Heather Cox Richardson is a national treasure for many reasons–primarily, for providing her multitude of readers with historical context helping us better understand how we’ve come to where we are. But on March 11th, her daily letter shared information that should be far more widely known, information that confirms what critics of today’s GOP–of whom I am one–have been saying: the party that once proclaimed its devotion to fiscal sanity has become a cult that has enabled an administration of grifters and wild spenders; and none of that spending is even arguably for the public good. Instead, the self-serving indulgences of the totally incompetent clowns who currently occupy positions of authority come at the expense of the rest of us, but especially the poor.
Richardson began her letter by quoting Senators appalled by the costs of Trump’s illegal war against Iran. She reminded readers that the Framers had given the power to declare war to Congress because they were familiar with the history of European kings who had launched wars of choice that had reduced their subjects to poverty. “If the debate over war went to Congress, voters could hear the reasoning for the war hashed out and decide for themselves if the cost in lives and treasure was worth it to them.”
Fast forward to our would-be King and his retinue.
Trump is spending a billion dollars a day in his attacks on Iran– after slashing government programs that help Americans. “About 23 million people signed up for ACA coverage this year, down by more than 1.2 million from last year,” and the administration has announced plans to cut another 4 million off the rolls in its effort to target “waste, fraud, and abuse.” In October, millions of Americans lost food benefits when the government declined to fund SNAP during the government shutdown.
Meanwhile, “Pete Hegseth blew through $93.4 billion in September 2025 alone, with more than $50 billion going out in the last five days of the month alone.”
A recitation of where that money went is both instructive and infuriating.
“Pentagon officials bought “a $98,329 Steinway & Sons grand piano for the Air Force chief of staff’s home, $5.3 million for Apple devices such as the new iPad, and an astronomical amount of shellfish, including $2 million for Alaskan king crab and $6.9 million worth of lobster tail. (Lobster tail is apparently a favorite of Hegseth’s Pentagon—the department spent more than $7.4 million total on the luxury item in March, May, June, and October.) In other pricey food purchases, the government decided to drop $15.1 million for ribeye steak (again, just in September), $124,000 for ice cream machines, and $139,224 on 272 orders of doughnuts.”
Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico noted that he’d recently been in Sand Branch, Texas, “a community south of Dallas that doesn’t have running water. It doesn’t have basic sewer infrastructure… So every dollar we spend bombing people in the Middle East is a dollar we’re not spending in Sand Branch, Texas, or in our communities here at home.”
True enough, but as Richardson reported, DOD isn’t even spending all that money on the bombs being illegally dropped on Iran. It’s spending our tax dollars on steak, king crab, lobster and shrimp for the plates of people who are already very well-fed.
Richardson shared an oft-quoted speech from Eisenhower in which he lamented the amounts spent on weapons of war. “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
For years, America’s governments have funded a wildly bloated defense establishment. National budgets have subsidized fossil fuel companies and “rewarded” the corporate entities that have the means to lobby and donate, while ignoring the needs of the poor and dispossessed and making a mockery of the very concept of social welfare.
I didn’t think this corrupt and evil administration could make me any angrier, but I was wrong.
This year, the United States is “celebrating” its 250th anniversary. This will be the year we either throw the bums out and reclaim the promise of a government focused on the public good, or it will be the year we go the way of so many past world powers–brought down by the incompetence, cruelty and overwhelming greed of the privileged few.
Newt Gingrich can’t tell the difference between satire and reality. He wa to to use nuclear bombs to create a new canal in the ME.
From this moment forward, I’m going to refer to GOP as their proper moniker; The Party of Epstein/ The Epstein Regime.
GOP = Gang Of Pedophiles.
“This year, the United States is “celebrating” its 250th anniversary.”
And Trump will have his family name emblazed over all of the celebrations across the nation as his doing…not unlike his claim that George Washington destroyed the air fields to claim victory in the Revolutionary War.
IF we can rid this nation of his pestilence, what will the cost be to remove his name from our treasured sites and the structures that he has erected to claim as his deserved homage? Will we ever be able to earn the trust and respect of Americans and our allies as a world leader? He is now begging for help to get him out of this illegal war on Iran but help appears to be slow in coming regarding the global oil situation caused by him. Can…will…that issue alone bring about his third impeachment which is a year late in filing? Will those who continue to support and uphold his garbled speeches and rising death rate admit to any blame in any of this? Remember they are now our family members, friends and neighbors; not foreign enemies beyond effecting our personal lives.
Not even Hitler brought about this massive level of global disasters during his years of reign over Europe.
Hegseth isn’t buying Bourbon for the guys? What a cheapskate!
If I remember correctly, Eisenhower warned us about the MIC, but we didn’t listen. That was about two decades after Einstein warned us about the oligarchy, but we didn’t listen.
And, look what happened??
If you haven’t realized it, Trump will rename July 4th, “Trump Day.” How fitting that one of our great milestones occurs during such a great presidents occupance in the WH.
Braun and Beckwith claim that TPUSA’s Club America “levels the playing field,” but it’s nonpartisan. Hmmm? Help me with that one…
What kills me is all the pedophile protectors in Washington who speak like “America finally got the leader it deserved.”
My 12 year old daughter has more functional brain power than Trump’s cabinet combined.
Back in the mid 1970s while we were stationed overseas, my mom got a job at warehouse on base doing secretarial work. This warehouse stocked spare parts for the CIA. I remember at one point she made the statement that they were especially busy at the office because it was getting close to the end of the fiscal year and if they didn’t spend all the money in their budget, there was a very big danger that they wouldn’t get that money again next year. She mentioned they were just buying stupid stuff. I don’t remember any of the specific examples now, but I do remember the situation.
This mentality is cooked into the government military mindset. If you don’t spend it, you will lose it. Apparently 50 years later, it’s still is as true as ever. The examples HRC cited don’t surprise me, the fact that they were made public does.
Dan. It’s not just the military. When I was a public school teacher I was told the same thing by my principal. We have this money now and we have to spend it before such and such a date or we will get less next year. And it seemed the rules were written in such a way as to encourage the purchase of stupid stuff because we couldn’t buy consumables and many of the classroom supplies that all of us could have used and many of us were supplement ing out of our own pockets. Under pressure to spend, I tried to keep it to a minimum and buy useful things but it was a challenge!
Dan;; it was in the 1970s when I started working for the Republicans in Indianapolis City Government. Needing to get some supplies for my desk the head of Finance Division told me to get them from the supply cabinet; at eye level was a shelf filled with many dozens of boxes of stapes which had to total hundreds of thousands in different sizes. When I questioned the CFO he told me it was because if they didn’t spend the allotted budget for the current year the budget would be cut next year. That is an old Republican “fiscal conservative” standard operation of business.
The Republican “fiscal conservatives” at federal and state levels are why my friend Patti was sitting for hours in her own offal till it dried on her skin and the floor while in late stage of dementia on Saturday.
My late ex-husband Earl Kennedy, a former commenter here, told me his decision to not make a career of the U.S. Army was the waste of destruction of millions of dollars of items such as flight jackets with zippered pocket on different sides and different areas on jackets. His final straw was when he filled out and filed the documents to place hundreds of unneeded jeeps onto aircraft carriers, take them out into the Pacific Ocean and roll them off of the decks into the ocean.
Today it is the lives of humans being sacrificed by this century’s Republicans at federal and state level and Trump is asking for help from allies to increase the number of lives to be lost. He has the full assistance and protection of Congress and the Supreme Court to continue till he “feels right in his bones” when it is time to cut back on the killing. Where the savings of their “fiscal conservation” can be found in body counts has yet to be explained. Is Trump waiting for his bone spurs to relay the message he is waiting for?
Yes, Sharon is right about the spending in civilian life. It is like that all over the place, I believe.
Even the old GOP was just posing as fiscal conservatives, really wanting to funnel monies to their favorite, already wealthy, and prone to donate, buds.
Trump, and his cronies are doing nothing short of raiding the treasury while hiding from Jeffrey!
The Indiana primary is coming up! You must be registered to vote by April 6, 2026. Check your registration at indianavoters.in.gov
Make a plan to vote early or to vote on primary day, May 5. Think about whether you want to participate in the Democrat or Republican primary. Look carefully at the candidates. And please, please, please, talk to your family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues to encourage them to register and to vote.
Good old fiscal conservative philosophy has been a myth for a very long time. The difference today is the divergence of rationale and method. We all know that a large majority of Americans agree on many things. How to do we get what we want? For the GOP, the old trickle down theory is still the goose that lays the golden egg, That’s mostly because they get to keep those eggs for themselves. What trickles down is misery. The MAGATS think if you’re rich you must smart, so they suck it up and still believe. On the other side, the Dems still play a Keynesian game with policies that actually work. Why can’t they win? Most people don’t have the patience to slog through dense policy documents and the Dems are really really bad at slogans.
VOTE!
they sure aint conservative on poverty,or killing the people,anywhere. this is just the idea of where they want to go. the story telling from many decades of news and following the money. seems the idea of control of everything/one is the goal.data centers anyone? ya might wanna do something about retaining your privacy. the more you allow the net,to do your work,the more it gathers and sells it. you dont need a warrent now to get a background on most anyone.
like the kgb of the past, the snitches are the search engines,and the billionaire/shareholders are cashing in. time for a working class government. if the present 2025 admin,(lets call it what it is) sees everyone against this 2025 admin as antifa. seems the carr thats ramming the warmongers thru on local media,doesnt like us now. id ask whats next?. if ice was the precursor,then will the gestapo be next to demand your attention..
ww2abc.com the Art Bondar collection. if your not doing anything and want to see some private photos of WW2. the story is in itself is interesting. theres alot of real time photos from all over the WW2 areas.