Kitchen Table Bills: Trump's Project 2025 Will Decimate the Middle Class
Conservatives Root for Financial Failure in Election Years
Ever noticed how every election year, Republicans root for economic failure so they can paint a bleak picture of the economy under a Democratic administration?
If not, consider this comment in an Instagram video I made about voting for Kamala Harris because of her commitment to restore the protections of Roe:
By this logic, women should gleefully give up our bodily autonomy so Trump can tank our economy and stuff the pockets of his wealthy and well connected friends? Continue reading to read my actual reply to this comment.
Republicans use the economy to stoke anger and frustration against incumbent Democrats and promise to swoop in and fix everything if they are elected. Therefore, the most recent positive news about inflation must have them pretty nervous. The Federal Reserve announced a 2.2 percent inflation rate, which is close to the goal of 2 percent.
Better still, the country’s unemployment rate, one of the best indicators of how the country is performing, remains low, showing signs of a strong and resilient economy. Union strength is back in the spotlight with last year’s successful Hollywood strikes. Americans see the benefit of banding together to fight for equitable employment.
People are working, earning fair wages, and pumping money back into their communities.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t always feel this way. Republicans know the bar is low, and if they hit just the right notes on the campaign trail, they can stoke frustration, anger, and fear into votes.
With inflation woes easing and other factors of the U.S. economy outperforming, Republicans are making a desperate case that Donald Trump is the savior America needs. They need pocketbooks to feel empty, not actually be empty.
Trump’s campaign antics around the economy have bordered on the absurd, like this show-and-tell using groceries as a prop at his private golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Time magazine reports that the initial investment to become a member is $350,000, though the club didn’t confirm that cost.
He wants us to believe he’s a champion of the middle class?
The truth is, he is and always has been in the pocket of his billionaire friends who are injecting millions into his campaign so they can sell you a lie that the tax cuts he intends for them will somehow benefit you.
We’ve been waiting for more than four decades for Reaganonomics to trickle down, but it turns out the plan to shrink the federal workforce, cut taxes for the rich, and shrink social programs was just an excuse for the rich to become richer and the wealth divide to deepen.
The best way to improve our economy isn’t to vote for a millionaire adjudicated-rapist, 34-count convicted felon. It is to support working families.
But Trump’s Project 2025 does the opposite, shifting taxes from the wealthy to the middle class under the guise of “simplifying” our tax system. People earning less than $168,000 a year would pay a 15 percent tax rate, forcing millions of families to pay higher taxes than they currently do.
This would force many middle-class families to pay thousands of dollars more in tax payments. It would also take away “most deductions, credits, and exclusions” (see page 696), and does not specify that it would keep provisions like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) or the Child Tax Credit (CTC) that overwhelmingly benefit low- and middle-class families.
It also lowers the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 18 percent, meaning big businesses get massive tax discounts while everyday working families make up for it with a tax hike. According to the Joint Economic Committee, “The last time Republicans cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent in 2017, it added $1.3 trillion to the deficit over a decade while most of the benefits went to shareholders, high earners, and executives.”
This is why Elon Musk has been stanning for Trump, ridiculously jumping in the air with glee for how much money he’s going to pocket. It’s gross to watch our country’s most famous internet troll debasing himself so he can save a few bucks on the backs of his workers, but this is the America that Project 2025 wants for us.
Imagine being so wealthy you have enough money to end world hunger — like actually feed every person in the world. And you choose to do this instead:
In fact, Musk, with a net worth of $195.1 billion, struggles to allocate even a small amount to philanthropic efforts. He founded the Musk Foundation (clever name). As a supposed nonprofit, it' is mandated by law to use at least 5 percent of its assets for charitable causes. Nevertheless, Musk’s contributions are self serving, often only benefitting his business associates and special interests.
At least two beneficiary countries of the Musk Foundation later became customers of Starlink, Musk's satellite internet service.
Funds also have been directed toward schools catering to children of SpaceX employees.
On its website, The Musk Foundation says the grants support initiatives like renewable energy research, human space exploration, and the development of AI, which are all dumped right back into his companies.
People like Musk and Trump do not care about you as you’re sitting at your kitchen table trying to work out how to pay your bills and change your oil and pay for your prescription medication. They take your vote and laugh all the way to the bank. And no amount of golf club grocery photo ops or high jumps will ever change that.
So, to go back to the original Instagram comment that I started with. Here was my reply:
”I am voting for Kamala Harris because 23 Nobel Prize-winning economists have said Trump’s plan would flatten the economy and called Harris’ plan vastly superior. I’m voting for Harris because I’m smart enough to know the entire world experienced a recession after Covid — that’s why it was called a global pandemic — and the United States faired far better than many countries because of Democratic leadership. I’m voting for Harris because the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act have directed impacted my community. Most of the people around me have jobs, wages are up, and our roads and bridges are finally improving. I’m voting for Harris because I’m a Christian and take seriously the call to feed the hungry and welcome the foreigner.
By the way “killing babies” is what happens when someone walks into a classroom with an AR-15 and all Republicans do is offer thoughts and prayers. It doesn’t make much sense to pretend to care about them in the womb but not the classroom, does it?”
Onward, Democracy Defenders!
Excellent piece. Would submit this to the Missoulian please? oped@Missoulian. So easy for the repubs to grasp. Thank you so much!