Cherian Dabis — If the U.S. is bombing your homeland, you shouldn't have to pay taxes. Ft Cherien Dabis
Summary
Cherian Dabis drops a provocative tax policy proposal: if the U.S. is bombing or funding the bombing of your homeland, you shouldn't have to pay taxes. She calls it "double billing" when people have to fund attacks on their own countries. Kareem agrees enthusiastically. The conversation spirals into what could happen if Americans could choose where their tax dollars go during filing season. Dabis rattles off a list: Palestine, Venezuela, Syria. She's confident the government would lose "a lot of revenue" if immigrants from bombed countries got exemptions. Both imagine a checkbox system where taxpayers opt out of war spending entirely, directing money toward education and healthcare instead. "That would be real democracy," Dabis argues, betting most Americans would check "no war." The take is absurd on its face but lands with genuine frustration. Peace.
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Full Transcript
So, what's your take? If the US is bombing or funding the bombing of your homeland, you shouldn't have to pay taxes.
100% agree. Right. Yes. Exactly. It's like they don't get your home and your money. Like, that's, that's just double billing.
It's double billing. Super unfair. And guess what? I'm pretty sure we'd stop bombing.
Exactly. Because we're bombing a lot of places.
100%. So we would stop bombing cuz we need the tax dollar, right?
Yeah. It's a great idea. They keep wanting to like send us home, but how can we go home when they bombed our home? And then we're using our tax dollars to bomb our home.
That's right. Doesn't really make any sense. No.
I wonder how much money the federal government would lose out on. You should do the math. What countries we got right now? Palestine, Venezuela, Syria. We're talking about funding as well. [screaming] I'm going to say that we're got a lot of—we're going to lose a lot of revenue.
I mean, we pay taxes, but what do we see for those taxes? We get roads. Maybe they were paid once.
Shout out the fire department. Yes.
Yeah. I mean, we don't get a lot. [laughter] I think when I'm doing my taxes, I can say I don't want my dollars to go towards bombing, right?
Or just in general, anyone when you do your taxes, it says, "Where do you want the money to go?" And you go, I want it to go to education. I want to go to healthcare. I don't—I want to opt out of war. That would be real democracy. Cuz if you think about it, then we're really deciding where our taxes go. And I'm pretty sure many people in this country that pay taxes, regardless of where they're from, would opt out of the war. They would check no war.
That's right. And that's a democracy.
I think this is something Americans can get behind. Yeah.
So we need to talk to some people. You know, more people than I know.
I'm not sure that my representatives will be very helpful. I don't think any of the representatives will be very helpful.
You don't think it's very realistic? I think everything's possible. [laughter]
Okay. I'm serious. I think everything's possible.
Very optimistic. As long— I am an eternal optimist.
I am too. The country is not in a good place. But I think that if we keep fighting— for our rights.
That's right. we can correct the course.
Stop the bombs. Peace.