An Unhappy First Anniversary for the MAGA Murder Budget (7/3/26)
But wishing a happy 250th to America anyways
Hi everyone! With the semiquincentennial weekend upon us, we’re mostly going to be taking the day off.
But we felt like we’d be remiss in not acknowledging that tomorrow isn’t just America’s 250th birthday… it’s also the first anniversary of Trump signing the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” aka the MAGA murder budget, into law.
We can report one year in that this legislation to pour billions into ICE and CBP, reduce taxes for billionaires, slash Medicaid and food assistance to pay for it and so much more has been as brutal as we feared. Here’s some of the headlines, and some things we can do to fight back:
More than four million people lost access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program through March, including more than 770,000 children…and some of the worst changes aren’t even in effect yet.
Democrats can push to put food back on people’s table by demanding these cuts be reversed in the Farm Bill. We can find an email tool and language to tell them to do so here.
Help support our neighbors now. Check out Feeding America to find our local food bank, donate financially or donate food, and consider volunteering with them.
3.8 million people have dropped off Medicaid in the last 12 months… and again, some of the worst changes aren’t even in effect yet.
Public comments are due on Trump’s proposed rules for how the “work requirements” for Medicaid will be implemented by July 31st. We can find talking points and tips on how to comment effectively here.
Health care activists are pushing Congress to stop or delay these new burdens, and asking state-level officials to make the same ask. We can find language to add our voices to these requests here.
While the bottom 95% of American earners saw their taxes go up, the top 1% paid $117 billion less - almost twice what Trump is asking for in supplemental appropriations his Iran War.
Activists led by the SEIU in California are working to pass a one-time wealth tax on billionaires to help them shore up their health care system from Trump’s cuts. We can volunteer to help them pass it here.
The Tax The Greedy Billionaires campaign is looking to make the wealth tax regular and national. We can find tools to tell our members of Congress we’re on board here.
The $191 billion to ramp up immigration enforcement, including $75 billion and $65 billion in a slush fund for ICE that tripled its annual budget, have been used to hold as many as 73,000 of our friends and neighbors in detention at one time. The government’s own data suggests that only 3% of those held had a violent felony conviction, and more than 70% had no criminal convictions at all. The mortality rate has doubled in the camps has doubled. They then passed another $70 billion in appropriations for the deportation machine
Republicans are now proposing a DHS funding bill for the next fiscal year with *another* $28 billion for ICE and CBP. Let’s join Detention Watch Network and tell Congress we want an end to ICE terror, not another expansion of it.
They’ve supercharged their capacity to kidnap folks in our communities, so we have to supercharge ours to support them. We can find rapid response networks near us to join here.
Happy Independence Day, America. May people continue to fight for the best of what you represent instead of repeating your darkest moments. And for those of us keen to protest this weekend, consider attending Declaration of Resistance vigils hosted by the American Friends Service Committee and Free America actions with Women’s March in communities nationwide.
Joe