Dear fellow Wisconsin Democrats,
Suppose you’re the world’s richest person, and you want a multi-trillion dollar tax cut for yourself and your billionaire friends. There are two main ways to get it: huge deficit spending… and cutting health care.
Guess what Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and the GOP are choosing?
Both.
Don’t fall for the con: Musk’s assault on lifesaving medical research, consumer protections against corporate fraud, higher education, and the world’s most successful global health programs aren’t about saving money. They’re about attacking things he opposes.
Destroying these vital programs doesn’t change the math for the federal government. The US runs a multi trillion dollar annual deficit for a simple reason: the massive tax cuts for the rich passed by Trump and George W. Bush.
Musk’s systematic shredding of the functioning of the United States government and dismemberment of the civil service advances his, Trump’s, and the Republican Party’s ideological goals.
But all of those attacks add up to pocket change when it comes to budget math.
The vast majority of the United States budget goes to health care (28%), including Medicare and Medicaid, Social Security (21%), defense (14%), and interest on the national debt (13%). The remaining one-fourth is mostly income security programs like nutrition assistance (9%) and veterans benefits (6%). So far, Musk has been chipping away at the remaining one-tenth of the federal budget. But there’s just not much money there compared to the big-ticket stuff.
When the GOP proposes $2 trillion in spending cuts and a $4.5 trillion tax cut for the rich, make no mistake, they’re coming for your health care.
They’re saying it explicitly, albeit in Washington-ese. The GOP’s budget resolution says “it is the goal of this concurrent resolution is to reduce mandatory spending by $2 trillion.” Mandatory spending is the category that includes Medicare, Medicaid, and so forth.
Which means—the battle lines are drawn.
Our job, as Democrats, is three-fold: to make sure the public knows the terrible things the GOP is seeking to do. To try to contain the damage while doing things that actually help people—as Governor Evers is doing in his budget. And to win elections.
So, let’s sound the alarm about these GOP attacks.
Let’s show Democrats who are fighting for the right things that we have their back.
And let’s win the Supreme Court race on April 1 to show that the GOP’s viciousness will generate a political backlash that will cost them their jobs.
They’re coming for our health care in order to enrich themselves. That’s a message that is both absolutely true and politically explosive. Let’s make sure the public hears it.
In solidarity,
Ben
