The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.
What have we come to? A national consensus to provide health care coverage and end hunger has become a modern-day Dodo bird. Trump and the GOP-led Congress want to pay for tax cuts skewed to the rich with draconian cuts in health care coverage and aid to feed the hungry. Moreover, the national debt will soar because of the massive borrowing for tax cuts, resulting in rising interest rates to sell Treasury bonds to finance the tax cuts. Will lead to higher interest rates for middle and working class Americans.
“In private, Wall Street sounds alarm on Trump’s tax bill” and the U.S. has “lost its perfect credit rating” (Washington Post). But Musk and Trump have had a spectacular, explosive falling out. Musk has pulled the curtain around the “One Big Beautiful Act” and called it an “abomination” that will sharply increase the national debt.
Don’t be fooled. Musk and Wisconsin GOP Senator Ron Johnson want more big cuts in domestic spending, perhaps in Medicare and Social Security (believe falsely that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme”). What ever happened to paying with taxes for necessary spending? Reagan raised taxes eleven times to reverse his previous explosion in debt. Moreover, Johnson’s favorite tax break for the rich, the pass-through deduction, has long been abused by big corporations (former Trump IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig). What about Social Security funding? Raising the cap on earnings subject to the Social Security tax ($176,100) would get the wealthy to pay their fair share. That and other tweaks would fix and sustain Social Security.
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But Trump and the GOP would rather blame the middle and working classes and make them pay for these tax cuts. As I’ve previously emphasized: “One Big Beautiful Act” and other Trump-GOP policies cut health care coverage (Medicaid, Affordable Care Act private insurance) for 16 million, including at least 228,659 Wisconsinites (Congressional Budget Office). The bill will result in millions, including 90,000 Wisconsinites, losing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program coverage or seeing benefits reduced (NYT). This once bipartisan program feeds the hungry. There’s more.
“The GOP plan making its way through Congress would sharply increase the number of people without health insurance, largely by narrowing the path for poor Americans (and the middle and working classes) to gain coverage and making it easier for them to be booted off it. It would target the twin pillars of Medicaid expansion and federally subsidized insurance marketplaces …” (Washington Post).
Finally, Wisconsin GOP 3rd CD Representative Derrick Van Orden falsely claims many unauthorized immigrants are enrolled in Medicaid and SNAP. Absolutely not true. Federal law already forbids this. But to sell this terrible bill facts are disregarded. It’s not too late to stop this legislation. It may collapse of its own weight; GOP Senators with very divergent views might come together to vote it down. Don’t give up! “51,000 Americans will die every year as a direct result of Republican health plan” (University of Pennsylvania and Yale University – Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden).
– Kaplan wrote a guest column from Washington, D.C., for the Wisconsin State Journal from 1995 – 2009.
