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economic justice
Economic Anxiety of Americans Surges Under Trump: Poll
"The president promised to lower costs on day one, and by that standard, he's broken that promise and has made choices that will cost families thousands of dollars a year," said one policy expert recently.
May 12, 2025
The Trump administration has made its desire for Americans to expand their families well known, but a new survey out Monday details how a growing number of people are postponing such major life decisions—including having children, buying a home, or expanding their education—due to the economic anxiety created by President Donald Trump's policies.
The Harris pollwas conducted on behalf of The Guardian between April 24-26, in the wake of the news that the White House was considering multiple ways to encourage people to have more children. The proposals being floated by "pronatalist" advisers include a $5,000 "baby bonus" that the administration would offer to people when they have a new baby—which would cover less than half of the average annual cost of childcare in the United States.
The survey suggested that the proposal was not enticing to would-be parents in the U.S., with 65% of people who had previously planned to have a child in 2025 reporting they were now holding off on the decision. Thirty-three percent said they were not comfortable expanding their families in the current economy, and 32% said they were unable to afford having a child.
Trump has imposed and rolled back various tariffs several times since taking office; the White House announced Monday that reciprocal tariffs with China were being paused for 90 days while the two countries try to work out a trade deal. Tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods are partially in effect, and the administration has also imposed tariffs on aluminum and steel imports, cars, and car parts.
The U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter, with the gross domestic produce declining at an annual rate of 0.3% after having climbed by 2.4% in the final quarter of 2024.
For Americans, the tariffs have meant higher prices for items like toys, children's clothes, household tools, and washing machines.
As Common Dreams reported last week, despite Trump's proposal of a "baby bonus," Groundwork Collaborative executive director Lindsay Owens has termed the tariffs a "baby tax"—directly causing essentials like strollers, high chairs, and cribs to cost more.
"The president promised to lower costs on day one, and by that standard, he's broken that promise and has made choices that will cost families thousands of dollars a year," said Groundwork Collaborative fellow Michael Negron told a U.S. House committee last week.
Nearly 80% of people surveyed said they've experienced higher grocery prices since Trump took office—despite the fact that he explicitly promised his presidency would swiftly bring about a lower cost of living—and 60% said they noticed their monthly bills going up.
The Harris poll found that 66% of people are now putting off making large purchases like cars or home appliances under Trump's economy, and three-quarters of those who had previously been hoping to buy a home are postponing that purchase.
Mortgage rates are currently 6.7%—more than double what they were four years ago.
CNNreported last month that although interest rates on home loans have been falling, "President Donald Trump's scattered approach to tariffs and an escalating trade war with China has injected volatility into the stock market, and resulted in a sell-off in U.S. bonds last week."
Sixty-eight percent of Millennial and Gen Z renters—those in their 20s, 30s, and early 40s—said they had a goal of buying a home, compared to 29% of older renters, suggesting that the major life decisions of younger Americans are being most affected by the Trump administration.
The Harris poll also asked respondents if they believed the economy is worsening, and found a partisan divide: 33% of Republicans said yes compared to 73% of Democratic voters who agreed.
But among Independents—44% of whom supported Trump in the 2024 election, according to a post-election survey—64% agreed with the majority of Democrats about the economy's trajectory.
Nearly a third of respondents said they believe Trump's tariffs will cause the most harm to their household finances, despite the president's claims that the tariffs will "make America wealthy again."
During his testimony last week, Negron said that higher prices on essential goods and services "are the types of things that you would expect to hear when you look at what experts have said, that [tariffs are] going cost anywhere from $4,500 to $5,000 more for the average household once they're fully in effect."
"When you look at the promises to lower prices," he said, "the administration is not living up to them."
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The DOGE Attack on the IRS Is an Attack on Economic Justice and Equality
Because the IRS brings in the revenue that funds the rest of the government, Musk’s gang is striking at the heart of the federal government’s ability to fund the needs of the American people.
Apr 15, 2025
Today is Tax Day, and the brazen attack of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency against the federal government looms large over the Internal Revenue Service. The recent announcement that reductions in force are commencing at the IRS spells danger for taxpayer services, essential government workers, and the heart of our voluntary tax system.
As the president of the union representing IRS employees and the executive director of the largest tax fairness coalition, we each bring a different perspective to this unfolding catastrophe. But we share the same strong objection to DOGE’s drastic, ill-conceived and likely illegal attack on the nation’s tax collection agency.
The immediate victims of the DOGE attacks on the agency are the laid-off employees and those threatened with firing. Though Musk and President Donald Trump present their haphazard crusade as one waged against elites in the nation’s capital, the reality is that about 85% of federal employees work outside the Washington, D.C., area. As a result, neighbors across the country will lose their jobs, and communities everywhere will feel the economic impact of lost IRS positions and facilities.
If Musk tries to cut $10 billion from IRS enforcement spending, he will be risking $50-90 billion in lost revenue each year. That’s a strange strategy for someone who claims he wants to make the government more cost-efficient.
IRS employees are disproportionately female and members of racial or ethnic minorities, groups that have historically faced discrimination in hiring and advancement. Nearly 10% of IRS workers are military veterans. The National Treasury Employees Union is currently in court fighting these improper layoffs.
Next, taxpayers filing their annual returns and expecting prompt refunds will feel the impact. The reduction in IRS employees means fewer answered calls, longer wait times for help, and delayed refunds. The administration’s plan to shut over 100 taxpayer assistance centers across the country will leave most Americans unable to get in-person help with their tax issues.
As damaging as the cuts are to every federal agency, cuts to the IRS are different in one important respect: They could cost us a fortune in lost revenue.
Roughly 70% of the personnel cuts thus far have been in enforcement, which will make it easier to avoid detection for the millionaire and billionaire tax cheats who evade an estimated $150 billion in taxes every year. It is estimated that every dollar cut from enforcement costs $5 to $9 in revenue. So if Musk tries to cut $10 billion from IRS enforcement spending, he will be risking $50-90 billion in lost revenue each year. That’s a strange strategy for someone who claims he wants to make the government more cost-efficient.
However, it’s really not surprising that Musk, the richest individual in the world, is focusing on diminishing the agency’s ability to enforce the law. That’s what his allies in Congress have been trying to do ever since the agency received restored funding in 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act. That increased enforcement has focused exclusively on wealthy households and big corporations. Musk has a vested interest in hobbling IRS efforts to ensure the rich and big corporations pay what they owe.
The Inflation Reduction Act’s restored funding for the IRS yielded successes. As of last summer, the agency had collected over $1 billion just from 1,600 millionaires who owed but had failed to pay at least $250,000 each. It also informed Microsoft that it owed $29 billion in back taxes and had plans to increase audits on big companies (those worth more than $250 million), large partnerships (those with over $10 million in assets), and individuals with income over $10 million.
The Musk axe might also fall on the IRS Direct File program, the new system allowing taxpayers in about half the country to file for free directly with the government, bypassing expensive tax preparation firms. (The program is still in the pilot stage and will eventually be available to all taxpayers.) Musk announced recently he “deleted” the technical support department that helped create Direct File, but as of now the service itself is still operational. We don’t know how long that will last with Musk’s operatives roaming the halls of the IRS.
The restored funding for the IRS also helped it improve customer service. The average wait time on calls to the agency had dropped from 30 minutes to 3; over 50 in-person taxpayer assistance centers had been opened before the mass closures, and backlogs of unprocessed returns dropped.
All of this is at risk, of course, as DOGE prepares a “hackathon” that would allow our national tax data to be easily accessible to third parties. Compromising the tax data of millions of Americans in conjunction with efforts to stall attempts to modernize our tax system portend nothing less than disaster for the services we depend on.
Because the IRS brings in the revenue that funds the rest of the government, Musk’s gang is striking at the heart of the federal government’s ability to fund healthcare for seniors, nutrition for children, and other needs of the American people. The DOGE attack on the IRS is also an attack on economic justice and equality. Taxes on ultra-high income and extreme wealth help to narrow the nation’s destabilizing economic gaps. It’s hard not to conclude that those very injuries—not “waste, fraud and abuse”—are the real aim of DOGE’s wayward campaign.
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Following Record-Breaking LA Rally, Sanders Takes Fighting Message to Coachella
"We need you to stand up to fight for justice—fight for economic justice, social justice, and racial justice," Sanders told the festivalgoers.
Apr 13, 2025
Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders capped off a record-breaking Los Angeles stop on his "Fighting Oligarchy" tour with Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Saturday by making a surprise appearance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California.
Sanders took the festival stage Saturday night to introduce singer-songwriter Clairo—whom he praised for using her platform to fight for women's rights and "to try to end the terrible, brutal war in Gaza." Before introducing the singer, he shared a message with the young people in the crowd.
"The country faces some very difficult challenges, and the future of what happens to America is dependent upon your generation," Sanders said to cheers. "Now you can turn away and you can ignore what goes on, but if you do that, you do it at your own peril. We need you to stand up to fight for justice—fight for economic justice, social justice, and racial justice."
Sanders criticized U.S. President Donald Trump in particular for his denial of the climate emergency.
"Now we've got a president of the United States," Sanders began, only to be interrupted by a chorus of boos.
"I agree," he said, continuing to lament that Trump "thinks climate change is a hoax. He is dangerously wrong."
Sanders: We’ve got a president of the United States who— Crowd: Boooo Sanders: I agree
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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) April 12, 2025 at 10:14 PM
"You and I are going to have to stand up to the fossil fuel industry and tell them to stop destroying this planet," Sanders said.
He also urged the audience to stand up for women's rights, an economy that prioritizes the working class over billionaires, and the right to healthcare.
His speech at Coachella came after he addressed a crowd of tens of thousands with Ocasio-Cortez at Los Angeles' Gloria Molina Grand Park Saturday afternoon. Writing on social media, Sanders said the event drew a crowd of 36,000, breaking the record he and the New York representative set in Denver in March.
"Your presence here today is making Donald Trump and Elon Musk very nervous," Sanders said as he announced the record to the crowed.
The pair repeated many of the themes that have defined the "Fight Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here" tour since Sanders launched it in February to counter both the billionaire takeover of the U.S. government and the move toward authoritarianism under Trump.
"We're living in a moment where a handful of billionaires control the economic and political life… We're living in a moment where the president has no understanding or respect for the Constitution of the United States, and let us make no doubt about it, moving us rapidly toward an authoritarian form of society," Sanders said Saturday afternoon, as the Los Angeles Daily Newsreported.
"And, Mr. Trump, we ain't going down," he said.
Ocasio-Cortez called out "Trump's corrupt and disastrous tariff scheme" that played out over the past week, in which the president announced new tariffs on Tuesday only to declare a pause when the market fell, causing it to rally again. The incident has sparked suspicions of insider trading.
"It's been despair every day. And being around all these people and hearing these messages is helpful right now."
"I hope that we all see now that the White House's tariff shuffle here didn't have anything to do with manufacturing like they claimed," she said. "It was about manipulating the markets. It was about hurting retirees and everyday people in the sell-off, so Trump could quietly enrich his friends whom he nudged to buy the dip before reversing it all in the morning."
AOC also criticized the culture of playing the stock market in U.S. Congress, saying the body and its members "have somehow conditioned itself to actually believe that it is normal for elected representatives who swear an oath to the American people to day trade individual stocks that make millions with the sensitive information we are entrusted with for the purpose of governing."
"How can anyone possibly make an objective vote on healthcare, energy, or war when their personal money is tied up in pharmaceutical, oil and gas, or defense company stock?" she asked, before concluding, "They can't."
At Saturday's rally, the two lawmakers were also joined by musical guests Neil Young, Joan Baez, The Red Pears, Maggie Rogers, Indigo de Souza, and the Raise Gospel Choir, as well as other progressive politicians and community leaders including Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), District 1 LA City Councilmember Eunissess Hernandez, California Labor Federation President Lorena Gonzalez, and SEIU President April Verrett.
The event inspired hope in several of the 36,000 attendees, with Myylo Lewis of Silver Lake, California tellingThe Guardian that Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders were the "closest thing to a version of America you actually want to live in."
"I needed this right now," 32-year-old Tracy Setto of Palmdale told the Los Angeles Daily News. "It's been despair every day. And being around all these people and hearing these messages is helpful right now."
David Rasmussen, meanwhile, felt inspired.
"We've all got to rise up together, fight it, push it back, make something else happen because this cannot go on," Rasmussen toldAl Jazeera.
The Los Angeles event was the first in a five-day Western swing of the tour. Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez will next appear in Salt Lake City on Sunday evening, followed by stops in Nampa, Idaho; Bakersfield, California; Folsom, California; and Missoula, Montana.
"The American people, whether they are Democrats, Republicans, or Independents, do not want billionaires to control our government or buy our elections," Sanders said in a statement announcing the Western part of his tour. "They do not want Republicans to decimate Social Security and the Veterans Administration. They do not want huge tax breaks for the wealthiest people in the country paid for by massive cuts to Medicaid and other programs that working families rely on. That is why I will be visiting Republican-held districts all over the Western United States. When we are organized and fight back, we can defeat oligarchy."
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