The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday in the noon hour.
QUESTION: The Trump administration is considering sending all taxpaying citizens $5,000, which will be from the savings created by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Do you support this idea?
Talk about it.
It’s all smoke and mirrors – it’s noise to placate the masses with all the layoffs and firings … I’ll believe the savings when I see it
No. I want accountability, arrests, convictions, I want the people who robbed us to have their all their assets seized and them living on the street instead of our vets and low wage workers, and I want the IRS abolished. Then and only then I want every single dollar I payed into this corrupt system returned to me.
No not at all for two reasons. I think it’s just that Trump wants to buy off his vote in the future and finally more more tax fraud it’s very much like a stimulus check for a taxpayers
And that would be wrong, wouldn’t it? Similar to erasing student debt for people who voluntarily took on that debt?
Go get em’
This post proves the left isn’t even real. Trump can’t run again and it’s is a refund for fraud. That said, I don’t want a measly 5k. I’m owed hundreds of thousands.
Which votes do you think President Trump will be trying to “buy” “in the future” ~~~ No hurry, I’ll wait.
Careful with your speculation…you don’t want increase the chances of making yourself look silly or anything.
I fully support this.
I wonder how many Trump hating Democrats are going to go ahead and accept that check if this passes.
“I wonder how many Trump hating Democrats are going to go ahead and accept that check if this passes.”
Probably about the same ratio of republicans that love being on Medicare and ACA
Concord Jet and other comrades have indicated that they will refuse to accept the checks.
Count me in. Who doesn’t like free money?
Yes, we’ll count you in. As being someone who believes this would amount to “free money”.
for him it is free,he doesnt work or pay taxes so its literally free money for people like him
This absolutely nothing that is free from the Government but your response exactly what I would expect.
Just reduce the % we pay in taxes instead.
That’s $1.3 trillion if we’re counting only adults. No way they cut that much discretionary spending. They’ll have to cut social security and Medicare to get there. Or just drive the deficit further into oblivion. And the resulting inflation will definitely raise rates and we’ll pay even more interest on our debt which is currently over $1 trillion per year in interest alone.
another CNN fan
Who is the other one?
Use it to pay down the national debt which was the whole point of DOGE in the first place.
Elon (i think it was his idea) is 20% returned to taxpayers, 60% to paying down the deficit and I can’t remember what they wanted to do with the other 20% but it was something worthwhile.
20% to the national debt, 20% to taxpayers with the remaining 60% as yet, undecided. It is just a rough framework though.
NO. If there’s a way to put it toward paying down the deficit, do it.
That would be very nice as long as no strings attached and we don’t have to pay taxes on it 😉
I will support any law that gives me $5000!
NO!!! It’s better to use the funds to pay down the national debt.
They are considering it and probably looking for the public’s response. I recall we got more CARES checks from Trump than from Biden who sent money elsewhere for his ventures. The “new normal” was really the “dystopian abnormal” and has put a lot of people in financial ruin or near ruin. Making “America Great Again” is going cost a lot to get things back to “normal” if at all possible.
Nope. Reduce the debt with the money
Did we already forget the inflation caused by the pandemic stimulus checks?
To what end? To create more inflation?!? Cause the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates?
Here is an idea! How about we pay off our national debt and have a balanced budget?
I would like my money back.
Being retired and my son headed to a private college,
$5k would be helpful.
You will die the death of a thousand cuts.
There is an estimated 350 million (rounded) US Citizens. There are 267 million (rounded) US Citizens 18 year of age and older.
If you gave every Citizen over the age of 18 $5K that would be and extra $1,335,000,000,000 of unearned money that would be pumped into the economy.
We are a supply-side economic society. That means there will be more money chasing after fewer good and services. That will cause the cost of living to go up dramatically. That is called Inflation. The buying power of your dollar is going down. Even if you put your $5K in a saving account or Roth IRA, that $5K was used to purchase stocks and bonds or loaned out by the bank to other who will spend it.
How does the Federal Reserve react to an overheated economy (too much money chasing after fewer good and services)? They make things more expensive to slow the demand by raising interest rates. Lower demand make the cost of good and services less expense because there is more supply.
You might get some instant gratification with the $5K but the medicine the Federal Reserve is going to use to cure the overheated economy is going to be very painful to your wallet over the long run.
It might be your money but individually you and every other US Citizen owes approximately $106,024 (and climbing every second) of the National Debt.
This is nothing free in the world.
This won’t happen. They gotta pay all these unemployment claims for all the fed layoffs. And the buyouts.
Well, … Don’t think it can be done. Say like we guess there are 153.8 million people, who work and pay taxes (some don’t owe), then times by 5K, …. I think my calculator said error with 7,700,000,000. Think it should go to paying off the debt instead.
Let the rich pay off that debt. They’ve been tax breaks for years (as well as scamming the system). And I don’t want to hear “the rich create the jobs”. Fact is they don’t. It’s mergers and acquisitions that do that particularly the latter. The goal of a lot of startups is to create a successful company then sell it off to a big company (which will often destroy it like a dog with a new toy).
I don’t think you have a concept of the amount of money the United States Government, that is We the People, owe.
The United States national debt is currently $34.13 trillion dollars and with interest increases approximately $65,275 every second, $4.12 million every minute, $247 million ever hour and $5.64 billion per day.
2024 operating budget of the United States was $6.75 trillion.
According to Mother Jones, their are 806 billionaires in the United States and they have a combined wealth of $5.8 trillion.
Seizing every red cent of every billionaire in the US would not fund an enter year of the US Government’s operating budget. If the seizure was used to towards the national debt, it would still leave and outstanding debt of $28.33 trillion.
For perspective, there are 1000 millions in 1 billion, 1000 billions in 1 trillion and if that isn’t mind boggling enough there are 1,000,000 (million) millions in trillion.
1,000,000 = 1 million
1,000,000,000 = 1 billion
1,000,000,000,000 (10¹²) = 1 trillion
It’s an excrement sandwich and everyone is going to take a bite of it sooner or later.
This is about as legit as the promise to pay workers their full salary until September 2025 if they take early retirement.
Instead, the ones who took it were fired “for cause” when there was none (no need to pay them when it’s for cause), or are now being searched for so they can be re-instated.
He’s pandering for approval.
How about using it to get back the nuclear scientists responsible for SAFETY, or the FAA workers whose job it is to PREVENT AIRPLANE CRASHES, or the scientist at NIH, and CDC other medical research facilities who can prevent the next PANDEMIC and develop VACCINES that prevent NEW STRAINS OF BIRD FLU.
This bull-in-the-china-shop destruction of necessary federal agencies is INSANE and it will end up costing this nation more in the long run.
Not to mention the cost in human lives of destroying social security, medicaid, and medicare and other health agencies.
OR IS IT OK WITH YOU THAT IT’S “Just the poor and elderly” who will die?
The personnel cuts at the FAA were 300 out of 50,000, and they were probationary employees. And NONE of them were employed in positions of safety assurance. If the cuts in the nuclear programs were people like Sam Britton, good riddance.
There were 57 aviation incidents in Biden’s first month in office vs 35 for Trump. But there’s no way for you to know that since you likely get your information from the mainstream media. Or TikTok.
Well on our way to third world status.
Just as Putin planned.
Russia, Russia, Russia!
Oh Boy! With that extra moola I can pay half of my property tax…. or buy some eggs!
😂
I would rather instead of reimbursing the taxpayers of the money already confiscated from their earnings with this small (relatively) amount, use it to reduce the astronomical debt that has been accumulated the last several decades. Every little but helps.
No….I’m still waiting for my Reparations.
Many of us are going to need a lot more than just $5k to beat the cheat and graft locally.
In the middle of all this reporting of waste and funds mismanagement and downright theft of our tax dollars around the Fed, I got a “To the Property Owner” of ………address…….A reminder that the decades that I have paid County/city property taxes, in Concord, counts for pretty much nothing ….. I have, in those decades paid for my home FOUR times over, in taxes. It would be much worse if not for Prop 13!
Taxes of the folks in the neighborhoods have been absconded by the City/county for MULTIPLE ‘upgrades’ repairs and ‘center island beautification’ (free buses🙄) along the major corridors …. everywhere EXCEPT our neighborhood streets.
Notice in bold:
This is a courtesy notice that your sidewalk is in need of repair and you will be liable for any damage or injury resulting from your sidewalk’s condition.
As a courtesy, they were nice enough to enclose a price list for various types of repair, running several thousand dollars per 48inch block, IF we used the City’s kick-back Contractor to do the work. If we use that kick-back contractor, the city will not require a Work Permit. (well isn’t that big of them) If we use our own contractor, the City will Penalize us with a (minimum) $1,000.+ permit per repair fee. IF you live on a corner….. you are Royally F’d!
DOES ANYTHING SOUND DIRTY OR FISHY ABOUT ALL THAT? YES!
One Item at the bottom of the (really outrageously expensive) price list—– if their contractor ‘raises the water meter cover to “level” with the sidewalk, the cost is $350.-
Dear Concord Public Works…. I raised my own water meter cover that had sunk a bit over the decades ~~ with two $.38cent bricks in the hole. Soooo … FYVM, I won’t be falling (pun intended) for THAT one.
They clearly point out that we aren’t just responsible for the sidewalk, but also for the CURB and GUTTER that will have to be repaired or replaced along with the sidewalk. We cannot regulate who uses them, parks their big-ass trucks and equipment on top of them, blocks them with their motorhomes so I have to walk away from my house just to cross the street mid-block, between cars, in front of someone else’s house.
Due to utility easements, I cannot build a fence or even plant shrubs within 3 feet of the sidewalk—-that does not belong to me anyway …. screaming now ………….
I’m thinking pretty soon we’ll be told that filling the low spots, humps and dips in the only-twice- slurry-sealed in the last 25 years, 1950’s street will be on our private dime too?
Since I know my sidewalks are in really decent, not perfect, but decent condition, I’m assuming these threatening blackmail notices were sent to hundreds of not thousands of residents.
It makes sense that if you have neglected tree roots, etc enough to make your sidewalks break and heave, you should have to repair that. It was your neglect! But my sidewalks cracked in two places a couple of feet from the corners when the City installed wheel-chair ramps ~~ which flood 4-5 inches in the slightest rain ~~ causing people to have to endanger themselves and walk out into one street to cross the other street. I’ve never seen an actual wheelchair out there, but the occasional elderly person who uses a walker, also has to step off the curb, and out into the street to avoid the standing water. Ripping out a perfectly good corner curb and walkway caused those cracks and floods.
I imagine everyone who lives on a corner can probably say the same.
————————————-
Oh, By the way; many of us remember when the City actually used to go around and make these types of sidewalk repairs… Before they re-codified… Re-codifying in the age of the computer has been a windfall for the City…. but try to find archives to find exactly when they changed the rules….. good luck! They didn’t computerize the records from “back then.” They just fall back on “Oh, it’s always been part of the “California Streets and Highways Code.” The cities only “updated” laws, but never actually “changed” any.
I’d like to “class action” them into proving it’s my responsibility, since there is nothing in my purchase inspections/declarations, GI mortgage, insurance, etc to indicate my responsibility to maintain the public and utility easement. Anybody know anybody?
Dumb idea.
Last year, I officially became debt free.
I did not achieve this by spending my extra money on vacations and crap I don’t need. I got this way by using any and all extra money paying off my debts.
Promises of free money by both parties is just candy to placate children.
Our government is broken, until the national debt is 0$ . Nobody should get a penny!
My question is how did austerity feel? Was it really worth it? The debts you accrued may not have been your fault and you need to be repaid for that.
While in the beginning my plan felt overwhelming, however that was just a feeling. Once I was able to look at my debts and see the progress I was making , excitement for my future increased.
Now I live in a reality where I get to choose my financial destiny.
I am no longer a slave to my debtors.
This is liberating.
As for the debt I had accumulated, it was mine. I couldn’t blame anybody else, when I had signed on the dotted line.
America needs to grow up and pay it’s bills.
Then rebates and tax cuts can be discussed.
I do not support the idea. Although I could certainly use $5,000 and would accept a check if one is sent, it is still a bad idea. Shoveling money out of the Treasury is inherently inflationary and is part of the reason we are paying such high prices now.
However, here are some of the ideas that I would support:
• I would support paying down the national debt,
• I would support requiring a balance budget,
• I would support eliminating all taxes on Social Security, gifts, and inheritances, and
• I would support reducing all income taxes.
How about to pay down the national debt tell the countries that particularly Biden gave billions to that it was a loan and they now need to pay it back? And yes our tax system is corrupt and created to be a boot on our necks.
Once the national debt is paid and there is a surplus of cash, nobody should get anything. No student loan relief, no tax cuts, no foriegn aid . Nothing for anyone.
Pay the darn bills…
I’d prefer they maximize debt reduction.
That said, I believe he is doing this to upset his political foes.
They’re mad. They hate him. He loves it.
He is everywhere, all day every day. On the internet, on the race track, at sporting events, all while working harder than they ever did.
To the lefties screaming about saving democracy and a constitutional crisis, this $5,000 rebate will have them crying so hard they’ll have to sit on a towel.
Sure, I’ll give my check to Planned Parenthood!
Hmmm, I think I’ll buy a few new guns with mine. Nobody dies with my plan – unless they’ve got it coming.
Trump is dangling a carrot, that money is coming from hundred of thousands of fired government workers, These workers will be owed back pay, plus interest, benefits, and attorneys fees when its all said and done. Cutting IRS workers with tax season coming will affect and most likely delay people getting their tax refunds. Trump and Elon are throwing the baby out with the bath water. Trump’s kakistocracy is completely FUBAR.