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Donald Trump once hosted a party featuring "young women" where Jeffrey Epstein "was the only other guest," the New York Times reported over the weekend.

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— Raw Story (@rawstory.com) 20 July 2025 at 00:56

“They were best friends,” said former model Stacey Williams of Jeffrey Epstein and President Donald Trump.

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— HuffPost (@huffpost.com) 19 July 2025 at 18:57

Yeah I don't think releasing basically nothing will be good enough

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— Thor Benson (@thorbenson.bsky.social) 19 July 2025 at 15:11

Trump claims he is more popular with Republicans after covering up the Epstein files

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— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes.bsky.social) 20 July 2025 at 13:30


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Trump's Most Favorable Pollster Has Approval Rating Negative for First Time - Newsweek



xboxgreen said:
sundin13 said:

I feel like I'm going to really need to see some support for the claim that rich people will recoup their losses of taxes at the cost of the middle class. Like, okay, say you're a rich ass doctor working for a big city hospital, and suddenly you start getting taxed a few thousand more per year. What are you going to do, start stealing kidneys from poor people?

I understand the argument when it comes to business taxes. It is flawed in my opinion, as it largely ignores market factors (ie supply/demand and competition), but there is some logic there. Some amount of cost is going to be passed on in many circumstances. I would argue that taxing huge multinational companies helps smaller companies maintain a competitive position and overall, if the tax money is being spent in a productive manner, it can still function as a means to maintain a more equal income structure. 

But when it comes to individual taxes, things don't work that way:

More broadly, beyond the 2017 law, a 2023 review of the trickle-down literature by Carnegie Mellon University economist Max Risch found that “across different income tax policies that statutorily affect the rich, the evidence suggests the burden is predominantly born by the rich.â€Â In other words, research indicates that tax cuts at the top don’t generally benefit workers with low and moderate incomes. By contrast, Risch concludes that “substantial evidence suggests large direct, but also potential ‘trickle-up’ effects from providing benefits to low-income or vulnerable households.â€Â

The 2017 Trump Tax Law Was Skewed to the Rich, Expensive, and Failed to Deliver on Its Promises | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Doctors have a lot of leverage. They can simply demand more to make up the thousands of dollars in tax / inflation easily. Which means the middle class will pay more.

Smaller companies can compete without taxing large companies a lot of money. Looks at how games from smaller studios like expedition 33 is out selling other AAA games.

Also, trickle down economics is a term coined by the left to make fun of supply side economics. Would you rather take billions of tax dollars from Apple and split the money with the American people which will give them a few months of relief (demand economics)? Or let Apple keep the money to create the next big product like the iPhone which will create a lot of high paying jobs and boost the United States GDP (supply economics)?

Again, give me evidence. All the research I'm seeing indicates that income taxes on the rich are predominantly borne by the rich. You just keep stating that it will get passed on, but at some point, you need to actually prove it.

You're also kind of conflating income taxes and business taxes here, which are different things. If the CEO of Apple was taxed a bit more, the extremely profitable company wouldn't suddenly cease to exist. But I feel like you completely don't understand demand economics. If poor people have more money, they will have more money to spend, which they will then spend on goods and services, which will then allow those exact same businesses to sell more product and create the same high paying jobs and boosting the same GDP. Also, you don't need to be a billionaire to create a business or a create jobs. Putting more money in the pockets of the lower and middle class allows them to be in a better position to also create businesses and have a chance to build their local economies and build wealth. 





the-pi-guy said:
xboxgreen said:

Doctors have a lot of leverage. They can simply demand more to make up the thousands of dollars in tax / inflation easily. Which means the middle class will pay more.

Smaller companies can compete without taxing large companies a lot of money. Looks at how games from smaller studios like expedition 33 is out selling other AAA games.

Also, trickle down economics is a term coined by the left to make fun of supply side economics. Would you rather take billions of tax dollars from Apple and split the money with the American people which will give them a few months of relief (demand economics)? Or let Apple keep the money to create the next big product like the iPhone which will create a lot of high paying jobs and boost the United States GDP (supply economics)?

Even "trickle down economics" would be better than what we have been getting. 

Wealth has been trickling up, as Republicans have cut taxes on the wealthy. 

Basically the entirety of the past century of American economics shows that your beliefs are wrong. 

Anyone can be wealthy if they get a job, make smart decisions and invest money in an index fund. Voo had around 95% return in last 5 years.



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Bofferbrauer2 said:
xboxgreen said:

Doctors have a lot of leverage. They can simply demand more to make up the thousands of dollars in tax / inflation easily. Which means the middle class will pay more.

Smaller companies can compete without taxing large companies a lot of money. Looks at how games from smaller studios like expedition 33 is out selling other AAA games.

Also, trickle down economics is a term coined by the left to make fun of supply side economics. Would you rather take billions of tax dollars from Apple and split the money with the American people which will give them a few months of relief (demand economics)? Or let Apple keep the money to create the next big product like the iPhone which will create a lot of high paying jobs and boost the United States GDP (supply economics)?

Bolded: Worst example ever.

You see, Apple has an ever-growing pile of over 80 billions in cash that they don't even know what to spend them on. Taxing them for billions of dollars would just help them figure out what to do with all that cash - in this case paying their fair share of taxes for once. And t wouldn't affect any of their daily activities in any negative way. But greedy people gotta greed...

Pay taxes to the government so they can waste even more money? That won't help in the long run. Also, they will use their money eventually when the next big thing comes along. Just like how a lot of tech companies are invest in AI.



Yes, throughout human history, the rich are known for their kindness and passing the wealth down to the poor, right? I'm sure Jeff Bezos will rain a couple of million my way any day now.



Bite my shiny metal cockpit!

xboxgreen said:
the-pi-guy said:

Even "trickle down economics" would be better than what we have been getting. 

Wealth has been trickling up, as Republicans have cut taxes on the wealthy. 

Basically the entirety of the past century of American economics shows that your beliefs are wrong. 

Anyone can be wealthy if they get a job, make smart decisions and invest money in an index fund. Voo had around 95% return in last 5 years.

The vast majority of stock market gains go to the wealthy, so I feel like that isn't a great point.

When you're poor, you typically don't have much money to put into the stock market... I feel like that shouldn't need to be spelled out for you.

Last edited by sundin13 - on 20 July 2025

xboxgreen said:
Bofferbrauer2 said:

Bolded: Worst example ever.

You see, Apple has an ever-growing pile of over 80 billions in cash that they don't even know what to spend them on. Taxing them for billions of dollars would just help them figure out what to do with all that cash - in this case paying their fair share of taxes for once. And t wouldn't affect any of their daily activities in any negative way. But greedy people gotta greed...

Pay taxes to the government so they can waste even more money? That won't help in the long run. Also, they will use their money eventually when the next big thing comes along. Just like how a lot of tech companies are invest in AI.

Obviously not all money going into taxes is a waste since a lot of it goes back into supporting the community in some way.

Making a blanket statement about tax money not being used properly is not a good argument. 

These companies have so much money, they don't even know what to do with it most of the time. The will still have more than plenty after taxes to keep investing in AI or whatever they want.



xboxgreen said:
the-pi-guy said:

Even "trickle down economics" would be better than what we have been getting. 

Wealth has been trickling up, as Republicans have cut taxes on the wealthy. 

Basically the entirety of the past century of American economics shows that your beliefs are wrong. 

Anyone can be wealthy if they get a job, make smart decisions and invest money in an index fund. Voo had around 95% return in last 5 years.

That always sounds so easy but if someone earns below the median income, investing enough to "get wealthy" after some decades also means taking (for that income) a lot of money away which these people would need to have a decent financial life before they touch their investments. Telling someone who already has less that he can easily get wealthy with just investing those hundreds of bucks every month which he also needs not to live like a rat in the daily life is just ridiculous.