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Thinking the Unthinkable: Do Republicans Want Some of Us to Die?
We must reckon with an administration that wants some of us to go away.
Jul 10, 2025
“Well, we all are going to die,” Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst responded to a constituent who said “people are going to die” because of the cruel provisions of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill.” Ernst is correct, we are all going to die, but what she and the Republican Party appear to want is for specific groups to die.
That’s a shocking statement, and a hard one for us to make. But before you dismiss it, look at the evidence that’s accumulated over the years.
Republicans’ lack of concern for the lives of others appeared during the pandemic in a push to reopen businesses before vaccines and drugs were available. This would greatly increase Covid-19 transmission. Republicans railed against and dismantled every public health mitigation strategy. They knew that the deadliest toll would be on the elderly, infirm, migrants and the poor—the most vulnerable and the least welcomed by Republicans. Texas Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick supported reopening, arguing that grandparents should willingly risk death by Covid-19 to save the country’s economy for their children and grandchildren. Arizona’s former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey also placed the economy before human lives, taking numerous steps to undermine public health strategies. In the end, the pandemic death rates were higher in Arizona than any other state.
The infamous “Big Beautiful Bill” allows Republicans to further undermine the health of those they disfavor, with its draconian funding cuts to safety-net programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The Republican plan, to let Covid-19 rip to save the economy, held an unspoken benefit for them; Covid-19 deaths would remove unwelcome people—overwhelmingly elderly, Black or brown, poor or living with disabilities—from the rolls of the social programs that Republicans dislike. A cold indifference for the lives of others was in play.
Concurrently, Republicans spread misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines and masking, with President Trump being the single largest driver of Covid-19 misinformation. This turbocharged the present-day anti-public health, anti-science, anti-vaccine sentiments that endanger the U.S., culminating in the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a nonscientist and anti-vaccine advocate, to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Kennedy and Trump have methodically weakened the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Kennedy systematically removed vaccine experts, replacing them with anti-vaccine cronies. His mounting campaign to cease vaccination will allow the return of serious and deadly diseases. Once again, this will have the greatest adverse effects on groups unwelcomed by Republicans. Kennedy and Republicans have also cut funding for HIV vaccine research and suicide hotlines for LGBTQ+ youths, and are doing all they can to ban gender-affirming care for young people. All of this endangers the lives of groups that Republicans scorn.
The infamous “Big Beautiful Bill” allows Republicans to further undermine the health of those they disfavor, with its draconian funding cuts to safety-net programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). These programs serve the most vulnerable U.S. residents—those with disabilities or who experience poverty and already struggle for adequate healthcare and nutrition. Ultimately, the bill would end access to healthcare and adequate nutrition for 14 million of the most vulnerable people in the U.S., intentionally endangering their lives.
And let’s not forget Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz, the Republicans’ detention center for migrants. The design and location of the center is not conducive to sustaining health or life. The cruelty of the place delights Republicans.
It doesn’t stop with the unwelcome in America. The Trump administration’s closing of USAID removed U.S. humanitarian and development assistance worldwide to people in the worst situations. USAID provided food, clean water, lifesaving medicines, and assistance for farmers; kept women and girls safe; and promoted peace. Due to Trump’s cruel closure of USAID, as many as 95 million people will be denied basic healthcare and nutrition, potentially leading to more than 3 million preventable deaths per year. The halting of funding for USAID, as well as the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), could cause an additional 4-11 million new HIV infections and up to 2.9 million HIV-related deaths between 2025 and 2030. Further, Kennedy has pulled out of the vaccine alliance Gavi, an organization that has paid for more than 1 billion children to be vaccinated worldwide.
These cruel decisions endanger the most vulnerable around the world. But Republicans will never care about these Black and brown people who come from “shithole” countries, according to Trump. In their eyes, they are among the unwanted.
Some may see the Republicans’ plans as 21st-century eugenics to improve the white race by diminishing everyone who is not white, straight, nondisabled, Republican, and Christian. Many are reluctant to talk about this because it seems so unthinkable, but we must reckon with the strong possibility that this administration actively wants some of us to go away. Look at what is happening, and remember that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.
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10 Ways the GOP’s Big Ugly Bill Could Hurt You
Instead of inflicting policy violence on the most vulnerable, Congress should harness America’s abundant wealth to create a moral economy that works for all of us.
Jul 09, 2025
The GOP’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” passed by the narrowest of margins in Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump, represents the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich since chattel slavery.
The slashing of vital services will cause a surge of economic insecurity and preventable deaths while massive hikes in military and deportation funding will serve to perpetuate endless wars and the senseless destruction of immigrant families and their communities.
1. Death by Denial of Healthcare
Cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, combined with new administrative hurdles to accessing benefits, could result in an estimated 51,000 preventable deaths per year. Overall, the new law and other policy changes from the Trump administration will likely strip health insurance from about 17 million people. Research shows that the rigid, red tape-laden work requirements in the bill are unlikely to actually increase employment. Most Medicaid enrollees already work, and even those who do work can end up without healthcare if red tape trips up their ability to prove it. Those who do not work are often caring for family members or attending school or have a disability. Formerly incarcerated people also face particularly high barriers to employment.
2. Hospital Apocalypse
The budget reduces the allowable Medicaid provider taxes that many states use to fund this vital program. The threat is particularly severe for rural hospitals because they rely more heavily on Medicaid revenue than urban facilities. More than 700 rural hospitals are already at risk of closure, and at least 338 rural hospitals, including hospitals in nearly every state, are at increased risk due to changes in this budget. To buy off critics, Republicans included a rural health fund that is expected to cover less than a third of projected rural Medicaid losses.
3. Taking Food From the Mouths of Hungry People
New work requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits will take food assistance from millions of people, including children and veterans. As with Medicaid, new work requirements for SNAP would have little effect on employment but would cause more children to go hungry.
4. Squeezing States on SNAP
This vital food program has always been fully federally funded, but the newly passed budget will require states to take on a significant share of the costs. This unprecedented burden shift will likely lead many states to cut enrollees or even terminate food aid programs for the first time since their inception, causing even more people to go hungry.
5. Barring Lawfully Present Immigrants From Aid
Hundreds of thousands of lawfully present immigrants, including children, who’ve fled persecution and violence in their home countries in search of safety in the United States (refugees, asylum-seekers, some victims of sex or labor trafficking, some victims of domestic violence, and people with temporary protected status) will lose access to Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Medicare, ACA tax credits, and SNAP benefits. And 2.6 million U.S. citizen children who live with only an undocumented adult are expected to lose their Child Tax Credit.
6. Terrorizing Immigrant Families
The GOP budget provides roughly another $170 billion to arrest, detain, and deport immigrants, and for a border wall and militarization in the next few years. That includes $45 billion for building new immigration detention centers, including family detention facilities—a 265% increase on an annual basis that would primarily benefit private companies contracted to build and run detention facilities. It includes an additional $29.9 billion for deportation operations and $46.6 billion for border wall construction.
7. Takes From the Poor to Give to the Rich
New tax policies would overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest households. Cuts to healthcare, student loans, and other vital services would wipe out the minor tax benefits for working families. A Yale analysis of the bill’s combined tax and spending policies finds that the poorest 20% of households would suffer a net income loss of $700 per year on average while the top 1% would receive a $30,000 increase.
Other tax changes benefit the wealthiest while leaving the poorest without help. Despite modest increases in the maximum Child Tax Credit, the budget will still deny benefits to an estimated 17 million children whose parents earn too little to receive the full credit. For the wealthy, changes to the estate tax mean that wealthy heirs will enjoy a one-time tax savings of $6.4 million while 99.8% of American families would not get a single penny from this tax cut.
8. Leaving Corporations to Enjoy Their Spoils
The budget keeps the corporate tax rate at 21%, a drastic reduction from the 35% pre-2018 rate—despite the fact that ordinary workers have not benefited from this rate reduction. The budget also includes more than $1 billion in new tax breaks and subsidies for the fossil fuel industry—on top of existing subsidies for the industry that accelerate climate change while costing taxpayers an estimated $17 billion per year.
9. Rewarding Polluters While Raising Energy Costs
The budget allows oil and gas companies to avoid paying fees for polluting methane leaks that are a major cause of climate change, while cuts to clean energy subsidies could mean that household energy bills could spike by $415 a year over the next decade.
10. Funding War and Enriching War Profiteers
President Trump is requesting a record-high $1.011 trillion for the Pentagon and war for FY 2026. Because regular appropriations bills require a 60-vote Senate majority, the GOP included a $150 billion boost for the Pentagon through the reconciliation bill, which requires only a straight majority. They included $25 billion to begin building the “Golden Dome,” a missile defense system that is economically and physically impossible and would only drain more money from social programs to enrich wealthy Pentagon contractors, including Elon Musk; as well as $14 billion for new artificial-intelligence-driven weapons that will further enrich tech companies while making wars more deadly.
A Moral Budget Versus Policy Violence
Instead of inflicting policy violence on the most vulnerable, Congress should harness America’s abundant wealth to create a moral economy that works for all of us. By fairly taxing the wealthy and big corporations, reducing our bloated military budget, and demilitarizing immigration policy, we could free up more than enough public funds to ensure we can all survive and thrive. As our country approaches its 250th anniversary, we have no excuse for not investing our national resources in ways that reflect our constitutional values: to establish justice, domestic tranquility, real security, and the general welfare for all.
This analysis was produced by the Institute for Policy Studies for Repairers of the Breach.
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With Its ‘Big Betrayal Bill,’ the GOP Is Waging War Against Working Class Americans
While Republicans prioritize tax breaks for billionaires, they’re simultaneously stripping away basic healthcare and support systems from those who need them most.
Jul 02, 2025
With U.S. President Donald Trump’s July 4 deadline looming, Senate Republicans just sold out working class families by passing Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”—all to please their billionaire backers. Inside this devastating bill are a host of tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, paid for with cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and other essential programs. It would also effectively eliminate the middle class in America as we know it.
To Republicans, and even some Democrats, in Congress these programs are just a line item on a budget. To myself, communities of color, and millions of Americans at risk, they are the difference between having healthcare and living in fear of sickness or injury because we couldn’t afford the care we needed to survive.
When I gave birth to my first child, I lost Medicaid coverage not long after she was born. This meant that in the critical months of my child’s early life, I was not able to see a doctor if something went wrong. It wasn’t until I found a job that offered me healthcare that this changed. In the wealthiest nation in the world, tying critical moments of need in someone’s life, such as postpartum care, to their employment status is unconscionable. Medicaid coverage has since expanded to cover postpartum care for a longer period of time, but this bill would be taking a massive step backward from ensuring all people have access to the care they need.
The GOP has made one thing clear: If they are left in charge, working class families will always come last.
Medicaid covers 41% of all births and nearly half of children with special healthcare needs. The cuts proposed in the newest version of the bill that Republican Senators just passed will push mothers out of postpartum care, shut down rural hospitals, and leave families uninsured. That pain will hardly go unnoticed by people in blue and red states alike, and leaders who support these cuts put the lives of their constituents, as well as their own political futures, at risk. Mothering Justice is committed to fighting against anyone who might support this horrendous bill—regardless of party.
If passed into law, this bill would cut over $1 trillion from Medicaid—the largest cut to Medicaid in history. That is $1 trillion that has been going to healthcare for America’ most vulnerable families sacrificed for the sake of tax cuts for billionaires. In Michigan alone, the Citizen’s Research Council of Michigan estimates that over 200,000 people will lose direct insurance coverage, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates nearly 12 million Americans will lose their coverage over the next decade. Even those with private insurance could lose access to services when hospitals and providers struggle to stay open following cuts to Medicaid. The results are not just devastating, they’re catastrophic.
Health insurance isn’t the only program on the Republicans’ chopping block. SNAP keeps 4.5 million young children fed, and the proposed cuts will deepen food insecurity, especially in Black and Latino households already facing hunger at 2-3 times the national rate. In Michigan alone, SNAP cuts would create a $467 million hole in our economy. If this bill goes through, Trump will still accept luxury planes and lawmakers will still fly in private jets paid for with foreign money, but children will lose access to pediatric care and families will lose their only grocery options, deepening poverty in this country instead of fighting it.
Also buried in the “big, beautiful bill” are work requirements and red tape that deny qualified applicants access to essential programs. Historically, when work requirements for Medicaid recipients have been implemented at the state level, many working recipients lose their insurance due to the administrative hurdles of proving their employment. Republicans’ proposals would bury families in paperwork and procedural hurdles that disproportionately harm single moms, people with disabilities, and those without internet or stable housing. They are not efficiency measures—they are systemic tools of exclusion.
And cuts to SNAP and Medicaid don’t just hurt the people who rely on the program to feed their families. Small businesses, grocers, and local economies rely on SNAP dollars to thrive and support the community. The proposed changes will likely raise costs for states and taxpayers around the country, all for the sake of lining billionaire’s pockets. Under the guise of reducing federal spending, the bill’s proposal burdens states with millions of additional, unnecessary administrative costs, forcing state governments to allocate funds to consulting fees and enforcement of work requirements rather than healthcare.
While Republicans prioritize tax breaks for billionaires, they’re simultaneously stripping away basic healthcare and support systems from those who need them most. Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” should actually be called the “Big Betrayal Bill”—because if it’s passed into law the wealth gap in this country will widen to astronomical levels. Mothers of color and working families across the country did not elect their representatives to protect the ultra-wealthy. The GOP has made one thing clear: If they are left in charge, working class families will always come last.
Now, as the bill goes back to the House, Mothering Justice is committed to fighting against anyone who might support this horrendous bill—regardless of party. Now is the time to call your member of Congress and let them know you will not stand for the federal government stealing money from working class families. Tell those we elected to power that they must use every tool at their disposal to stop this bill from being passed into law.
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