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Recent polling shows ALEC's aggressive position on resuming commercial activity to be outside the mainstream of public opinion. (Photo: CC)
Documents obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) show that a powerful corporate lobby front group, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), is playing a leading role in the right-wing movement to push for early reopening of the economy amidst the coronavirus pandemic that has cost the United States 61,680 lives to date.
ALEC is a corporate pay-to-play operation where legislators and corporate lobbyists vote behind closed doors to adopt model legislation on a broad range of public policy issues.
ALEC is a corporate pay-to-play operation where legislators and corporate lobbyists vote behind closed doors to adopt model legislation on a broad range of public policy issues.
At a time when many hard-hit states and medical experts are lamenting the lack of federal leadership in dealing with the health crisis, the ALEC documents call for action to "bring the economy back to life through a free market approach that gets big government out of the way."
In an email to legislators obtained by CMD, ALEC touts that "your ALEC team has been value-pushing your ideas and solutions into the mainstream" with "9 across the States podcast episodes with guests such as Newt Gingrich," "30 policy prescriptions," and hosting of "9 calls with top government officials and policy experts."
ALEC is also coordinating a sign-on letter from "policy leaders and elected officials" to President Trump and state leaders urging them to "reopen the economy and get people back to work." The letter praises Trump for his "Opening Up America Again" plan and thanks him for a "disaster response [that] is locally executed, state managed and federally supported."
Recent polling shows ALEC's aggressive position on resuming commercial activity to be outside the mainstream of public opinion. Three in four voters (73 percent) think we need to continue social distancing measures despite the impact on the economy, 80 percent want more testing before schools and restaurants reopen, and 65 percent said "they did not want to go back to work without more thorough testing."
ALEC writes in the letter that, "It is possible and preferable for employers to implement best practices to protect the health of their customers and employees - without micromanagement from the government," but industry practices during the pandemic suggest otherwise.
"Essential" businesses that have stayed open have repeatedly jeopardized the health of their workers, including "thousands of employees across the country" at meat processing plants and shift workers in over 55 of Amazon's fulfillment centers who have contracted the coronavirus.
A number of governors and health experts have warned that reopening the economy too early could make the coronavirus pandemic worse.
Meanwhile, ALEC is attempting to use the national crisis to leverage movement on its pro-corporate policy agenda. The sign-on letter states in ALEC fashion that a "proven formula of tax relief, deregulation, and lawsuit reform" are keys to rebuilding the economy.
ALEC and the Koch influence network pushed hard for the massive 2017 tax giveaway to corporations and the wealthy that not only has not paid for itself, as Secretary Mnuchin notoriously argued it would, but as of January had led to a national deficit that is 28 percent greater than the Congressional Budget Office projected before the tax cuts.
Exploiting the opportunity of the coronavirus crisis, ALEC has put together a "policy prescriptions" wish list on its site composed of model bills it has drafted and recommends legislative members push for.
Emails obtained through records requests by CMD show that ALEC has been working closely with the Trump administration to convince members that now is the time to reopen. ALEC's CEO Lisa Nelson wrote in an email to legislators Tuesday that ALEC hosted a call with Vice President Mike Pence (who once quipped, "I can say I was for ALEC before it was cool") and over 300 members of the "ALEC family" to discuss reopening the economy on April 22.
Pence said on the call that the country "will look much different -- and much better -- by Memorial Day."
Nelson also stated that ALEC would be hosting calls about reopening the economy with Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia (April 29) and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (May 5).
On March 30, ALEC hosted a conference call for its members and partners that featured National Federation of Independent Business's Senior Director of Government Relations Kevin Kuhlman and Job Creators Network's President and CEO Alfredo Ortiz to discuss how to help "businesses in their communities access capital and restart their businesses."
ALEC legislators and lobbyists will have an opportunity to put their words into action in July, as ALEC announced this week that it will be going ahead with its plans for an in-person Annual meeting in Orlando Florida on July 15-17. Nelson wrote that the conference will "explore solutions that will empower our attendees with freedom-based policies as we rebuild our states."
Florida ranks eighth in the country for the most COVID-19 cases.
ALEC CEO Nelson serves on the national leadership council of the recently launched "Save Our Country Coalition" (SOCC). The right-wing effort is chaired by ALEC's favorite economist Art Laffer, who writes its annual state economic booklet "Rich States, Poor States" alongside Stephen Moore and Jonathan Williams. Moore is also on the leadership council.
Mary Kiffmeyer, a Minnesota state senator who is an ALEC co-chair of the state, is on the leadership council, and Linda Upmeyer, the former speaker of the Iowa state House and a member of the ALEC board of directors, is a member of the steering committee.
SOCC lists the following as its "key principles to abide by in order to reopen US society and preserve the American way of life":
ALEC is funded by and deeply tied to the Koch political network. The latest available IRS filings show Charles Koch gave ALEC $334,000 in 2018, and Koch's Americans for Prosperity was a "Vice Chairman" sponsor of the 2019 ALEC Annual Meeting.
That meeting saw 69 Koch network foot soldiers in attendance, according to an attendee list obtained by Documented. Koch Companies Public Sector's Michael Morgan is a long time member of ALEC's Private Enterprise Advisory Council.
The Koch connections go far beyond ALEC. On the "National Leadership Council" are:
On Save Our Country's "Steering Committee" are:
Several business executives are also part of the leadership council, including Gristedes Foods CEO John Catsimatdis, a billionaire Trump donor who has advised the president on his coronavirus response in private conversations.
Several far-right extremists have leadership roles in the Save Our Country Coalition, including:
As Blackwell works with the Save Our Country Coalition, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins has spoken with Trump on the phone, urging him to pressure governors to relax restrictions on churches and businesses. The Family Research Council holds a weekly call with Trump administration officials, who have included Attorney General Bill Barr, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, and Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of Homeland Security.
A memo released by Barr on April 27 directed Justice Department lawyers to prioritize litigation against "overbearing" state and local COVID-19 safety measures that discriminate against "religious institutions and religious believers."
Arn Pearson contributed to this report.
Trump and Musk are on an unconstitutional rampage, aiming for virtually every corner of the federal government. These two right-wing billionaires are targeting nurses, scientists, teachers, daycare providers, judges, veterans, air traffic controllers, and nuclear safety inspectors. No one is safe. The food stamps program, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are next. It’s an unprecedented disaster and a five-alarm fire, but there will be a reckoning. The people did not vote for this. The American people do not want this dystopian hellscape that hides behind claims of “efficiency.” Still, in reality, it is all a giveaway to corporate interests and the libertarian dreams of far-right oligarchs like Musk. Common Dreams is playing a vital role by reporting day and night on this orgy of corruption and greed, as well as what everyday people can do to organize and fight back. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. |
Documents obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) show that a powerful corporate lobby front group, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), is playing a leading role in the right-wing movement to push for early reopening of the economy amidst the coronavirus pandemic that has cost the United States 61,680 lives to date.
ALEC is a corporate pay-to-play operation where legislators and corporate lobbyists vote behind closed doors to adopt model legislation on a broad range of public policy issues.
ALEC is a corporate pay-to-play operation where legislators and corporate lobbyists vote behind closed doors to adopt model legislation on a broad range of public policy issues.
At a time when many hard-hit states and medical experts are lamenting the lack of federal leadership in dealing with the health crisis, the ALEC documents call for action to "bring the economy back to life through a free market approach that gets big government out of the way."
In an email to legislators obtained by CMD, ALEC touts that "your ALEC team has been value-pushing your ideas and solutions into the mainstream" with "9 across the States podcast episodes with guests such as Newt Gingrich," "30 policy prescriptions," and hosting of "9 calls with top government officials and policy experts."
ALEC is also coordinating a sign-on letter from "policy leaders and elected officials" to President Trump and state leaders urging them to "reopen the economy and get people back to work." The letter praises Trump for his "Opening Up America Again" plan and thanks him for a "disaster response [that] is locally executed, state managed and federally supported."
Recent polling shows ALEC's aggressive position on resuming commercial activity to be outside the mainstream of public opinion. Three in four voters (73 percent) think we need to continue social distancing measures despite the impact on the economy, 80 percent want more testing before schools and restaurants reopen, and 65 percent said "they did not want to go back to work without more thorough testing."
ALEC writes in the letter that, "It is possible and preferable for employers to implement best practices to protect the health of their customers and employees - without micromanagement from the government," but industry practices during the pandemic suggest otherwise.
"Essential" businesses that have stayed open have repeatedly jeopardized the health of their workers, including "thousands of employees across the country" at meat processing plants and shift workers in over 55 of Amazon's fulfillment centers who have contracted the coronavirus.
A number of governors and health experts have warned that reopening the economy too early could make the coronavirus pandemic worse.
Meanwhile, ALEC is attempting to use the national crisis to leverage movement on its pro-corporate policy agenda. The sign-on letter states in ALEC fashion that a "proven formula of tax relief, deregulation, and lawsuit reform" are keys to rebuilding the economy.
ALEC and the Koch influence network pushed hard for the massive 2017 tax giveaway to corporations and the wealthy that not only has not paid for itself, as Secretary Mnuchin notoriously argued it would, but as of January had led to a national deficit that is 28 percent greater than the Congressional Budget Office projected before the tax cuts.
Exploiting the opportunity of the coronavirus crisis, ALEC has put together a "policy prescriptions" wish list on its site composed of model bills it has drafted and recommends legislative members push for.
Emails obtained through records requests by CMD show that ALEC has been working closely with the Trump administration to convince members that now is the time to reopen. ALEC's CEO Lisa Nelson wrote in an email to legislators Tuesday that ALEC hosted a call with Vice President Mike Pence (who once quipped, "I can say I was for ALEC before it was cool") and over 300 members of the "ALEC family" to discuss reopening the economy on April 22.
Pence said on the call that the country "will look much different -- and much better -- by Memorial Day."
Nelson also stated that ALEC would be hosting calls about reopening the economy with Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia (April 29) and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (May 5).
On March 30, ALEC hosted a conference call for its members and partners that featured National Federation of Independent Business's Senior Director of Government Relations Kevin Kuhlman and Job Creators Network's President and CEO Alfredo Ortiz to discuss how to help "businesses in their communities access capital and restart their businesses."
ALEC legislators and lobbyists will have an opportunity to put their words into action in July, as ALEC announced this week that it will be going ahead with its plans for an in-person Annual meeting in Orlando Florida on July 15-17. Nelson wrote that the conference will "explore solutions that will empower our attendees with freedom-based policies as we rebuild our states."
Florida ranks eighth in the country for the most COVID-19 cases.
ALEC CEO Nelson serves on the national leadership council of the recently launched "Save Our Country Coalition" (SOCC). The right-wing effort is chaired by ALEC's favorite economist Art Laffer, who writes its annual state economic booklet "Rich States, Poor States" alongside Stephen Moore and Jonathan Williams. Moore is also on the leadership council.
Mary Kiffmeyer, a Minnesota state senator who is an ALEC co-chair of the state, is on the leadership council, and Linda Upmeyer, the former speaker of the Iowa state House and a member of the ALEC board of directors, is a member of the steering committee.
SOCC lists the following as its "key principles to abide by in order to reopen US society and preserve the American way of life":
ALEC is funded by and deeply tied to the Koch political network. The latest available IRS filings show Charles Koch gave ALEC $334,000 in 2018, and Koch's Americans for Prosperity was a "Vice Chairman" sponsor of the 2019 ALEC Annual Meeting.
That meeting saw 69 Koch network foot soldiers in attendance, according to an attendee list obtained by Documented. Koch Companies Public Sector's Michael Morgan is a long time member of ALEC's Private Enterprise Advisory Council.
The Koch connections go far beyond ALEC. On the "National Leadership Council" are:
On Save Our Country's "Steering Committee" are:
Several business executives are also part of the leadership council, including Gristedes Foods CEO John Catsimatdis, a billionaire Trump donor who has advised the president on his coronavirus response in private conversations.
Several far-right extremists have leadership roles in the Save Our Country Coalition, including:
As Blackwell works with the Save Our Country Coalition, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins has spoken with Trump on the phone, urging him to pressure governors to relax restrictions on churches and businesses. The Family Research Council holds a weekly call with Trump administration officials, who have included Attorney General Bill Barr, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, and Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of Homeland Security.
A memo released by Barr on April 27 directed Justice Department lawyers to prioritize litigation against "overbearing" state and local COVID-19 safety measures that discriminate against "religious institutions and religious believers."
Arn Pearson contributed to this report.
Documents obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) show that a powerful corporate lobby front group, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), is playing a leading role in the right-wing movement to push for early reopening of the economy amidst the coronavirus pandemic that has cost the United States 61,680 lives to date.
ALEC is a corporate pay-to-play operation where legislators and corporate lobbyists vote behind closed doors to adopt model legislation on a broad range of public policy issues.
ALEC is a corporate pay-to-play operation where legislators and corporate lobbyists vote behind closed doors to adopt model legislation on a broad range of public policy issues.
At a time when many hard-hit states and medical experts are lamenting the lack of federal leadership in dealing with the health crisis, the ALEC documents call for action to "bring the economy back to life through a free market approach that gets big government out of the way."
In an email to legislators obtained by CMD, ALEC touts that "your ALEC team has been value-pushing your ideas and solutions into the mainstream" with "9 across the States podcast episodes with guests such as Newt Gingrich," "30 policy prescriptions," and hosting of "9 calls with top government officials and policy experts."
ALEC is also coordinating a sign-on letter from "policy leaders and elected officials" to President Trump and state leaders urging them to "reopen the economy and get people back to work." The letter praises Trump for his "Opening Up America Again" plan and thanks him for a "disaster response [that] is locally executed, state managed and federally supported."
Recent polling shows ALEC's aggressive position on resuming commercial activity to be outside the mainstream of public opinion. Three in four voters (73 percent) think we need to continue social distancing measures despite the impact on the economy, 80 percent want more testing before schools and restaurants reopen, and 65 percent said "they did not want to go back to work without more thorough testing."
ALEC writes in the letter that, "It is possible and preferable for employers to implement best practices to protect the health of their customers and employees - without micromanagement from the government," but industry practices during the pandemic suggest otherwise.
"Essential" businesses that have stayed open have repeatedly jeopardized the health of their workers, including "thousands of employees across the country" at meat processing plants and shift workers in over 55 of Amazon's fulfillment centers who have contracted the coronavirus.
A number of governors and health experts have warned that reopening the economy too early could make the coronavirus pandemic worse.
Meanwhile, ALEC is attempting to use the national crisis to leverage movement on its pro-corporate policy agenda. The sign-on letter states in ALEC fashion that a "proven formula of tax relief, deregulation, and lawsuit reform" are keys to rebuilding the economy.
ALEC and the Koch influence network pushed hard for the massive 2017 tax giveaway to corporations and the wealthy that not only has not paid for itself, as Secretary Mnuchin notoriously argued it would, but as of January had led to a national deficit that is 28 percent greater than the Congressional Budget Office projected before the tax cuts.
Exploiting the opportunity of the coronavirus crisis, ALEC has put together a "policy prescriptions" wish list on its site composed of model bills it has drafted and recommends legislative members push for.
Emails obtained through records requests by CMD show that ALEC has been working closely with the Trump administration to convince members that now is the time to reopen. ALEC's CEO Lisa Nelson wrote in an email to legislators Tuesday that ALEC hosted a call with Vice President Mike Pence (who once quipped, "I can say I was for ALEC before it was cool") and over 300 members of the "ALEC family" to discuss reopening the economy on April 22.
Pence said on the call that the country "will look much different -- and much better -- by Memorial Day."
Nelson also stated that ALEC would be hosting calls about reopening the economy with Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia (April 29) and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (May 5).
On March 30, ALEC hosted a conference call for its members and partners that featured National Federation of Independent Business's Senior Director of Government Relations Kevin Kuhlman and Job Creators Network's President and CEO Alfredo Ortiz to discuss how to help "businesses in their communities access capital and restart their businesses."
ALEC legislators and lobbyists will have an opportunity to put their words into action in July, as ALEC announced this week that it will be going ahead with its plans for an in-person Annual meeting in Orlando Florida on July 15-17. Nelson wrote that the conference will "explore solutions that will empower our attendees with freedom-based policies as we rebuild our states."
Florida ranks eighth in the country for the most COVID-19 cases.
ALEC CEO Nelson serves on the national leadership council of the recently launched "Save Our Country Coalition" (SOCC). The right-wing effort is chaired by ALEC's favorite economist Art Laffer, who writes its annual state economic booklet "Rich States, Poor States" alongside Stephen Moore and Jonathan Williams. Moore is also on the leadership council.
Mary Kiffmeyer, a Minnesota state senator who is an ALEC co-chair of the state, is on the leadership council, and Linda Upmeyer, the former speaker of the Iowa state House and a member of the ALEC board of directors, is a member of the steering committee.
SOCC lists the following as its "key principles to abide by in order to reopen US society and preserve the American way of life":
ALEC is funded by and deeply tied to the Koch political network. The latest available IRS filings show Charles Koch gave ALEC $334,000 in 2018, and Koch's Americans for Prosperity was a "Vice Chairman" sponsor of the 2019 ALEC Annual Meeting.
That meeting saw 69 Koch network foot soldiers in attendance, according to an attendee list obtained by Documented. Koch Companies Public Sector's Michael Morgan is a long time member of ALEC's Private Enterprise Advisory Council.
The Koch connections go far beyond ALEC. On the "National Leadership Council" are:
On Save Our Country's "Steering Committee" are:
Several business executives are also part of the leadership council, including Gristedes Foods CEO John Catsimatdis, a billionaire Trump donor who has advised the president on his coronavirus response in private conversations.
Several far-right extremists have leadership roles in the Save Our Country Coalition, including:
As Blackwell works with the Save Our Country Coalition, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins has spoken with Trump on the phone, urging him to pressure governors to relax restrictions on churches and businesses. The Family Research Council holds a weekly call with Trump administration officials, who have included Attorney General Bill Barr, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, and Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of Homeland Security.
A memo released by Barr on April 27 directed Justice Department lawyers to prioritize litigation against "overbearing" state and local COVID-19 safety measures that discriminate against "religious institutions and religious believers."
Arn Pearson contributed to this report.
"This was an illegal act," said U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis.
A federal court judge on Sunday declared the Trump administration's refusal to return a man they sent to an El Salvadoran prison in "error" as "totally lawless" behavior and ordered the Department of Homeland Security to repatriate the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, within 24 hours.
In a 22-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis doubled down on an order issued Friday, which Department of Justice lawyers representing the administration said was an affront to his executive authority.
"This was an illegal act," Xinis said of DHS Secretary Krisi Noem's attack on Abrego Garcia's rights, including his deportation and imprisonment.
"Defendants seized Abrego Garcia without any lawful authority; held him in three separate domestic detention centers without legal basis; failed to present him to any immigration judge or officer; and forcibly transported him to El Salvador in direct contravention of [immigration law]," the decision states.
Once imprisoned in El Salvador, the order continues, "U.S. officials secured his detention in a facility that, by design, deprives its detainees of adequate food, water, and shelter, fosters routine violence; and places him with his persecutors."
Trump's DOJ appealed Friday's order to 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Virginia, but that court has not yet ruled on the request to stay the order from Xinis, which says Abrego Garcia should be returned to the United States no later than Monday.
"You'd be a fool to think Trump won't go after others he dislikes," warned Sen. Ron Wyden, "including American citizens."
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon slammed the Trump administration over the weekend in response to fresh reporting that the Department of Homeland Security has intensified its push for access to confidential data held by the Internal Revenue Service—part of a sweeping effort to target immigrant workers who pay into the U.S. tax system yet get little or nothing in return.
Wyden denounced the effort, which had the fingerprints of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, all over it.
"What Trump and Musk's henchmen are doing by weaponizing taxpayer data is illegal, this abuse of the immigrant community is a moral atrocity, and you'd be a fool to think Trump won't go after others he dislikes, including American citizens," said Wyden, ranking member of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, on Saturday.
Last week, the White House admitted one of the men it has sent to a prison in El Salvador was detained and deported in schackles in "error." Despite the admitted mistake, and facing a lawsuit for his immediate return, the Trump administration says a federal court has no authority over the president to make such an order.
"Even though the Trump administration claims it's focused on undocumented immigrants, it's obvious that they do not care when they make mistakes and ruin the lives of legal residents and American citizens in the process," Wyden continued. "A repressive scheme on the scale of what they're talking about at the IRS would lead to hundreds if not thousands of those horrific mistakes, and the people who are disappeared as a result may never be returned to their families."
According to the Washington Post reporting on Saturday:
Federal immigration officials are seeking to locate up to 7 million people suspected of being in the United States unlawfully by accessing confidential tax data at the Internal Revenue Service, according to six people familiar with the request, a dramatic escalation in how the Trump administration aims to use the tax system to detain and deport immigrants.
Officials from the Department of Homeland Security had previously sought the IRS’s help in finding 700,000 people who are subject to final removal orders, and they had asked the IRS to use closely guarded taxpayer data systems to provide names and addresses.
As the Post notes, it would be highly unusual, and quite possibly unlawful, for the IRS to share such confidential data. "Normally," the newspaper reports, "personal tax information—even an individual's name and address—is considered confidential and closely guarded within the IRS."
Wyden warned that those who violate the law by disclosing personal tax data face the risk of civil sanction or even prosecution.
"While Trump's sycophants and the DOGE boys may be a lost cause," Wyden said, "IRS personnel need to think long and hard about whether they want to be a part of an effort to round up innocent people and send them to be locked away in foreign torture prisons."
"I'm sure Trump has promised pardons to the people who will commit crimes in the process of abusing legally-protected taxpayer data, but violations of taxpayer privacy laws carry hefty civil penalties too, and Trump cannot pardon anybody out from under those," he said. "I'm going to demand answers from the acting IRS commissioner immediately about this outrageous abuse of the agency.”
"I think that the Democratic Party has to make a fundamental decision," says the independent Senator from Vermont, "and I'm not sure that they will make the right decision."
"I think when we talk about America is a democracy, I think we should rephrase it, call it a 'pseudo-democracy.'"
That's what Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Sunday morning in response to questions from CBS News about the state of the nation, with President Donald Trump gutting the federal government from head to toe, challenging constitutional norms, allowing his cabinet of billionaires to run key agencies they philosophically want to destroy, and empowering Elon Musk—the world's richest person—to run roughshod over public education, undermine healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and attack Social Security.
Taking a weekend away from his ongoing "Fight Oligarchy" tour, which has drawn record crowds in both right-leaning and left-leaning regions of the country over recent weeks, Sanders said the problem is deeply entrenched now in the nation's political system—and both major parties have a lot to answer for.
"One of the other concerns when I talk about oligarchy," Sanders explained to journalist Robert Acosta, "it's not just massive income and wealth inequality. It's not just the power of the billionaire class. These guys, led by Musk—and as a result of this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision—have now allowed billionaires essentially to own our political process. So, I think when we talk about America is a democracy, I think we should rephrase it, call it a 'pseudo-democracy.' And it's not just Musk and the Republicans; it's billionaires in the Democratic Party as well."
Sanders said that while he's been out on the road in various places, what he perceives—from Americans of all stripes—is a shared sense of dread and frustration.
"I think I'm seeing fear, and I'm seeing anger," he said. "Sixty percent of our people are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Media doesn't talk about it. We don't talk about it enough here in Congress."
In a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Friday night, just before the Republican-controlled chamber was able to pass a sweeping spending resolution that will lay waste to vital programs like Medicaid and food assistance to needy families so that billionaires and the ultra-rich can enjoy even more tax giveaways, Sanders said, "What we have is a budget proposal in front of us that makes bad situations much worse and does virtually nothing to protect the needs of working families."
LIVE: I'm on the floor now talking about Trump's totally absurd budget.
They got it exactly backwards. No tax cuts for billionaires by cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid for Americans. https://t.co/ULB2KosOSJ
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) April 4, 2025
What the GOP spending plan does do, he added, "is reward wealthy campaign contributors by providing over $1 trillion in tax breaks for the top one percent."
"I wish my Republican friends the best of luck when they go home—if they dare to hold town hall meetings—and explain to their constituents why they think, at a time of massive income and wealth inequality, it's a great idea to give tax breaks to billionaires and cut Medicaid, education, and other programs that working class families desperately need."
On Saturday, millions of people took to the street in coordinated protests against the Trump administration's attack on government, the economy, and democracy itself.
Voiced at many of the rallies was also a frustration with the failure of the Democrats to stand up to Trump and offer an alternative vision for what the nation can be. In his CBS News interview, Sanders said the key question Democrats need to be asking is the one too many people in Washington, D.C. tend to avoid.
"Why are [the Democrats] held in so low esteem?" That's the question that needs asking, he said.
"Why has the working class in this country largely turned away from them? And what do you have to do to recapture that working class? Do you think working people are voting for Trump because he wants to give massive tax breaks to billionaires and cut Social Security and Medicare? I don't think so. It's because people say, 'I am hurting. Democratic Party has talked a good game for years. They haven't done anything.' So, I think that the Democratic Party has to make a fundamental decision, and I'm not sure that they will make the right decision, which side are they on? [Will] they continue to hustle large campaign contributions from very, very wealthy people, or do they stand with the working class?"
The next leg of Sanders' "Fight Oligarchy' tour will kick off next Saturday, with stops in California, Utah, and Idaho over four days.
"The American people, whether they are Democrats, Republicans or Independents, do not want billionaires to control our government or buy our elections," said Sanders. "That is why I will be visiting Republican-held districts all over the Western United States. When we are organized and fight back, we can defeat oligarchy."