With the GOP’s safety net-shredding budget blueprint headed for a crucial vote in the Senate this week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) blasted his Republican colleagues’ proposals in a Guardian op-ed Monday as little more than a “gift to billionaires” made possible by doing “incalculable harm to tens of millions of working families, our kids, the sick, the elderly, and the poor.”
“The Republican budget, which will likely be debated on the floor of the Senate this week, is the Robin Hood principle in reverse,” Sanders writes. “It takes from those in need and gives to those who are already living in incredible opulence.”
As Common Dreams has reported, despite the GOP’s and the Trump administration’s best efforts to portray their budget and tax plan as pro-middle class, non-partisan analyses have laid bare the fact that their proposals amount to an enormous boon to the wealthiest Americans.
The independent Tax Policy Center found last month that by 2027, 80 percent of the Trump-GOP tax cuts will be enjoyed by the top one percent.
To clear up budget space for this reward to the rich, Republicans are preparing to inflict “massive cuts [to] programs that working class Americans desperately need,” Sanders notes.
“This budget cuts Medicaid by more than $1 trillion over 10 years — which would throw some 15 million Americans off of the health insurance they currently have,” Sanders adds. “Further, this budget does what the Republicans have not yet attempted to do in their previous healthcare legislation and that is to make a $473 billion cut to Medicare, despite Trump’s campaign promises not to cut these programs.”
To the question of why the GOP would so severely slash crucial safety net programs and deliver massive tax cuts to the wealthy — moves recent polls have found are extremely unpopular among vast majority of the American public — Sanders responds: “follow the money.”
“Today, we have a corrupt campaign finance system that enables multi-billionaires, along with some of the most powerful CEOs in America, to contribute many hundreds of millions of dollars to elect Republican candidates to represent their views,” Sanders writes. “As a result, the top one percent has been able to rig the political system to favor them at the expense of virtually everyone else.”
Thanks to this system, Sanders argues, most Americans are subjected to devastating austerity while the rich and politically influential — like the Koch brothers and the Walton family — continue to get richer, decade after decade.
“At a time when the middle class is shrinking and over 40 million Americans are living in poverty, this budget must be defeated and replaced with a plan that reflects the needs of the working families of our country,” Sanders concluded, “not just the wealthy, the powerful and large campaign contributors.”
House Republicans approved their own budget blueprint, which largely reflects the priorities of their Senate allies, earlier this month.
If the Senate version — which allows for $1.5 trillion in tax cuts and over $5 trillion in spending cuts — is approved later this week, the path will be paved for Republicans to “fast-track” their tax legislation without needing any Democratic support.
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
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In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $120,000 in one-time donations and to add 1383 new monthly donors by midnight on December 31.
Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.
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