The U.S. Government is there to provide services, financial aid, healthcare and protections of Americans’ rights. Trump and his deputy Musk, however, want to eliminate or weaken the federal agencies responsible for these benefits. Many of their actions will hit every American that is not among the wealthiest as well as Trump’s supporters.
You’ll find it hard to believe Trump’s lethal undertakings described below, but don’t default to an oh-that-will-never-happen denial. There is an explanation why they will.
Trump checks all the boxes that mental healthcare professional’s use to diagnose a sociopath: He is emotionally incapable of caring for, and therefore considering, the needs of anybody but himself, and can’t feel guilt, shame, remorse, or empathy. He acts without considering the consequences and creates and believes his own realities, including that he doesn’t need you because he’s convinced he’ll be king for life. So he’s free to trash benefits Americans dependent on. What other explanation can there be? Certainly not that he’s doing what’s best for America.
Cutting benefits and expenses won’t hurt the wealthiest Americans. Indeed, they will cover the tax revenues the government loses from Trump’s $4.5 trillion tax cut that disproportionately benefits the wealthiest Americans.
On March 25, Trump’s Social Security Commissioner (SSA) asked managers for plans to cut 50% of its staff, while the agency is at 50-year staffing low. The mass firing could gut field offices across the country where individuals apply for Social Security, Medicare and disability benefits. The SSA has begun by announcing plans to cut 7,000 jobs to align with Trump’s executive order to slash the federal workforce.
Trump, enabled by his obedient Republican majorities, will, like his idol Vladimir Putin, enrich himself and his wealthy gang of American oligarchs at the direct expense of working Americans. It will be no different than Trump, Musk and their gang of oligarchs wiring funds from your saving account to theirs.
House Republicans’ budget raises the debt ceiling by $4 trillion so Trump could borrow enough to cover the revenues the government will lose from their planned $4.5 trillion tax cuts (which is also included in the White House budget) which would give halfof the benefits to the 5 percent of taxpayers that currently have incomes over $320,000. Their budget also requires $2 trillion of compulsory cuts, $880 billion of which are expected to hit Medicaid which over 72 million Americans depend on. It will make healthcare more expensive and less accessible for American workers. The $2 trillion of compulsory cuts could also target reductions to programs like Medicare, school lunches and other benefits for the needy.
Trump said he’s eliminating more than 90% of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall U.S. assistance, cancelling the majority of U.S. development and humanitarian aid abroad that prevents disease outbreaks and threaten outbreaks in the U.S. – all of this while HIV and drug-resistant tuberculosis are now spreading unchecked in many countries reliant on USAID medications.
Trump must be unaware of the crucial benefits the U.S. gets from foreign aid because his freeze would wipe out nearly all of them. Foreign aid spreads America’s influence and military might around the world. It’s been an important tool for building U.S. military bases, critical allies and America’s leadership. The cuts could enable China’s and Russia’s influence and military advancements beyond ours.
Foreign aid also bolsters economic and political stability in developing countries that reduces the risk of coup’s by corrupt leaders and leaders hostile to America. It also strengthens the U.S. economy by growing foreign industries that buy U.S goods. Over the past 10 years, nearly two-thirds of the growth in U.S. exports was given to major recipients of U.S. aid.
Trump touts blocking foreign aid as a money-saving move, but it’s less than 1% of the US budget and, as.02% of gross national income, it’s near the lowest percent of any country and well-worth its benefits.
Trump froze all payments of financial assistance programs in the U.S. without identifying which programs were affected. Federal at home aid reaches every corner of Americans’ lives. It funds education, health care, anti-poverty, housing assistance, disaster relief, civil rights, medical research, environmental organizations, animal cruelty prevention and more.
Trump’s executive orders paused or cancelled federal funding of programs and grants for farmers, 78 percent of whom voted for him in 2016. Farmers are still awaiting payments of billions of dollars. Although Trump’s Secretary of Agriculture announced the release the first tranche of funding and promised that existing contracts will be honored, farmers have not been told when or if they’ll receive the rest.
Funding cuts from the Department of Agriculture have hobbled the country’s ability to battle the bird flu that’s sweeping the poultry industry and infecting dairy herds. In true slapstick form, Trump mistakenly purged the government of researchers that were working to combat the disease and is now trying to rehire or replace them.
Trump launcheda massive purge of theAir Traffic Control Staff at the Federal Aviation Administration that’s responsible for air traffic safety and falsely blamed the FAA’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies for the crash that killed 67 people aboard two aircrafts.
Trump also fired three of the five board members of the National Labor Relations Board making the simple majority needed to function impossible. The agency is responsible for protecting labor rights, such as defending workers fired for supporting unions and for adjudicating alleged violations.
Now workers will have few avenues for recourse if they are punished or fired for unionizing or if their employer is not bargaining in good faith. The crippling of the NLRB is a huge win for individuals like Elon Musk who’ve been sanctioned by it and want to see it eliminated.
Sadly, it will take a long time for the world to regain their trust in America’s government or in the electorate that put Trump in office twice. To regain that trust, America’s voters must elect members of Congress – Democrats or Republicans — that will vote their conscience and impeach Donald Trump.su
