We constantly hear politicians in Washington moaning about the budget deficit and the rising national debt and what should be done about them. But even more important is the empathy deficit in our nation’s capital, particularly manifested by President Trump and his chief enforcer, Elon Musk. However, virtually the entire Republican Party is in thrall to these bosses, afraid to challenge them despite their lack of empathy for the working and middle classes and frank cruelty at times. The actions of Trump and his coterie to fire government workers and lower costs is being carried out simply so the president can provide tax cuts for billionaires and other wealthy supporters with minimal if any benefits for most Americans.
In fact, virtually all the cost cutting by Trump and Musk will harm citizens who are not rich. Medicaid benefits will be reduced, and the Affordable Care Act section of Medicaid will likely be abolished, leaving tens of millions of people with diminished or no health care coverage. It would be up to the states to compensate for the funding that the federal government takes away, in order for health care coverage to continue. The states for the most part do not have the necessary sums available and would have to raise taxes on the wealthy and middle classes to provide health care for the poor. This is an option that most politicians would reject out of hand.
And under the House Republican budget plan, approved by Trump, millions of low-income households would lose food aid, as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and food stamps would be cut. To accomplish this, benefits would be reduced significantly, or people’s eligibility taken away. At least $230 billion through 2034 is expected to be cut by the House Agriculture Committee on this program. The bill has not yet gone to the Senate, but any decrease in SNAP would literally take food off the table of low-income people. More than 40 million Americans are aided by SNAP including 1 in 5 children. Lawmakers are currently looking at different options to lower funding for SNAP, but all the choices would harm American families.
Personnel are being fired or have been fired by Musk at every federal regulatory agency to save money for tax cuts for the wealthy and for corporations. Firings have come without prior warnings for probationary workers, but also for people who have been in their jobs for ten, twenty or more years. They are suddenly given 15 minutes to get their belongings and get out of their offices. This includes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which monitors pollution from industries that can damage the environment and injure or kill workers or residents. Some of the chemicals monitored are carcinogens or affect specific organs like the brain, liver, lungs or kidneys. Also being reduced are personnel at all health agencies including the NIH, CDC and the FDA. Research grants for all these agencies and for universities are all being lowered or cut completely, disregarding possible advances in treatment of cancers, infectious diseases, dementia, etc. Precautions for possible pandemics like avian flu are also being disregarded with new vaccines not being developed.
In addition, people put in charge of the nation’s health are incompetent. For example, Robert Kennedy, Jr, a vaccine skeptic with bizarre theories about various diseases was appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services. There’s an outbreak of measles in Texas and New Mexico now, with hospitalizations and deaths among unvaccinated children whose parents have succumbed to disinformation about vaccines. Will Polio come back? Smallpox? It can only get worse with poor leadership and fewer personnel at health agencies.
Disability programs are being reduced along with supplemental security income for disabled people. Money for education is being cut, and the Department of Education may be closed. This is despite American students performing poorly on tests of science, math and reading, worse than students of any other advanced nation. And we don’t have enough teachers because the pay is so bad. The Federal government is abandoning education and leaving it to the states. NOAA is also being cut to the disadvantage of farmers, fisherman and weather forecasters. Ignoring recent plane accidents and aviation safety, the Federal Aviation Agency personnel are being reduced as well.
The examples given of what the new administration is doing to the federal government and the nation are merely a small portion of the actions taken that will hurt ordinary Americans. But Trump, Musk and Republican officials don’t give a damn. They just want tax cuts for the rich without raising the national debt. They show no feelings for the people they are firing or the work that will no longer get done. Empathy is not a word in the Republican lexicon.
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Tags: empathy, empathy deficit, essential workers, government firings, health care problems, Musk, Trump
Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020