Newsletter
Trump Accountability Watch: Trump Helps Wealthy Cheat on Taxes, Cuts Your Health Care
Trump Makes it Easier for Wealthiest Americans to Cheat on Taxes, While Endorsing Cuts to Your Health Care
This week, Donald Trump’s billionaire first agenda of making his wealthy backers, including his biggest campaign donor Elon Musk, richer and leaving working Americans to foot the bill was in full form. Trump reportedly fired 6,700 IRS employees who are “by and large people who ‘go after tax evasion.’” And in doing so, he will make it easier for the wealthiest Americans to skirt paying their fair share in the middle of tax season.
Last year, an IRS report found tax evasion by millionaires and billionaires is costing the U.S. Treasury $150 billion a year – and it’s likely to rise with Trump’s removal of IRS enforcement staff. That explains why his agenda is expected to “add trillions more” to the U.S. debt.
To pay for it, Trump and Republicans in Congress are plotting cuts to 79 million Americans’ health care, as well as gutting hospitals and community health centers, which millions more depend on. Trump started the week by deceptively claiming Medicare and Medicaid wouldn’t be touched – despite his track record of trying and failing to axe its critical funding in his first term. Then, he quickly reversed course by endorsing House Republicans’ budget plan, which “seeks as much as $880 billion in Medicaid cuts over the next decade.” Even some House Republicans are conceding their proposal would “slash programs that support American communities across our nation.”
Donald Trump’s playbook is clear: make it easier for himself, Elon Musk, and his donors to pad their bottom line, do nothing to bring down costs for average Americans, and leave them to pay the price with dramatic cuts to their health care.
Meanwhile, more red flags are piling up on Trump’s nominees and cabinet of sycophants:
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Senate Republicans jeopardize national security, confirm dangerous and unqualified FBI Director Kash Patel: Senate Republicans chose their loyalty to Trump over our national security by confirming unqualified and self-interested Kash Patel to serve as FBI Director. Patel’s character has been widely called into question by former Trump officials. General Mark Milley has publicly feared Patel would break the law for Trump, and former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr said “over my dead body” when Trump entertained naming Patel deputy director of the FBI during his first term. It’s not hard to see why: Patel has a compromised record including his lucrative consulting work for entities allegedly tied to foreign adversaries; his authoritarian and undemocratic threats to prosecute journalists and political opponents; his potential perjury involving his alleged firing of FBI officials without the power to do so; and his continued use of the Trump brand to grift for himself and his wealthy friends to the tune of ‘hundreds of thousands’ of dollars. Just this week, Patel and Trump’s DOJ face a lawsuit before the DC District Court demanding the release of Volume Two of a Special Counsel report on President Trump’s alleged mishandling of highly classified documents which is expected to reveal the extent to which Patel misled the public.
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Howard Lutnick’s confirmation ticks up the number of conflicted billionaires appointed in Trump’s cabinet: This week, Senate Republicans confirmed yet another billionaire member of Donald Trump’s cabinet. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick steps into his role with a number of conflicts of interests that his children will likely oversee as they run his multi-billion-dollar empire. Lutnick reported massive interests in cryptocurrency, computer chipmaker Nvidia, and the satellite industry – presenting unavoidable conflicts of interest with the sprawling Department’s oversight, rules, and research of each of these industries. Lutnick has also given his “full-throated support” for President-elect Trump’s proposed tariffs which would drive up everyday costs for Americans.
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Republicans advance Linda McMahon to lead agency Trump supports abolishing: Today, Republican Senators voted to advance Trump’s Education Secretary pick, Linda McMahon, the billionaire wrestling entertainment tycoon with “minimal education experience” and an alleged history of sweeping sexual abuse against young boys under the carpet. While testifying before Congress last week, McMahon made clear she shares the President’s Project 2025 vision to “return education to the states” and was “ready to enact” it. Top public school teachers across the country have “worr[ied] education is under attack” with McMahon’s appointment.
ACCOUNTABLE.US IN THE NEWS:
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Common Dreams: Watchdog Demands Release of ‘Critical’ Documents on Patel Ahead of Confirmation Vote “Accountable.US demanded that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia allow the release of the second volume of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report on Trump’s handling of classified documents after he was voted out of office in 2020. The report, said the group Wednesday, may show that Patel misled the public with his claim that Trump declassified documents before leaving office.”
RECENT RELEASES FROM ACCOUNTABLE.US:
- Watchdog: Trump Letting Wealthy Tax Cheats Off the Hook, While Workers Get Stiffed
- ICYMI: Trump Breaks Budget Promise, Endorses Dramatic Medicaid Cuts
- Accountable.US Calls on District Court to Order Release Of Classified Documents Report Before Kash Patel Confirmation Vote
- Watchdog: Kash Patel’s Undemocratic Threats, Financial Ties to Foreign Adversaries Puts National Security At Risk
- Trump and Congressional Republicans’ Budget Plan Pay Fors? Raising Your Everyday Costs and Ripping Away Your Health Care
- Watchdog: Billionaire Commerce Nominee Howard Lutnick Simply Too Conflicted to Confirm
- Trump and Musk’s DOGE Puts Social Security and Seniors’ Personal Data Into Question
- Trump and Republicans Look To Increase Bank Overdraft Fees, Costing Americans Billions
- Hearing Highlights: DOE Nominee Linda McMahon “Ready” to Help Trump Abolish Education Department & Leave Millions of Kids Behind
