This is spiraling out of control
While everyone is going on and on about Trump’s tariffs, his administration has been responsible for far more dangerous policies, policies that impact our wellbeing, beginning with public health. Trump could not have chosen a worse person to oversee Health and Human Services. Not only because of RFK’s history of anti-vaccine mentality but even more so because he has absolutely no idea what this agency needs and how to make that happen. By putting RFK in charge of health, Trump has put all our lives at risk. New leaders should take us forward, but RFK is taking us back-back to the times when we had no antibiotics to battle illnesses and practicing basic sanitation processes. Salon wrote that these things are the result of “engrained ignorance, political interests, and reckless stupidity.”
The current measles outbreak is largely being ignored. Salon reported that the outbreak has now spread across 25 states and has infected more than 700 people. The virus that causes measles was eliminated in 2000, but it’s back and has already claimed the lives of two children and one adult. Now, the Republican party and Donald Trump specifically want us to pretend that Covid never happened and that we are not susceptible to another outbreak by removing the people who monitored these diseases via layoff (over 10,000). The administration has taken back $11.4 billion in Covid research dollars and suppressed a report on the measles outbreak which suggested people that get vaccinated. At the same time, the Trump administration is messing around with safety nets for people such as Medicaid and Social Security.
The fascination with disturbing Social Security has been puzzling since it began. The lies that have been told to justify tearing down this agency are despicable. Musk has been lying about fraud since November. Recently, JD Vance gave an interview to Fox & Friends and repeated the same lie they’ve been trying to get people to believe: “You look at people who are 150 years old who are fraudulently collecting Social Security payments. …40 percent of the people who are calling are actually committing fraud.” Trust and believe there are no 150-year-olds collecting Social Security. So, what’s up with all this subterfuge? WaPo also answered the question we’ve all been asking: Why are they so fascinated with Social Security? WaPo’s response was: “As Willie Sutton supposedly said when asked why he robbed banks: ‘Because that’s where the money is.'” WaPo explained that 22% of the federal budget is Social Security, but Social Security should not be considered part of the federal budget. All the money in that account came from hard-working Americans and their employers. The federal government takes 6.2% of each worker’s paycheck, and the same amount from the employer. None of that money belongs to the government; it belongs to us. Experts already predict that it will be bankrupt by 2033, and it appears that rather than finding a way to keep it solvent, Donald Trump wants to hasten the agency to bankruptcy, likely by putting it in his pocket.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years