Newsletter
Behind the Cuts: How Trump and Musk Are Breaking What Works
Trump “Couldn’t Care Less” About Rising Costs, While Musk Targets Americans’ Earned Benefits, Worsens Health Care
President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their allies in Congress are setting into motion their latest power grab to accelerate the Administration’s cuts to services Americans depend on. In an apparent acknowledgement that the Musk’s damaging cuts may not be legal, Congressional Republicans are fast-tracking H.R. 1295, the “Reorganizing Government Act” to advance an enormous expansion of presidential power, help Trump and Musk skirt checks and balances, and expedite their ultimate agenda of gutting Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
Already, Trump and Musk’s economic policies are devastating families’ pocketbooks. As Trump says he “couldn’t care less” about driving up costs for families, his Administration is set to enact another round of industry-stunting tariffs this week – with regular Americans being forced to “absorb the cost of his tariffs in the form of higher prices and lower incomes.” That explains why consumer confidence is at its lowest point in over a decade and the stock market is in chaos, as Americans brace for economic uncertainty and the increased risk of recession thanks to Trump’s damaging economic policies.
Americans deserve real government reform that eliminates wasteful spending, cuts bureaucracy and red tape, and ensures the federal government actually delivers for taxpayers. Elon Musk’s mission could not be further from that objective. Instead, Trump and Musk’s DOGE is a mask for their true goal of cutting earned benefits and weaponizing the federal government to increase profits for themselves and their billionaire buddies, while sending day-to-day costs skyrocketing for families.
HOW THE TRUMP-MUSK ADMINISTRATION’S DOGE IS HARMING FAMILIES
- Gutting a quarter of HHS workforce, driving up health costs, kneecapping medical research, risking food and drug safety: Last week, Trump, Musk and Health and Human Services Department Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced they would cut 20,000 HHS employees in a move that could threaten Medicare and Medicaid, drive up health costs, limit medical research and our ability to fight public health threats like avian flu, and threaten our food and drug safety. According to officials, the 3,500 personnel cuts at the Food and Drug Administration will make it harder for the agency to meet product review deadlines and increase the risk of missing red flags while testing drugs. The head of the American Public Health Association described the threat of the cuts by noting: “Losing people, losing money, making relationships dysfunctional is not going to improve the health of the American people. Wrong diagnosis, wrong therapy.”
- Social Security services worsen as Musk’s devastating cuts hit seniors: While Elon Musk has falsely claimed Social Security is “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time” and plagued by “immense waste,” his cuts have dramatically worsened services for seniors. Recent reports reveal that the Social Security Administration’s website has crashed four times in just 10 days, blocking millions of retirees and disabled Americans from accessing their accounts, amid Musk’s reduction of 12% of Social Security employees. In the words of one former SSA official, Musk’s cuts were “like a drunk operating a wrecking ball.”
- Forcing the closure of hundreds campsites ahead of the summer travel season: In the face of Trump and Musk’s cuts to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, approximately 375 campsites in Pennsylvania are shutting down due to staffing shortages, limiting the parks which are popular for camping and boating, and cutting off a local revenue stream. As one local official described it: “The sad part of it is that it’s being treated by the federal government as a cost-saving measure, but they’re overlooking the revenue that those campgrounds bring in.”
- Limiting our ability to track extreme weather and prepare for natural disasters: Trump and Musk’s recent cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are leading the agency to pare back their weather balloon tracking in at least 11 offices. As one environmental expert described the impact: “Taking weather balloons offline in the heartland of the United States […] will directly affect the NWS’s ability to predict severe weather, including tornado-producing thunderstorms. This could lead to more severe weather-related deaths that could have otherwise been avoided.”
- Student loan delinquencies expected to hit all-time high in face of Department of Education cuts: This month, the Administration delivered on its Project 2025 promise to take a chainsaw to the Department of Education. While Trump and Musk’s order is expected to limit funding for K-12 education and gut civil rights protections, a new report also revealed that over 9 million Americans could see their credit score tank as student loan delinquencies are expected to hit an all-time high.
SOCIAL CONTENT TO LIFT
- @accountable-us.bsky.social: NEW: RFK Jr. just axed 20,000 public health jobs. That’s 3,500 FDA staff, 2,400 at the CDC—during a measles outbreak—and cuts across Medicare, Medicaid, & NIH. They’re calling it “efficiency.” But let’s call it what it is: dangerous and deliberate neglect. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/…
- @accountable-us.bsky.social: Trump and Musk’s chaos isn’t just breaking systems—it’s breaking people. Veterans battling PTSD are now forced to open up in call center-style cubicles, while trusted therapists quit en masse. And vets are being left to suffer in silence. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/u…
- @accountable-us.bsky.social: Need to file for Social Security? Get ready to wait hours, get disconnected, or drive to a shuttered office. Trump and Musk’s DOGE cuts are gutting the agency from the inside—making life harder for 70 million Americans who earned every dollar they’re owed. #SocialSecurity www.wsj.com/politics/pol…
- @whitehouse.senate.gov: The prize of the DOGE smash-and-grab raids by the Musk-rats is the data. It’s gold for Big Data. www.wired.com/story/elon-m…
- @jayapal.house.gov: No, Elon — Social Security isn’t a “Ponzi scheme.” It’s America’s most successful anti-poverty program that millions of seniors rely on. Keep your hands off it. www.usatoday.com/story/news/p…
