An ICE agent shot and killed a 37-year-old poet and mother of three because, according to Trump, she was “disrespectful to law enforcement.” Watch an ICE agent shoots and permanently blind a 21-year protester.

It’s more than likely that ICE hired many of the 1500 January 6 criminals, like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. Who else would be capable of such cruelty? Oh. I guess Republicans are because they choose not to stop it.

Republicans “Big Beautiful Bill” widens the wealth gap to a record and takes money from Medicare and Medicaid to replace the trillions lost from their $4.5 trillion tax cut for the wealthiest.

Trump cut 90% of foreign aid that prevented fatal diseases while HIV and tuberculosis spread unchecked across the globe. So what if 14 million die. At least Republicans won’t face Trump-backed primary challengers.

No American President ever corruptly enriched themselves. Then along came the Republicans and Trump who built his net worth from $4.3 billion in 2024 to over $7.3 billion in 2025.

If you’re convicted of perjury, tax or bank fraud, election finance crimes, an insurrection, lying to the FBI, rigging an election with foreign help or impeding a Congressional investigation, Trump will pardon you. He pardoned nearly 1,500 individuals charged with offenses at the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, many of whom had been convicted of violent crimes. Now they are probably employed by ICE. Congress could impeach him if the Republicans would keep their Constitutional oaths to their constituents and the country.

Trump didn’t like Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) weak Jobs Report, so he fired the head of the BLS and released his own data. Reliable data have made of our financial markets the world’s the most reliable. Unreliable data will send them into free fall. Only the Republicans can stop him and sustain global confidence in our markets. But protecting Republican seats is more important to them.

Given the Republicans mission to cut Medicaid and Medicare and Trump’s obsession to undo everything Obama accomplished, Republicans will let Obamacare subsidies expire and healthcare premiums will jump from $888 to $1,904 in 2026.

Trump threatens to cut billions in medical research for cancer, cardiovascular disease, dementia, Parkinson’s disease and diabetes and has gutted key parts of the Department of Health and National Institute of Health. Republicans won’t oppose the move. I guess they’re more worried about losing their seats than a family member from a disease that could have been prevented.

Trump is paving the way for Putin to invade NATO members. He’s threatened to stop most military aid to Ukraine unless Zalenski agrees to Putin’s outrageous demands including:

• No promise that Russia won’t invade NATO members.
• NATO won’t expand its membership.
• Ukraine won’t join NATO
• European fighter jets will be stationed in Poland where they’ll be easy targets for the Russian military.

• Crimea and Donbas will be recognized as Russian,
• Ukraine to hold elections enabling Putin to install a puppet government and
• Western military aid to Kyiv will be halted during a 30-day cease fire, making it open season on Ukraine.

As former US Secretaries of State and Defense, Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates warned, “ If … Ukraine is defeated, Russia will almost certainly … attack NATO member countries.”

Probably most disastrous, is that Senate Republicans approved Trump’s cabinet picks who are the most unqualified and dangerous cabinet members in American history. They are threats to America’s health, security, governance, global trust, trade relations, economy and we’ve become an international laughing stock and hated at the same time.

Impeachment may be a drastic step, but it is a necessary one. Allowing the Republicans to continue to enable Trump’s treacheries is knowing homicide. Impeachment is the only meaningful way to repair the damage Trump’s wreaked and to restore the honor, trust and respect that Republicans helped Trump strip away from our country by reducing a once respected global leader to a nation widely mocked, distrusted, and increasingly shunned.

The solution: Replace the Trump-enslaved Republicans with Democrats or with Republicans that are not beholden to him. Then we can get back to the bipartisan politics that solved our problems for centuries.

Twitter (X) https://x.com/ChaosPolicy/status/2013311117100200189?s=20

The post REMEMBER WHEN AMERICA WAS RESPECTED, ENVIED AND TRUSTED? first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.

The Republicans are increasing wealth and income inequality in America by playing bait-and-switch with the middle class through their tax reform policies.

The Immediate Benefits of GOP Tax Reform

The bait: The new tax law gives them immediate bonuses, higher wages and more take-home pay now. The switch begins next year, when the bottom income quartile receives the lowest benefit from the tax cuts and the top 5 percent receive the highest.

Income Gains and Disparities Under Tax Reform

Middle-class incomes will immediately increase, though higher income households will see higher increases — almost 30 percent higher — according to the Tax Policy Center. After-tax income in the 20-80 percent income range will rise 1.7 percent, while those in 95-99 percent income range will rise 2.2 percent.

Future Tax Reform Impacts on Different Income Groups

{mosads}But in 2019 the bottom 90 percent of earners will have lower after-tax income as a result of tax reform, while the top 5 percent will take home more. By 2027, the two lowest income quartiles will receive no benefit from the tax changes, while the top 0.1 percent receive the biggest.  A decade from now, two thirds of middle-class taxpayers will experience a tax hike. Meanwhile, the corporate tax rate reduction to 21 percent is permanent.  

Tax Reform’s Favoritism: Carried Interest and Corporate Benefits

The new tax law also continues a huge, controversial tax break for participation in profits, or “carried interest,” paid to hedge fund managers. They’ll pay a 23.8 percent tax on carried interest for assets held for one year, instead of the normal 39.5 percent rate. Although the amount of revenue lost is small, the break exposes Republicans’ contempt for the middle class, reflecting a belief that it is so uninformed, they can get away with such an in-your-face tax cut for the wealthiest Americans.

GOP Tax Reform’s Impact on Health Care and the Federal Budget

Even more egregious, the GOP repealed the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate to pay for the tax cuts, which will lead to millions being uninsured, and then announced their intent to cut Medicare and Social Security. Trump then released his $4.4 trillion budget proposal, projecting next year’s deficit at double last year’s. Although it may have little impact on the budget Congress passes, it shows Trump’s disregard for economic prudence.

Stock Market Gains and Wealth Distribution

Trump has taken credit for the soaring stock market with a new slogan, “How’s your 401(k) doing?” If he deserves it, he should also claim credit for a massive enrichment of the wealthy. The wealthiest 10 percent own 84 percent of all stocks owned by Americans. Americans without a college education and their children are much less likely to have a direct stake in stocks. Lower-income Americans and minorities derive almost no direct benefit from the rise in stock prices.

Rising Deficits and Interest Rates Under Tax Reform

Sometime after the switch, the middle class will wake up to a $1.4 trillion deficit and debt-induced recession, in which they will fare much worse than the wealthy. Here, the Democrats are complicit.Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) couldn’t have spoken truer words when, describing the budget bill, he said, “It’s a bipartisan compromise in the wrong direction.” Now, with both parties on board, we’ve lost all control over our deficits and debt levels.

Interest rates the federal government pays on its debt are rising, and the CBO says they will triple over 10 years, so we’ll pay $818 billion in interest in 2027, and a total of $5.6 trillion in interest over the next 10 years. Debt service will be the third largest cost in the federal budget by 2026, the second by 2046, and the largest before 2050. Foreign investors are likely to demand higher rates on Treasury securities.

We will experience higher interest rates on mortgages for home buyers, consumers and businesses. That’s  a recipe for recession, which will hurt the middle class the most. Pew Research sorted out three tiers of the middle class and found that, in the Great Recession, the median income for the middle tier shrank 5 percent, while its wealth (assets minus debt) fell by 28 percent. The wealth of the lower-income tier plunged 45 percent.

Sure, top earners were hit, too. But it’s hard to shed tears for them. The income of the top 1 percent fell from $1.56 million in 2007 to $1.26 million in 2014, and the income of the top 0.01 percent fell to a mere $29 million.

The rich have rebounded completely from the recession in terms of employment and earnings. The middle-class and lower-income workers have not. That’s because job losses were concentrated in “middle skill” jobs that require more than a high-school diploma, but less than a college degree — jobs like manufacturing, assembly, mail delivery, and administrative support.  

With the impacts so weighted against the middle-class, how do the Republicans get away with their tax policy? Doesn’t the middle-class understand the implications of the downside?

Pew Research polled mostly middle-class and low-income Americans and found that 65 percent of them said they have somewhat of an understanding of the new tax law. Only 28 percent those said it will have a negative effect on them, and 32 percent said it won’t have much effect on them at all. Thirty-seven percent thought it will have a positive effect on them over the coming years.

Conclusion: The Need for Greater Public Awareness on Tax Reform

Those results indicate most Americans do not understand how tax reform’s downside will affect them after the switch kicks in. If Democrats want to be the party of the middle class and working families, they need to educate them so they see the tax law for what it is and vote accordingly. There’s plenty of opportunity to do so.

The post GOP’s tax reform bait-and-switch will widen inequality first appeared on Inside The Political Chaos.