Ep 219: How Elites Concern Troll 'Waste' to Gut Social Welfare and Divide the Working Class
Citations Needed23 Huhti 2025

Ep 219: How Elites Concern Troll 'Waste' to Gut Social Welfare and Divide the Working Class

"Poverty plan hit for fraud, waste," reported the Associated Press in 1966. "Study says government waste is unbelievable," insisted United Press International in 1983. "Beneath Trump's Chaotic Spending Freeze: An Idea That Crosses Party Lines," announced The New York Times in January of this year.

It's an argument that dates back decades, even centuries: Government is bloated, spending wastefully, and enabling widespread fraud and abuse. The only solution to this waste, fraud, and abuse is to root it out. Cutting salaries, personnel, or entire programs or agencies, it follows, will streamline government bodies, saving millions to billions of dollars.

But who gets to decide what's "wasteful" in the first place? How are these concepts routinely racialized? What effect does it have on a public dependent on social programs and essential government services like safety inspections? And why should governments be expected to "save" money, when their job—at least in theory— isn't to make money in the first place, but—again in theory—improve the welfare of its citizens?

On this episode, we detail the past and present of the "waste, fraud, and abuse" framing, looking at how it's long been used to justify the degradation of essential social programs; mischaracterize governments as businesses; and weaken protections for workers, renters, and everyone else who isn't a capital-owning member of the elite.

Our guest is Death Panel's Beatrice Adler-Bolton.

Jaksot(366)

"Shadow Fleets," Sanctions & Western Media's International Law-ification of Arbitrary US Dictates

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Ep 234: TikTok, Gen Z's Move to Social Media and Elite Panic Over Unsanctioned News

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News Brief: ICE, Senate Dems' Counterinsurgency PR, and the Limits of Body Cam Liberalism

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Ep 233: How US Media Naturalizes Capital Strikes and Helps the Rich Undermine Democracy

Ep 233: How US Media Naturalizes Capital Strikes and Helps the Rich Undermine Democracy

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News Brief: As Dem Leadership Waffles—Labor, Organizers, Immigrants Fight Back in Minneapolis

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In this News Brief, we break down Dem leadership's fatuous "body cam" and "training" response to ICE brutality, and how organizers in the Twin Cities are not settling for cosmetic reform. With guest J...

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News Brief: For Media Reporting on Iran, Trump Suddenly Morphs into Pro-Democracy Humanitarian

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In this News Brief, we discuss mainstream media coverage of ongoing protests across Iran and how nearly every major Western outlet has been uncritically framing any potential regime change plans by th...

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In this News Brief, we detail how CBS, Fox, WSJ, and NYT promoted an essentialized, overblown narrative on the "Somali Minnesota fraud" story, teeing up a full blown rightwing incitement campaign agai...

7 Tammi 27min

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