Did you all read the article? This dude is a slimy, Christo-fascist sack of shit, but the article title makes it seem like him and other Republican dick bags are withholding aid to the hurricane ravaged areas, which isn’t apparent in the article:

“‘Well, it can wait because, remember, the day before Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida and then went up through the states and wound up in Senator Tillis’s state of North Carolina, Congress appropriated 20 billion additional dollars to FEMA so that they would have the necessary resources to address immediate needs,’ Johnson said.”

“FEMA officials say they have sufficient resources to respond to the pair of hurricanes until Congress returns, but they also indicated nearly half that money (10b) is already spent.”

This seems more like shitty political theater to me, though if it gets magats to somehow not vote for a crazed lunatic I’m all for it.

While you are correct that dividends would be paid, it just wouldn’t happen on this scale or to this detriment, imo. Buybacks are used as a crutch to generate Short-term profit and lead to executives and companies focusing on short-term goals. They artificially increase EPS for executive compensation. This is all exacerbated when companies know they’re going to be bailed out by taxpayers because there are only 2 companies that make planes now, or 3 media companies setting prices together.

Between 1998 and 2018, the plane manufacturer also manufactured a whopping $61.0 billion in stock buybacks, amounting to 81.8 percent of its profits. Add in dividends and Boeing’s shareholders received 121 percent of its profits.

Stock buybacks should be illegal or at least heavily regulated. They’re stealing money from their employees, putting their company in peril by not having cash on hand, and stunting innovation. Imagine if major companies had to put profit back into their company? Instead it’s a game to see how much you can exploit the working class, how little you can innovate and still get by (it’s easy when you have no competition), and gamble (after lobbying with minimal money) that your political plants will force the taxpayers you’re exploiting to bail you out. It’s pretty disgusting.

https://greenalphaadvisors.com/boeings-struggles-highlight-the-perils-of-stock-buybacks/

https://www.tipranks.com/stocks/ba/buybacks#google_vignette --> they’re still doing it as of March of this year.