It's not 1970 let's actually live in the now on this.

Democrats control the white house and the FCC, they do something about this problem.

Republicans get control back and they delay it and I would bet they kill it entirely in the next 18 months.

It's 2025 and the parties are not the same. You can dislike them both but this bad faith equivocation is giving the current admin cover and it's so so boring and just serves nothing but people's feelings.

Good timing on this, just passed the Senate 51-50

Republicans don't care about the rules or the parliamentarian unless a Democrat is in office.

It's not that it's nothing in terms of money but in a discussion about tax rates and what class pays what amount it's pretty much a literal flat tax so it's off the side in terms of discussion, those rates are driven by their programs and those programs have goals which a whole different animal than the general budget and a progressive rate system.

I should have said effective income tax rate so I can remember that. Your effective rate at 30% I would say is fair at $190K but a 38-40% effective at $2 to 10M (with FICA) is far too low for my taste.

Some of this is by design, in this bill as example a lot of the heaviest cuts to government programs are back loaded past 2026 and 2028. Quite convenient eh?

FICA is fixed rate and not subject to yearly budget fights the same way so I consider it out of scope for discussion.

I support a top weighted but still broad based tax increase but I think it's quite moral in a liberal capitalist democracy for the wealthiest to pay the lion's share for society. Marginal utility of money is a real thing and wealth inequality is a societal rot issue.

I'm starting to think Musk's objection was kayfabe to give him a cleaner looking exit from the admin and deflect long term blame. Just like Tucker I am sure he went back to kiss the ring. He isn't actually doing anything substantial to change the bill, he benefits from it's passage either way.

As for the rest of it, I hope it all passes because people need to feel some consequences. Nobody should be surprised, this is 100% "they were who they said they were". The R-Senators get to do what they've always wanted to but were too cowardly until a good strongman gave them cover. Only the people already out the door like Tillis will give any pushback and even that is tepid at best. Good luck folks.

I would be beyond shocked if Trump could explain anything about spectrum at all much less which is used for WiFi and what the implications of each is I owuld have to see the clip to think he sees beyond "6 is more than 5".

From that I imagine he would gladly sacrifice the spectrum if it means he gets his bill passe, he doesn't care all that much what's actually in it.

$1T yet still blowing up the debt. Our immigration services are set to be 1/5 of the military budget which is also going up to $1T

After DOGE i'm on the side of the government was actually quite efficient and they didn't find any fraud or abuse and there really wasn't much waste so much as longstanding programs that need some actual legislative adjustment and 95% of the cuts are just "stuff I don't like".

They used Dr. Nick Riviera as the comparison.

"now, the symptoms you describe point to 'bonus eruptus', it's a terrible disorder where the skeleton tries to leap out the mouth and escape the body."

If I make $262K my effective tax rate is like 18% so like 42k so take home like 220k

Yeah I think they are doing fine.

In order to regulate you need to decriminalize otherwise you have de facto created a thing that cannot be regulated.

Sorry but I can easily think of a world where meth is not criminalized and there is less suffering nor am I claiming it begins and ends there. Again we have alcohol as an example, if you're relationship with it is harmful we have alllllllll these ways to get help. Why should drugs also risk a jail sentence strictly for possession? Just get people help, improve conditions so not so many people develop drug habits and off you go.

We also have the marijuana example of "oh the legal weed, everything's gonna go crazy, gateway drugs, etc etc" and...

Anyway, taking of PCP, "got a gallon"

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3F...

Relative to it's userbase? I'd be interested to see that. Basically if you want meth today you can get it, pretty low friction transaction.

So we passed even more enforcement, spent who knows how many millions or billions on the extra law enforcement to shut down those domestic labs, made everyone else's life more of a pain in the ass by restricting Sudafed heavily and what did we get? Meth is cheaper and more pure than it was in 2005.

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbcnews.com%2Fnews%2Fu...

So here we are in 50+ years of the war on drugs and as the DEA says we are in "the most dangerous and deadly drug crisis the United States has ever faced,"

Don't worry, just a couple more billion on enforcement and we'll get it for sure this time.

And yet 12 years ago there was a meth lab raid in the suburban condo complex I lived in like in 2011, operated for almost 3 years I heard. Any metro area probably has at least a couple operating right now.

By attempting to completely restrict the supply it's become valuable enough that it's about as common as moonshine. One of our most popular media properties is about two guys making it in an RV.

Biden tried to forgive student loans
SCOTUS: "Whoa there buddy, uh, major questions anyone? Can't do it"

Trump revokes part of USC
SCOTUS: "Obviously he gets the benefit of the doubt."

What do we think non-profit actually means. Are you really thinking non-profit means the individuals don't make money? Is this is a serious question?

Also if the fund is $4.5B annually is it really so unreasonable to pay some "6-figure" ($100k? $800k?) salaries to admin it?

Also where is you source for that 35% because from the FCC report here it seems like their admin fees are $68M for over $2B in funds so right around 3% or maybe you have different info

Proposed First Quarter 2025 Universal Service Contribution Factor

Facebook wants a US economy that is growing, not receding.