

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.


Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.

Jared Kushner, senior advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence attend a joint statemen in the Rose Garden held by U.S. President Donald Trump and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong October 23, 2017. (Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Just days after 51 Senate Republicans approved a budget resolution that paves the way for over a trillion dollars in cuts to life-saving safety net programs and a massive windfall for the wealthy, White House staffers teamed up with the President Donald Trump's rich donors to launch a multi-million dollar sales campaign aimed at winning over the American people, who polls have found are overwhelmingly opposed to slashing taxes for millionaires, billionaires, and large corporations.
"The GOP's plan to sell its tax bill is obvious: lie."
--Ben Wikler, MoveOn.orgLate Monday, top White House officials quietly met with leaders of the "non-profit" America First Policies, which is affiliated with the pro-Trump super PAC America First Action. As Politico's Alex Isenstadt reports, both organizations have raised around $25 million in 2017, and the groups are looking to "play a more visible role" in the struggle to convince Americans that enormous tax breaks for corporations and the top one percent will primarily benefit the working class.
Non-partisan analyses have shown that the Trump-GOP plan, contrary to White House talking points, would disproportionately favor the rich.
Isenstadt summarized the White House donor meeting:
Those involved in Monday's gathering included Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, Nick Ayers. Also present were Brian Walsh, Brad Parscale, Katie Walsh, and Corey Lewandowski--all top strategists for the pro-Trump nonprofit America First Policies.
During the course of the hour-long meeting, top officials with America First Policies signaled plans to wage an aggressive effort to push tax reform, according to four people with knowledge of the discussion. The group told the White House it was planning to spend in the millions.
Trump is also set to meet with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill Tuesday, where he hopes to "forge unity" behind a plan that critics have denounced as a "tax scam."
The White House's gathering with well-heeled donors and congressional Republicans to "plot" its tax plan sales campaign came as resistance groups are also preparing for a long fight against the Trump administration's efforts.
As Common Dreams reported last week, MoveOn.org and a coalition of progressive tax organizations are teaming up to mobilize and counter White House and GOP "turbo spin mode."
Ben Wikler, Washington director of MoveOn.org, reiterated in a Twitter thread late Monday the importance of calling attention to the potentially devastating consequences of the Republican tax push and remaining focused amid the "constant barrage" of Trump-related chaos.
"The GOP's plan to sell its tax bill is obvious: lie. The longer the debate rages, the more their lies crumble. So they want speed. We delay," Wikler wrote. "The GOP knows their donors will drop them like a hot rock if they don't deliver tax cuts for their billionaires. Works for me. Let's do that... and in the process, we just might rescue healthcare, pell grants, disaster preparedness, and every other damn thing the federal government does."
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Just days after 51 Senate Republicans approved a budget resolution that paves the way for over a trillion dollars in cuts to life-saving safety net programs and a massive windfall for the wealthy, White House staffers teamed up with the President Donald Trump's rich donors to launch a multi-million dollar sales campaign aimed at winning over the American people, who polls have found are overwhelmingly opposed to slashing taxes for millionaires, billionaires, and large corporations.
"The GOP's plan to sell its tax bill is obvious: lie."
--Ben Wikler, MoveOn.orgLate Monday, top White House officials quietly met with leaders of the "non-profit" America First Policies, which is affiliated with the pro-Trump super PAC America First Action. As Politico's Alex Isenstadt reports, both organizations have raised around $25 million in 2017, and the groups are looking to "play a more visible role" in the struggle to convince Americans that enormous tax breaks for corporations and the top one percent will primarily benefit the working class.
Non-partisan analyses have shown that the Trump-GOP plan, contrary to White House talking points, would disproportionately favor the rich.
Isenstadt summarized the White House donor meeting:
Those involved in Monday's gathering included Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, Nick Ayers. Also present were Brian Walsh, Brad Parscale, Katie Walsh, and Corey Lewandowski--all top strategists for the pro-Trump nonprofit America First Policies.
During the course of the hour-long meeting, top officials with America First Policies signaled plans to wage an aggressive effort to push tax reform, according to four people with knowledge of the discussion. The group told the White House it was planning to spend in the millions.
Trump is also set to meet with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill Tuesday, where he hopes to "forge unity" behind a plan that critics have denounced as a "tax scam."
The White House's gathering with well-heeled donors and congressional Republicans to "plot" its tax plan sales campaign came as resistance groups are also preparing for a long fight against the Trump administration's efforts.
As Common Dreams reported last week, MoveOn.org and a coalition of progressive tax organizations are teaming up to mobilize and counter White House and GOP "turbo spin mode."
Ben Wikler, Washington director of MoveOn.org, reiterated in a Twitter thread late Monday the importance of calling attention to the potentially devastating consequences of the Republican tax push and remaining focused amid the "constant barrage" of Trump-related chaos.
"The GOP's plan to sell its tax bill is obvious: lie. The longer the debate rages, the more their lies crumble. So they want speed. We delay," Wikler wrote. "The GOP knows their donors will drop them like a hot rock if they don't deliver tax cuts for their billionaires. Works for me. Let's do that... and in the process, we just might rescue healthcare, pell grants, disaster preparedness, and every other damn thing the federal government does."
Just days after 51 Senate Republicans approved a budget resolution that paves the way for over a trillion dollars in cuts to life-saving safety net programs and a massive windfall for the wealthy, White House staffers teamed up with the President Donald Trump's rich donors to launch a multi-million dollar sales campaign aimed at winning over the American people, who polls have found are overwhelmingly opposed to slashing taxes for millionaires, billionaires, and large corporations.
"The GOP's plan to sell its tax bill is obvious: lie."
--Ben Wikler, MoveOn.orgLate Monday, top White House officials quietly met with leaders of the "non-profit" America First Policies, which is affiliated with the pro-Trump super PAC America First Action. As Politico's Alex Isenstadt reports, both organizations have raised around $25 million in 2017, and the groups are looking to "play a more visible role" in the struggle to convince Americans that enormous tax breaks for corporations and the top one percent will primarily benefit the working class.
Non-partisan analyses have shown that the Trump-GOP plan, contrary to White House talking points, would disproportionately favor the rich.
Isenstadt summarized the White House donor meeting:
Those involved in Monday's gathering included Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, Nick Ayers. Also present were Brian Walsh, Brad Parscale, Katie Walsh, and Corey Lewandowski--all top strategists for the pro-Trump nonprofit America First Policies.
During the course of the hour-long meeting, top officials with America First Policies signaled plans to wage an aggressive effort to push tax reform, according to four people with knowledge of the discussion. The group told the White House it was planning to spend in the millions.
Trump is also set to meet with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill Tuesday, where he hopes to "forge unity" behind a plan that critics have denounced as a "tax scam."
The White House's gathering with well-heeled donors and congressional Republicans to "plot" its tax plan sales campaign came as resistance groups are also preparing for a long fight against the Trump administration's efforts.
As Common Dreams reported last week, MoveOn.org and a coalition of progressive tax organizations are teaming up to mobilize and counter White House and GOP "turbo spin mode."
Ben Wikler, Washington director of MoveOn.org, reiterated in a Twitter thread late Monday the importance of calling attention to the potentially devastating consequences of the Republican tax push and remaining focused amid the "constant barrage" of Trump-related chaos.
"The GOP's plan to sell its tax bill is obvious: lie. The longer the debate rages, the more their lies crumble. So they want speed. We delay," Wikler wrote. "The GOP knows their donors will drop them like a hot rock if they don't deliver tax cuts for their billionaires. Works for me. Let's do that... and in the process, we just might rescue healthcare, pell grants, disaster preparedness, and every other damn thing the federal government does."