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Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
"If Republicans get their way, low-income children will go hungry, seniors will be forced to choose between lifesaving medication and putting food on the table, and the planet our kids inherit will be in jeopardy."
A congressional committee on Tuesday released an annotated report exposing how the far-right Project 2025 "would undercut working families by making healthcare and higher education less affordable; providing less support to families; and rolling back climate enforcement and research."
The Joint Economic Committee (JEC) Democrats' publication is just two pages, but it highlights attacks on healthcare, education, and the climate found throughout the "radical" policy agenda for the next Republican president, which is over 900 pages long.
Along with the lengthy policy agenda, the 2025 Presidential Transition Project includes personnel recruitment, training, and a 180-day playbook. The project is led by the Heritage Foundation, backed by over 100 other groups.
The Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, but at least 140 people who worked in his first administration, including six former Cabinet secretaries, have been involved with it. Also, his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio)—a JEC member—wrote the foreword to Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts' new book.
"This Republican plan would concentrate power within the executive branch, make life harder for working people, and cede power to Big Pharma and other corporations."
As the JEC Democrats report details, on the healthcare front, Project 2025 calls for "reversing Democrats' efforts to lower prescription drug costs (see page 465)" and "putting lifetime limits or caps on Medicaid coverage (see page 468)."
The agenda also calls for overruling the Food and Drug Administration's "approval for medication abortion (see page 457), making it increasingly difficult to access these vital medicines by mail (see pages 458-459), and prohibiting the use of federal funding to cover the travel needed to obtain an abortion (see page 471)," the publication continues.
In terms of education, the report adds, Project 2025 advocates "gutting public school funding by creating a school voucher program (see page 347) and cutting Title I funding that supports low-income schools (see page 325)," as well as "rolling back free school meals programs for low-income children (see page 303)."
The impacts would be felt at all levels of education. It calls for "eliminating Head Start (see page 482)," an early childhood education program serving nearly 800,000 kids, along with "ending the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF) (see page 354) and creating a new, less generous income-driven repayment (IDR) plan (see page 337)."
The report notes that Project 2025's plans for wrecking the global climate include "directing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to favor fossil fuels over renewables and raise market prices received by fossil fuel companies (see page 400)" and "gutting Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforcement (see page 425)."
It also recommends "rolling back Democrats' investments in clean energy production that are cutting pollution and lowering emissions (see page 365)," "removing key protections for public lands (see page 532)," and "dismantling the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a hub for climate research and the primary source of weather data (see page 674)."
Overall, "this Republican plan would concentrate power within the executive branch, make life harder for working people, and
cede power to Big Pharma and other corporations," the report says, blasting the agenda as "an assault on the rule of law and a host of other core American freedoms."
In a statement announcing the new report—which follows JEC Democrats' analysis of Project 2025's anti-worker economic policies—committee Chair Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) stressed the importance of thwarting efforts to enact the far-right agenda.
"Republican's Project 2025 is a radical agenda that rolls back decades of progress we've made toward a better future for everyone," he said. "If Republicans get their way, low-income children will go hungry, seniors will be forced to choose between lifesaving medication and putting food on the table, and the planet our kids inherit will be in jeopardy. We can't let that happen."
"The ultra-wealthy would get hefty handout while families suffer. We can't let that happen," said Sen. Martin Heinrich, the chair of the Joint Economic Committee.
An economic analysis of the far-right Project 2025 agenda crafted by at least 140 former Trump administration officials shows that the plan would result in higher taxes on working-class Americans and "corporate welfare" for the rich and large businesses.
Conducted by the Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee (JEC), the new analysis notes that Project 2025's sprawling "Mandate for Leadership" would establish a "two-rate individual tax system of 15% and 30% that eliminates most deductions, credits, and exclusions."
Such a system, according to the JEC, "would force many middle-class families to pay thousands of dollars more in tax payments."
"Together, these changes to tax rates would mean that a family of four earning $90,000 per year would have paid roughly $2,300 more in taxes last year," the JEC found. "If the Child Tax Credit was also eliminated, this family would have paid roughly $6,300 more. Meanwhile, millionaires would pay a lower top tax rate."
The analysis also points to Project 2025's push for a "national sales tax," a highly regressive proposal endorsed by dozens of Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives.
A national sales tax would "force working families to pay more at the grocery store, gas pump, and any other place they buy
goods or services," JEC said Thursday, noting that past GOP proposals "would have hiked the cost of essentials like groceries and housing—usually exempt from state and local sales taxes—by 30%."
Meanwhile, Project 2025 calls for reducing the U.S. corporate tax rate from 21% to 18%. According toThe Washington Post, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump's advisers have discussed slashing the tax rate to as low as 15%, and the president himself has told leading executives and his wealthy campaign donors that he intends to push for additional tax cuts if he wins another four years in the White House.
"It would force Americans to pay more at the grocery store, strip workers of overtime pay, and raise taxes on working families."
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), chair of the JEC, said in a statement that "Republicans' Project 2025 is bad for America," as "it would force Americans to pay more at the grocery store, strip workers of overtime pay, and raise taxes on working families."
"The ultra-wealthy would get hefty handout while families suffer," Heinrich added. "We can't let that happen."
The JEC analysis also highlights Project 2025's proposed assault on worker protections, noting that the far-right plan would make "fewer workers eligible for time-and-a-half overtime pay"; allow "children to work in hazardous occupations such as factories, meatpacking plants, and sawmills"; and gut National Labor Relations Board enforcement.
Other broad, potentially destructive reforms advocated by Project 2025—which is spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation—are eliminating the Federal Reserve's mandate to pursue full employment and abolishing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, long a target of corporate America and their Republican allies in Congress.
Recent polling data indicates that Project 2025 is unpopular with U.S. voters and becomes even more so once they are informed about the far-right initiative's proposals.
That could explain why Trump has sought to distance himself from Project 2025 in recent weeks, claiming he has "no idea who is behind it" despite the close involvement of a number of prominent figures who served in his administration, including former Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought.
An unnamed former senior adviser to Trump toldNew York magazine last month that "it's totally false he doesn't know what P25 is."
"Privately, he is of course talking to Heritage, and [Heritage president] Kevin Roberts has reportedly even met with Trump on P25," the ex-adviser said.
"House Republicans' approach is dangerous and destabilizing," warned Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. "Republicans are gambling with Americans' savings, benefits, and lives, all to play a political game."
Congressional Democrats on Thursday forcefully called out their Republican colleagues for holding the economy hostage by refusing to raise the country's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling without major spending cuts, risking the first-ever U.S. default.
Democrats declined to even try to raise the nation's arbitrary and arguably unconstitutional borrowing limit while they still controlled both chambers of Congress during last year's lame-duck session, setting up the current fight. Because the ceiling has already been hit, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is now taking "extraordinary measures" to give lawmakers more time to act, but the deadline to do so looms, with a default possible as early as June, based on the latest federal estimates.
"This report shows that a Republican default crisis means real dollars coming out of American families' wallets and savings decimated."
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) along with other key party members came together Thursday to unveil an alarming six-page Joint Economic Committee (JEC) Democratic staff report.
"This report shows that a Republican default crisis means real dollars coming out of American families' wallets and savings decimated. This is not a hypothetical exercise to the millions of Americans—including veterans and seniors—who rely on the United States government for benefits, pensions, and disability," Schumer said in a statement.
"House Republicans' approach is dangerous and destabilizing," he added. "Even the threat of a breach will raise costs on everything from car loans to mortgages. Republicans are gambling with Americans' savings, benefits, and lives, all to play a political game."
Specifically, according to the report, if the GOP forced a historic and "catastrophic" default:
"A decade ago credit rating agencies downgraded the U.S. credit rating after Republican debt limit brinkmanship, and it drove borrowing costs for the American people higher in a variety of ways," noted Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.). "This Joint Economic Committee report quantifies what kind of damage regular people could see if that happens again, and it is very bad."
"This would affect everyone who borrows money, including the United States government, which would have to pay more in its borrowing costs," he explained. "In other words, Republican hostage-taking on the debt limit would actually increase the deficit."
Beyer, Schumer, and Jeffries were joined at the news conference Thursday by Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) as well as Sens. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), the JEC chairman-designate, who stressed that "the debt ceiling is not a bargaining chip."
While several of them slammed "MAGA Republican in the House," 71-year-old Moore chose to describe the GOP lawmakers whose actions are jeopardizing not only the U.S. but also the global economy another way.
"I have a great-granddaughter that falls out and rolls on the floor when she can't have her way. I tell her she needs to get up because she's not gonna get it," Moore said. "Republicans need to get up and stop holding our economy hostage."
"We are not going to devastate our seniors and our children, and we will not sabotage the world's standard credit rating," the congresswoman declared. "Republicans need to get up off the ground and raise the debt limit!"
Adding to concerns about the U.S. and global economies are recent bank turmoil and repeated interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve—which, along with Congress, is facing criticism for regulatory rollbacks that experts tie to the bank failures.
As Punchbowl Newsreported Wednesday:
Instead of expressing caution, senior GOP lawmakers are leaning into their plans to demand spending cuts in return for raising the nation's borrowing limit. The Republicans we spoke to doubled down, arguing the same factors that led to the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank necessitate urgency in reducing government spending.
"This is the best time to do it," House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said of the debt limit fight. "That interest rate pressure that is creating some risk in the banking industry is a result of the inflation that has been induced by the massive amounts of spending."
[...]
Arrington's panel will play a central role in the Republican posture heading into negotiations with President Joe Biden. While House Republicans have yet to release their budget, GOP leaders have vowed to roll back spending to FY2022 levels. That would mean a cut of roughly $130 billion from last year's funding level. Democrats and the White House have assailed the plan as an attack on working families, seniors, and veterans, while Republicans insist the cuts are necessary to rein in inflation.
The Texas Republican said it "makes sense that when you have a debt ceiling negotiation," lawmakers would "reflect on the indebtedness of our country" and look to cut spending at the same time.
Punchbowl noted similar remarks this week from Reps. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) and John Rose (R-Tenn.) along with GOP Conference Secretary Lisa McClain.
Biden introduced his budget blueprint for FY2024 earlier this month. Though progressives condemned the president's historically high request for military spending as "madness" they also praised his push for massive social investments as well as tax hikes targeting wealthy individuals and corporations.
Meanwhile, "House Republican leaders did not respond to multiple questions from USA TODAY about when the GOP budget would be ready," the newspaper reported Wednesday.
As USA TODAY detailed:
An initial proposal from the House Budget Committee includes cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, Biden's student debt cancellation, and funding for electric vehicles for the U.S. post office.
It also includes reinstating work requirements to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
A proposal from the House Freedom Caucus includes $131 billion in cuts for fiscal year 2024.
"Extreme MAGA House Republicans are showing us what they value: tax breaks for the rich," Biden said of the caucus' proposal. "They demand the biggest Medicare benefits cut in decades, ship jobs overseas, defund law enforcement, devastate our national and border security. It's a gut punch to the middle class."
As Liz Zelnick from the watchdog Accountable.US warned, "The MAGA extremists running the House fully intend to manufacture a disastrous default crisis by making demands they know to be nonstarters—like letting wealthy tax cheats and big polluters off the hook."