What Trump is stealing from you. Part 2

If you're still looking for that One Big Message to share with friends and family about the man who would be king, here it is:

Donald Trump is stealing from you.

He's stealing from you. He's stealing from your family. He's stealing from your friends and from your children. He is stealing your property, your services, and your savings. He is doing it in almost every way imaginable—including some that should be impossible in any functional government—and he's enjoying every minute of taking what belongs to you.

His actions are driving the economy toward unprecedented ruin that may be impossible to repair. If you can't get upset about the death of democracy, then how about getting fired up over the cost that you are going to pay for Trump's actions?

What may be the biggest way in which Trump is stealing from Americans seems like a repeat ... because it is. He's pushing Congress to reward the wealthiest 1% of the 1% with a huge tax break—money that comes straight out of the budget for everyone else and leaves the less-than-wealthy holding the bag. And House Republicans are hurrying to make it happen.

As The Hill reports, Trump lied about taxes during the campaign, he lied about them after the election, and he was still lying during his first joint address to Congress.

The budget bill House Republicans just approved is big, but it’s far from beautiful. Their top priority is providing $4.5 trillion in tax cuts whose benefits go overwhelmingly to the richest Americans. That will pile on even more national debt, leave us with less money to support families and communities who need it and force big cuts in Medicaid.

Trump is well aware that his campaign funding didn't come from individuals cutting him checks for $10 or $20. It doesn't matter how many people showed up to his traveling circus act and laid down money for a "F*ck Biden" shirt. That is not how he got back to the White House.

Chart showing that Harris got much more from small donors than Trump

Trump's money came from wealthy investors, casino magnates, and billionaire scions of multi-generational wealth. The biggest check, of course, was cut by Elon Musk whose total expenditures on the election topped $290 million. Musk alone gave Trump more than twice the funds he collected from all small donors in the entire campaign.

That's one expensive chainsaw.

Still, considering what Musk has been able to do with his new toy, it was well worth it. Beyond getting the FCC to reverse a decision that would send $900 million to his Starlink subsidiary, Musk is now in line to collect $42 billion from a takeover of rural internet, billions more from a proposal to replace the GPS system, and still more billions by crushing the SLS program before it can get people back to the Moon. As a bonus, Musk will get infinite satisfaction by making his biggest competitors beg for their lives.

Musk is raking in "billions in government contracts while using his new power to fire public officials who have investigated his companies." That includes ending his problems with racial harassment at Tesla, investigations into crashes caused by his "full self-driving" system, and speeding along experimental SpaceX launches even though the last one ended in disaster. Chainsaw. Chainsaw. Chainsaw.

But even those multi-billion dollar baubles may not be the biggest win for Musk and the rest of Trump's billionaire boy pals. The big win comes from the trillions Congress is expected to shell out and from the most important cut made to help Trump's most important people.

As ProPublica reports, the IRS has already been chopped down by 6,000 agents. That seems to be only the beginning. Trump has indicated he intends to cut the agency's size in half, on the way to eliminating it completely. These actions have already crippled the agency in the middle of its most busy period.

Those initial cuts include the cancellation of a program to review the filings of those making more than $500,000 for possible fraud. That single program brought in more revenue than all the supposed savings generated by DOGE – not just the savings at the IRS, all the savings Elon has posted on his big board of reported DOGE cuts.

If you're looking for real government efficiency, look no further than the 10-person team at the IRS that discovered $5 billion owed to the nation by wealthy tax cheats. That team is gone.

Since Trump took office, the Treasury Department has struck down rules about revealing corporate ownership, the SEC has stopped recording information on trades, and the Justice Department has suspended prosecution for bribery and corruption. Eliminating the people who are supposed to see that the wealthy accurately file their taxes is the big, sweet cherry on top.

Most Americans don't have a team of tax experts holding their hands. In fact, almost three-quarters of all Americans do their own taxes. They don't have over 500 LLCs to obscure their finances like Trump, or a team of lawyers and accountants that allows them to pay an average of 3% in taxes like Musk. They pay what their nation tells them they owe. Which, in Trump's book, makes them suckers.

The billionaire tax cut and the decimation of the IRS means that average taxpayers will pick up even more of the day-to-day burden while Musk and his ilk keep their wealth not just growing, but hidden.

That $290 million chainsaw is looking like a real bargain.

With ever more wealth disappearing down a black hole of corruption, something has to give. That something is Medicaid. Stealing health care from the poor and cost of living payments from the disabled, including disabled veterans, is the best way Republicans can find to plug a portion of the hole left by not taxing the super-rich.

And of course, they're lying about it.

“It doesn’t even mention Medicaid in the bill,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said of his party’s budget. “The word ‘Medicaid’ is not even in this bill,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise added. “This bill doesn’t even mention the word ‘Medicaid’ a single time.”

The truth wasn’t nearly that simple. While the literal text of the bill didn’t reference specific Medicaid cuts, the GOP plan directed the congressional committee that oversees Medicaid to find $880 billion in cuts that can only be found in Medicaid.

See, Billy, it's not that we're eliminating Christmas. We're just taking away Santa's travel budget ... and we will be eating the cookies.

But not to worry. The burden of supporting Musk's big present doesn't fall entirely on those who depend on Medicaid for their health care or disability payments. The whole social safety net is in their sights.

The CBO assessment ... makes clear that the unprecedented spending cuts will be impossible without dismantling the social safety net programs relied upon by large numbers of Americans in every district – Republican and Democratic – across the country.

The gift that Republicans are giving to the ultra-rich is too big to be covered by Medicaid alone. It demands it all.

Trump has promised that he would not cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid. Which is great, except that once again, Trump is lying. He has handed Congress a blueprint that cannot be achieved without making deep cuts to programs that people have paid into their whole working lives.

“Republicans know their spin is a lie, and the truth is they have no problem taking healthcare away from millions of Americans so that the rich can get richer and pay less in taxes than they already do.” – Rep. Frank Pallone

If Republicans in Congress are lying, Trump is lying more. When he climbed up on the podium to make his first joint address, he told the American people that DOGE had found "shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program.” Then he claimed that the program was paying out funds to millions of Americans "from ages 110 to 119.”

That's not true. DOGE did not find such an issue. Audits of Social Security haven't turned up any large-scale problems. Trump knows that. Musk knows that. This is a deliberate lie.

While there are over 18 million people in the Social Security system with no recorded death certificate, only 44,000 people born before 1920 are collecting Social Security — a number that seems entirely reasonable for a nation of 340 million.

An earlier audit did show 266 people over the age of 112 receiving payments. When this was checked, it turned out that an error had been made—but not the error that Trump and Musk are claiming. The people were real. Someone just made a mistake in entering their birthdates.

Trump is repeating claims of big problems with Social Security because if your goal is to crack open the federal government and shake out all the money, one of the biggest pots is the Social Security system that Americans have been funding day by day throughout their working lives.

Where is the $4.5 trillion going to come from to reward Trump, Musk, and the other handful of billionaires? From you. From your health care. From your retirement. From the money you paid in full expectation it would be there when you needed it.

Today, 9.2% of American seniors live below the poverty line. That's a shame we should address. But before Social Security, 78% of seniors lived in poverty. That's what Republicans think of as "the good old days."

That's the price of paying billionaires for their support of Trump.

With their shiny new tax cuts, regulatory agencies turning a blind eye, and a broken IRS billionaires are going to make out like bandits. But not you. You're going to be paying more and getting less so that Musk can keep dancing and Trump can keep laughing.

He is taking funding from Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and Chips to pay for a $4.5 trillion tax break for billionaires, and he's opened the door for unlimited corruption.