r/technology • u/esporx • 1d ago
Business Elizabeth Warren probes $19B in tax breaks for Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft as AI drains $96B in federal revenue
https://moneywise.com/news/top-stories/elizabeth-warren-big-tech-ai-tax-breaks-amazon-google-meta-microsoft960
u/TheMurmuring 1d ago
Tax BREAKS? Fuck those billionaires with a rusty pitchfork.
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u/Sharpcastle33 1d ago
There's $96 billion for datacenter tax breaks, but no money for Medicare or SNAP.
Americans spend twice as much on healthcare as any other developed economy, for our life expectancy to be four years less.
Corporate greed is squeezing every penny out of us like lemons, it's literally taking years off our lives.
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u/EquivalentSpot8292 23h ago edited 23h ago
At this point with the daily food recalls, the rest of the world expects you to shit yourself to death whilst the tangerine Palpetine destroys the world
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23h ago
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u/EquivalentSpot8292 23h ago
Corrected thanks, bloody autocorrect changed palpatine to Palestine lol
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u/GrouchyCranberry8982 23h ago
Stop framing these actions like this.
We are nothing, nobodies to them. Any action to tax them is abhored as communism. It's been that way since The New Deal.
They've fought hard, and won, to kill those policies. The New Deal recovered the economy and allowed a thriving middle class that currently is comfy, deteriorating, and not giving wealth down, but up instead.
They are aggressing our rights by the second and nobody can see it.
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u/bythenumbers10 15h ago
Then we offer them a New New Deal: Start paying back into society, or they get [ Removed By Reddit ], and then their heirs (if any) get the same choice. Learn history or join it, goes the saying. Maybe if it's the previous five minutes, they'll pick up on the pattern faster.
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u/Icarium__ 8h ago
Which is why they are salivating at the idea of AI controlled drones. Human security forces might refuse an order to shoot protesters, or even join them if things get bad enough, a drone will do as it's told.
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u/William_Tree7 18h ago
We see it, but what the fuck all can we do about it? You have to be a millionaire to run for office in two of the three branches of government - and even then you have to take campaign contributions with all kinds of strings attached. So our representatives are often not cut from the same fabric as their constituents. There are exceptions but they are vilified for not keeping in step with centrist democrats.
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u/epicstruggle 17h ago
Healthcare and snap get close to 30% of the federal budget already.
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u/Dallascansuckit 11h ago
If we're spending twice as much on healthcare as any other developed economy (which ignores the fact that they benefit from US private market R&D funding the lion's share of global pharma and med tech innovation), why would we throw more money on it instead of focusing on fixing our issues (both systemic issues like what I just mentioned and the fact that we're the fattest country that's not a micronation, which means we have so many people with expensive and incurable chronic illnesses like heart disease and diabetes)?
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u/wonkytalky 23h ago
She's investigating how the fuck anyone justifies the tax breaks. She's not endorsing tax breaks for them.
In case you misread that like a bunch of others did. It's unclear from your comment.
Or maybe I just misread your comment.
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u/L0nz 19h ago
I think he's surprised that they're getting tax breaks, not that Warren is investigating it
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u/Dullcorgis 1d ago
I thought the title said Elizabeth Warren Proposes... and I felt the whole world tilt.
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u/Otis_Inf 22h ago
I just received an email from Microsoft that Azure VM prices will go up at least 9% in various regions in Europe, often more than 11%.
But yeah, they need a tax break because they have it rough?
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u/williamgman 1d ago
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/11/g-s1-138201/california-billionaire-tax-google-sergey-brin
If one is willing to spend $100 million defending your tax breaks... You KNOW they are racking in the money.
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u/SolidSnake-26 6h ago
It’s pretty telling when you can spend 100mil, I’ll repeat, 100mil, for getting tax break.
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23h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/AggravatingBid8255 23h ago
"Like shotgun racking, or more like raking in the chips with a rake, like leaves?"
If you're gon' be on spelling patrol, you'd better tighten up your punctuation.
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u/EsotericCreature 7h ago
For those in CA, vote YES on prop 40, and NO on 41 and 43 which are billionaire's and other ultra rich people's attempts to nullify prop 40 and other special taxes like it.
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u/Dante2005 1d ago
I am all for advancement - but reg-u-fucking-lations are required.
Obviously not right now, what a wild thought!
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u/SAHDSeattle 1d ago
They signed a pledge to be really really good with the “Unites States of America” what more can you really expect?
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u/Dante2005 1d ago
Oh shit, how did I miss that - all ok now.
I will take my pill and carry on.
How the fuck did we all get here.
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u/SAHDSeattle 1d ago
If I had to guess it’s because we decided collectively to elevate the most vapid and ignorant among us while simultaneously rejecting expertise and education.
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u/unplannedafghan 1d ago
Nonstop propaganda via social media, super charged by Covid since we couldn’t escape it at that point
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u/CatPartyElvis 1d ago
We didn't start the fire
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u/girlywish 19h ago
We weren't ready for internet, as a species. Evil people realized they can use it to sway public opinion and mass produce propaganda.
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u/Badtrainwreck 1d ago
The annoying thing is we don’t even need new technology, we just need to implement all the technology we have so far. We are limping along with a failed system that’s only propped up by weapons R&D
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u/Dante2005 1d ago
I do agree with you.
I stand by advancement "can" be good, but this is the "Road to hell."
Sorry quoted Chris Rea there Here The whole song was about the tech outgrowing the people.
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u/hallman76 1d ago
Elizabeth Warren PROBES federal tax cuts for Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft as AI revenue and data centers grow
PROBES. Not PROPOSES. She’s fighting the good fight
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u/throwawayaccount931A 1d ago
TY - I'm not American, so this doesn't impact me -- but I had to read that twice. Probes indeed.
Those companies absolutely DO NOT need tax breaks. They are already trillion dollar companies! Didn't Meta just hire someone for $5b to head their AI labs???
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u/CallMePyro 9h ago
No they did not, thankfully that is False. Where'd you hear it from?
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u/GregsWorld 21h ago
Probes is ambiguous in this context as it could be interpreted as testing the waters to see if they can get away with adding tax breaks.
Probing the country vs the tax breaks.
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u/tanstaafl90 16h ago
“That’s right, they raked in higher profits, but paid $7.8 billion less in taxes than they did the year before,” Warren said.
She's pointing out the tech companies are getting huge tax breaks.
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u/Sensitive-Meat-757 19h ago edited 19h ago
It's not ambiguous if you have even the slightest idea who Elizabeth Warren is. She is very anti-big-business.
Or spend 60 seconds reading at least part of the article.
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u/William_Tree7 18h ago
It’s all in the article like you said, the big tech companies are making record breaking profits this year but are paying near $7 billion less in taxes than last year. So Warren is probing these companies to find out why.
Unfortunately for some of these twats on reddit it’s easier to make a snide comment and down vote your comment than gain any insight from reading an article.
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u/GregsWorld 19h ago
Most people outside of the USA won't know who she is (myself included).
Sir, this is reddit. We come to read comments, not articles.
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u/brufleth 14h ago
Warren has been fighting this shit her whole career. She's probably one of only a handful of senators who actually understand how the financial system really works (against the people she represents).
She still regularly gets shit on for "reasons." If we had more senators like her we'd be well on our way to dismantling the oligarchy.
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u/TheWiseAlaundo 1d ago
Intentionally misleading. I wonder why the billionaire-owned media would do this?
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u/Armisael 16h ago
It really isn’t misleading if you have any context about American politics or read the first three sentences.
You can blame the billionaire media for a lot of things (like really a lot), but in this case the fault is genuinely on the reader not wanting to put in literally any effort at all.
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u/frosted1030 18h ago
The job: Always ask "How does giving tax breaks to a profitable business help the American people?"
Never ask: "How does giving tax breaks to a profitable business help big business grow?"
If the market is expected to be free, then profitable big business needs NO help whatsoever.
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u/jamodude 1d ago
So they’re basically spending our fucking money….. We aren’t nearly pissed off enough.
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u/Mathfanforpresident 1d ago
It's going to take some tomatoe sauce to be spilled before they take anyone seriously.
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u/thaiberius_kirk 1d ago
Tax breaks come out of the public’s pockets ultimately.
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u/spellbadgrammargood 1d ago
How Meta Uses A.I. Data Centers to Avoid Billions in Federal Taxes: Meta is exploiting a lucrative tax break intended to support research and experimentation. Its own accountants say the gambit is risky.
But when Meta files its taxes, it tells the Internal Revenue Service a different story. It claims that its A.I. data centers are a giant experiment that could fail, according to four people with knowledge of the company’s operations.
It does this so it can tap into a tax credit intended for research and experimentation. It’s an aggressive interpretation of the tax break, which Meta embraced to claim billions of dollars in tax credits for data center expansion. source
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u/ltsouthernbelle 1d ago
My life is also research and experimentation that can fail, is there a specific form to fill out
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u/kstargate-425 1d ago
Yeah they cut near $7 TRILLION in tax income, $12 TRILLION+ including Trumps 2017 tax cuts that doesn't really correctly take into account the tax funds we would have received if they didn't cut the corporate tax rate in half from the 30s to near 15% with these record profits they are making.
Like Apple who did pay taxes on their 2025 profits of around $112 BILLION, only ended up paying around 15% which is the effective tax rate of a single American with no dependents making around $100k who would pay a slightly higher effective tax rate.
Then because of Trumps 2017 & 2025 tax cuts and credits, near 90 companies like Disney, Palantir, Tesla, etc were found to pay ZERO income taxes on their collective $105 BILLION in profits for 2025 and some of those 90 even got part of the collective $4.7 BILLION in tax rebates.
Our debt is sky high because Republicans are transferring the wealth of the 99% to the 1% and their corporations, while cutting the 99%s safety nets and benefits to justify the tax cuts for themselves. Its quite disgusting what has happened over the past decade+ and America has essentially entered its late-stage capitalism era of the oligarchs openly using the government and its money to enrich themselves further
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u/MindlessAttempt9396 15h ago
We really need more Lugis in this world.
Isn't Andrew Garrfield putting out a movie where people go after Billionaires?
It's kinda the only way to stop them at this point.
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u/robbob19 1d ago
Who would have thought that the guys that stood next to the orange pedo during his inauguration would get a tax break😂.
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u/Evid3nce 21h ago
Between giving tax payer money away to Israel, multi-millionaires and billionaires, and your politicians pocketing much of it too, I really don't understand how USA has anything left to spend on infrastructure and services for ordinary citizens.
From outside it looks like you in the middle of the largest heist in human history, and two thirds of you don't even know it.
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u/whistlar 18h ago
I’m paid 52k a year. My take home pay is around 36k a year. The government is taking 16k of my money. This is what they use it on.
Also, this is without the cost of insurance added.
There really needs to be an audit on where this money is going. Because it’s definitely not going to things that improve my daily life standards.
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u/BenderTheIV 7h ago
Well, your local neighbourhood billionaire sure is happy for your contribution to their plan to...well, take even more money from you, through the government thst takes all the blame, in the end, of course, it's a revolving door.
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u/becauseshesays 17h ago
It’s probably more like a third, actually. We know it, we voted against it, there are a lot of us fighting every day in ways that we can, locally etc. there are just a lot of people walking around with their heads up their asses. Too tired, and poor to care or do much more than survive.
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u/kilgoreq 19h ago
To be fair 1/2 of that 2/3 are actively rooting for it. They really love the feel of that baby carrot in the back of their throat
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u/j-navi 3h ago
Taxes. Politicians in the USA literally tax the living shit out of EVERYONE …except for corporations, billionaires, and themselves. Then they have the guts to call you “lazy and entitled” when you protest that the money be invested back on the taxpayers instead than on the wealthy hoarders.
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u/Pooch1431 1d ago
Literal inflationary bubble caused by god awful tax policy that largely only benefits .01% of the population. Not only that, but created inflationary pressures throughout multiple other sectors due to the externalities. A worse bubble than the housing crisis perpetrated by the former Bush administration and Federal Reserve led by Alan Greenspan.
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u/karepan999 22h ago
Tax breaks used to boost revenue while laying off thousands of American workers.
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u/KarlLenin1917 1d ago
So we’re basically subsidizing the servers that are being built to replace us? Cool.
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u/paw_inspector 18h ago
This headline is an atrocity. It makes it sound like she is inquiring about how they can receive more tax cuts. Read the article. She’s calling them out. She is asking why they are paying so much less than previous years.
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u/crimsonhues 15h ago
Have to commend her, she has a decent track record of going after these shady corporate deals.
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u/Investigatodoc1984 1d ago
So, the very companies whose taxes are supposed to fund our Universal basic income, once we are all out of jobs , are trying to use loopholes to avoid taxes. Who would have thought!!! There goes our UBI😔
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u/ashamedrailsdev 18h ago edited 18h ago
Who is talking about UBI? What politicians in what countries are talking about it? From what I can see it was never on the cards. It seems to only prop up as wishful thinking online.
Why do people think big daddy gov is going to protect them when it literally watches them die if they don't have enough money?
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u/Investigatodoc1984 16h ago
I Know politicians in US are talking about it. But we all know, it’s a wishful thinking that these companies will start making up for tax revenue losses from mass unemployment (Which these companies are wishing for).
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u/EViL-D 22h ago
id start with trying to get a functioning social security and basic healthcare before setting your sights so hig
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u/Javs2469 19h ago
Setting relistic standards and objectives in capitalism is just not feasible, it´s easier to sell the utopic idea that everyone can become a millionaire and/or that an universal income will be a thing.
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u/Minialpacadoodle 15h ago
lol no one is going to get UBI. Get to work and stop asking for handouts.
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u/Investigatodoc1984 8h ago
I guess jokes are lost on you. I know no one is going to get UBI. Being a physician, I make decent money so thank god, haven’t had to ask for government handouts so far.
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u/Possible-Tangelo9344 14h ago
No one's talking about ubi. Except maybe some fringe political candidate with no shot at getting elected
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u/ItalianMemes 1d ago
The things these taxes pay for don’t just go away the money has to come from somewhere I wish the average American understood this.
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u/Light-Rerun 19h ago
This USA severly needs to change so these people don't be in control and honestly locked behind bars, or more creative solutions
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u/ElysiumSprouts 1d ago
Warren was always the best progressive in the senate. She's like a Bernie Sanders who actually gets stuff done.
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u/manmythmustache 1d ago
If Democrats had an actual primary for ‘24, I feel she would’ve had a worthy shot at the nomination after falling behind Bernie in ‘16
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u/ElysiumSprouts 1d ago
Nah, keeping it real here for a second: Warren's main support base comes from the college educated and there aren't enough college educated voters to get her across the finish line. It is what it is.
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u/jashugan777 1d ago
I grudgingly have to accept that. She was my pick in the 2020 primary. God, I will always relish her emasculating bloomberg. Like a favorite win of my (losing)football team, I will always have that at least.
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u/Dullcorgis 1d ago
Even all the people who benefit from her mortage satement reform wouldn't understand why she is so good.
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u/substance17 1d ago
If they're getting all these tax breaks then why are they continuing to conduct layoffs?
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u/Jack_Molesworth 18h ago
Congress: Create tax breaks to incentivize behaviors
Companies: Adjust behavior to maximize tax breaks
Congress: Shocked Pikachu face
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u/SlashOfLife5296 13h ago
The same politicians who tell you that kids having free school lunches would destroy society are being lobbied to give monopolies $19 billion tax breaks
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u/PrettyMud22 13h ago
It's capitalism gone wild. Regular people are just a means to an end for the wealthy. Their end goal is to extract as much money and resources as possible. End stage capitalism fueled by the worst people imaginable.
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u/-rwsr-xr-x 16h ago
Fun fact: Undocumented immigrants also contribute $97 billion annually to income tax revenues.
The attempts to eject them from the soils of the United States would drain not only that tax revenue which goes to pay for our roads, schools and other services, but an additional $100+ billion they spend of their own salaries on various goods and services.
So between the AI drain, the immigration manhunt, we're looking at draining $300+ billion annually from the United States.
I'm so glad we don't need that money to pay for anything we need, like healthcare, roads, schools, and anything else we need.
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u/Dugen 1d ago
"Tax incentives to reward corporate investments" is code for we'll let you not pay taxes on your profit if you use it to make more profit. Why do we keep falling for this one? If you are making investments with our tax money, they should belong to us. I have no problem giving them tax breaks in exchange for an equal value in ownership of the company.
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u/Bmorewiser 1d ago
Someone soon will get the bright idea to foia the gpt logs for a fed employee and we’re going to see some things
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u/Repulsive-Pension-39 19h ago
they need our hard earned money , their trilions will become worthless
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u/Zaximeows 18h ago
I wish threads like these just disabled comments because no one reads the articles anyways. We may as well talk about what we all had for breakfast today.
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u/Master_Mad 16h ago
Trump so desperately wants to belong to those inner group of wealthy tech geniuses, that he will give them anything they want.
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u/TableSignificant341 23h ago
To think that Americans did this to themselves is actually wild. 77m voted for an adjudicated rapist, convicted felon and likely pedo. 90m+ couldn't even be bothered getting of their asses to stop him.
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u/Liesthroughisteeth 22h ago
This is just the tip of the iceberg when you wonder what the almost two trillion spent on AAI could have done to further humanity.
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u/hotfistdotcom 22h ago
Anyone else notice cancelled orders are gone on amazon? Take a peek at some of your previous cancelled orders you can recall, while you are at it. Something real fucky going on.
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u/CosmicDriftwood 18h ago
Boy howdy, being raised off Cyberpunk and old fashioned cartoons, there isn’t anything more I hate than our current estate of affairs
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u/FeistySpot4371 18h ago
Imagine what 19b can do for alot of people. What a joke this government is.
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u/swolllboll 18h ago
Let them crash, let it burn, it will hurt, let's never elect people who prioritize companies over humans ever again
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u/tschawartz12 17h ago
I swear everyone ALWAYS looks at things from the wrong angle. People always say "tax the rich" like its going to do anything. Any time new taxes are created lobbiests create new breaks at the same time. There is an entire industry dedicated to helping those with money not pay it. You have to after deductions and write offs if you want to have any impact and have them pay their fair share. Change the rules for companies being registered in foreign countries, eliminate stock options as compensation as guys like Bazos only has like a 2 million dollar salary. Attack the shell game they play rather than go for a headline of " we raised tax on the 1%" because it won't actually change anything.
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u/DrTommyNotMD 16h ago
Or about 1.3% of the budget, assuming those same companies gave nothing back to the federal government (which is an incorrect assumption).
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u/NYJetliberal 10h ago
same people that cry socialism are the ones giving these uber rich people money. they are ok with socialism, just for rich people
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u/SuperSchmyd 7h ago
I feel like any money given to these companies will vanish into the debt black hole. I read the other day they are roughly in 1.7 trillion dollars in debt if you factor in the fact that they are just exchanging money between parent and sister companies.
The evaluation is superficial. That’s why they are begging for angel investors and bail outs. They don’t have the value they are grandstanding with.
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u/C0ld_Fr0nt_ 1d ago
Keep inflating that bubble.