By Don C. Reed
Which government program do you like best? Social Security? Unemployment benefits? Food programs for the hungry? Obamacare? Funding for public schools?
Choose one program. Now ask yourself, which party built that program? Democrats did. Which Party supports that program today? Democrats do. And which party wants to shut that program down, or reduce it to bare bones?
You know the answer. If not, just keep your eyes open and it will soon be clear.
In a few days, Republicans will dominate the House, Senate, and Supreme Court, as well as the White House. I don’t think there has ever been a President with more unbalanced authority.
Federal employees may even have to sign a letter of resignation, before their first day on the job. That means they can be let go, for any reason, or no reason at all — a powerful incentive to do exactly what the President says.
The Republican guidebook “Project 20/25” shows how far even opinions may be controlled. For instance, one of Project 20/25’s provisions is that federal employees will make no mention of climate control. (1) Pollution and weather extremes may not even be talked about.
Major changes are in the works. Unless you are rich, these will probably not be to your advantage. For instance, do you have excellent health care insurance? If not, you probably want Obamacare — which President Trump has promised to kill.
The tax system will be changed, so the rich and corporations can pay even less, if that is possible. In ten recent years, for example, billionaire President Donald Trump paid zero federal taxes. (2)
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will have its budget cut in a major way, perhaps by half — — why? The IRS is supposed to collect taxes from the rich. A smaller IRS will have less chance to prevail against an army of corporate lawyers, whose only purpose is to keep taxes low on their rich clients.
Many valuable programs will have their funding reduced or eliminated, if the Republicans pass another giant tax cut, as they did in the first Trump Administration. Social Security itself may not be safe.
How about the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the valuable medical research it funds, searching for a cure of cancer and other diseases? A reduction of 600 employees is threatened, roughly half their staff to be gone. (3)
Food for the hungry? That is paid for by tax dollars, so even its funding is at risk.
Because of decisions made by the Supreme Court, the rich have essentially no limits on the campaign contributions they can give to the Government, thereby gaining unacknowledged — and almost unlimited — control.(4)
What did it mean for Elon Musk to be able to donate $150 million dollars to the Republican ground game — in just one day?
According to conservative strategist Steve Bannon, “Look, he (wrote) a $150 million check for the ground game…at the exact moment we needed it. He came in with the money. …it’s the reason we won.” (emphasis added) (5)
Democrats did some serious fund-raising as well, but mainly small dollar donations. Republicans can throw a mountain of money at a single race, and they did. Democrat Sherrod Brown of Ohio went up against a billionaire candidate who donated $32,000,000. to his own campaign — how is any non-billionaire candidate supposed to match that kind of cash?
The odds are against the Democrats; the deck is well and truly stacked.
But the mission remains nonetheless: constant as the stars.
Identify problems and implement solutions, make life better for those in need.
That is what Democrats do.
2. https://fortune.com/2020/09/27/trump-paid-no-income-taxes/
3. https://www.npr.org/2024/11/12/nx-s1-5183014/trump-election-2024-nih-rfk
5. https://www.yahoo.com/tech/elon-musks-money-reason-won-140000551.html