Billionaires Gone Wild Understanding the oligarchs’ power grab and the dire threat to American democracy

open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

🚨 Urgent action alert! 🚨

Congress wants to undo local legislation and cost DC $700 million in local revenue, and overturn our efforts to cut child poverty. Call these Senators and tell them to VOTE NO ON S.J.RES.102. Check out the last slide for a script you can use!

Congress is meddling into DC affairs yet again. They now want to overturn a local law that would drain *local* revenue by $700m AND spike child poverty by eliminating expansions in our DC EITC & CTC.

DC residents & state/national partners--please make the calls below!

Black women's unemployment has skyrocketed. Here’s what happened. The rate is now equivalent to White women’s during the bleakest moments of the Great Recession.

That Black unemployment rates are so high is frustrating. That so many Black women have been unemployed for so long is maddening. Watching these trends worsen in the data as well as in my friendship circles is devastating. I spoke with @19thnews.org about the impact. 19thnews.org/2026/01/blac...

“Consider, for example, the cavern of the capital gains tax treatment at death for those with enormous estates…” he says calling the stepped-up-basis a loophole for the mega rich 👀

On this, I agree with Mitt Romney. #taxjustice

Health Insurance Premium Spikes Imminent as Tax Credit Enhancements Set to Expire If Congress waits until the end of the year to extend the enhancements, 1.5 million more people will be uninsured in 2026 compared to an earlier extension. Congress can still protect people from cost ...

Apparently these folks want to keep Americans hungry, unhealthy, locked up, and otherwise downtrodden.

More examples of the impact of expiring ACA tax credits in the appendix of this report www.cbpp.org/research/hea...

here's an example of the impact--a 60yr old couple in DC with income of $85k could see their annual premium increase by $22k-$25k

Congressional Republicans and President Trump Fail to Address Affordability; Health Care Costs Set to Spike for Millions Instead of supporting this common-sense and urgently needed legislation, Senate Republicans put forward a partisan proposal from Senators Cassidy and Crapo that fails to extend the PTC enhancements an...

www.cbpp.org/press/statem... Congressional Republicans and President Trump Fail to Address Affordability; Health Care Costs Set to Spike for Millions

“that there is so low a political price for the president’s racism that he and those around him see little risk in its expression—well, that does say something about America, and Americans. Immigration isn’t breaking our society. That’s a job Americans can do on their own.”

Five corporations control 90% of the US media market.

Airlines merged from 12 major carriers in 1980 to 4 today.

Four giants control 80% of meat processing.

A handful of companies control the pharmaceutical industry.

The evidence of corporate concentration is everywhere.

The promise of equitable and pro-growth tax reform The next president and the incoming 119th Congress will have a rare opportunity in 2025 to enact true pro-growth tax reform.

Bower’s so-called “growth agenda” is not in line with what research and real life show us. Investing in health care, child care, economic security, and supporting higher, equitable wages are the ingredients to a stronger and certainly more equitable economy. equitablegrowth.org/research-pap... 8/8

Trump Megabill Will Give $117 Billion in Tax Cuts to the Top 1% in 2026. How Much In Your State? The predominant feature of the tax and spending bill working its way through Congress is a massive tax cut for the richest 1 percent — a $114 billion benefit to the wealthiest people in the country in...

How can DC pay for programs that help people get by? By not handing limited public resources over to billionaires and by asking more of District residents set to get huge tax cuts from Congress’ tax plan. itep.org/trump-megabi... 7/

Expanding Child Care Subsidies Would Boost the District’s Economy […]

It may not be as flashy as a deal with the NFL, but the benefits are real and actually make DC a place people can stay and grow. www.dcfpi.org/all/expandin... 6/

A Child Tax Credit Would Reduce Child Poverty, Strengthen Basic Income, and Advance Racial Justice in DC […]

A strong safety net also grows the economy over the long-term by supporting better life outcomes for kids in low income families, helping them do better and go further in school, and work and earn more as adults. www.dcfpi.org/all/a-child-...

The safety net contributes to economic activity in other ways that support jobs, like when families take their child tax credit dollars and use them at local businesses. Or when a caretaker has access to affordable child care and can reliably go to school or work. 4/

The irony of course is that the safety net—in addition to meeting basic human needs—also helps our economy. Health coverage helps support the 73,000 jobs in DC’s health care sector, for example, and it keeps workers healthy and productive. 3/

Thousands of D.C. residents could lose their health insurance through budget cuts Cuts to the DC Healthcare Alliance and Medicaid in Mayor Muriel Bowser’s proposed budget could disrupt health care for thousands of residents. Immigrants and low-income residents, including those with...

Is health care a nice-to-have now? I wonder if the mayor asked any of the cancer patients or people with chronic illness about to get kicked off of the DC Healthcare Alliance because of her budget cuts. wamu.org/story/25/06/...

Truly astounded by @mayorbowser.bsky.social. The social safety net is designed to meet basic human needs in a city with extreme racial and economic inequity, not attract residents or tourists. 🧵https://www.washingtonian.com/2025/07/08/interview-dc-mayor-muriel-bowser-her-blm-plaza-decision/

We don't have to address fiscal challenges through cuts to health and human services, and we should reject plans that roll back our commitments as a District to equity and inclusion and our efforts to lead the nation in policies that help achieve that. 7/7

We have all of the evidence in the world—from real life work in DC’s communities to research and analysis—showing us that investing health care, child care, housing, cash strategies and work supports, are the pathways to ending poverty and achieving equitable growth. 6/

We have the choice to raise revenue to weather this storm, particularly as DC’s wealthiest residents stand to benefit from the tax cuts advancing through Congress. 5/

Thousands in D.C. could lose health coverage under budget plan Under financial and political pressure, the mayor is moving to roll back public coverage for low-income and undocumented residents.

It proposes damaging cuts to our system of health coverage—one that made us 2nd in the nation for insurance coverage—particularly harming those ineligible for Medicaid. 51st.news/dc-health-in...

Instead of leaning into what we know works, the DC budget proposal being debated reverts to failed policies like work requirements and eligibility redeterminations, and it carves enormous holes into our local safety net. 3/

We face a storm unlike any we’ve seen before. The Senate just passed a bill that guts essential pieces of the nation’s social safety net. And it is precisely for that reason that we call on our elected leaders to meet the moment. 2/

DCFPI joined other anti-poverty organizations to raise the alarm: The proposed budget will set back DC’s progress towards alleviating poverty and hurt our ability to support residents in the future. 🧵

17 million people will lose their health coverage. For tax cuts for the wealthiest. And that’s to say nothing of the ripple effects across communities and lots of local economies. Truly mind blowing.

Potential Mortality Impact of the Reconciliation Bill Colleagues from Penn LDI & Yale School of Public Health compiled research detailing the potential mortality impacts of the GOP’s Budget Reconciliation Bill

ICYMI: researchers out of UPenn and Yale say that the reconciliation bill's assault on health care through slashing of Medicaid and ACA coverage would cost 51,000 people their lives annually ldi.upenn.edu/our-work/res...

"If football stadiums drove economic activity, Landover would be at least an above-average suburban destination for shopping and entertainment. Instead, the old Landover Mall site decays behind chain-link fencing roughly a mile from Northwest Stadium, the Commanders’ current home."

This suggests that Republicans may add yet another deeply harmful health care cut to the Senate bill – a cut that would take health coverage away from even more people, shift massive, unaffordable costs to states, & could even lead some states to end their #Medicaid expansion.

Opinion | The RFK megaproject promises just empty gloom. Let’s try this instead. Rather than an expensive megaproject, D.C. should focus on an organic approach to city-building.

Another economist eschewing the idea that stadiiums yoeld growth: www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...