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‘People Can’t Afford Rent,' Critics Say as White House Boasts of Trump’s Plan for Gold-Covered Arch
"While Americans worry about skyrocketing costs and another endless war, President Trump is focused on a taxpayer-funded vanity project," said Rep. Don Beyer.
Apr 10, 2026
On the same day that the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that inflation spiked at its fastest monthly rate in four years, the Trump administration unveiled renderings of President Donald Trump's proposed gold-covered 250-foot-tall arch to be built at Memorial Circle in Washington, DC.
The renderings, which were produced by architecture firm Harrison Design and posted on social media by the White House's rapid response account, show a gigantic arch that would be flanked on its corners by four gold lions and topped by a 60-foot-tall gold statue of what appears to be an angel.
🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/zcH5TtaOu7
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 10, 2026
According to a Friday report in The Washington Post, some preservationists have expressed concerns that the arch, which would be more than twice the height of the Lincoln Monument, would disproportionately tower over the DC skyline, and would block views of Arlington National Cemetery.
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) slammed the president for pushing construction of a gaudy gold-covered arch at a time when Americans are struggling due to the cost-of-living crisis worsened by his war in Iran.
"While Americans worry about skyrocketing costs and another endless war," he wrote in a social media post, "President Trump is focused on a taxpayer-funded vanity project that would choke traffic, block our skyline, and tower over sacred ground where those who served our nation are buried, including my own parents and sister."
Beyer added that the arch is "about Donald Trump's ego," and vowed, "we're going to stop it."
Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) responded to the renderings by reminding the White House that "Americans can't afford groceries."
Progressive activist Nina Turner had a similar reaction to Clark, posting that "people can’t afford rent" in response to the renderings.
Podcaster Brian Taylor Cohen contrasted the renderings of the arch with a statement Trump made earlier this month when he said "it’s not possible" for the federal government "to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things," because it needs to fund wars instead.
University of Missouri English professor Karen Piper also remarked on the opportunity cost of building the arch, along with other assorted Trump projects.
"This is why they're going to take away your Social Security, saying we can't afford it," she wrote. "Ballrooms, arches, and Don Jr. draining the Treasury."
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has been named as a contender for the Democratic Party's 2028 presidential nomination, responded to the arch renderings by accusing Trump of "doing everything he can to wreck this country—this time with our nation's capital."
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) took issue with the decision to inscribe the phrase "one nation under God" at the top of the arch.
"That phrase came from Cold War propaganda, not our Founders," observed Huffman. "Trump stamping it on his vanity arch tells you everything about what this project is: a Christian nationalist monument, paid for with your tax dollars."
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U-Turn by Establishment as Corporate Dem Guru Carville Pushes 'Platform of Pure Economic Rage'
"It really is starting to feel like economic populists have won the debate."
Nov 24, 2025
James Carville, a one-time political strategist for former President Bill Clinton who has long sparred with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, turned some heads on Monday when he appeared to embrace a more populist economic vision.
Writing in the New York Times, Carville argued that the American people "are pissed" by the state of the US economy, and that Democrats must now "run on the most populist economic platform since the Great Depression."
"It is time for Democrats to embrace a sweeping, aggressive, unvarnished, unapologetic, and altogether unmistakable platform of pure economic rage," Carville added. "This is our only way out of the abyss."
While Carville then took a shot at the "era of performative woke politics from 2020 to 2024," which he said "left a lasting stain on our brand, particularly with rural voters and male voters," he said that Republicans' total failure to address the affordability crisis has given Democrats a second chance to win them back with bold economic populism.
"In the richest country in the history of our planet, we should not fear raising the minimum wage to $20 an hour, which had a 74% approval rating in 2023," he said. "We should not fear an America with free public college tuition, which 63% of US adults favored in a 2021 poll. When 62% of Americans say their electricity or gas bills have increased in the past year and 80% feel powerless to control their utility costs, we should not fear the idea of expanding rural broadband as a public utility. Or when 70% of Americans say raising children is too expensive, we should not fear making universal childcare a public good."
Taken together, the longtime centrist Democratic strategist declared that "the era of half-baked political policy is over."
Progressives who have long advocated for more economic populism cautiously welcomed Carville's new approach, although they expressed skepticism that the Democratic Party was really ready to go in this direction.
"The Democratic Party has to decide if they will let folks build that table," wrote former Democratic Ohio state Sen. Nina Turned on X. "For too long, the party has done everything to hurt the populist movement."
David Sirota, founder of The Lever and one-time senior adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 2020 presidential campaign, noted with amusement that Carville's recommendations to Democrats had changed dramatically over the last few months.
Specifically, Sirota pointed to a editorial Carville wrote for the Times back in February where he recommended that the party "roll over and play dead," while waiting for President Donald Trump and the GOP to inevitably implode from self-inflicted errors.
"He's gone from demanding Dems play dead to demanding Dems be Bernie Sanders," Sirota observed. "A good reminder that thumb-in-the-wind politicos with no principles will change their tune when others do the hard work of shifting the political environment."
Gun violence prevention activist David Hogg, on the other hand, took the Carville op-ed as a hopeful sign that "times are changing."
Climate advocate and attorney Aaron Regunberg also saw signs that Carville's op-ed marked a turning point in Democratic Party conventional wisdom.
"It really is starting to feel like economic populists have won the debate," he argued. "Our haters have become our waiters—time for us to all build a table of success for the Democratic Party."
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'This Isn't Justice... This Is Merely Accountability': Ex-Cop Found Guilty of Murdering Sonya Massey
"Accountability has begun, and we now hope the court will impose a meaningful sentence that reflects the severity of these crimes and the life that was lost," said attorneys for Massey's family.
Oct 29, 2025
A southern Illinois jury on Wednesday found Sean Grayson, a white ex-cop, guilty of second-degree murder for fatally shooting Sonya Massey in her Springfield home last year after the unarmed Black woman called 911 to report a suspected prowler.
"Grayson had been charged with three counts of first-degree murder," WBEZ noted. "The jury's decision to convict on a single lesser count of second-degree murder averted a potential lifetime sentence in prison that first-degree murder charges carried in some instances."
The former Sangamon County sheriff's deputy, who now faces up to 20 years behind bars, is set to be sentenced in January. Reactions to the verdict were mixed, with some saying that the jury didn't go far enough.
"Sonya Massey called for help and was killed for it. This isn't justice. Justice is Sonya Massey still being alive. This is merely accountability," said Nina Turner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy. "Thinking about her family and loved ones today."
WBEZ reported that "Sonya Massey's mother, Donna Massey, had tears streaming down her face as the verdict was announced. Sonya Massey's teenaged daughter, Summer, broke down in sobs as she and her family exited the courtroom, screaming that Grayson should have been convicted of first-degree murder."
Massey's father, James Wilburn, described the outcome as a "miscarriage of justice," according to the Associated Press. Springfield civil rights activist Teresa Haley told reporters outside the courthouse: "She called for help and she was murdered in her own home... Second-degree murder—that is not right. That is not justice for anybody's family."
Nationally renowned attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, who represented Massey's family—which secured a $10 million settlement for her wrongful death earlier this year—said in a Wednesday statement that "while we believe Grayson's actions deserved a first-degree conviction, today's verdict is still a measure of justice for Sonya Massey."
"Accountability has begun, and we now hope the court will impose a meaningful sentence that reflects the severity of these crimes and the life that was lost," the lawyers said. "We will continue to fight for Sonya’s family and for reforms that protect everyone from unlawful use of force."
"The family extends deep gratitude to Sangamon County State's Attorney John C. Milhiser and his entire office," the pair added. "They handled the case with professionalism, transparency, and compassion. Prosecuting a police officer is never easy but this team did it with courage and integrity."
After Grayson murdered Massey on July 6, 2024, various reports exposed his history of misconduct. Wednesday's verdict came two months after Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed legislation named for Massey that requires police agencies to comprehensively review an applicant's employment history before making a job offer.
"When Sonya Massey feared for her safety, she did what anyone would do—she called law enforcement for help. Communities should be able to trust that when they call the police to their home, the responding officer will be well-trained and without a history of bias or misconduct," Pritzker said at the time. "Today, I sign Sonya Massey's Bill to help prevent these tragedies, to better equip law enforcement to keep our communities safe, and to continue working to build a justice system that protects all of our citizens."
Also welcoming the new law, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton said in August that "because of the strength that exists in Sonya Massey's family and the resilience that lives in the community she left behind, a bunch of individual people took their pain and made a difference. This is what happens when we meet each other with humanity."
In response to the verdict, Stratton declared: "Say her name: Sonya Massey. Sonya Massey's life mattered, and she should be alive today. Though nothing we ever say or do will bring Sonya back, today's verdict is one step closer on the long path towards justice."
"Her final moments were a devastating example of how a system meant to protect and serve can fail, but the accountability we saw today is a reminder to keep hope alive for a world where tragedies like Sonya's no longer occur," said Stratton, one of several Democrats running to replace retiring US Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
"I offer my love and continuing prayers to her mother Donna, and Sonya's entire family as they relive the trauma of her passing yet remain determined to enact change," she added. "May we speak her name and remember her for the fullness of her life: Sonya Massey will not be forgotten."
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Progressives—Who Reviled Charlie Kirk's Politics—Repudiate His Murder
"Unconscionable acts of violence should have no place in our country," said Congresswoman Ilhan Omar—whom Kirk wanted to denaturalize and deport. "Let's pray for no more lives being lost to gun violence."
Sep 10, 2025
Tuesday's assassination of far-right firebrand Charlie Kirk in Utah drew widespread condemnation from many of the same progressive figures who have previously decried his rampant bigotry, dismissal of gun deaths, and promotion of conspiracy theories including the "stolen" 2020 election.
"Political violence has no place in this country. We must condemn this horrifying attack," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said on the social media site X. "My thoughts are with Charlie Kirk and his family."
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) said on X that she was sending "sincere condolences to Charlie Kirk's family."
"Violence is unacceptable, always," she added. "Though I disagree with nearly everything he said publicly, I never lose sight of others' humanity. He was someone's son. He was someone's husband. He was a father to two young children. Praying for the [Utah Valley University] community impacted by this horrific act of gun violence."
Today’s act of political violence in Utah against Charlie Kirk is absolutely disgusting and unacceptable. We don’t have to agree on everything, but we should all agree on this: political violence is wrong, and has no place in our democracy
— Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (@crockett.house.gov) September 10, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Another "Squad" member, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)—whom Kirk wanted to strip of her US citizenship and deport to Somalia—posted that "political violence is absolutely unacceptable and indefensible."
"Unconscionable acts of violence should have no place in our country," she added. "Let's pray for no more lives being lost to gun violence."
Kirk, the 31-year-old CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University. The assassin's identity is still not known; The Washington Post reported that "a person of interest is in custody and being interviewed by officials."
Kirk's last words were a characteristically racist attempt to deflect an audience member's question about US mass shootings—one of which occurred at a Colorado high school on the same day as his assassination.
The irony of Kirk's murder was not lost on numerous observers, some of whom posted video of him saying in 2023 that "I think it's worth to have a cost of unfortunately some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment."
Still, even staunch critics of Kirk and his politics in the United States and abroad condemned his murder.
"There is never any place for violence in our politics," ACLU executive director Anthony Romero said in a statement. "The only way to work out differences in a democracy is to work them out together—peacefully through our political system."
"The ACLU condemns this horrific act and extends its sympathies to the family of Charlie Kirk," Romero added.
Scottish lawmaker and former First Minister of Scotland Humza Yousaf said on social media that "I couldn't have disagreed more with Charlie Kirk on virtually every political issue he debated."
"But that is the point, he debated," Yousaf added. "In any society, let alone a democracy, violence can never be justified. I hope God eases the suffering of his wife, children, family, and friends."
I'm horrified by the shooting of Charlie Kirk at a college event in Utah.Political violence has no place in our country.
— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social) September 10, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Political violence must be condemned. Always.I’m praying for Charlie Kirk and his family.
— Nina Turner (@ninaturner.bsky.social) September 10, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Civil rights attorney and transgender rights activist Alejandra Caraballo was among those who expressed deep concern over the direction in which the nation is heading.
"We are in a 'years of lead' scenario where political violence has become normalized," she wrote on the social media site Bluesky. "This is not good for anyone and is deeply dangerous. This level of political violence is not compatible with a functioning society."
"I'm honestly terrified of what the right will use this as justification for," she said of Kirk's assassination. "They're itching to engage in violence against their enemies and this will give them the excuse to do so. This is why political violence is never acceptable. It just descends into uncontrollable chaos and more violence."
Correction: This article has been corrected to remove a quote erroneously attributed to Kirk.
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'Fighting Fire With Fire': California Puts Retaliatory Redistricting on November Ballot
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the move is aimed at countering President Donald Trump's "attempt to rig the 2026 election and redistrict his way out of accountability in states like Texas."
Aug 21, 2025
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday swiftly signed legislation passed by state lawmakers to let voters decide this November whether to approve a redrawn congressional map designed to counter Texas Republicans' gerrymandering at the behest of President Donald Trump.
"California is countering [Trump's] attempt to rig the 2026 election and redistrict his way out of accountability in states like Texas," Newsom said on social media. "We're fighting fire with fire—giving the power to the people to fight back and demand nationwide independent redistricting."
The move followed Wednesday's approval by the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature of a Trump-backed plan to redraw the state's congressional map to create five new Republican districts ahead of next year's midterm elections. The California map aims to win five more Democratic seats in 2026.
"Let me be crystal clear, we don't want this fight, and we didn't choose this fight, but with our democracy on the line, we cannot and will not run away from this fight," Democratic Assemblyman Marc Berman (D-23) said prior to Thursday's vote.
National Democrats welcomed California's move, with Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin saying: "This isn't just about California. The basic premise of Americans—instead of Donald Trump—choosing their elected officials is at stake."
While some progressives, including former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner, have spoken out against retaliatory redistricting, many others cheered California's fight.
"The response by Democrats in California to counter-balance is being triggered by a blatant GOP plot to steal the 2026 midterms," former US Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote on X. "This isn't a race to the bottom. It's a means of avoiding the bottom."Keep ReadingShow Less
Trump Admin Announces $200 Million Contract for Musk's AI After Grok Hitler Incident
"Stop entertaining this man. Stop giving him money. It's really that simple," said one critic of Elon Musk, the richest man on Earth.
Jul 14, 2025
The U.S. government on Monday awarded a $200 million contract to Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, despite the tech billionaire's ongoing spat with President Donald Trump and his AI chatbot's recent praise for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
The Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office announced contract awards to Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and Musk's xAI "to accelerate Department of Defense (DOD) adoption of advanced AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges."
Last week, xAI garnered sweeping condemnation after Grok, the chatbot built into Musk's social media platform X—formerly known as Twitter—started spewing antisemitic content and calling itself "MechaHitler."
Meanwhile, Musk and Trump have been at odds since shortly after the richest man on Earth left the president's administration, in which he was the de facto leader of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Musk's involvement in the administration generated widespread concern, both because of DOGE's efforts to gut the federal government and because his various companies get so much money from federal contracts.
In a Monday statement about "Grok for Government," xAI not only confirmed the new DOD contract but also said that its products will be "available to purchase via the General Services Administration (GSA) schedule. This allows every federal government department, agency, or office, to access xAI's frontier AI products."
The Trump administration's new money for Musk drew intense criticism on various platforms, including X—where Congresswoman Becca Balint (D-Vt.) wrote that "despite the social media wars, the Trump-Elon corruption machine is alive and well."
Kat Abughazaleh, a progressive Democrat running in Illinois' 9th Congressional District, said: "Stop entertaining this man. Stop giving him money. It's really that simple."
Abughazaleh also pointed to her past with Musk—she was laid off from the nonprofit watchdog Media Matters for America as it faced financial strain from legal battles, including what the billionaire described as a "thermonuclear lawsuit."
"Elon Musk cost me my job, deposed me for being too mean to him online, and now he's responsible for tens of thousands of job losses while getting hundreds of millions of our tax dollars," she noted. "I'm running for Congress to stop men like him."
Nina Turner, a former progressive congressional candidate from Ohio, noted that "the Pentagon, which has failed seven straight audits, just gave $200,000,000 of our tax dollars to Elon Musk to use xAI. Meanwhile, funding for food banks [was] cut in the name of 'efficiency.'"
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'Diplomacy, Not Catastrophe' Needed as Israel Appears Poised for US-Enabled War on Iran
"It would be a catastrophic mistake to be led into a war by the same neocons that claimed the Iraq war would be a cakewalk," warned one group.
Jun 12, 2025
Israel is likely preparing to bomb Iran even as the Trump administration works toward a nuclear deal with Tehran, stoking fears of Iranian retaliation against U.S. military bases and other American or allied sites in an already inflamed region, and prompting calls for urgent diplomacy to avoid war.
U.S. and European officials told Western media Thursday that Israel is preparing to unilaterally attack Iran as negotiations between Washington and Tehran draw closer to a preliminary framework for an agreement to curb Iran's nuclear development. The government of fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes any such deal.
"If this escalates, innocent lives will be caught in the crossfire in Iran and across the region."
American intelligence agencies have periodically concluded over the past two decades that Iran—which has not started a war since the 19th century but supports proxy attacks on Israel—is not developing nuclear weapons.
While President Donald Trump—who has repeatedly threatened to bomb Iran if a nuclear deal is not reached—has publicly opposed an Israeli attack on Iran, numerous observers are warning that Tehran and its proxies would very likely view the U.S. as complicit in any such action.
"If Israel does strike Iran in the next days or hours, and even if they do so in defiance of Trump's warnings, the likelihood that the Iranians will perceive it as an independent act by Israel in defiance of Trump is essentially zero," Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said Wednesday on social media. "There is no plausible deniability."
Vahid Razavi, an Iranian American advocate for human rights and ethics in technology and founder of ParentsPlea.com, told Common Dreams Thursday that "Israel will only attack Iran with the support and blessing of the United States."
"The 'good cop/bad cop' game that Trump and Israel are playing in the region is a distraction," Razavi added. "There is no substantial difference in U.S. and Israeli policy toward Iran."
Iran has threatened an "unprecedented response" if Israel attacks.
"In case of any conflict, the U.S. must leave the region because all its bases are within our range, and we will target all of them in the host countries regardless," Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh said Thursday during a televised address.
Nasirzadeh's remarks followed a Wednesday threat by an official from Ansar Allah that the Yemeni rebel group also known as the Houthis is "at the highest level of preparedness for any possible American escalation against us."
"Any escalation against the Islamic Republic of Iran is also dangerous and will drag the entire region into the abyss of war," the unnamed official told Newsweek.
The Trump administration stands accused of war crimes in Yemen amid an escalation of the decadeslong U.S. bombing of the country as part of the so-called War on Terror. Successive U.S. administrations also backed a Saudi-led war on Yemen that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, while Israeli and British forces have bombed the country since 2024 in retaliation for Houthi missile attacks on Red Sea shipping and Israel.
Last October, Iran launched a limited missile strike on Israel in response to the assassinations of Hassan Nasrallah, who led the Lebanon-based resistance group Hezbollah, and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. This prompted retaliatory Israeli attacks on targets in and around Tehran, including the headquarters of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The prospect of another Israeli attack on Iran prompted the U.S. on Wednesday to order the evacuation of some diplomats from Iraq and call for the voluntary departure of American military families from the region.
Meanwhile, numerous observers stressed the need for a diplomatic resolution to avoid a wider war in the Middle East—and possibly beyond.
"We must face the reality: if this escalates, innocent lives will be caught in the crossfire in Iran and across the region, and at home there may be new, dire threats to the civil liberties of our community," the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) said in a statement Thursday.
"We are working to ensure our leaders hear us loud and clear: We need diplomacy, not catastrophe," NIAC added. "We are organizing multiple actions in the coming days against a potential war and in support of peace and ask for your support to fuel this vital effort."
Former Democratic Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner succinctly said Wednesday: "No war with Iran. No war, period."Keep ReadingShow Less
Democratic Voters Choose Fighting Corporate Power Over Neoliberal Abundance 'Scam': Poll
"At a moment when U.S. democracy is threatened by MAGA authoritarianism and deep inequality, doubling down on private-sector solutions while ignoring redistributive policy is a dangerous distraction," said one critic.
May 29, 2025
Democratic voters overwhelmingly prefer a populist program that takes on oligarchy and corporate power over the so-called "abundance agenda" that's all the rage among many liberals as party leaders examine why they lost the White House and Congress in 2024 and strategize about how to win them back.
That's according to a new Demand Progress poll of 1,200 registered voters "to test the resonance of the 'abundance agenda' being promoted as a potential policy and political refocus for the Democratic Party."
"What these voters want is clear: a populist agenda that takes on corporate power and corruption."
The poll revealed that 55.6% of all surveyed voters said they were somewhat or much more likely "to vote for a candidate for Congress or president who made the populist argument," compared with 43.5% who said they were likelier to cast their ballot for a candidate promoting the abundance agenda.
Among Democratic respondents, 32.6% said they were somewhat or much likelier to vote for abundance candidates, compared with 40.6% of Independents and 58.8% of Republicans. Conversely, 72.5% of surveyed Democrats, 55.4% of Independents, and 39.6% of Republicans expressed a preference for candidates with populist messaging.
"To get out of the political wilderness, and win over not just Democrats but also Independent and moderate voters, policymakers need to loudly state their case for helping middle- and working-class Americans," Demand Progress corporate power program director Emily Peterson-Cassin said in a statement Thursday.
Our poll got some notable responses last night! We went out of our way to generously characterize abundance using language from that camp but they responded by nitpicking and moving the goal posts. Check out our poll to see for yourself why abundance is an electoral loser.
[image or embed]
— Demand Progress (@demandprogress.bsky.social) May 29, 2025 at 4:38 AM
"What these voters want is clear: a populist agenda that takes on corporate power and corruption," Peterson-Cassin added. "The stakes are too high for Democrats to fixate on a message that only appeals to a minority of independent and Democratic voters."
Inspired by San Francisco's YIMBY—or "yes-in-my-backyard"—movement to build as much market-rate housing as possible with scant consideration for the fact that only relatively wealthy people like themselves can afford to live there, New York Times columnist Ezra Klein and Atlantic staff writer Derek Thompson earlier this year published Abundance, which topped the Times' nonfiction bestseller list.
Klein and Thompson assert that well-meaning but excessive regulation in Democrat-controlled cities is thwarting progress, and that U.S. liberals' focus on blocking bad economic development has come at the expense of good development over the past half-century. They cite environmental and zoning regulations, as well as burdensome requirements attached to public infrastructure projects and housing construction, as some of the barriers to development.
The Demand Progress poll found that Republicans were much more likely to have a positive view of candidates embracing the abundance agenda. However, the movement has been gaining traction among centrist and even left-of-center Democrats in cities like San Francisco, where the Abundance Network, a YIMBY nonprofit, has become a major player in city politics and has bankrolled a tech-backed takeover of the local Democratic Party, as Mission Local's Joe Rivano Barros and others have detailed.
Leftist critics have pulled no punches in calling out the abundance agenda as neoliberalism dressed in progressive clothes.
"The abundance movement is a scam," Brandee Marckmann of the progressive San Francisco Education Alliance told
Common Dreams on Thursday. "It's a rebranded Trumpian movement that punches down on working-class families. The only abundance these guys want is for themselves, and they want to line their pockets through political schemes that steal money from our public schools, public housing, and public transportation."
The “abundance agenda” promoted by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson is gaining traction among center-left Democrats, but it’s largely a rebranding of deregulation and market-first policies -- more Rockefeller Republican than progressive.
[image or embed]
— The Phoenix Project ( @phoenixprojnow.bsky.social) April 18, 2025 at 1:46 PM
As Phoenix Project, a grassroots San Francisco group fighting dark money in politics, recently noted, "Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's Abundance helped rebrand Reagan-era economics for a new generation, but behind the gloss lies a familiar web of tech, real estate, and right-wing influence."
"At a moment when U.S. democracy is threatened by MAGA authoritarianism and deep inequality, doubling down on private-sector solutions while ignoring redistributive policy is a dangerous distraction," the group added.
Pointing to the Demand Progress poll, The Lever's Veronica Riccobene wrote Thursday that "Democratic voters know who their real enemy is."
"A majority believe the 'big problem' in America is that corporations and their executives have too much economic and political power," she said. "It's not surprising, considering Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.) are pulling huge crowds on their 'Fighting Oligarchy' tour, even in deep-red states."
"Meanwhile, fewer Democratic voters believe the country's big problem is regulatory bottlenecking, a core argument of the neoliberal 'abundance' movement," Riccobene added.
The “abundance” agenda will not make sense to the average American because yall can’t even explain it clearly on here. Fight to guarantee people healthcare, housing, education, and living wages. It’s that simple.
— Nina Turner (@ninaturner.bsky.social) May 27, 2025 at 3:42 PM
As progressive political strategist Dan Cohen said in response to the new poll, "The voters are demonstrating that they understand the problem with quite a traditional view of American politics and economics: that there is too much power and influence in corporate hands and everyday Americans aren't getting their fair share."
"Democrats would be wise to listen to the voters and respond directly to those views with their rhetoric and actions," he added.
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Trump Admin Will Garnish Struggling Borrowers' Wages as Student Loan Payments Resume
"This is just cruel and doesn't have to happen," said the Debt Collective.
Apr 21, 2025
The Trump administration on Monday announced that it will resume involuntary collection measures against defaulted federal student loan recipients, including garnishing wages, tax refunds, and Social Security benefits and "other actions to help borrowers get back into repayment," as the U.S. Department of Education euphemistically said.
"Resuming collections protects taxpayers from shouldering the cost of federal student loans that borrowers willingly undertook to finance their postsecondary education," DOE said in a statement notifying the public that collections will resume May 5. "This initiative will be paired with a comprehensive communications and outreach campaign to ensure borrowers understand how to return to repayment or get out of default."
The DOE said the U.S. Treasury Offset Program will administer borrower garnishments, which are expected to resume this summer.
DOE continued:
While Congress mandated that student and parent borrowers begin to repay their student loans in October 2023, the Biden-Harris administration refused to lift the collections pause and kept borrowers in a confusing limbo. The previous administration failed to process applications for borrowers who applied for income-driven repayment and continued to push misguided "on-ramps" and illegal loan forgiveness schemes to win points with borrowers and mask rising delinquency and default rates.
"American taxpayers will no longer be forced to serve as collateral for irresponsible student loan policies," billionaire U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said on Monday.
The repayment resumption is part of the Trump administration's three-pronged, $1.6 trillion overhaul of the federal student loan system. In addition to moving to collect on defaulted loans, the administration is looking to end former President Joe Biden's Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, an income-driven repayment program currently blocked by a federal appellate court. President Donald Trump also signed an executive order narrowing eligibility for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
Last month, the American Federation of Teachers led a lawsuit against the Trump administration after the DOE cut off access to income-driven repayment plan applications and secretly ordered student loan services to stop accepting and processing such applications.
The government has not collected on defaulted student loans since March 2020, when the first Trump administration paused repayments due to the burgeoning Covid-19 pandemic. The reprieve, which was subsequently extended several times, was set to end in September 2023. Efforts by the Biden administration to forgive some or all loan debt for more than 45 million student borrowers were thwarted by the right-wing U.S. Supreme Court in 2023.
"The Biden administration misled borrowers: The executive branch does not have the constitutional authority to wipe debt away, nor do the loan balances simply disappear," said McMahon. "Hundreds of billions have already been transferred to taxpayers."
"Going forward, the Department of Education, in conjunction with the Department of Treasury, will shepherd the student loan program responsibly and according to the law, which means helping borrowers return to repayment—both for the sake of their own financial health and our nation's economic outlook," she added.
As McMahon and the Trump administration work toward ending the DOE—a key goal of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-led plan to eviscerate the federal government—Trump has ordered the administration of federal student loans to be transferred to the Small Business Administration (SBA), which was headed by McMahon during Trump's first term.
Approximately 5.6 million student borrowers were in default at the end of 2024. The DOE warns that "there could be almost 10 million borrowers in default in a few months" after repayments resume. That's roughly 25% of the current student loan portfolio. Failure to make timely student loan repayments results in lower credit scores for borrowers, who in turn generate less economic activity—a domino effect with implications for the entire slowing U.S. economy.
"They bailed out banks, corporations, and airlines. But when it comes to student debt? Suddenly it's 'too expensive.'"
"Many of the households required to resume paying on their student loans are also struggling with credit card debt at near-record interest rates and high-rate mortgages they thought they would be able to refinance into a lower rate, but haven't," explained Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi in a Monday interview with The New York Times.
Some critics slammed the Trump administration for resuming student loan repayments amid an affordability and housing crisis during which a record number of people are unhoused.
"Parents delaying retirement. Grads postponing families. This isn't 45 million separate problems, it's one national crisis," the Student Debt Crisis Center (SDCC) said on social media. "They bailed out banks, corporations, and airlines. But when it comes to student debt? Suddenly it's 'too expensive.'"
SDCC executive director Mike Pierce said that "federal law gives borrowers a way out of default and the right to make loan payments they can afford. Since February, Donald Trump and Linda McMahon have blocked these borrowers' path out of default and are now feeding them into the maw of the government debt collection machine."
"This is cruel, unnecessary, and will further fan the flames of economic chaos for working families across this country," Pierce added.
Tuition-free college would help make America great. Those who need loans to attend college come from working class families, the elites don’t need loans. 40% of student debt holders don’t hold a degree. This will hurt the working class.
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— Nina Turner (@ninaturner.bsky.social) April 21, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Others offered solutions enjoyed by people in other countries, including simply not collecting the debt and making colleges and universities tuition-free—even if their chances of implementation under what many leftists call U.S. "late-stage capitalism" are next to nil.
"If the Trump/Musk administration really wanted 'government efficiency,' then they wouldn't be collecting on debts people cannot and will not pay,"
said the Debt Collective, a debtors' union, referring to Elon Musk, who heads the Department of Government Efficiency. "They would just cancel it and boost the economy."
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'Cowardly' and 'Spineless': 10 Dems Join House GOP to Censure Al Green for Disrupting Trump Speech
"Some of these Democrats have more smoke for Rep. Al Green than the man trying to cut Social Security and Medicaid," wrote one critic.
Mar 06, 2025
Ten House Democrats earned rebuke from progressives Thursday for joining with Republicans to censure Rep. Al Green, a Democrat representing Texas, for disrupting U.S. President Donald Trump's speech before Congress earlier this week.
The censure was introduced by Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) after Green interrupted Trump's address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night. During the speech, Green shook his cane at Trump while standing and shouted that the president had "no mandate to cut Medicaid."
The censure vote in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives was 224-198, with two Democratic members voting present, including Green. The 10 Democrats who joined Republicans in favor of the motion were Reps. Jared Moskowitz of Florida, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, Tom Suozzi of New York, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Jim Himes of Connecticut, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Ami Bera of California, Ed Case of Hawaii, Jim Costa of California, and Laura Gillen of New York.
Nina Turner, a former Democratic congressional candidate from Ohio, called them "cowardly."
Prior to the vote, former Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) wrote: "Any Democrat who votes in favor of censuring Al Green should be ashamed of themselves. Do not give Republicans one single Democratic vote."
Prior to the censure vote, Axios reported on the reaction to Green's heckling of Trump and other acts of of defiance from Democrats during the speech, quoting several Democratic lawmakers—including Suozzi—who said they didn't approve. Axios also reported that some Democrats hadn't ruled out voting yes on the censure vote.
"Some of these Democrats have more smoke for Rep. Al Green than the man trying to cut Social Security and Medicaid," wrote Turner in response to that reporting.
Qasim Rashid, a human rights lawyer, had this to say about the vote: "Bad enough they don't have the courage to do anything more than hold up a silly sign, but to tear down the one Dem willing to get into Good Trouble to oppose fascism? Spineless." During Trump's address, other Democrats sat through the speech and raised signs with messages such as "Save Medicaid" and "Musk Steals."
The Nation's national affairs correspondent Joan Walsh denounced the 10 Democrats for their vote, but she praised the fact that some Democrats sang "We Shall Overcome," in an act of solidarity with Green, while he stood in the well of the House chamber as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) read him the censure resolution.
She called the whole episode "the worst and the best of the House Democratic caucus."
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