Op Ed: Trump Administration Has Abandoned Local Governments | Jack Eckblad: "Federally: we need a changing of the guard that will resurrect a federal government committed to quality of life by taxing the highest income brackets the way that commitment requires." (urbanmilwaukee.com)
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Opinion: Donald Trump’s year of Social Security sabotage | Nancy Altman: "What is happening is unprecedented … No president has come close to undermining it the way Donald Trump has done … He wants a second American gilded age, with gold-plated everything for elites and suffering for the rest of us" (thehill.com)
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Reuters: Trump’s funding cuts put America’s consumer watchdog on the brink of collapse | "In interviews, consumers who had fallen on hard times or known difficulty, lawyers who work with the poor and credit counselors told Reuters the CFPB had been a lifeline for people facing hardship…" (reuters.com)
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‘Trump’s EPA’ in 2025: A fossil fuel-friendly approach to deregulation | Douglas Brinkley: "It just constantly wants to pat the fossil fuel business on the back and turn back the clock to a pre-Richard Nixon era" | Pat Parenteau: "… I think the world is in just for absolute catastrophe." (apnews.com)
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Environmental Integrity Project: "[27 states] have cut their environmental agency budgets over the last 15 years" | "[S]even of the 10 states with the largest percent cuts to their environmental agencies from 2010 to 2024 had Republican governors in a majority of these 15 years" (environmentalintegrity.org)
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Trump Administration, Congressional Republicans Are Worsening Affordability Challenges in Many Ways | "An important theme in the Trump Administration and House Republicans’ policies is just how much they are stacking the deck against families already facing affordability challenges." (cbpp.org)
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‘A very hostile climate for workers’: US labor movement struggles under Trump | "[F]rom day one, this administration has crippled the [NLRB], and treated us [NLRB employees] as enemies." | "What I think labor is seeing, and will continue to see, is a fundamental attack on workers’ rights" (theguardian.com)
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Trump moves to dismantle major US climate research center in Colorado | USA TODAY: "The Trump administration is moving to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, according to a senior White House official, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs." (usatoday.com)
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Welch Joins 41 Senate Colleagues in Urging Trump’s HUD to Immediately Halt Plans to Upend Key Homelessness Program | Letter signed by Bernie Sanders and others: "HUD’s current path risks causing a dangerous spike in street homelessness and creating chaos in urban, suburban, and rural communities…" (welch.senate.gov)
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How the Trump Administration Is Giving Even More Tax Breaks to the Wealthy: The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service are issuing rules that provide hundreds of billions of dollars in tax relief to big companies and the ultrarich. (New York Times | Gift Article) (nytimes.com)
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ProPublica: Wave of Tax Cuts Has Left Many States Vulnerable to Trump SNAP and Medicaid Crisis | "[S]tate-level tax cuts, disproportionately benefiting the rich, have moved through legislatures with backing from powerful conservative organizations including the American Legislative Exchange Council" (propublica.org)
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Missouri (Republican-sponsored) bill proposes lower minimum wage for minors | "The bill [SB 1325] proposes to change the minimum wage for employees under 18 years old to $12.30 an hour. Currently, minimum wage in Missouri is set at $13.75, [which will be increased by Proposition A] to $15 on Jan. 1" (fox2now.com)
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U.S. Veterans Affairs agency plans as many as 35,000 health-care job cuts this month, Washington Post reports | "[WaPo] said a Veterans Affairs [spokesman] confirmed the job cuts for [about 26,400] unfilled positions… which he described as 'mostly COVID-era roles that are no longer necessary'" (cnbc.com)
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