Summary
Rep. Harriet Hageman faced loud boos at a Wyoming town hall after endorsing funding for Elon Musk’s DOGE cost-cutting initiative.
The crowd, mostly opposed to her stance, jeered as she laughed and clapped, labeling the audience’s reaction “embarrassing.”
Hageman defended Social Security funding despite concerns that Musk’s efficiency drive might cut it, calling it a “Ponzi scheme.”
The only bipartisan applause came when Hageman opposed closing rural mail distribution centers.
Somehow, she thought these were good talking points:
“I voted in favor of the continuing resolution, or CR, which extends funding…” Rep. Harriet Hageman said as the booing began. She smiled as she continued, “…for the fiscal year until September 30.”
“It keeps the lights on for President [Donald] Trump and DOGE to continue their work,” she added, as the booing reached a crescendo.
It’s worth noting:
About 500 people had packed the civic center auditorium in Laramie, where a local reporter with the Cowboy State Daily estimated about three-quarters of the crowd were there to oppose her.
It was a “startling dynamic” in a state that Trump carried with more than 72 percent of the vote, according to the Cowboy State Daily.
The Luigi talk was interesting and suggests there is biparstisanship on the problem of the oligarchy:
During Wednesday’s town hall, the crowd also burst into chants of “Tax the rich!” and “January 6th!”
I’m also unsure why the crowd chanted “January 6th” given that the seditionists were pardoned and this is very red Wyoming. Could there be some bipartisanship here as well now?
These GOP townhalls are very enjoyable. Let’s hope we see more of this.
The implication I’m getting from that January 6th chant is that they’re basically threatening to lynch 'em. I grew up and am still surrounded by these ingrates, they are surprisingly murder happy towards politicians in general let alone the feds.
I grew up and am still surrounded by these ingrates
Found JD Vance’s Lemmy account
I meant the Trumpers in particular since they can be quite annoying. Also unlike Vance I’m not affiliated with wannabe weirdo pseudo philosophers.
Lol I know, I was just thinking of Vance’s “have you even said ‘thank you’?”
May I have some context? I have no clue what you’re referencing or at least I don’t remember.
I was referring to this: https://youtu.be/ayBRXIN9Kro
Specifically Vance around 3:38
Ah that. Didn’t watch any of that due to how much the whole event makes my blood boil.
Maybe it was a “Let’s Go Brandon” moment and they were chanting “January Siths?”. Current administration does come across a bit…dark-side-y, to put it lightly…and the opposition isn’t that great at branding.
Musk and Trump have sort of an emporer/Vader dynamic. Hopefully one will find their humanity and kill the other before promptly dieing themselves. A man can dream.
Why would a cost cutting initiative need funding?
I dislike doge just as much as the next person, but we all know this is not a good counterpoint and if used against dems we would ridicule it. You can’t just willy nilly move government funds around (legally, don’t get me started on all the illegal bs happening), so if doge is hiring people that are getting paid, the money needs to come from somewhere. That allocation would need to happen even if they WERE cutting billions in spending (they’re not). That is a good rule for governments to have. There are sooooo many reasons to dislike doge, but the fact that a government agency needs funds to run is not a problem. People have been complaining about the post office using similar rhetoric. Just because it costs money, doesn’t mean it’s not saving/making money.
For the record: DOGE AND TRUMP AND ELON ARE BAD
USPS doesn’t make money, it’s not designed to do so. This standard of profitability is never applied, for instance, to the military.
This is what people don’t understand about government. I was a Ross Perot supporter back in the 90s, and bought into his concept of running the government like a business. I’ve learned a lot since then, and even though I still respect Perot the man, I have come to disagree with nlmost of his political concepts.
The government shouldn’t be run like a business because it isn’t a business; a government is a completely different kind of entity. Think of the enormous size of a super corporation like GM, or Disney, or Apple. Then realize that the US government is bigger than EVERY corporation in America - COMBINED. The government is so big, it tells corporations how to behave, ALL corporations.
Any American corporation has one single over-riding objective - to maximize profits. The government has no such profit motive, it’s objective is to leverage our tax revenues and our credit in the world economy to our nation’s highest benefit. That requires entirely different skillsets than many businesspeople. Successful businesspeople often believe that their success in the business world will translate to the government world, only to find out that government is much more complex in many different ways.
I no longer agree with Perot’s concept of Kitchen Table Economics, but I still agree with his concept for Election Reform. He wanted presidential campaigns to be 90 days long, and funded by the government. That would keep them short enough that there wouldnt be enough time for much propagamda nonsense. Since they couldn’t take any money from public or corporate donors, there would be no quid pro quo deals between candidates and big money donors. That means the ONLY currency of value in any election would be the citizen’s single vote, and candidates would have to sell themselves to the citizens for those votes, instead of to corporations and the wealthy.
You’re incorrect mostly because the postal service (pretty famously at least in leftist spaces) DID make money (not every year admittedly). In fact, by law (aka cuz capitalists got mad) the post office is expected to ensure pricing covers the cost of fulfillment so the market stays competitive. Arguably, the main reason it is facing difficulties is because the government tried to force some bs payments onto it that were reversed by Biden in 2022. Regardless, you’re kind of making my point? It really feels like people are not reading what I wrote. The argument that a government agency needs funding and therefore can’t be a source of cost cutting or revenue is a bad argument. Governments require money to function. If the agency costs money, saves money, or makes money, it doesn’t matter. At some point, money will need to be allocated to it, even if it’s just to start it up. Saying “it costs money so that a problem” doesn’t make sense as an argument, even if it’s used against doge.
For clarity: I AM PRO POST OFFICE AND ANTI DOGE.
Isn’t the USPS required to fund employee benefits/pension 75 years ahead of time, meaning they’re funding employees who haven’t been born yet?
And when did Congress allocate that funding?
I never said they did (or didn’t)? Clearly they are attempting to now, but my comment was not really about doge in specific. I said that needing funding is not inherently antithetical to a cost cutting department, and that it’s not really a valid reason to take issue with a department. I also said more than once that I don’t like/support doge.
Not sure if it’s a reading comprehension issue, or people are on edge because literal fascist are coming out from the woodwork, but not every comment against Doge/Trump/Elon is valid (most are) and not every comment pointing that out is inherently fascist.
My bad, I forgot the /s. Didn’t mean to make you type all that out.
Nah, you’re all good. You never know how to read things online. I’ll leave it up just in case it saves someone else the time lol.
Fair.
Welp, sounds like it’s time to bring balloons full of piss!
They think other people’s pain is funny even their own constituents.
Stick to milkshakes man no need to hurl a biohazard
Traitors gonna traitor.
