On Friday, my husband and I drove to Ventura to shop at our favorite garden center. On the way, we noticed the missing farm laborers in the many fields we passed, signaling a coming food crisis. Scarcity will lead to a continued rise in food prices. Tariffs will exasperate the situation. What’s heading our way, will not be pleasant for most Americans. But beyond food becoming scarcer and more expensive, we realized that we’ll be expected to pay for other needs and services our federal tax dollars once covered.
The radio was tuned in to KCLU, a public radio station that we rely on for local news, public interest stories, and information. They do a great job reporting during wildfires or other situations that arise in our area. The general manager, a former colleague, came on and informed the listeners that the station would be losing $300,000 in federal funding as part of the government’s cuts to NPR and PBS. She was relying on us, the general public, to increase our donations to fully cover the shortfall so that she didn’t have to lay people off and so that they could continue to deliver the news.
I was livid. KCLU serves a wealthy community, so I know it will survive. But what of rural and poor areas? Many people will lose access to public radio that serves to provide them with important news and information, especially during disasters. The shortsighted decision-making of this president and the Republican led Congress is destroying our country and using our tax dollars to do it. They are funding unnecessary tax breaks for the wealthy, stupid military parades, excessive golf trips for the president, ruthless ICE agents, marines and national guards recking havoc in our streets, building concentration camps, and defending lawsuits against unconstitutional executive orders.
As Congress begins to defund essentials like food stamps for the poor, scientific and medical research, national parks, foreign aid, healthcare, disaster relief, education, infrastructure, and public broadcasting, who is expected to foot the bill for these essentials? Or do we simply allow people to starve to death, to die of treatable and preventable illnesses, to remain unhoused after a natural disaster, to drive on unsafe highways, to be forced out of nursing homes, to lack access to clean air and water, and to forego adequate education?
Perhaps they believe individual states will foot the bills for the needs of their population. Perhaps they believe churches will feed, clothe, and house the impoverished. Perhaps they believe families or friends will care former nursing home patients. Perhaps they believe individuals or corporations will donate to research they care about. Perhaps they believe the public will pay through donations, not taxes, for public broadcasting. Perhaps they believe on the rich deserve to educate their children. Perhaps they believe clean water and clean air are a privilege and not a right. Perhaps they think climate change is a hoax and weather forecasts aren’t necessary. Perhaps they think people will stop rebuilding in disaster prone areas as insurance becomes unavailable (or unaffordable) and FEMA no longer exists. Perhaps they believe that if people have to pay for their own medical bills out of pocket, they will take better care of their health, just remain sick, and the costs will eventually come down.
Whether they are right or wrong about any of this, the reality is that millionaires and billionaires are benefitting most from federal tax breaks. To compensate for the loss of federal dollars, state taxes are likely to increase to cover the cost of just about everything people need or people will start to pay out of pocket for just about everything that used to be part of the “general welfare” like health, research, education, and disaster relief. I’m on the fence about increasing my donations to cover what I believe our tax dollars should cover for the public good. These cuts will push most people into survival mode, not the mindset needed to invest nor innovate. Frankly, I might need those dollars to cover the basics like food, housing, energy, insurance, medical expenses and education for my grandchildren in the coming years as things fall apart.
Right now, California is a donor state. This means that we collect more in federal tax dollars than we get in funding. This past year we donated $83 million. I wish there was a way for us to keep those dollars here in California so that we could better fund our own healthcare, disaster relief, education, research, infrastructure, public broadcasting, and food assistance. If not, then perhaps California could institute a reasonable “wealth tax” to reassign the federal tax savings millionaires and billionaires are getting from the federal government under this Republican Congress. Perhaps the rich will realize that funding these things actually helps keep them safe and in fact grows our collective economy. California is already the fourth largest economy in the world. Let’s keep it that way and do even better.
I have no idea what these poor red states are going to do. And frankly, I only care because they are human beings. But it bothers me that they keep electing Republican lawmakers who cut everything safety net they rely on for survival. It’s shortsighted to believe people won’t revolt when they become desperate enough. They won’t just “get over it” as Mitch McConnell commented about the cuts. Maybe folks in red states believe in this way of doing things. So, I can only hope that it works out for them. But I don’t want to live that way. I prefer that my tax dollars go to promote the general welfare so that we feel secure and innovative enough to create a stronger, healthier, and better future for our children’s children.
You make some good and interesting points. But, what you apparently fail to realize is that the DEMOCRATS, put TRUMP in office. As a native Californian, I was forced to move to another state due to the stupid and foolish politics of the Democrats. I’m glad TRUMP WON, this has been a wake up call for FBAs. Although, I foolishly voted for HARRIS. I can truly say that I won’t be voting Democratic anymore. The major of Los Angeles Karen Bass, and Governor Gavin Newsom has proven to be the WORST politicians for U S CITIZENS OF CALIFORNIA. They both should go to jail. They care more about illegal immigrants than the real US CITIZENS of AMERICA. Trump would win again if election was held today and I for one would vote for him. Not because he is smart🙄 but because he is doing what the people really elected him to do and that was MASS DEPORTATION. Now in California whites and blacks us citizen can get jobs and employers will have to pay a FAIR WAGE.
It saddens me to detect the hatred in your heart for people trying to find a better life for themselves. I don’t think of this life as a zero-sum game where some people must lose so that others can win. As our economy expands, there is room for anyone who is willing to put their talent to hard work. I don’t believe in entitlements. California has been good to me. I was willing and able to compete because I got a good education and was willing to work hard and compete for the opportunities that became available. Perhaps unskilled labor got pushed out of California as employers did what they have always done: seek the cheapest labor. However, it is not the fault of undocumented people, employers, nor Governor Newsome or Major Karen Bass that our U.S. Congress has failed to fix our broken immigration system. And honestly, there has never been a time in U.S. history when employers have paid a fair wage. This system has always thrived on the exploitation of cheap labor beginning with slavery and indentured servitude. The rise of unions was to combat employer exploitation of labor. Today, CEOs make 300 times what their average employee makes. It’s called greed and that is not going away. It was greed that fueled the demand for cheap labor and unskilled jobs oversees or replaced humans with robots. AI will soon take up the slack. The fair wage jobs you think are coming because of deportation will never materialize. Employers are too greedy and Americans are in love with cheap goods and services.
If you listen to Trump and his followers, their plan is that FBAs will no longer have the opportunity to vote in the future. You would vote for someone who literally hates you because he is hurting the people you hate. People are people. Everyone has a story and is trying to make the best of this life and sometimes that means migrating, just as you did when you moved away from California.
First, of all I don’t hate people for the sake of hating people. I hate people coming to this country, ILLEGALLY and expecting that country to adopt to their ways and culture. And yes, I do blame the mindset that you, a black woman have. You want to include everyone. These people don’t include Black. Your mindset is what kept Blacks in slavery for long periods of time. You would have been the house, n!@@er who was more concerned for the master house. I guessed i would have been the field N!@@er, when the house caught on fire, I would have prayed for it to BURN DOWN. CLAUD ANDERSON explains it better than I can. You should read or listen to him. Then you would know that these immigrants are not our ally. They are here to compete with us and make SURE , Black People are at the bottom. Trump, has done more the FBAs, just with his commitment to deport illegal immigrants. ALL, Mexicans, Africans, Asians, and Indians ect to name a few. And if Blacks People keep voting Democrats, which is NOT IN OUR BEST INTEREST. Then we need to lose the right to VOTE. Self Preservation is what you need to understand, this is why FBAs are DELINEATING.
None of us can know for certain what kind of slave we would have been. However, given my personality and determination to learn and create, I would have learned to read no matter what and I would have been innovative despite the obstacles. Those things would have probably lead to my demise or willingness to escape. Given the fact that I spend a lot of time gardening and have a certified green thumb, my ancestors were likely field slaves. I can trace my ancestry to slavery on both sides and I am 86% African and 50% of that is Nigerian. I think the field was far more likely for me and its evident since both sides of my family migrated to Michigan from Mississippi during the Great Migration and most of my DNA is found in South Carolina. I obviously come from folks who endured slavery and did not escape it. That doesn’t mean they liked it and didn’t want it to end.
That said, I believe it is foolish to believe that Trump’s immigration policies will help black people. He is a racist and he has surrounded himself with racists who are doing everything they can to disrupt and destroy and demean black people and to cut off our paths to progress. He has fired black generals. He disparages black people as unqualified at every turn. Getting rid of low wage immigrant labor is not our path to progress and prosperity. I’m not interested in picking produce, construction, cleaning hotel rooms, butchering meats, cooking in restaurants, or doing other high intensity low wage jobs. I want black people to gain the education or skills to be entrepreneurs or to pursue highly skilled or AI resistant jobs. The biggest threat to black people is AI coupled with a powerful and lawless administration that is anti-black. They will be quick to label all black people as criminals and won’t hesitate to use police brutality to round us up in a heartbeat. He will label black neighborhoods as warzones to be occupied and dismantled. I hope you remember that Trump called for the execution of five innocent black males, discriminated against blacks in his apartments, blocks black immigration (“shithole countries”), wanted to shoot “Black Lives Matter” protestors, and is completely against DEI which is simply an acknowledgement of our diversity as a nation, equity which is simple fairness in hiring and public policies, and inclusion which simply opens doors that were previously closed to people of color, particularly black people. Immigrants are not your enemy; he is. It’s scary to me that you can’t see that. Anyone who thinks rounding up undocumented immigrants will solve their problems is as shortsighted as the citizens in Nazi Germany. But worse, they fail to recognize that AI is the true threat to their future job prospects, not immigrants.
I acknowledge that anti-blackness is found around the world, including among immigrants of color. The entire world has been fed a steady diet of American produced anti-black propaganda through the news, movies and television shows we exported. I’ve traveled around the world and the stereotypes of American blacks being violent, over-sexed, uneducated and lazy preceded me. One of the reasons I insert myself into non-black spaces is to dispel those negative myths about who we are. It takes proximity and firsthand relationship to disrupt prejudice and diffuse blanket hatred. I’m suggesting that if you get to know a few immigrants on a personal level that you will find that they aren’t evil people hellbent on making your life misery.
Sadly, there are white men who have the destruction, detainment, or deportation of black people on their agenda and they work with Donald J. Trump.