Beloved DU, take a picture of this and show it to any Republican, family, friend or whoever.

[ancianita]

It's the 2026 Budget from the Office of Management and Budget.
Then ask them, "Off the top, does this look like your life will get better this year or next?"
We need to win this year. Share the picture with them. It could change their vote.

[unblock]

1. lol. Ask a Republican about federal spending and they'll rant about how that "other" sliver needs to be cut

Greedy billionaires, through their bought and paid for Republican politicians, feed them a line about "waste, fraud, and abuse" and that's all the pretense they need to insist on zero funding for starving orphans or anything that might help black people, etc.

They love the military (not the vets so much though) projecting force and they love the police and ice breaking rules and shooting people in the face in the name of "law and order".

Yeah, I don't think they'd look at that chart and see a problem, or at least not see the same problem we see....

[ancianita]

3. Okay. But let THEM say that. Then remind them that when, not if, these forces show up, they can't say they weren't told

It's those on the fence who'll think about this.

[GreenWave]

2. A la Hitler.

[Bev54]

4. When a country can't fix its problems with education and other public services, it resorts to

military which is a sign the "empire" is coming to the end.

[ancianita]

6. All I can say is

that oligarchs have stealthily worked to change who runs this country for decades -- themselves.
If the majority of the American population still trusts the US military to live up to its oath to the US Constitution, Americans and its oath keeping military can wipe out the "empire" mindset, and reset to the 250 year old democracy model.

[Bev54]

16. Have you seen anything of the senate hearings to confirm the two commanders ongoing now?

It is highly unlikely these milquetoasts, who cannot manage to answer a simple question about whether they would refuse to act on illegal orders, are going to be the saviour of the people.

[peppertree]

9. Well said. Trump is the Galtieri of North America.

Galtieri had a lot of that same malignant narcissism and belligerence that defines Trump (and was likewise imbued with a bigotry of every imaginable kind).

While still admired by many on the Argentine right, he's mostly remembered as a demented buffoon who ran the economy into the ground, scoffed about keeping "the ballot boxes nice and locked up" - and tried to distract from both his crimes and failures with an inane war.

He resigned in disgrace, and eventually died of alcohol-related cancer under house arrest awaiting trial.

Former Argentine dictator Leopoldo Galtieri, responding to media questions with a typically Italian-Argentine gesture.

Though deeply elitist and bigoted, the murderous Galtieri (like Trump) was talented in the use of populist appeal - and was the most (and only) popular figure in the country's fascist last dictatorship.

He resigned in disgrace, and died ill and in obscurity.

[Joinfortmill]

23. Ugh

[Kid Berwyn]

5. Public Education. Public Health. Public Interest.

Gone. And soon, should the NAZI goons continue unchecked, there'll be no "Public."

[ancianita]

7. All 50 US states still operate public education. All blue states still run public health clinics.

All oligarchs and their media train minds away from the Public Interest. But only to a point.
Privatizing the country is their goal such that rule of corporations overrules rule of law.
And yet the courts are still holding the line against the DOJ, DHS, and all their corrupt nazi goons.

77% of this country has not voted GOP. Ever. It's not time to give up yet.

[Kid Berwyn]

10. Never give up.

AS long as there are two of us who believe in it, ancianita, democracy lives.

[yellow dahlia]

21. WE THE PEOPLE!

[calimary]

8. Looks like they want to make sure the public can be suppressed.

All that money for the Pentagon.

How much of that will be aimed at other countries, versus how much is gonna be aimed internally - at all of US? That’s gotta be asked, loudly and OFTEN!

[peppertree]

11. Sad - but true.

Fascists are nothing if not predictable.

[ancianita]

12. It does.

Then we can flip Johnson's words about it -- "common sense," and remind them how Thomas Paine used it to justify overthrow of an overreaching king.

There's another Pentagon out here among us.
All those fired by the felon and his Fox host SecDef, and all the troops who admire all the joint chiefs, the inimitable Lloyd Austin, and with them our former commanders-in-chief. They all know commanders across six armed forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. They all know the UCMJ and can make sure no illegal orders are followed.

They're out here, and imo, are worth more than the military budget. Hegseth can misspend it at the Pentagon, but imo, he won't buy total US military loyalty.

[RedWhiteBlueIsRacist]

13. Warmongering in a mirror: The U.S. at war with itself.

[BumRushDaShow]

14. Thankfully

NO President ever gets their verbatim budget request. Saw a NYT article a couple days ago that indicated that -

Congress Is Spurning Many of Trump’s Proposed Spending Cuts

Jan. 14, 2026

Congress is quietly rejecting almost all of the deepest cuts to federal programs that President Trump requested for this year, turning back his efforts to slash funding for foreign aid, global health programs, scientific research, the arts and more in a bipartisan repudiation of his spending plans. The latest rejection of his budget blueprint came on Wednesday, after the House voted 341 to 79 to pass a pair of bills to fund the State and Treasury Departments, as well as other foreign aid programs, providing money for agencies that Mr. Trump had proposed eliminating entirely.

(snip)

“These are bills that reject the devastating cuts Trump demanded in his deeply unserious budget he sent to Congress about a year ago,” said Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. “When just about every secretary came before our Appropriations Committee to advocate for those Trump funding cuts, I made clear to them I planned to rip up his budget and write a new one — and that is exactly what we are doing.”

(snip)

Whether the administration ultimately spends the money that lawmakers appropriate is still an unanswered question. Russell T. Vought, the White House budget director, has made clear that he believes the president has the authority to disregard congressional directives in order to spend less money than lawmakers approved.

And members of Congress omitted language they had considered including in the legislation aimed at limiting Mr. Trump’s ability to circumvent them. For instance, lawmakers ultimately jettisoned language that senators had tucked into the bill to fund the Commerce and Justice Departments that would have required administration officials to notify lawmakers 30 days before canceling federal contracts or enacting mass layoffs of federal employees. That provision also would have restricted agencies’ ability to use funds approved for one purpose for another, a maneuver known as “reprogramming.”

(snip)

He'll still ignore it and do what he wants but at least there is a crack in Congress.

[erronis]

15. Source of this chart

https://www.stephensemler.com/p/trumps-budget-request-for-2026-a

[ancianita]

18. Thanks for the more detailed info.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

17. police state!!

[eppur_se_muova]

19. AND be sure to show them this ....

In a social media post, Sanders (I-Vt.) noted that the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed last year gave US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) a $28 billion annual budget, which he said is “larger than the annual budgets of the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals Service and the Bureau of Prisons COMBINED.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-sanders-ice-budget

(Sorry, originally a CessBook link, can't find the image elsewhere.)

[progressoid]

20. Sadly, they'd probably approve.

On the plus side, I'm ridding myself of as many republicans as I can in my life so I don't have to listen to their asinine explanations.

[Joinfortmill]

22. Coup d'etat?