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"Working-class people cannot afford to pay for these outrageous billionaire tax breaks," said a new ad targeting Republican tax proposals.
As the White House attempted to push the claim that U.S. President Donald Trump's tax agenda is aimed at reducing financial burdens for working families, a fair taxation advocacy group on Friday issued a reminder about the rich corporations and CEOs who have aligned themselves with the administration—funding Trump's election campaign and attending his inaugural events.
"Remind me, who was front and center at the inauguration? Oh right, billionaires," said the group, Unrig the Economy, in an ad that was launched in Nebraska on Friday, referring to the tech moguls who were seated steps away from the Republican president as he was sworn in.
The ad was one of two unveiled by Unrig the Economy on Friday, with the group targeting Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) and Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.)—both of whom have pushed for the Republican tax plan to include lifting the $10,000 limit on the state and local tax deduction (SALT), a move that would benefit wealthy households.
Both Bacon and Lawler won highly competitive reelection campaigns last year, and the ads targeting them "call on constituents to demand that their elected leaders oppose tax breaks for billionaires that will be paid for on the backs of working families," said Kobie Christian, spokesperson for Unrig Our Economy.
"Many American families are already struggling with rising costs, and Trump's tariffs and Republican-backed cuts to necessary programs that everyday people rely on would just make things worse," said Christian. "Working-class people cannot afford to pay for these outrageous billionaire tax breaks supported by Rep. Lawler and Rep. Bacon."
The ad targeting Lawler warns that the swing-district congressman's proposals would "cut taxes for billionaires and make the middle class pay for it."
Along with lifting the cap for the SALT deduction, the priorities Trump laid out for Republican leaders in a meeting on Thursday included an elimination of taxes on tips, overtime pay, and Social Security benefits; an end to tax breaks for sports team owners; the closing of the "carried interest loophole," which benefits private equity and investment firm executives; and a renewal of expiring provisions on the GOP's 2017 tax cuts—whose benefits primarily went to corporations and the wealthy.
The carried interest tax deduction was also proposed in 2017, but was watered down in the final tax plan amid opposition from Wall Street—pushback that Republicans are likely to face again.
Chuck Marr, vice president of federal tax policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP)—which released a policy brief on the extension of the 2017 tax law this week—posted a chart on social media showing how tax cuts for the top 5% of earners would make up nearly half of the cost of extending the law.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday emphasized Trump's proposal to end taxes on tips as a provision in the plan that would help make it "the largest tax cut in history for middle-class, working Americans."
But at One Fair Wage, which advocates for an end to the subminimum wage for restaurant industry workers, co-founder and president Saru Jayaraman said the proposal mainly benefits people "making over $300,000" per year—not the working class.
"What we are going to need to see as working people across this country is elected officials, whether they're Democrats or Republicans, actually delivering for working people, not through empty promises or false solutions like 'no tax on tips,'" said Jayaraman.
According to CBPP's analysis, an extension of the 2017 tax cuts would reduce tax payments by about $61,000 per year for the top 1% of households—those who make $743,000 per year or more—and by about $400 for those in the bottom 60%, who make about $96,000 or less.
On "Fox & Friends" on Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) admitted that extending the 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy would "blow a hole in the deficit" without offsetting the loss of revenue.
"But we're definitely going to get that extended, so we've got to find those savings," he said. "The tariffs are going to bring in revenue, we're going to have massive savings by making government more efficient and effective."
At Unrig the Economy, Christian said the House speaker had let slip an "outrageous admission" and confirmed "what we already knew."
"Congressional Republicans' top priority is enriching the wealthy on the backs of working families," said Christian. "Even as Americans continue to face higher prices nationwide, Republicans insist on further increasing costs for regular people by imposing tariffs on everyday items and cutting federal funding for essential programs such as healthcare and childcare to pay for billionaires' tax breaks. It goes to show that Speaker Johnson and Republicans are determined to keep putting the megarich first and the American people last."
Johnson's comments came as Trump's billionaire backer, tech mogul Elon Musk, was making his way through a takeover of federal agencies through the advisory body the president set up and appointed him to lead, the Department of Government Efficiency( DOGE).
The president is preparing to try to close down the Department of Education, and DOGE has seized control of a Treasury Department payment system that oversees the disbursement of Medicare and Social Security benefits, among other payments.
For American households making less than $96,000 per year, said Americans for Tax Fairness, the Republicans are "going to cut your healthcare, education, Social Security, housing, and more to pay for tax breaks for the rich and corporations."
"In return, you get about $1 a day," said the group. "What more could you ask?"
"This administration's reckless plan to block federal funding has already caused chaos, confusion, and conflict throughout our country," said New York's attorney general, who is leading the legal challenge.
A federal judge in Rhode Island on Friday delivered another blow to U.S. President Donald Trump's effort to dramatically overhaul the government, temporarily blocking the Republican's funding freeze that sparked chaos and confusion this week.
U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. granted a temporary restraining order in response to a lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of the District of Columbia and 22 states. His move came after Washington, D.C.-based District Judge Loren AliKhan issued an administrative stay that blocked Trump's funding freeze until a Monday hearing, in a case launched by nonprofits.
After AliKhan's Tuesday decision, the Trump administration rescinded the relevant memo from Matthew Vaeth, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). However, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on social media Wednseday: "This is NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze. It is simply a rescission of the OMB memo."
"Why? To end any confusion created by the court's injunction," Leavitt wrote, stressing the president's executive orders "on federal funding remain in full force and effect, and will be rigorously implemented."
Citing Leavitt's post in a 13-page order, McConnell explained that the administration tried to claim "that this matter is moot because it rescinded the OMB directive. But the evidence shows that the alleged rescission of the OMB directive was in name only and may have been issued simply to defeat the jurisdiction of the courts. The substantive effect of the directive carries on."
The temporary restraining order is in effect until further action from McConnell, an appointee of former Democratic President Barack Obama. Although the Trump administration can move forward with its review of federal funds, it cannot "pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate" funding to the states or D.C. The judge also prohibited "reissuing, adopting, implementing, or otherwise giving effect to the OMB directive under any other name or title or through any other defendants."
"McConnell's order was expected, as he had signaled following a hearing Wednesday that he was inclined to issue the temporary pause of the Trump administration's directive," CBS Newsnoted Friday.
Still, the Democrats behind the legal challenge celebrated their win. New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement that "this administration's reckless plan to block federal funding has already caused chaos, confusion, and conflict throughout our country. In the short time since this policy was announced, families have been cut off from childcare services, essential Medicaid funds were disrupted, and critical law enforcement efforts were put in jeopardy."
"I led a coalition of attorneys general in suing to stop this cruel policy, and today we won a court order to stop it," she continued.
"The president cannot unilaterally halt congressional spending commitments. I will continue to fight against these illegal cuts and protect essential services that New Yorkers and millions of Americans across the country depend on."
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said that "I am grateful for Judge McConnell's careful consideration of this matter and for seeing the irreparable harm that this directive would cause, and frankly has already caused, Americans across the country."
"As we allege in our complaint, the executive branch does not have the authority to intercept crucially important federal funding that the Congress has already allocated to the states, and on which Americans rely," he emphasized. "This directive targets public safety, healthcare, veterans' services, childcare, disaster relief, and countless other cornerstones of American life."
"Make no mistake: This federal funding pause was implemented to inspire fear and chaos, and it was successful in that respect," he added. "These tactics are intended to wear us down, but with each legal victory we reaffirm that these significant and unlawful disruptions won't be tolerated, and will certainly be met with swift and immediate action now and in the future."
As The New York Timesreported:
Judge McConnell's Friday order does not block the Trump administration from continuing its review, only from defunding those programs that fail its tests in the states that sued—New York, California, Illinois, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, along with the District of Columbia.
In that sense, it may create a divide between Democratic states that will continue to have funds flowing and Republican states that will still face uncertainty.
The judge's decision came as Trump and billionaire Elon Musk—the richest person on Earth and chair of the president's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—attack the federal government in various ways, including by trying to purge the federal workforce.
As
The Washington Post reported Friday that the U.S. Treasury Department's highest-ranking career official, David Lebryk, is leaving his post after clashing with Musk allies over access to payment systems that the agency uses to distribute over $6 trillion, Reuters revealed the DOGE leader's said have "locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees."
Trump's decision to halt funding for a variety of federal programs is "straight out of Project 2025, the far-right blueprint crafted by Russell Vought," said one lawmaker.
The confusion and chaos triggered earlier this week by the Trump administration's federal funding freeze were compounded Wednesday when the Office of Management and Budget issued a new memo rescinding the previous announcement.
Shortly after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that the OMB had rescinded only the memo—not the funding freeze—in an effort to "end any confusion created by" a federal court's injunction blocking the directive, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said one thing was clear.
"No responsible senator of any party should vote to confirm [Russell] Vought to OMB," said the congresswoman.
The original order, which said all federal grants and loans would be halted starting at 5:00 pm ET Tuesday and which resulted in Medicaid payment portals being shut down across the country, and its subsequent rescission, offered "just a taste of the chaos Russ Vought would unleash," added Ocasio-Cortez, urging Americans to demand that their senators vote against President Donald Trump's nominee for OMB director.
Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) echoed Ocasio-Cortez, saying the attempt to freeze federal grants was "straight out of Project 2025, the far-right blueprint crafted by Russell Vought."
Vought, who led the OMB during Trump's first term, is a co-author of the Heritage Foundation-led Project 2025, which calls for the president to "ignore laws that safeguard Congress' constitutional power of the purse," said Boyle.
That was what Monday evening's order did, critics have said this week, when it called for federal agencies to conduct a "comprehensive analysis" of their spending to ensure the use of grants and loans comply with Trump's executive orders, including those banning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and denying that transgender people exist.
Leavitt refused to answer a question at a press briefing Tuesday regarding whether the directive would impact Medicaid—but before the briefing was over, Democratic lawmakers said that payment portals for the healthcare program for low-income households and people with disabilities had been disabled due to the OMB memo.
Head Start early childhood education programs also saw an immediate impact, and Democrats warned that clinical trials could promptly be canceled without funding.
As Democratic lawmakers vowed to fight the administration's freeze and some called for the Senate Budget Committee to halt consideration of Vought's nomination on Tuesday, nonprofit groups and businesses filed a legal challenge, leading U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan in the District of Columbia to grant a "brief administrative stay" directing the OMB not to freeze funds until a hearing scheduled for February 3.
Democrats and progressive advocates were briefly elated Wednesday afternoon when the OMB announced it was rescinding the previous memo—but Leavitt's subsequent comments soon added to the confusion over whether or not programs such as Meals on Wheels and Medicaid would be able to continue operating.
"In light of the injunction, OMB has rescinded the memo to end any confusion on federal policy created by the court ruling and the dishonest media coverage," said Leavitt. "The executive orders issued by the president on funding reviews remain in full force and effect and will be rigorously implemented by all agencies and departments. This action should effectively end the court case and allow the government to focus on enforcing the president's orders on controlling federal spending. In the coming weeks and months, more executive action will continue to end the egregious waste of federal funding."
Mike Ollen, senior political adviser to Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who spoke out vehemently against the funding freeze on Tuesday, said the White House had been "clear as mud" about how Americans would be impacted by president's executive orders.
"Kick elderly folks off of Meals on Wheels, kick kids off of their healthcare, and then rescind the memo detailing it but not the policy itself," said Ollen. "Great work all around."
Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy for the Center for American Progress, said the rescission of the memo was "a profoundly welcome step," but noted that it's clear the White House is moving forward with "other illegal impoundments," including foreign assistance, Inflation Reduction Act, and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funds.
"This won't be the last time they try to override the will of the American people," said Boyle. "Even now, the White House is still withholding funding that was approved on a bipartisan basis—including critical infrastructure investments. We must remain vigilant—because Trump and his far-right allies will continue to try and put programs that millions of middle-class families rely on at risk."