A reclusive billionaire, anti-tax crusader and major financial backer of Donald Trump has been named as the anonymous private donor who gave $130m to the government to help pay US troops during the federal shutdown that is now in its fourth week, according to the New York Times.
The donation, which equates to about $100 per service member, appears to be a potential violation of the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits federal agencies from spending funds in advance or in excess of congressional appropriations – and from accepting voluntary services “except in the case of emergency involving the safety of human life or the protection of property”.
Potential penalties for violations include both administrative and criminal sanctions such as suspension or removal from duty, fines and imprisonment.
This’ll make him billions. It was smart
“Smart.”
More money than anyone could ever need in 500,000 lifetimes already, and this is the “smart” move?
How about just shut the fuck up and enjoy the life of a goddamn king
There are people who are quietly living a great life with wealth, I’ve met some of them. Money only amplifies who a person is, because it gives them a bigger platform to act.
You know that person who can never have enough, and has some big hole inside them they keep trying to fill from the outside? Give them a few billion and here you are.
You could have just named Bezos directly there…
Your upvote ratio on this comment is deeply concerning, and reinforces the point many others are making.
To an american, there’s always an amount of money they will sell their morals and values out for. Most of these up votes are from americans, or westerners who have fallen for american propaganda.
To pretty much everyone else, they would have enough money already. Why waste time pursuing more money when it will literally change nothing in your life.
I think most people understand I’m not happy about it. I wish it weren’t the case but it’s true, it was smart for him. That’s exactly what they always do.
Rich fucks will screw over the general populace to make an extra dollar.
He already has billions more than he could spend in a lifetime. It isn’t smart it’s deranged.
Yep. Billionaires only care about that number (their net worth) going up. It doesn’t help them in any substantive way when the number goes up. But they don’t have anything else to give their lives meaning. Just to have some number go up and to have their number be higher than other people’s numbers.
If they didn’t care about that number, and only cared about their selfish lifestyle, without comparing to others, for example, then with the value of money today, they’d probably stop bothering to hoard money long before they hit a billion dollars. It’s a pathetic excuse for a life to keep accumulating like billionaires do. They don’t care who they hurt as long as that fucking number gets bigger.
its a dick measuring contest amonst billionaires, either through donating to conservatives, or money laundeirng through charity like gates.
Billionaires care about that number because it equates to power and influence. This is a great example of that. The Trump Administration is effectively trying to bribe the military/ICE by keeping them paid during this shutdown while he waits for Democrats to cave when medical insurance premiums skyrocket and SNAP runs out and people start to starve. This leaves the population vulnerable for when Trump inevitably orders a purge of the American people.
The big question in the room is will the military and ICE be willing to take on the entire US population? I already know ICE is willing to shoot their own mothers in the face for a paycheck (or even for free cuz some of them be that sick), but the military has too many people who will simply break rank with Trump cuz they take their oath to the Constitution seriously.
It’s sad that it comes down to the consciences of soldiers as to whether America gets to rebuild Democracy or not, but that’s where we are.
Start making a list of Billionaires, MAGA asshats, and Right Wing Grifters though. Cuz the one thing I can tell you is that Americans are going to want a very different flavor of justice should we reinstitute Democratic Norms in this country, and we shouldn’t forget who to eat first.
100$/ soldier isnt going to mean much its also a ONE TIME THING.
Look how excited everybody got over those fucking $600 “stimulus” checks. Not even one month’s rent for anybody.
I wonder how much in total his taxes would contribute to the military if he just played by the rules and wasn’t an evil twat. Like that’s clearly well beyond what 99% of the US could ever earn in their life, let alone pay into taxes. Further more for every dollar you put into taxes, not all of it goes to the military. Forget still you can be sure this asshat has greased some palms of politicians throughout his life. Between the $130M and the
bribestotes legal campaign donations, what would his effective tax rate have needed to be to get to that number?