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Dear John,
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s GOP is holding the nation hostage, using the threat of default on the national debt as their weapon, and they have finally released their demands.
With a June 1st deadline to stave off default, Republicans in the House are calling for trillions of dollars of cruel cuts to essential health care, nutrition, housing, energy, and education programs that will cause massive harm to middle-class and low-income earning families.
President Biden has drawn a line in the sand:
“Here’s the deal: If Republicans try to take away people’s health care, increase costs for middle-class families, or push Americans into poverty, I’m going to stop them. I’m going to stop them.”
The next step is up to the Senate. The Senate must stand firm and reject the House’s draconian proposals, designed to cut taxes on the wealthy and corporations at the expense of those who can least afford it. Send a pre-written message to your senators demanding they raise the debt ceiling without McCarthy’s cruel cuts.
How to even begin to describe the avalanche of cuts the GOP wants to drop on us?
Let’s start with their plans to cut millions of Americans from Medicaid and the SNAP Nutrition (food stamps) program by expanding unreasonable time limits and work rules to people aged 50-55, when age discrimination and health issues may make work inaccessible. Many of those who will lose coverage would actually remain eligible, cut simply due to failure to navigate the new snarls of bureaucratic red tape.
Republicans are also demanding new restrictions in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families that could deny even the most basic aid to one million children.
The GOP insists on slashing $3.6 trillion in programs that fund a wide range of housing, home energy, child care, and medical research programs, as well as pre-K through college education and treatment for mental health and substance abuse.
They want to keep huge tax breaks for the wealthy, but end the tax breaks for renewable energy in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Their plans will make Social Security harder to access than ever, with massive layoffs in Social Security offices. They want to defund the IRS by nearly $71 billion, making it easier for the wealthy to cheat on their taxes and harder for working Americans to get their tax refunds.
The Republicans’ massive proposed cuts all have two things in common: they make life more difficult for middle-class and low-income earning families, and they make it easier for the wealthy and corporations to avoid paying their fair share.
Click here to send a direct message to your senators today demanding they reject any deal that would increase poverty and hardship in this country now.
Thank you for encouraging your senators to stand firm in rejecting the GOP’s hostage demands and insisting on a better deal for the American people.
Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action
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