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tax cuts for the rich
Faith Leaders Blast GOP's Attacks on Poor and Tax Cuts for the Rich
"We are releasing this powerful report to expose for the American people how immoral, dangerous, and insane the administration's proposed economic decisions are," said Bishop William Barber.
Mar 05, 2025
Leaders from various faiths came together in Washington, D.C. on Christians' Ash Wednesday to share an open letter and report calling out efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration and Republicans in Congress to rip resources away from the working class to fund tax giveaways for the ultrarich.
"Budgets are moral documents," said Bishop William J. Barber II, president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, in a statement. "We are releasing this powerful report to expose for the American people how immoral, dangerous, and insane the administration's proposed economic decisions are and how they are going to hurt people."
"At this critical moment in our nation's history, we need a government that promotes unity and love towards all members of the human family, not division and hatred," added Barber, whose group released the report in partnership with the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).
"The Trump-GOP agenda would tilt the playing field even further away from poor and low-income people in favor of the wealthy and big corporations."
The report—titled The High Moral Stakes of the Policy Battles Raging in Washington—explains that "social safety net and housing programs are under attack from two fronts," pointing to both Republican lawmakers' pursuit of cuts and Elon Musk, the unelected leader of Trump's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The document details attacks on Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly called food stamps. It also warns that other "vital" initiatives such as the early childhood education program Head Start and federal rental assistance "could be on the chopping block."
EPI president Heidi Shierholz said that "as this report shows, these cuts will be profoundly destructive to incomes and economic security for this country's most vulnerable households—and they are being done for the sole purpose of providing tax cuts that will go overwhelmingly to the wealthiest households."
"This is an upside-down agenda that literally takes from struggling families to line the pockets of billionaires," she stressed. "We stand against this—and we stand for moral economic policies that lift up the most vulnerable, strengthen our communities, and ensure prosperity is shared by all."
Specifically, the GOP aims to extend expiring provisions of the 2017 Trump-GOP tax law that, as the report notes, "delivered huge windfalls to the rich and large corporations and contributed to the exploding wealth and power of our country's billionaire class."
"The Trump-GOP agenda puts recent improvements in the U.S. unemployment rate, low-income workers' real wages, and labor protections at risk. They have already rolled back some gains and indicated opposition to raising the federal minimum wage," the report continues, highlighting that while some states have higher hourly rates, the nationwide minimum wage has been $7.25 since 2009.
The publication also blasts Trump's anti-immigrant policies, emphasizing that "immigrants are a vital part of our communities and economy," and the president's mass deportations "would devastate undocumented and authorized immigrants and citizens alike."
The document concludes with a section on Trump's "alarming moves toward more widespread use of the U.S. war machine both around the world, and within the United States," citing his declaration of a national emergency at the Mexican border, attempt to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development, and proposed takeovers of the Gaza Strip, Greenland, and the Panama Canal.
"This report's data make clear that the Trump-GOP agenda would tilt the playing field even further away from poor and low-income people in favor of the wealthy and big corporations," said IPS executive director Tope Folarin. "We will see more families go hungry, lose healthcare, and struggle to pay rent while Republicans give huge tax windfalls and unprecedented political power to the wealthiest Americans and throw more tax dollars into the machines of war and mass deportation."
Former IPS director John Cavanagh, who is now a senior adviser, joined faith leaders outside the U.S. Supreme Court in D.C. for a gathering to discuss the new report and the letter, which Barber read to the crowd and which can be signed on his group's website.
"We write to issue this call for repentance and truth-telling because our most basic moral commitments have been betrayed by our political leaders," the letter declares. "We have struggled to realize a republic committed to equality and freedom for all of us."
"We write today to confess that we have become subject to the tyranny of technology," it continues. "Awed by the possibilities of progress and the promise of limitless growth, our political leaders have allowed corporate power to go unchecked for decades. Our courts have ruled that corporations should be treated like people while everyday people have been increasingly treated like things. In the richest nation in the history of the world, poverty has become epidemic as the fourth leading cause of death."
"As people of faith, we stand together in the public square to say, 'We repent.' We are not afraid of the false god of efficiency, and we will not bow to any tyranny that claims control of our common life," the letter states. "We invite our colleagues to assemble on the town square, at city hall, or on the state house lawn in communities across this land and join this call. As we have in Washington today, we invite communities to study the report on the true state of our nation."
The livestreamed event was followed by a march to the U.S. Capitol to deliver the documents to congressional leadership.
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Analysis Finds Trump Tariffs Will Cost Average US Family $1,600 or More Per Year
"The trade war Trump is igniting will weaken our economy and cause chaos in our marketplace as Americans pay the cost in the form of higher prices on everyday items," said Rep. Don Beyer.
Mar 04, 2025
As U.S. President Donald Trump's new tariffs took effect on Tuesday, Congressman Don Beyer released a Joint Economic Committee report showing that the policies could cost the average working-class family in the United States at least $1,600 annually.
"The tariffs Trump just imposed on Canada, Mexico, and China will raise costs by up to $2,000 per year for an average American family," Beyer (D-Va.) said in a statement. "The trade war Trump is igniting will weaken our economy and cause chaos in our marketplace as Americans pay the cost in the form of higher prices on everyday items."
Dean Baker, co-founder and senior economist of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, warns that Trump's tariffs could cost families even more than the estimates from Beyer's report, which cites figures from the Budget Lab at Yale University.
"While our report does not touch on this, these tariffs will also lead to retaliation that badly harms American producers," Beyer said. "And they will fail to achieve any of the pretextual objectives Trump has stated for imposing them. Less than two months into his term, Trump is running the economy into the ground and raising a real and growing risk of a recession."
Ignoring experts' warnings about impacts on consumers and the economy, Trump on Tuesday doubled his previous tariff for Chinese imports to 20% and—after a monthlong delay—hit Canadian and Mexican imports with 25% tariffs. As The Associated Pressreported, the moves sparked "swift retaliation" from "America's three biggest trading partners."
Leaders from those countries had warned of their responses if Trump followed through on his threats. There was also evidence of what would happen from the tariffs that the president imposed on China during his first term. At the time, Beyer's report notes, "U.S. importers and consumers paid almost entirely for Trump's tariffs through higher prices."
Trump has recently claimed that his plan will force production in the United States, but the report points out that the new "tariffs also impact the price of domestically produced goods by causing U.S. producers to raise prices if their supply chain relies on imported raw materials subject to the tariffs."
Using figures released Monday by the Budget Lab, Beyer's report warns that this time:
- Electronics, like computers, phones, and televisions, will see overall prices rise by nearly 11%;
- Clothing prices are expected to also rise by 7.5%;
- The price of cars, car parts, and other motor vehicles are expected to increase by over 6%;
- Oil will also rise by 1.7% and petroleum and coal products will rise by 1.6%, making it more expensive for families to fill up their gas tanks and heat their homes;
- And at a time when a trip to the grocery store is already squeezing household budgets, grocery prices will jump under these tariffs, with fresh produce prices rising by nearly 3%, rice prices increasing by 4.4%, and food prices overall rising by nearly 2%.
"In addition to harming the national economy, Trump's tariff policies will significantly impact state and local economies," the report says. "In fact, small counties in the South and Midwest tend to have economies that are most reliant on international trade. Those states that are heavily dependent on trade for statewide business may also be particularly impacted."
Despite the anticipated impacts of the tariffs that Trump has already imposed, he is expected to go even further, targeting the European Union and beyond. The Tax Policy Center warned in October that "a 20% worldwide tariff and a 60% tariff on Chinese goods, one of many import tax ideas floated by... Trump, would increase household taxes by an average of nearly $3,000 in 2025."
Beyer—who serves on the panel behind the report and the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade—noted Tuesday that "Republicans in Congress could stop this at any time by passing legislation I and others have offered to rein in Trump's abuses of tariff authorities, but they appear content to help Trump raise prices and risk economic disaster."
Separately, Beyer and every other Democrat on the subcommittee released a joint statement stressing that "Americans simply cannot afford to be caught in endless trade wars" and that they "are united in rejecting these irresponsible tariffs designed to increase revenue for more tax cuts for the ultrawealthy."
Republicans control not only the White House but also both chambers of Congress, and GOP House members last month advanced a budget resolution that would fund an extension of Trump's 2017 tax cuts for the rich by slashing health and food assistance programs that help millions of working-class Americans.
Beyer and his subcommittee colleagues called on House Republicans "to work with us to reassert Congress' role in setting strategic, stable trade policies and to invest in the American economy, instead of abdicating their responsibilities to President Trump and Elon Musk," the billionaire leading the administration's effort to gut the federal government.
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House GOP Advances Budget After Blocking Amendments to Protect Food Benefits, Medicaid
"Instead of choosing to protect the American people, they chose to protect billionaires and corporations," said the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee.
Feb 14, 2025
House Republicans advanced their budget plan out of committee Thursday night after a 12-hour markup session during which they rejected dozens of Democratic amendments, including proposed changes that would have protected Medicaid and federal nutrition benefits from the deep cuts the GOP hopes to impose to help finance trillions of dollars in tax breaks for the richest Americans.
The House Budget Committee advanced the Republican resolution, unveiled earlier this week, in a 21-16 vote along party lines. Prior to the vote, GOP members agreed to adopt an amendment offered by Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.) that, according toPolitico, effectively caps "the cost of the tax cuts at $4 trillion, with a dollar-for-dollar increase in that ceiling if Republicans cut more spending, up to a total of $2 trillion in cuts."
Democrats on the panel offered more than 30 amendments to the budget resolution, all of which Republicans rejected.
"Each of our amendments was a direct effort to shield the American people from the reckless cuts embedded in this proposal, cuts that will hurt the most vulnerable while giving trillions of dollars of handouts to the ultra-rich," Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said in his closing remarks at Thursday's hearing. "We fought to protect Medicaid and Medicare, ensuring that seniors, low-income families, children, and people with disabilities don't see their healthcare stripped away."
"We proposed amendments to maintain funding for public education, ensuring that schools remain adequately resourced and that teachers don't bear the burden of budget shortfalls," Boyle continued. "And we stood up for veterans who risked their lives for this country and deserve more than empty rhetoric. They deserve fully funded healthcare, food assistance, and the benefits they earned through their service. Yet, despite the clear benefits of these proposals, Republicans oppose all of them."
"Instead of choosing to protect the American people," he added, "they chose to protect billionaires and corporations."
"This isn't government of, by, and for the people; it's government of, by, and for billionaires."
The Republican budget blueprint calls for more than a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provide healthcare and food aid to tens of millions of low-income Americans.
"These aren't just numbers," Sharon Parrott, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, stressed in response to the House GOP resolution. "The loss of Medicaid means, for example, a parent can't get cancer treatment, and a young adult can't get insulin to control their diabetes. Cuts to food assistance mean a parent skips meals so their children can eat or an older person who lost their job has no way to buy groceries."
In addition to advancing the GOP's far-right ideological project, such cuts would partly offset the costs of Republicans' proposed tax breaks—which would disproportionately benefit the wealthiest people in the country, including the billionaires in President Donald Trump's Cabinet.
"Republicans are cutting Medicaid and SNAP to pay for tax breaks for the richest 1% of Americans," the progressive advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness wrote in a social media post on Thursday. "They are literally taking $1.1 TRILLION away from you, and giving it to the wealthiest people in the country."
Thursday's vote marks a first step toward passage of a sprawling, filibuster-proof budget reconciliation package that will include a slew of Republican priorities.
But the House GOP must resolve its differences with Senate Republicans, who are pushing for two bills instead of one. The Senate plan, which Republicans advanced out of committee earlier this week, also calls for major cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.
"This Republican budget opens the door to massive cuts for families," Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, said Thursday. "Democrats on the committee offered amendment after amendment to protect healthcare, housing, and education—all of the foundations working families need to thrive—and Republicans blocked every single one of them, all to later divert those cuts into massive tax breaks for the richest Americans."
"This is the Great Betrayal," Merkley added. "Trump campaigned on protecting families, but President Trump and Senate Republicans are all about protecting their billionaire friends. This isn't government of, by, and for the people; it's government of, by, and for billionaires."
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