An ultraconservative Republican House caucus on Wednesday put forth its spending plan that represents a draconian wishlist of attacks on the social safety net and consumer and environmental protections while including a plan to further enrich the wealthy by making making permanent parts of the GOP tax plan.
The budget blueprint from the Republican Study Committee (RSC) — and titled A Framework of Unified Conservatism — says it “would take unprecedented steps to begin the deconstruction of the administrative state” and would cut $12.4 trillion over the next decade from federal spending.
Those cuts come from achieving what the document refers to as “long-time conservative priorities,” but which represents the wholesale evisceration of public services and government programs designed to bolster the economy and serve the less fortunate.
Among the plan’s numerous goals are the repeal of Obamacare and raising the eligibility age of Medicare and Social Security benefits to age 70. It also seeks to weaken cost-of-living adjustments and increase premiums. It also calls for work requirements for “all federal benefit programs.” The “reform” of safety net programs also includes capping federal funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and weakening school lunch subsidies.
The wealthy however, fare quite well in the plan. The individual income tax cuts in the Republican Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which have an end date of 2027 and already disproportionately benefit the rich, would be made permanent.
The CFPB, the plan says, should be eliminated and the CHOICE Act, which critics warn would “eviscerate” consumer protections, should be passed.
The Clean Power Plan and Ozone rule should be blocked, the blueprint urges, and the federal government should be prevented from putting forth fracking regulations. At the same time, the plan calls for allowing the extraction of fossil fuels on any federal land within a state’s borders.
And the Congressional Review Act (CRA) — already being questionably used under Trump administration, should be expanded. “Namely, the CRA’s expedited procedures should not be limited to the current 60-day window after an agency completes reporting of a rule,” the documents reads. “At any time, Congress should be able to quickly nullify the regulations of which it disapproves.”
The Hill reports, “It’s unclear whether the RSC budget will get a House floor vote this year, especially if the Budget Committee does not produce its own budget.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy