SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
recession
Experts Warn Fed Remarks Show Trump Policies Brewing 'Perfect Storm for a Recession'
"Donald Trump's tariffs mean you could suffer higher prices and lose your job AT THE SAME TIME," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
May 07, 2025
Alex Jacquez from the progressive think tank Groundwork Collaborative issued a stark warning to the U.S. public on Wednesday in response to a statement from the Federal Reserve committee that sets interest rates.
The new statement from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) "provides further evidence that a perfect storm for a recession is brewing" under U.S. President Donald Trump, said Jacquez, Groundwork's chief of policy and advocacy. "Barely 100 days into Trump's second term, working families are already being crushed by sticky inflation and slowing growth."
"A Trump-engineered recession will devastate working families, but the president refuses to stand down on his failed trade war, no matter the cost," added Jacquez, who previously advised former President Barack Obama and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
The FOMC said Wednesday that "the risks of higher unemployment and higher inflation have risen," and opted to keep the federal funds rate at 4.25-4.5%. The committee has maintained the rate for the past three meetings, following a series of cuts last year.
Trump on Sunday pushed for a rate cut, and though he has backed off a threat to try to oust Fed Chair Jerome Powell, the president "could reconsider if the economy stumbles in the coming months," The Associated Pressreported Wednesday.
According to the AP:
Asked at the press conference whether Trump's calls for lower rates [have] any influence on the Fed, Powell said, "[It] doesn’t affect doing our job at all. We're always going to consider only the economic data, the outlook, the balance of risks, and that's it."
If the Fed were to cut rates, it could lower other borrowing costs, such as for mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards, though that is not guaranteed.
Addressing Trump's evolving tariff policy, Powell said Wednesday that "if the large increases in tariffs that have been announced are sustained, they're likely to generate a rise in inflation, a slowdown in economic growth, and a rise in unemployment."
Sharing a video of his remarks on social media, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) stressed that Trump's tariffs mean higher prices.
Donald Trump's tariffs mean you could suffer higher prices and lose your job AT THE SAME TIME. Forget dolls, families will be forced to make impossible choices between necessities like food, housing, and health care.
[image or embed]
— Elizabeth Warren ( @warren.senate.gov) May 7, 2025 at 3:13 PM
In a Wednesday blog post, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich wrote: "Recall that last November, the single biggest reason voters gave in exit polls for choosing Trump was that he'd bring prices down... Although Trump has scaled back some tariffs and paused others as he seeks trade deals with foreign nations, his tariffs are already eating into household budgets."
Reich highlighted comments about price hikes from companies whose products include everything from baby supplies and laundry detergent to paper towels and tools. He also emphasized that "tariffs will particularly hurt small businesses."
"This bodes ill for American workers, since 80% of U.S. employment comes from small businesses with fewer than 500 workers. The likely result: higher unemployment," he explained, projecting price hikes and job losses this month. "But here's the question: Will consumers and workers realize Trump is the cause? And if they do, will they remember this by the November 2026 midterm elections?"
Keep ReadingShow Less
Trump’s Budget Breaks His Campaign Promise to Help Those Struggling to Make Ends Meet
His partial budget fails to propose a serious agenda for the U.S. economy or for people who haven’t been included enough in the country’s overall prosperity.
May 03, 2025
The Trump administration’s partial budget plan released Friday is just its latest repudiation of the Trump campaign’s promises to help people struggling at the margins of the economy—an economy that President Donald Trump’s misguided tariff policies are threatening to tank.
This partial budget does not discuss the president’s intended tax breaks—tilted to the well off—or policies he will include (like those he supports as part of the reconciliation bill) to take food assistance and health coverage away from people who need them to meet their basic needs and to make college more expensive. The full budget will come later. But while the administration’s partial plan is limited to the part of the budget that Congress funds through the annual appropriations process, its proposal to cut that funding by nearly one-quarter is plenty bad enough, harming people, communities, and the economy.
During the campaign, President Trump said, “As soon as I get to office, we will make housing much more affordable.” But his budget proposes a devastating cut to rental assistance—which makes rent affordable for 10 million people—reducing funding by $27 billion below the amount provided in 2025 across five programs. This would cause millions of people to lose assistance they need to pay the rent each month, placing them at risk of eviction and homelessness.
Policymakers of both parties in Congress need to see this budget, and this entire agenda, for what it is—a direct assault on people, communities, and the economy.
These cuts would likely grow even deeper over time, since the budget would also consolidate multiple rental assistance programs into to a block grant that would be more vulnerable to cuts in the future. The budget also would impose a two-year time limit on rental assistance (apparently except for seniors and people with disabilities), a policy that would abruptly evict or end assistance for many low-paid workers and others who aren’t able to afford market rents after that period.
In addition, the budget proposes severe cuts to other housing programs, such as sharply reducing funding for housing and other services for people experiencing homelessness, cutting housing resources for Indigenous people, and eliminating funding for local agencies protecting people from housing discrimination and other fair housing violations, and block grants that fund affordable housing and community development at the local level.
The president also said “your heating and air conditioning, electricity, gasoline—all can be cut down in half,” but this budget eliminates LIHEAP, the program that helps low-income households afford to heat and cool their homes; reduces availability of the most affordable sources of energy—solar and wind—by cutting efforts to bring these sources online and make them available in low-income communities; and cuts programs that reduce energy waste.
As the President’s ill-conceived trade policies threaten to tip the country into a recession later this year, the budget disinvests from key sources of long-run economic growth. The budget cuts the National Science Foundation (NSF) by more than half and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by about 40%. This is short-sighted: NSF and NIH funding supports foundational research that spurs innovation, leading to greater economic growth. The private sector will not support this work because there is no financial incentive to do so.
The budget also disinvests from America’s future workers, cutting $4.5 billion from K-12 education despite the Trump campaign’s statement that “we are going to keep spending our money” on education.
Most fundamentally, the budget fails to propose a serious agenda for the U.S. economy or for people who haven’t been included enough in the country’s overall prosperity. The budget presents no agenda for addressing housing or childcare affordability, improving educational outcomes for those our education system doesn’t serve well, maintaining and strengthening innovation, or broadening opportunity.
And today’s funding request again breaks President Trump’s repeated promises to protect Social Security, including “Save Social Security. Don’t destroy it.” On paper, the administration provides the same amount of funding next year as this year, but this is not enough to keep up with inflation, fixed expenses, and growing demand as the number of Social Security recipients grows as the population ages. The administration has already pushed out 7,000 Social Security Administration staff despite having the money to pay them, and it has already made it harder for seniors and people with disabilities to get the Social Security benefits they’ve earned. This is not what Congress intended when it passed this year’s budget.
The administration is claiming these massive cuts are necessary under the guise of fiscal responsibility, but the proposed $2.5 billion cut to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) funding—primarily for tax enforcement—reveals that any commitment to fiscal responsibility is limited. Funding for IRS enforcement pays for itself multiple times over: It provides the staff and technology to catch wealthy tax cheats and encourage everyone to pay the taxes they legally owe.
The administration justifies many cuts by saying that states are better positioned to cover the costs of various public services and infrastructure needs. This ignores the federal government’s important role in ensuring adequate investment nationwide, including in states and communities that face more economic challenges. The problems would be compounded by potentially large cost shifts in Medicaid and SNAP being considered in Congress. States would face even greater challenges—and the impacts on people and communities would grow—in a recession when state revenues fall but they still have to balance their budgets.
The president’s budget counts on funding in the emerging tax and budget bill for immigration enforcement. With that, it continues to prioritize a mass deportation apparatus that has gone too far already by disappearing people without due process and ending lawful immigration status for hundreds of thousands of people.
Since taking office, the Trump administration, often acting through DOGE, has unilaterally frozen congressionally approved funding, implemented large-scale staffing reductions that are harming public services, and threatened the security of people’s personal information. Having frozen funding in contradiction to enacted funding laws, the president’s budget now asks Congress to codify and continue these unilateral cuts next year, including through the proposed cuts to NIH, NSF, and the Department of Education. Codifying these cuts would make congressional supporters accomplices in this administration’s endeavor to make government less effective in finding cures for diseases, maintaining American technological leadership, and getting a good education.
The president’s harmful agenda goes well beyond what was released today. The president and his congressional allies are moving forward on a budget and tax bill that deeply cuts health coverage through Medicaid, food assistance through SNAP, and college aid to partially pay for expensive tax cuts skewed to the wealthy.
At the same time, the president’s chaotic, indiscriminate, and steep tariffs have sharply increased the risk of recession, which could lead to a rise in unemployment and the number of people who need help to afford the basics, just as those supports are slated for cuts.
Policymakers of both parties in Congress need to see this budget, and this entire agenda, for what it is—a direct assault on people, communities, and the economy—and plan a better course for the country.
Keep ReadingShow Less
In First 100 Days, Trump Waged 'Relentless Assault on Working People'
"We are either patriots fighting the regime, or we are complicit in its tyranny," wrote former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich. "There is no middle ground."
Apr 29, 2025
Tuesday is the 100th day of U.S. President Donald Trump's second term, which so far has featured plummeting public opinion poll numbers and mobilizations against his billionaire inner circle's mounting attacks on working people.
"Since Franklin D. Roosevelt's earthshaking first 100 days in office, no president has matched the sheer drama and disruption of that 15-week sprint in 1933, which rewrote the relationship between Americans and their government. At least until now," Naftali Bendavid wrote Monday for The Washington Post.
"Roosevelt's onslaught, in the depths of the Great Depression, was aimed at expanding the federal government's presence in Americans' lives. Trump's crusade is aimed largely at dismantling it," Bendavid added, noting that while FDR's agenda was enacted by Congress, the current president "has governed largely by unilateral executive action."
Ahead of nationwide protests planned for later this week, many Trump critics marked the 100-day milestone by chronicling how the president's policies are making life harder for the working class, from cutting federal employees and funding to pursuing mass deportations and economically devastating tariffs.
"The cruelty is unnerving, the disregard for the Constitution and rule of law is reckless, and the day-to-day pain can never be justified."
"It is a fallacy to argue that we must choose between fighting for a fair economy and protecting our democracy," the watchdog Accountable.US said in a Monday memo. "Trump's first 100 days, which will be marked this week, clearly show that the two are interconnected, and he's failed Americans on both."
"What we have seen over the past 100 days is a president who has flouted the law, gutted checks and balances, and consolidated power for himself," the memo continues. "He has also, with the help of Elon Musk and allies in Congress, done catastrophic damage to our economy, injecting chaos and uncertainty for small businesses and investors, undermining workers' rights, tanking consumer confidence, and increasing the likelihood of a recession."
The Conference Board said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index dropped 7.9 points this month to 86—meaning "consumer confidence declined for a fifth consecutive month in April, falling to levels not seen since the onset of the Covid pandemic," according to Stephanie Guichard, a senior economist at the think tank.
Calling those numbers "sobering" and a "signal that we are plunging headfirst into a recession," Groundwork Collaborative executive director Lindsay Owens said that "if this is the level of pain the president is willing to inflict on Americans in just a few short months, it's no wonder that consumers and businesses are bracing themselves for a long, dark road ahead."
"This is a man-made crisis," Owens declared. "In his first 100 days, Trump did all he could to engineer a recession."
Donald Trump promised to end inflation and lower costs on his first day in office. Instead, Americans are paying a higher price on groceries, cars, utilities, and housing — with the looming fear of a recession. He's crashing our economy and leaving you with the bill.
— Governor JB Pritzker (@govpritzker.illinois.gov) April 29, 2025 at 2:31 PM
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) last week compiled a list of "100 ways Trump has hurt workers in his first 100 days," which includes terminating grants to fight forced and child labor, nominating Crystal Casey to be general counsel at the National Labor Relations Board, and leaving the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service with what one employee recently toldCommon Dreams is "a very skeletal crew."
In addition to detailing Trump administration actions to degrade wages and working conditions, the think tank's report lays out Trump's attacks on anti-discrimination protections, immigrant workers, public education, and more.
"During the campaign, Trump promised to put working people first, lower rising costs on groceries and gas, and preserve our earned benefits and healthcare," American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) president Lee Saunders noted Monday. "Instead, the first 100 days of this billionaire-run administration have been fueled by lies, broken promises, and a relentless assault on working people and unions."
"He has handed over the reins of government to billionaires—appointing the wealthiest Cabinet in American history, kicking off a trade war that is raising prices on everyday goods, attacking Social Security and Medicaid, cutting wages for workers, and stripping collective bargaining rights from more than 1 million federal employees," the union leader said. "The White House claimed it had nothing to do with Project 2025, yet it has already implemented over one-third of the anti-worker agenda, often sidestepping Congress and the courts to do so."
Saunders stressed that "the fallout has been immediate. Retirees are left wondering how to navigate Social Security as staff are laid off, offices are closed, and services are cut. People are watching their retirement savings shrink. Lifesaving health and safety regulations have been put on hold. Students with disabilities are losing vital support from the Department of Education. The Department of Health and Human Services is clawing back funding from states, cities, and towns to fight infectious diseases as measles is on the rise, and it's just the beginning."
AFSCME and the American Federation of Teachers are challenging some of Trump's moves in court. AFT president Randi Weingarten on Tuesday condemned a similar list of Trump actions, including cuts to "research grants to colleges and universities that fund cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer's research," and said that "it's no wonder his public approval is tanking."
"The cruelty is unnerving, the disregard for the Constitution and rule of law is reckless, and the day-to-day pain can never be justified," Weingarten added. "That's why our members are fighting back."
Some of the actions highlighted by union leaders are also included in First Focus on Children's Monday timeline for what the advocacy group called the Trump administration's "systematic war on the nation's children."
"I'm not sure we've ever seen an administration so laser-focused on targeting the nation's children for harm," said the group's president, Bruce Lesley. He called out Trump, his appointees, and the GOP-controlled Congress for planning to cut children's healthcare by $880 billion, shutter the Education Department, and "steal the lunch money of the nation's poorest kids."
"Babies have been singled out for special punishment with the proposed revocation of birthright citizenship and deportation of U.S. citizen children. This administration is also promoting tax policies that penalize families for having newborns," Lesley continued, also pointing to the "decimation" of the United States Agency for International Development. "The president has left children overseas to die of AIDS, malaria, and starvation by the millions."
“'100 Days of Destruction': Top Historian on Trump's Presidency So Far” Writing for Zeteo, Princeton's @zelizer.bsky.social explains how past US presidents used their first 100 days to build, while Trump has used his to dismantle, intimidate, and destroy. Read/share/subscribe:
[image or embed]
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan.bsky.social) April 29, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Trying to end birthright citizenship is one of several ways Trump is attacking immigrants. The advocacy group America's Voice this week published a fact sheet titled, High Costs, No Benefits: 100 Days Of Trump's Immigration Agenda.
"Let this sink in: Our government is deporting American kids, including kids with cancer, and is now trying to defend and excuse their choices on national television," said the organization's executive director, Vanessa Cárdenas. "Their actions embody the cruelty, chaotic, and harmful nature of their agenda the past 100 days, and what they want from the next 100 weeks and beyond."
"As Americans see the cruelty and overreach in action," Cárdenas noted, "a growing majority is expressing disapproval, connecting it to broader concerns regarding the rule of law, the tanking economy, cuts to Americans' healthcare, and overall chaos and extremism."
The Trump administration's anti-immigrant agenda is featured in several of the items on a new Human Rights Watch (HRW) list of actions "that pose significant risks to the human rights of people living in the United States and around the world."
Tanya Greene, U.S. program director at HRW, said that the administration has already "inflicted enormous damage to human rights" and "we are deeply concerned that these attacks on fundamental freedoms will continue unabated."
Item 51 on HRW's list warns that "people in the United States risk seeing their democratic power weakened by a politically motivated effort to skew long-standing U.S. Census Bureau policies and methods aimed at ensuring accurate population counts that determine how presidents, members of Congress, and others are elected and how federal funding is allocated to states and localities."
All Voting Is Local executive director Hannah Fried said in a Tuesday statement that "these first 100 days have been a five-alarm fire for the freedom to vote," citing Trump's executive order on elections, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, "and copycat bills in Ohio and Michigan that would require voters to show a passport or birth certificate to vote."
"The voting rights assaults during this time specifically hurt Black, Brown, Native American, and other historically marginalized communities," she emphasized. "They also set a tone for further efforts to erode voting rights and consolidate power at all levels of government in the lead-up to next year's midterm elections."
A growing number of public figures and watchdogs are sounding the alarm about the consolidation of power under Trump. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has been crisscrossing the country for his Fighting Oligarchy Tour, and the advocacy group Public Citizen this week put out a list of highlights from the president's first "100 days of oligarchy and conflicts of interest."
Public Citizen's resource outlines how Trump "is handing people with clear corporate conflicts of interest—like stakes in Big Oil companies, long corporate lobbying careers, and seats on major company boards—the power to regulate and oversee corporations," dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and ridding the government of inspectors general, among other actions that enrich him and his allies at the expense of the public.
"People aren't fooled. They see what's going on. It's why millions took the streets on April 5th to protest Trump and Musk's attacks on working families."
The organization Issue One also has a new report—Unchecked Exec—about how "Trump's first 100 days have been focused on consolidating power and sidestepping anti-corruption safeguards."
"The Founders were deeply concerned about concentrating too much power in the presidency," said Issue One CEO Nick Penniman. "The Founders fought a revolution to get rid of concentrated executive authority, and they placed 'We, the People'—and Congress—at the center of the Constitution."
"A hundred days into this administration, it's clear the White House is intent on pushing the limits of its power to the point where it risks violating the Constitution and eroding the freedoms of every American," Penniman added. "This is a time for total vigilance, before the America we were living in 101 days ago begins to disappear."
The public is already fighting back in the form of protest. Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party, said Tuesday that "calling Trump's first 100 days a dumpster fire would be an insult to dumpster fires."
"In less than four months, Trump has destroyed jobs, brought the economy to the brink of ruin, and done absolutely nothing to lower costs," he continued. "People aren't fooled. They see what's going on. It's why millions took the streets on April 5th to protest Trump and Musk's attacks on working families. It's why more and more people are joining community organizations or stepping up to run for office."
"Trump and his billionaire friends want us to fight against each other, so they can take an even larger share of the pie," he added. "But we're not playing their game. Instead, we're going to bring working people together, from every background and geography, to stop Trump and his MAGA cronies in their tracks."
A national day of action is planned for Thursday, recognized globally as May Day. There are more than 1,100 rallies scheduled—including one at Philadelphia City Hall, where Sanders is set to join the city's AFL-CIO chapter under the banner, "For the Workers, Not the Billionaires."
While Sanders and those who have joined him on tour, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), have been praised for their response to the second Trump administration, constituents across the United States are calling on many members of Congress to do more.
Although Republicans control both chambers of Congress, recent polling shows rising support for impeaching Trump a historic third time, and Congressman Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) on Monday filed seven articles of impeachment against the president. Thursday will feature some actions focused on pressuring lawmakers to pursue impeachment.
Given Congress' current makeup, Christina Harvey, executive director of the progressive advocacy group Stand Up America, is specifically calling on Republican lawmakers who "aided and abetted" Trump to instead fight back against his "relentless assault on our democracy, our freedoms, and the basic services hardworking Americans depend on to survive."
"What more will it take for Republicans in Congress to find the courage to stand up for their constituents?" she asked Tuesday. "The president is not a king, and Congress is meant to be a co-equal branch of government. We can't afford to wait another 100 days for them to finally remember that."
Over the first 100 days, we @sddfund.bsky.social have taken 100 actions challenging the Trump admin’s lawlessness—incl. repping conservatives opposing his foreign abductions We’ll keep fighting in the courts of law & public opinion. I discussed @msnbc.com
[image or embed]
— Norm Eisen (@normeisen.bsky.social) April 29, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Opponents of the president's agenda are also fighting in the courts. In a 100-day roundup, the ACLU said that "Trump has tested every limit, abused every power, and exploited every loophole to silence dissent, disenfranchise marginalized communities, and erode our rule of law."
"These are deliberate tactics designed to enforce compliance through fear, force, and censorship. But we aren't backing down. If the Trump administration wants to go after people's rights and freedoms, they'll have to go through us first. And we were ready for this fight," declared the group, which so far has filed 107 legal actions.
In a Monday blog post, former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich argued that everyone must fight to save a nation that "is tottering on the edge of dictatorship."
"We are no longer Democrats or Republicans. We are either patriots fighting the regime, or we are complicit in its tyranny. There is no middle ground," Reich wrote. "Soon, I fear, the regime will openly defy the Supreme Court."
"Americans must be mobilized into such a huge wave of anger and disgust that members of the House are compelled to impeach Trump (for the third time) and enough senators are moved to finally convict him," he added. "Then this shameful chapter of American history will end."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular