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Trump : "American Billionaire First !"
Wednesday 1 March 2017
The Only Ones Who Should Be Deported Are The 1% !
Trump’s latest order to Homeland Security is to round up and deport refugee children and families from Mexico and Latin American countries, supposedly because they are breaking the law by coming here illegally. We should be outraged at Trump and the Republicans. But we need to remember that the Obama administration laid the groundwork for Trump by deporting more immigrants than under any other president. The only difference between the two administrations is that the Obama administration was more selective about who they deported and didn’t boast about attacking people who were forced from their homes and came here to make a life for themselves.
How hypocritical of Trump and others like him to say that people who came here without legal sanction don’t have a right to be here. These bosses have always hired workers without papers to work in their factories, construction sites, restaurants, hotels, hospitals, and farms and to take care of their families. These are the same bosses who exploit these workers at the lowest possible wage and under the worst conditions.
Big companies moved their factories to other counties where they could pay lower wages, prevent unionization and treat workers like slaves. These are the same bosses who rely on the U.S. government to install bloody dictatorships and cause civil wars to defend their right to steal natural resources and dominate other economies for their benefit. Also, many farmers were pushed from their lands when agribusiness dumped their cheap subsidized produce on the market, selling at prices below the cost of production. It is these conditions that have driven workers to seek refuge in the U.S.
This is a country of recent immigrants, with the exception of Native Americans. But throughout U.S. history, the 1% has used a divide and conquer strategy to turn poor farmers and workers against each other, attempting to prevent us from making a unified fight against our real enemy – the bosses and bankers. The most continuous divide and conquer strategy is racism. Immigrants from Europe were told that Native Americans stood in the way of them owning their own little farms. This led to a genocidal slaughter of the people who were living here. White workers have been told that they were better off and have a privilege to defend against African Americans. The result of this strategy has been the violent and degrading treatment of Black people, and other minorities and has driven down wages, and worsened working conditions for everyone. Meanwhile the bosses and bankers continue to profit at our expense.
We cannot believe their lies. It is absolutely false that immigrants are taking our jobs or are responsible for more crime than those who are born here. This is said to frighten us and to get those of us who have legal status to go along with or ignore the attacks on those without documentation.
While we are distracted by Trump’s outrageous behavior, the politicians are preparing to cut the taxes of the rich and the corporations, remove controls over the banks and corporations, reopen oil pipeline projects which will lead to more global warming, and cut social programs and privatize schools.
The Trump administration has made it very clear – there are two sides. The bosses are on one side, and the rest of us whether documented or undocumented, of all genders and all ethnicities are on the other. The attack on immigrant workers is an attack on all poor and working people. We need to make it clear that when it comes to attacks on any one of us that AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL! We must stand with and defend immigrant workers against the rich who exploit us all.
Forum posts
1. Trump : "American Billionaire First !", 18 April 2017, 10:53
Trump administration has been busy showing what their “America First” agenda really means. The only America that comes first in all of this is the America of the super rich – not the vast majority of working people who are the ones forced to pay for this agenda. All of the promises made to working people about good jobs and good health care and a brighter future are all gone, replaced with massive increases in military spending along with a slew of tax cuts for the banks, corporations and the super rich.
This agenda was revealed in the recent failed attempt by the Trump administration to eliminate the Affordable Care Act. That proposal would have resulted in 24 million Americans losing their health insurance over the next ten years while continuing to increase the health care costs of those who have insurance. The plan would have cut Medicaid by about 25 percent over ten years, a total of $880 billion. Those cuts would have meant $700 billion in tax cuts to the super rich over ten years. What’s worse, the conservatives refused to vote for it only because it didn’t cut enough from health care.
At the same time, the Trump administration’s latest budget includes a $54 billion increase in military spending, most of which is a handout to military companies to build new ships, fighter jets, and weapons, including nuclear weapons. Included in this increase is about $4 billion to extend the wall along the US–Mexico border, and increase the number of agents in the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Border Patrol. The message of this administration is clear. It is preparing us for an intensification of wars abroad along with increased repression and attacks at home.
The administration is pushing to cut the corporate tax rate by over 50 percent. Currently the official corporate tax rate is 35 percent. Trump is proposing to cut it to 15 percent – even though many corporations avoid paying any tax at all.
And where is the money supposed come from to pay for the tax cuts to the rich and the increased military spending? Where else but through attacks on programs and agencies that provide support to working people, including our health care, education, transportation, housing, and food assistance. One of the biggest cuts is to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), cutting 3,200 jobs, 50 programs and half of its budget for research and the enforcement of regulations that are supposed to set basic environmental and safety standards for corporations.
2. Trump : "American Billionaire First !", 11 May 2017, 07:36
The Republicans have finally succeeded in their repeal of the ACA (Affordable Care Act, commonly known as ObamaCare). This is an attack on millions of people’s access to health care. For all its problems, the ACA did provide some improvements to what was in place before. It expanded Medicaid coverage and provided subsidies to the poorest Americans to help cover the costs of insurance. It guaranteed access to and limited the price of premiums charged to those with previous existing medical conditions. The ACA paid for most of these subsidies through a small increase in taxes, mainly paid by the rich.
But there were serious problems with the plan. The ACA was never really about providing affordable, quality health care for all. It was written by the insurance and drug companies to guarantee future profits and increase the number of people purchasing health care.
For Republicans, replacing the ACA was never about providing people with better health care. They campaigned against the ACA from day one to position themselves against the Democrats and as a way to play to racists by attacking Obama. Getting rid of the ACA is also a way to carry out further attacks on the funding of social services. Cuts to social programs means more of our taxes go to the rich for programs like weapons production and subsidies to fossil fuel companies.
For months many Republicans have been trying to build support for removing the ACA by talking about its many problems. Most people are dissatisfied with the fact that their insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs of health care have continued to go up. From drug prices to co-pays to surgeries, we have had to pay more for everything each year. For millions of the poorest Americans, their problem with the ACA is not the existence of subsidies but that it never provided a fully accessible health care system.
Republicans have manipulated people’s anger at increased health care costs only to offer them another system of expensive for-profit health care. The Republicans’ plan, the American Health Care Act, will eliminate protections for those with pre-existing conditions, allowing premiums and co-pays to continue to skyrocket. They want to cut Medicaid by hundreds of billions of dollars. They want to eliminate mandated health coverage for everyone and cut hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies for those who can’t afford the plans – denying millions of more people access to basic health care.
Even among the Republicans there was some opposition to these drastic cuts. In order to get their bill passed through the House, Republican leaders had to promise eight billion dollars to help those who won’t be able to afford the increased premiums. But that amount of money isn’t even close to being enough. In fact, the majority of those who voted for this bill didn’t even know what they were voting for. They were just voting against the Democrats.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) was not even allowed to review this latest health care bill before the House of Representatives voted last week. The CBO estimated that the previous version of the bill, which was voted down, would cut more than 24 million people from insurance coverage. And over $880 billion would be cut from Medicaid over the first ten years alone. That bill also allowed for further cuts to Medicaid in the future.
There is nothing about this heath care bill that will benefit working people. This health care bill needs to be seen for exactly what it is: a further attack on workers and the poor and another handout to the rich.
In this country health care serves as wealth care for the rich. It is obscene that in the richest country in the world quality health care is not guaranteed and accessible to everyone. As long as profits come first our health and well-being will always come last.