Pulling Apart the GOP Budget: Red States and Deficits.
Unf*cking The Republic
How are program rules being changed to cut benefits?
Host describes procedural changes—work requirements and asset limits—that make families ineligible for mandatory programs.
We’re experimenting with something. As we work toward a complete breakdown of the federal budget in a comprehensive essay and companion episode, we’re bringing our audience into the content creation process. We have a feeling this is going to be one of our behemoth entries into the canon (and potentially a two-parter.) So rather than overwhelm everyone with information in one shot, we thought it would be useful to break it apart as we go. The first two entries made it to YouTube already but I’m packaging them up in a single episode today. The first is how the GOP budget disproportionately impacts red states. And not in a good way. The second brings us back to our Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) discussions and reframes the way we think about the national debt. Both are crucial building blocks in our understanding of the federal budget.
Chapters
Intro: 00:00:36
Red State: Fucked. 00:01:30
We Solved the Debt Crisis: 00:06:39
Post Show Musings: 00:21:49
Outro: 00:25:05
Resources
Congress: H.R.1 - 119th Congress (2025-2026): One Big Beautiful Bill Act
Bipartisan Policy Center: Federal Balancing Act
White House: Fiscal Year 2026 Discretionary Budget Request
Jacobin: Trump’s Budget: Starving Everything Except the Military
Bloomberg Television: Millstein on US Downgrade, Tariffs, Trump Tax Bill
PBS News: What’s inside the House GOP’s budget bill? Here’s a look
Congress: H.Con.Res.14
PGPF: Chart Pack: The U.S. Budget
PGPF: What Is Budget Reconciliation?
The Conference Board: Reforming the Broken Federal Budget Process
NACO: U.S. House passes reconciliation bill: What it means for counties
Bipartisan Policy Center: What’s in the FY2025 Senate Budget Resolution
Georgetown CCF: Medicaid and CHIP Cuts in the House-Passed Reconciliation Bill Explained
Reuters: US Treasuries: Who owns US debt?
UNFTR Resources
Video: GOP Spending Bill is a Red State Bloodbath
Video: Big Bullsh*t Bill adds $2.4 trillion to National Debt
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Unf*cking the Republic is produced by 99 and engineered by Manny Faces Media (mannyfacesmedia.com). Original music is by Tom McGovern (tommcgovern.com). The show is hosted by Max and distributed by 99.
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