By Robert Reich
The theme that unites all of Trump’s initiatives so far is their
unnecessary cruelty.
1. His new budget comes down especially hard on
the poor – imposing unprecedented cuts in low-income housing, job training, food
assistance, legal services, help to distressed rural communities, nutrition for
new mothers and their infants, funds to keep poor families warm, even “meals on
wheels.”
These cuts come at a time when more American families are in
poverty than ever before, including 1 in 5 children.
Why is Trump doing this? To pay for the biggest hike in military
spending since the 1980s. Yet the U.S. already spends more on its military than
the next 7 biggest military budgets put together.
2. His plan to repeal and “replace” the Affordable Care Act will cause 14 million Americans to lose their health insurance next year, and 24 million by 2026.
Why is Trump doing this? To bestow $600 billion in tax breaks
over the decade to wealthy Americans. This windfall comes at a time when the
rich have accumulated more wealth than at any time in the nation’s
history.
The plan reduces the federal budget deficit by only $337 billion
over the next ten years – a small fraction of the national debt, in exchange
for an enormous amount of human hardship.
3. His ban on Syrian refugees and reduction by
half in the total number of refugees admitted to the United States comes
just when the world is experiencing the worst refugee crisis since World War
II.
Why is Trump doing this? The ban does little or nothing to protect Americans from terrorism. No terrorist act in the United States has been perpetrated by a Syrian or by anyone from the six nations whose citizens are now banned from traveling to the United States. You have higher odds of being struck by lightning than dying from an immigrant terrorist attack.
4. His dragnet roundup of undocumented immigrants is
helter-skelter – including people who have been productive members of our
society for decades, and young people who have been here since they were
toddlers.
Why is Trump doing this? He has no compelling justification.
Unemployment is down, crime is down, and we have fewer undocumented workers in
the U.S. today than we did five years ago.
Trump is embarking on an orgy of cruelty for absolutely no
reason. This is morally repugnant. It violates every ideal this nation has ever
cherished. We have a moral responsibility to stop it.
ROBERT B. REICH is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at
the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center
for Developing Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton
administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective
cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written fourteen books,
including the best sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of
Nations," and "Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent,
"Saving Capitalism." He is also a founding editor of the American
Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary, INEQUALITY
FOR ALL.