Resist the Republican Reverse Robin Hood
By Susan Harley
There’s nothing beautiful about stealing from the poor to give to the rich.
But that’s just what happened when House Republicans passed President Donald Trump’s budget bill late Wednesday night with a razor-thin vote of 215-214. They attacked Medicaid, which will cause 8.6 million people to lose their health care coverage. In addition, three million people will lose their SNAP food benefits and many millions more will see them limited. This, so they could give a permanent handout to the very wealthy in the form of policies like keeping a lowered tax rate for the richest Americans and letting hedge funds get a bigger tax deduction.
While they were at it, they threw in some bacon for Big Tax Prep by sliding in language to terminate Direct File, the new, free IRS software that was just starting to get off the ground, which saves Americans $160 per year on average and hours of their time. Money that will now stay securely in the pockets of the huge online tax filing corporations.
This bill also expands militarized spending – an unneeded and entirely wasteful $163 billion – which is effectively a handout to private military contractors. Insert some tech bros in the mix, and we’re talking about funding killer robots run on AI. Not terrifying at all.
Speaking of AI, the House-passed bill included a provision that would preempt regulation of AI across the nation, halting the important work of state lawmakers who are protecting their residents from harms as varied as teen suicide, errors in the medical field, deadly mushroom misidentifications, or election disinformation.
A budget bill should be showcasing the morals of the country. After debating during the dead of night, House Republicans voted to steal food out of the mouths of the hungry to do things like let more multimillionaires escape the estate tax. What does it say about taking healthcare away from sick people, people in long-term care facilities, babies and new mothers? This legislation is a deep stain on our nation, is what it says.
Positively ugly.
Even with all of this leaving people out to die by slashing healthcare and nutrition assistance to enrich Pentagon contractors and billionaires, this legislation still manages to jack up our nation’s debt even further, while putting more money in the pockets of the monopolists who have been making all our bills more expensive. (Yes, that same debt for which we just got downgraded on our credit score. Might want to back off the credit cards a bit, America.)
If you think it couldn’t get worse, on theme for 2025, I can assure you that it does indeed double down on its cruelty by ensuring the next generation won’t be able to quell the climate ravages that greatly threaten the quality of life they can expect in the future. That’s because the bill also includes a massive rollback of renewable energy incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that help deliver cheaper and cleaner energy for American families.
The bill can also be called One Bountiful Oil Billionaire Bonanza with its numerous subsidizes like immediate write offs for drilling equipment and Big Oil pay-to-play provisions that allow natural gas pipeline companies and natural gas exporters to pay $10 million and $1 million, respectively, to evade compliance with public health and safety laws.
If the Senate approves this budget, it will gut the middle class, escalate already unconscionable economic inequities, torch our environment, enrich war mongers, and further burden our nation’s debt. A real Brazen Billionaire Bait-and-switch.
Luckily, the fight is not over! There is still time to resist this reverse Robin Hood where food stamps, college assistance, and Medicaid dollars are stuffed into the pockets of rich campaign donors.
Sure, we can’t all afford buy enough worthless grift crypto scam memecoin to get a seat at $Trump’s table, but We The People still have a voice. The Senate has to pass this bill before Trump’s billionaire buddies get their tax kickbacks.
Now is the time to use it.
Please pick up your phone and call your senators at (202) 224-3121 and tell them to oppose this terrible bill. And, if you send us an email, Public Citizen is poised to train you with the tools you need to tell the people in your life how important it is for them to make a call too – including your friends and families who live in red states.
America is better than this. Let’s make sure of it.