Need for Change
It’s clear Americans are demanding significant change. Too many people are struggling financially while the rules are rigged to make the rich richer. And the dramatic overspending needs to stop.
But Trump’s Big Bad Bill isn’t the answer.
It puts tax giveaways to the wealthy on steroids.
The main problem with the bill is it undermines the fiscal stability of our country by dramatic overspending due to tax giveaways to the rich. Additionally, it cuts food and health programs so severely, millions of our fellow Americans will suffer.
Crucially, the bill also cuts funds to the judicial branch so the judiciary cannot enforce decisions against the executive branch, making it hard for judges to hold the president accountable to the Constitution and the rule of law.
To learn more about what’s wrong with the Big Bad Bill, you can read Robert Reich here.
and Paul Krugman here:
What real change looks like
We can cut costs and increase revenues in ways that strengthen our country, not weaken it.
The New York Times once published a summary of the federal budget. I sat down with a pencil and set aside the day to figure out how to balance the budget.
To my surprise, I was done in 15 minutes!
Here’s the key: reduce costs by cutting subsidies to big business, and increase revenue by cutting tax giveaways to the rich. Problem solved, budget balanced.
Here’s what that might look like.
TO REDUCE COSTS, remove the huge subsidies to big business.
Remove subsidies to Big Oil. They make a ton of money and don’t need we taxpayers to increase their profits: the heads of fossil fuel companies admitted this when under oath at a Congressional hearing.
The Trump administration is slashing subsidies to renewable energy, saying it should be able to compete in the free market. This hides the fact that we taxpayers give huge subsidies to the fossil fuel companies, which tilts the field in their favor. If you want the level playing field of a free market, then remove ALL subsidies to ALL energy companies, starting with fossil fuel companies. (Renewable energy is now less expensive than coal or oil: if we just competed on price without government subsidies, renewables would win hands down.)
Crack down on big health companies who are taking advantage of Medicare Advantage with overpayments to them estimated to be between 1.3-2 trillion dollars over the next decade.
Reign in Big Pharma which charges Americans way more than other countries for the same medicine. Since millions of people are covered under Medicare and Medicaid, fair drug pricing would save the government billions of dollars. It’s worth noting that the Biden Administration made progress on this, and the Trump Administration rolled it back.
Cut the colossal waste in the military budget, spending that doesn’t enhance US security but lines the pockets of the weapons companies and their shareholders. The military budget has a base of about $850 billion, with supplemental funds added all the time for military action. That’s bigger than the spending of the next nine largest countries combined! Our military spending should be grounded in our needs for national defense, not profits for defense corporations.
So, let’s review military spending to find savings that don’t hurt our security.
These are examples of real waste and fraud - by corporate greed.
Why didn’t Elon Musk and DOGE go after any of this waste?
Maybe because that’s how Musk made his money – with government subsidies. All the damage done by DOGE slashing IRS employees, national park rangers and more didn’t do much to move the needle: going after corporate subsidies is where the real savings would be.
Doing this will not hurt American entrepreneurship: in fact, big business often uses its money and clout to keep out innovators and buy up (or crush) emerging competitors.
TO INCREASE REVENUE, cut the tax giveaways to the rich. Here are a few examples below.
Get wealthy Americans to pay the taxes they already owe. Americans are cheated out of about $600 billion that taxpayers owe but don’t pay. Trump slashed staff at the IRS, making it harder to collect what’s owed. Hire the IRS personnel back to get those funds.
Likewise, get corporations to pay the taxes they’re avoiding.
Get rid of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts to the rich (which this bill extends and increases).
What We Can Do
Sometimes bills like this are so big, they’re overwhelming.
But we can have an influence on it! Here’s what you/we can do:
Ask your representatives in the US Senate and US house to vigorously oppose this bill. At a minimum, call them: better yet, go visit their office in person, and bring friends.
It’s important to remember: just because the bill passed the House, doesn’t mean the fight is over. The bill is now in the US Senate where it’s under review: push hard for the above changes. Then it will go to conference committee to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions: that’s another opportunity to change it, where both Senators and Representatives in the House can have influence.
Join with Indivisible members in your community, find them here: https://indivisible.org/stopthecuts
Push your elected representatives to speak out against giveaways to big business and the very wealthy through tax breaks and subsidies - and to restore funding that helps regular Americans with food and healthcare.
Remember: The people united will never be defeated.
In solidarity,
Eleanor