volkris @volkris@qoto.org

@carstenfranke That's not quite how it works.

Just because there is money in the account does not mean that the office responsible for spending the money itself is funded.

There are a lot of parts of government that are experiencing exactly that right now, where there is technically funding appropriated, but the offices needed to write the actual checks aren't funded so the money can't be released.

That's just how the federal government works.

@LilHulkQ No it just makes it clear that they would prefer not to take something called the nuclear option, and it has a name like that for a reason...

Seriously, when something is reasonably called a nuclear option, we shouldn't be so quick to say, well why don't they pull the trigger on that?!

Democrats are voting against the legislative process under the current rules. Yes, it is possible to pull the nuclear option and change the rules, to flip the table, but that's not exactly something we should be proud of encouraging...

@carstenfranke Yes that's the point!
It was a compromise that could barely make it through because different congresspeople wanted different things, and this is where they met in the middle, a compromise that didn't make many people happy overall.

But again, you're relitigating the last fight. We've moved on to this new one. That's done, it's not on the table right now.

What's on the table right now is whether to fund SNAP and other government programs now, and Democrats are voting against the funding while Republicans are voting in favor of funding SNAP.

@arrrg marketing

@jhy001 blue has been voting to block the legislation that would open government....

If the shutdown is worth it strategically, fine, but they need to own that. And be held accountable for shutting it down.

@MrBirch I think the article misses the important thing right off the bat:

The government shutdown is a fantastic warning against putting government even more in charge of healthcare.

@jonchevreau.bsky.social

I don't think that's right, though.

Trump calls these names because his supporters cheer for it. There's no deeper logic. There's no deeper connection. It gets cheers at rallies so he says the thing that gets cheers.

The real observation is that his supporters don't understand who he is. That's the point of engagement.

Really Trump just follows the crowd.

@walterolson.bsky.social

You're missing it, Walter: it's BECAUSE they do not know much of anything about the law that they don't have trouble rationalizing and excusing it.

They don't know it's illegal in the first place. They don't know to be embarrassed, they don't know that they need to rationalize anything.

@carstenfranke The BBB was a compromise, preserving a lot of funding when a lot of voices on that side wanted it to be cut a whole lot more.

But apparently Democrats would rather zero out funding for SNAP, as they are taking a hard line and blocking all funding for the program.

But we should be clear, Democrats blocking funding for SNAP are turning their backs on the compromise that was passed earlier in the year. So Democrats vote against all funding for SNAP, and again, we need to hold them accountable for that vote against funding.

@jamesb meh, things haven't been exactly great under his tenure.

Here's hoping for a shift to move onward and upward.

@carnage4life Banks would have that capital locked up for a century instead of using it to invest in other profitable activities.

@carstenfranke I'm aware, but that's not the question on the table at the moment.

Right now the Democrats have been voting to block all of the rest of the funding to SNAP, which is why this issue came up.

Democrats are blocking the legislation that would continue funding, and they need to be held accountable for that.

They are ensuring that there is no funding instead of the compromise that had been reached before.

@LilHulkQ It's not because Democrats keep voting against opening the court, so to speak.

Republicans keep asking if we want to move forward with the legislative process, and Democrats keep voting against moving forward.

It can't be in the Republicans Court so long as Democrats won't let them play.

@thetnholler.bsky.social that precisely misunderstands the argument.

The argument is that the executive branch does exactly what the president wants within bounds of law. The argument is that those things are legal. However, they except limits on presidential authority to spend money that hasn't been appropriated.

@carstenfranke Trump and the Republicans are moving to fund SNAP.

It's Senate Democrats who are voting to block the legislation.

@blueemu That's what the law requires, though.

We need to stop reelecting the same lawmakers that wrote such laws.

@Beachbum do you have a source on Buttegieg having thousands trained and ready to start? Because the reporting on it said the exact opposite.

In any case, that doesn't really address the moment where the problem is people needing to work without pay.

@Akshay Oh, quite a few of us do accuse him of exactly that stuff!

A lot of us criticize him specifically because he comes off as so hollow with things like tactical rhetoric that won't make strategic sense.

I could go through the rest of the list, he sounds like just more of the same empty Democratic rhetoric that doesn't really match the real world.

@genecowan The thing to keep in mind is that at this point he is a celebrity, and like all celebrities he will behave in the ways that he is rewarded to behave.

It's not about genius or moron but about being an actor doing what we have as a society nudged him into doing.

@bob Well that's not true.

Rate of profit can also increase with resource costs decreasing.

And why would rate of profit need to not decline for capitalism to function? That also makes no sense since the need for capital formation remains regardless of profit margin to support productive activity.

Heck, we see that people still go to work even during periods of inflation, easily disproving those proposals.