Trump priorities pose stark contrast to MLK's vision of equality and opportunity for all people

TRUMP PRIORITIES POSE STARK CONTRAST TO MLK’S VISION OF EQUALITY AND OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL PEOPLE  
 
Trump’s Plan to Fund More Tax Breaks for the Wealthy By Cutting Health Care and other Critical Services for Millions Repudiates MLK’s Legacy and Takes America Backwards  
 
New Jersey Billionaires Are $11.6 Billion Wealthier Over 7 Years of Trump Tax Law, Yet Republicans Plan to Give Them $5.5 Trillion More  
  
Newark, January 20, 2024--As Donald Trump begins his second presidential term on Martin Luther King Day, the contrast between the two leaders couldn’t be more stark. Trump and his fellow Republicans in Congress have made it their top priority to slash healthcare and other vital public services for working families to fund trillions in tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy and large corporations. King, the civil rights icon and working families champion, envisioned a democracy of equal opportunity in which everyone in America, no matter where they live or what they look like, has access to affordable healthcare they can count on, public education, safe housing and other basics average people need to prosper in today’s economy. 
 
Trump and the GOP already cut taxes mostly for the rich and corporations the last time they controlled Congress, in 2017. Thanks in part to those tax cuts, New Jersey billionaires have grown $11.6 billion richer in just the seven years since Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was enacted. Nationwide, billionaires have added $3.9 trillion to their collective wealth in those seven years, according to an ongoing tally by Americans for Tax Fairness using Forbes data. Tax breaks for the wealthy under the TCJA added $2 trillion to the national debt, while doing little to create jobs or benefit average income people struggling with rising prices and high costs.  Many of the same Republicans who voted for the law are now citing record high debt as an excuse to cut Medicaid, Medicare, the Affordable Care Act and other programs that support the poor and working families to pay for $5.5 trillion more in tax breaks to America’s wealthiest and most profitable corporations. 
 
 
 
Net Worth 
Jan 07, 2025 
($ Millions) 
Net Worth 
Dec 30, 2017 
($ Millions) 
7-Year 
Wealth Growth 
($ Millions) 
7-Year 
Wealth Growth 
(Percent) 
New Jersey Billionaires 
$23,617 
$12,000 
$11,617 
96.8% 
John Overdeck 
$7,356 
$4,900 
$2,456 
50.1% 
Rocco Commisso 
$6,381 
N/A 
N/A 
N/A 
Peter Kellogg 
$4,749 
$3,600 
$1,149 
31.9% 
Larry Robbins 
$2,164 
$2,300 
-$136 
-5.9% 
Duncan MacMillan 
$1,793 
N/A 
N/A 
N/A 
Bruce Springsteen 
$1,174 
N/A 
N/A 
N/A 
“The astronomical wealth growth of billionaires in the seven years since the Trump-GOP tax law was enacted is a clear indication of who these cuts were really meant to serve–and who will benefit if Congress permanently extends those cuts,” said Maura Collinsgru, Director of Policy and Advocacy for New Jersey Citizen Action.  “These proposals double down on inequality by relying on cuts to critical resources that low- and moderate-income families depend on to pay for tax cuts to the wealthiest.  This will only further the racial and economic divides in our nation and halt the progress we’ve made to advance health access, equity and economic security, moving us further away from Dr. King’s dream.” 
"Dr. King called poverty a moral failing, and today, runaway wealth inequality is fueling crises in housing, healthcare, workers’ rights, immigration, and the climate. Those who’ve built their fortunes by exploiting others must pay their fair share so we can invest in the people who make our communities strong," said Eric Benson, For the Many Campaign Director. "Healthcare isn’t a luxury; it’s a fundamental right. Meanwhile, giving billionaires massive tax breaks is not just bad policy—it’s immoral.” 
"Dr. King called poverty a moral failing, and today, runaway wealth inequality is fueling crises in housing, healthcare, workers’ rights, immigration, and the climate. Those who’ve built their fortunes by exploiting others must pay their fair share so we can invest in the people who make our communities strong," said Eric Benson, For the Many Campaign Director. "Healthcare isn’t a luxury; it’s a fundamental right. Meanwhile, giving billionaires massive tax breaks is not just bad policy—it’s immoral.” 
The Republican proposal to extend tax breaks for the wealthy would strip millions of healthcare coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and threaten state’s Medicaid programs. Although premiums are still too high for some households and businesses, improvements to the ACA tax credits have expanded coverage and made insurance more affordable for millions more people over the last several years, saving enrollees an average of $700 in 2024 and resulting in record enrollment numbers. The New Jersey’s Department of Banking and Insurance recently announced the average amount of financial help for 2025 coverage is $596 per person per month or $7,152. The pace of enrollment is at a record high with 481,000 signed up for health coverage thus far during the state’s open enrollment period which ends January 31st. Enrollment in 2024 was 397,942.  
Improvements in healthcare coverage under the ACA and Medicaid have resulted in record low numbers of uninsured people but some policies are set to expire at the end of 2025. Republicans are already refusing to extend enhanced tax credits that benefit 92% of people who buy ACA coverage. Without these, premiums will shoot up for millions of ACA policyholders, increasing by over 75% on average for ACA enrollees. In some states, patients will see costs more than double, making coverage unaffordable. In New Jersey, a 60-year-old couple making 400% of poverty level income would have to pay an additional $18,100 if the enhanced tax credits are not renewed by the end of 2025.  
 
An Urban Institute study estimates that around 4 million people would lose coverage altogether and be  uninsured if the enhanced premium tax credits expire. Low-income people and people of color would see the greatest losses. In New Jersey, an estimated 75,000 people would lose coverage, resulting in an 11 percentage increase in the uninsured population.   New Jersey’s current uninsured rate is 7.2% with an estimated 660,000 residents without coverage.  Blacks and Hispanic/Latino residents who make up 38% of our state population twice and six times more likely to be uninsured as whites.  
The biggest cuts to healthcare proposed so far are to the Medicaid program that provides health coverage for nearly 80 million people of all ages, including 1.8 million New Jerseyans. To pay for more tax breaks for the rich and corporations, Republicans are proposing a $2.3 trillion cut to the joint federal-state program that funds healthcare for over half of U.S. children as well as long-term care for seniors and people with disabilities. Medicaid is the leading source of healthcare for low-income workers, leading payer of births and biggest provider of substance abuse and mental health treatment.  
 
In addition to taking healthcare from millions of patients, cutting Medicaid also disrupts state budgets. Medicaid is the largest source of federal aid to the states and plays a critical role in supporting rural hospitals, disaster relief efforts and states with the fastest growing population of people 65 and over. As America confronts an unprecedented wave of aging people, demand and cost for Medicaid will only increase. The share of the population over 65 years old is projected to jump by almost half over the next 25 years, to over 80 million.  
 
Increased access to affordable healthcare through the ACA and Medicaid has benefited everyone and started to address longstanding racial, gender, and economic disparities in access to healthcare. Black, Latino Asian and Native American people who are the most likely to lack access to affordable coverage gained the most from investment in these programs. The uninsured rate among Black people fell by almost half–from 20.9% to 10.8%–between 2010 (when the ACA was enacted) and 2022, when the Biden reforms were in place.  
 
The SNAP and TANF have also been targeted for cuts to “end cradle to grave dependency”. These programs, like Medicaid and ACA subsidies, are income-based eligibility programs that neither allow nor create such dependency. In fact, Instead, they help provide the most basic needs of food and shelter for our lowest income residents, the elderly and those coping with illness and disability. According to a November 2024 report by New Jersey Policy Perspective over 830,000 residents are served by the SNAP program, and 31,000 receive assistance in our WorkFirstNJ/TANF program. Federal funding cuts under consideration would inflict great harm on some of our poorest, most vulnerable residents.  
 
Trump and the GOP claimed their big corporate tax cut would trickle down to workers and communities, but instead it’s been used to further enrich wealthy CEOs and shareholders even as consumers faced persistent inflation and price increases on everything from rent to groceries. The corporate tax cut is one of the main reasons the Trump-GOP tax law was so slanted towards the richest 10% of Americans who own 93% of all corporate stock. Healthcare corporations like UnitedHealth Group were among the firms experiencing record profits even as premiums and out of pocket costs continue to rise.  
 
 
 
Extending the Trump tax breaks, or cutting vital services to pay for more tax cuts will only make things worse, heaping more benefits on those who need them least while cutting healthcare and other critical programs for people of all ages. 
 
“Giving more tax breaks to big corporations and the very wealthy won’t help New Jerseyans struggling to pay health care bills, make rent or pay a mortgage, and put food on the table,” said Collinsgru. “Ensuring Medicaid, SNAP, TANF, and other critical programs are properly funded will.” 
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