Proving himself once again to be a voice of reason in a sea of partisan noise, HBO’s “Real Time” host Bill Maher stated on Friday that, after being “robbed blind” by bogus COVID-19 relief programs, he’s “a little less excited” by the billions of dollars the Biden administration plans to spend on its various measures.
“[T]his is the question I asked back in April and I’m going to ask it again, it doesn’t really make me a conservative, does it, that I don’t want to be absolutely robbed blind? Is there some number at which I go, you know what, you are just taking my money and wasting it and letting people steal it?” he asked. “I mean, I get the idea that money can never be transferred except in a leaky bucket, I accept that. But this isn’t a bucket anymore. It’s just a handle.”
(Video: YouTube)
“We did write checks for, I think, 5.7 trillion dollars when the forever flu hit,” he stated. “So, we can argue about whether that was an appropriate amount. I think it might have been a little high. But what really pisses me off, is that so much of it was stolen.”
Maher noted that “$872 billion went out the door” for unemployment insurance and estimates are that “up to half” of it was stolen. With the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Maher stated that “only a quarter paid wages that would have otherwise been lost.”
He later argued that the government “was never this dysfunctional.”
According to Maher’s guest, CNN commentator Catherine Rampell, “The problem is, government infrastructure sucks, and they’re using software that’s from the disco era.”
“If we wanted to, we could invest in good government,” Rampell said, “but we have systemically decided not to, partly because it’s not sexy to talk about government IT and partly because, that way, the Republicans–”
Maher cut Rampell off to state that both political parties are failing to do “their part.”
“I thought the Democrats were the good government party, why don’t they do it?” he asked. “I get it that the Republicans want to strangle it in the bathtub. But why isn’t the other party — and why aren’t the Republicans who are supposed to be, ‘we’re the mean old man to watch your money,’ why don’t they do their part? Nobody does any of their part.”
“It makes me a little less excited about the money they’re planning to spend,” he added.
CBS News tells big truth about Dem’s Inflation Reduction Act …right AFTER it is signed into law https://t.co/gdrKZpXNeA
— American Wire News (@americanwire_) August 15, 2022
And spend it, “they” most certainly will.
As American Wire reported, the Inflation Reduction Act earmarked a whopping $369 billion to fight climate change and funneled another $80 billion to the IRS. Meanwhile, the Biden administration continues to send billions of dollars — free of oversight — to Ukraine, which, according to TIPP Insights, has “the dubious distinction of being the second-most corrupt nation in Europe.”
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Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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