nor charitable enough to have come up with it on my own.
Baud
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Wait, I was told those folks were already in control of the Democratic Party.
Who’s driving the bus?!
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Baud: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
Baud
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
Baud!/Pidgeon! 20XX!
TONYG
@Betty Cracker: This piece of shit has a wife and children??? Somehow that fact is more disturbing than my initial assumption that he was an isolated incel living in a basement. Nice job in your choice of partner, wife.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Here’s the thing, when I hear right wingers (including the ones who only lean right wing) snarl about liberal government overreach, most of the time it’s about environmental regulations. That IS because those issues run headlong into quality of life (towing a boat with a truck, etc) and job issues (farmers using herbicide, coal mining jobs, timber cutting jobs, etc). Those things spur more life- long animosity to liberal policies than Trans issues do. I know climate change is a crisis, but any effort to address it is deeply unpopular with most groups of consistent voters. I don’t know what to do about that.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: I don’t have a bus license.
Jay
https://www.independentsentinel.com/what-we-know-so-far-about-the-suspected-lawmaker-killer/
tobie
@Betty Cracker: I think it was Harry Litman who said that the Feds have moved in to prosecute the case and it’s unclear if MN approved this move. I don’t know the procedure for the DOJ taking over cases but I have no doubt that Pam Bondi will instruct the US Attorney handling the case not to emphasize the shooter’s partisan motives. Keith Ellison would be so much better prosecuting the case.
different-church-lady
I’ll repeat from yesterday: try to imagine a Democratic president surviving this past weekend. You can’t. There’s two entirely different sets of rules.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@tobie:
My ancient, blind cat would be better at prosecuting this case than Blondi.
Baud
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
Agree. It’s an area where the Republicans have a clear preference and we have to balance interests.
Belafon
@Jay: Trump but not born with a silver spoon.
trollhattan
@Jay: So…an aspiring Jim Jones? One wonders if he was searching for a hunk of rural land in DRC where he could assemble a flock of admirers?
Mother, mother, mother please.
Harrison Wesley
@Jay: He sounds like he’s completely nuts. The wife and kids being wrapped up in this has a very Jonestown feel.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
I don’t know what to do about that.
Neither do I but I do have a case study of how that has happened.
When I started working for Federal Highway in 1996, hatred of the agency in the House was high to the point they were looking to abolish it (send money directly to the states bullshit). One of the reasons they gave was the time it took for environmental review of projects. They were also getting pressure from (R) state governments who wanted all that free Federal cash but no oversight on how to use it.
We spent basically Clinton’s 2nd term revising the process, not sacrificing anything on the environmental side but putting it thru the wringer in an effort to shorten the time it took.
We did a really good job and then did a comprehensive job selling it to the heads of state highway/transportation departments, *not* state politicians. Those heads became our best advocates for not only adopting the measures but working hard to implement them. And the heads of such departments have never been known to be liberal people about damn near anything.
The Big Dig clusterfuck also helped in terms of oversight because it was an example of how a state highways department can fuck things up massively with somebody else’s money. It reinforced the idea that maybe having an objective federal agency around to oversee aspects of the work and it’s broader benefits and protections was a good thing.
How can we take that experience and use it elsewhere, beats the hell outta me.
different-church-lady
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Well, to be fair, the cat would just bite him in half and leave the bottom on the doormat.
different-church-lady
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Stay chippy, my friend.
Jay
@trollhattan:
Some accounts hold that he was kicked out of the DRC for stirring up trouble by trying to convert Muslims. Some accounts hold that he left the DRC when either the money ran out or his sponsorship was cancelled.
Tip for up and coming BS artiste’s. It’s okay to “resume*” your resume, don’t fake the entire thing.
*by this I mean mild inflations and exaggeration. It’s too easy to get caught.”
Elizabelle
@tobie: I think Keith Ellison might have been on the shooter’s list, and thus would not be able to serve as prosecutor.
Hope they will go with state charges first, and federal after.
Hoping that Dems run the table in the 2026 midterms and we can remove Trump before his full term concludes. It grates to hear people say “three and a half years.”
Hoodie
@Jay: You can probably say similar things about independent preachers who set up their own churches, although the worst they tend to be is straightforward grifters in it for the money, power, sex, etc. but don’t end up killing anyone. There is an aspect of religion – or at least Christianity – that lends itself to this type of pursuit of power. It has a political dimension (e.g., evangelism) at its core. A polity often masquerades as a community of worshipers.
Elizabelle
@Jeffro:
Agreed.
The second infancy of MAGA supporters is something our country cannot afford.
Got to do something about the rightwing wurlitzer too.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@stinger: the Republican Party and Howard Jarvits brought proposition 13 down on California’s head. Then, somehow magically, men like Klein blame democrats for what republicans stupidly wrought that democrats fought. Proposition 13 is one of the leading causes for California’s high cost housing. Since it benefits existing homeowners greatly, it is extremely difficult to unwind. Ask Warren Buffet, who proposed an end to proposition 13 and had to disappear from CA’s political stage as a result.
republicans have no agency, ad nauseum
HopefullyNotcassandra
@catclub: those numbers come from mendacious politicians and journalists.
Most Americans falsely believe this. They have done so for most of my life. The falsehood is very ingrained. Ask anyone you know who does not follow DC budgetary issues closely.
Jay
Video at link, https://bsky.app/profile/lorennacleary.bsky.social/post/3lrp3rctdvc2m
https://bsky.app/profile/treekisser.bsky.social/post/3lrpeu26vik2i
Jay
So the new MAGgot talking point on Vance Boelter, raised by kiddie meal TACO Jr. on Newsmax is that he is trans, hopped up on 15 years of hormone therapy.
tobie
@Elizabelle: i hadn’t thought of that. You’re absolutely right.
Jackie
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
I wonder if those passports – along with the multitudes of weapons/ammo were confiscated before the cops let them go? The ages of the children are unknown? Minors with unsecured weapons right next to them?
Sooo MANY questions.
Leto
How are Republicans and Trumpov fucking over Veterans now?
‘Extremely disturbing and unethical’: new rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans
There’s more at the Guardian link. I just… unending anger and hatred towards these people. I’m pretty sure this was also Project 2025 inspired, but I don’t remember atm and I just don’t want to go look. I was having a good day prior to reading this.
different-church-lady
@Jay: It’s true: I saw in a headline that one protester died, and I’m like, “Wait… WHAT?”
Jay
A You.Gov poll asked the questions really clearly,……………
https://bsky.app/profile/adambonin.bsky.social/post/3lrnudnjn722d
Jay
@different-church-lady:
That was Salt Lake City. A massive cock up.
Peacekeepers noticed a guy jumping a wall, coming back with an AR-15, body armour and a gas mask. When spotted, he rushed towards the crowd. The Peacekeepers pulled their guns, (Salt Lake City). 3 shots, were fired, one hit the “suspected gunman”, the other 2 killed a peaceful protestor.
According to some locals, the “suspected gunman” always attends pro-Democracy protests wearing a gas mask, body armour and carrying an AR-15 and participates. Legal in Utah.
Nothing would have probably happened if he had openly entered the march, with the AR-15 properly slung, already in “costume” and had a “No Kings” protest sign.
Who knows, a “hero” obsession?
different-church-lady
@Jay: <CODE>ITS TOO LATE WE VOTED!!!</code>
different-church-lady
FUCK EVERYTHING DCL + AN AMOUNT.
Matt McIrvin
@Jay: And that right there is the trouble with relying on “the good guy with a gun”. But since it happened at an anti-Trump protest between likely anti-Trump people, it’s not even a politically useful example.
YY_Sima Qian
Everyone buckle your seat belts!:
Meanwhile, Israel is preventing any Israeli citizens (even dual citizens?) from leaving. Tourists & diplomatics only.
One can certainly dream:
YY_Sima Qian
Really tighten your seat belts folks!
I share the below not because I think any Congressional action is likely, certainly not in time to constrain Trump, but that these Massie & Sanders must have expect direct US involvement to be imminent:
The way Trump is probably being played by Bibi & CENTCOM commander Kurilla (video through the link):
NotMax
GAZ* shamed out of Canada summit.
Savor the elixir of schadenfreude.
*Greatest American Zero
Geminid
@YY_Sima Qian: Turkish security analyst Levent Kaemal seems to think the U.S. is about to enter the war. He posted this an hour ago:
Kemal posted this an hour ago. A couple hours before that he saw indications that Trump had made up his mind. Kemal quoted this statement by Trump:
Kemal posted this comment:
A countdown.
I assume the deal Trump says Iran should have signed was the one presented by Steve Witkoff 12 or so days ago.
Levant Kemal is an experienced security analyst who is best known for his study of insurgencies in the MENA region. He hooked up with Clash Report last October and adds some good reporting to that aggregation site. He’s a good follow on this war because while he has contacts among Iranian official he is is no fan of either side, or of the U.S. either.
Interestingly, Levent Kemal is of Circassian descent.
YY_Sima Qian
@Geminid: Thanks for plugging Levent Kemel. Sure looks like Trump is being carried by events & cynical hawks around him to a disastrous course of action.