Blog Post

Trump’s Billionaire Budget Puts the Rich First, at the Expense of Everyone Else

The House of Representatives just passed Trump's budget reconciliation proposal that would gut key programs to support tax cuts for the rich.

Trump’s budget bill takes money away from regular Americans and spends it on ICE raids and tax cuts for the rich. Here are 12 ways that the Trump budget reconciliation proposal may hurt you:

  1. The reconciliation bill extends the 2017 Trump tax cuts, which keep taxes low on the richest Americans and do almost nothing to help the lowest earners. But this time around, the bill is also expected to lower the after-tax income of many Americans making less than $51,000 per year.
  2. If this bill is passed, Medicaid would endure big changes, which could cause 7.6 million Americans to lose their health insurance over the next ten years. New work requirements and more frequent eligibility checks are just some of the ways that the bill will cut $600 billion in Medicaid spending, the largest funding cut in the history of the program.
  3. A preliminary CBO analysis found that Trump’s bill will add trillions of dollars to the current deficit – and that means more money being spent on interest and less on programs that we all need and use, like health care, education, and infrastructure. It also means the nation will be less capable of responding to crises, like the pandemic or a recession.
  4. Millions could lose some or all of their food stamp benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) at a time when the cost of living is a major concern. This reconciliation bill proposes tightening the program’s eligibility requirements and shifting costs to the states, despite many state leaders saying their budgets can’t afford to pick up the slack.
  5. The bill proposes major changes to student loan programs, including eliminating flexible repayment plan options and tightening the Pell Grant requirements, which experts say will result in less federal financial aid for American students.
  6. The reconciliation bill cuts $26 billion in rental assistance programs, including Section 8.
  7. The bill cuts $15 billion from the Department of Education, and a massive private school voucher program in the bill will divert funding from our public schools and send taxpayer dollars to private schools. 
  8. Many states are considering ways to regulate AI and prevent AI-based discrimination in the workplace, health care, and insurance, but this bill would prevent states from regulating AI for ten years.
  9. The reconciliation bill cuts the National Science Foundation’s budget by more than half, which will cripple essential research that leads to medical discoveries and technological advancements that we all benefit from.
  10. The bill proposes making it much harder for the courts to hold the Trump administration in contempt if they violate a court order. Given the administration’s history of ignoring the courts (see the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case), this is a terrible idea that will hand Trump a dangerous amount of power.
  11. The bill eliminates clean energy tax cuts, which experts project could raise Americans’ energy bills by as much as 7%. 
  12. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which has repeatedly violated the right to due process and carried out Trump’s cruel mass deportation plan, will receive $45 billion to spend on detention through September 2029, a jaw-dropping 365% increase on an annual basis from its current budget. That’s more money going towards locking people up and less to Medicaid, SNAP, and countless other essential programs.

The House has already passed this dangerous bill – now it’s up to the Senate to stop it. Senators must stand up for their constituents and reject a budget that guts health care, hikes costs for working families, and hands billions to the ultra-rich and Trump’s deportation machine. 

 

Goodbye, Elon: Musk Broke A Lot of Things, But Fixed None

Blog Post

Goodbye, Elon: Musk Broke A Lot of Things, But Fixed None

Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who tried to destroy the federal government from the inside, has left the building, but he’s left a big mess behind him.

Common Cause Takes Legal Action To Defend Birthright Citizenship

Blog Post

Common Cause Takes Legal Action To Defend Birthright Citizenship

We filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court to fight Trump's attack on birthright citizenship and our constitution. Here’s more information about what that means, why we did it, and what’s at stake.