Interview comes as the Senate advances Republicans’ billionaire-first tax plan
Washington, D.C. – Today, Michael Linden, Campaign Director of Families Over Billionaires and former Executive Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget, joined Nicolle Wallace on Deadline: White House to discuss the many ways Trump, Musk, and Republicans are betraying working families. Linden highlighted how, just this week, Donald Trump is simultaneously jacking up prices for everyday Americans while the Senate advances new tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy through his Billionaire Tax Scam.
WATCH >> Linden’s full MSNBC appearance is available [here]
KEY MOMENTS:
Linden on Trump’s “Toxic” Billionaire-First Agenda:
“The mix here of asking … working people and everyday Americans to pay more at the grocery store and imposing this economic crisis, while saying to very wealthy people and giant corporations: ‘We’re going to give you another tax break.’ It’s just not what anybody in America was asking for. … It’s an unbelievably toxic mix of both bad economics and horrible politics.”
Linden on the Political Power of Americans Hurt by Trump’s Agenda:
“I spend a lot of time talking to everyday people about how important it is for them to raise their voices against policies that are happening here in Washington that are hurting everyday Americans in very real ways, some of the ways you just described, but there’s been more. I mean firing, you know, veterans from the Veterans Affairs Department to serve our nation’s veterans; that’s happening. Closing Social Security offices; that’s happening there. They’re – Republicans in Congress today are considering a budget that would cut Medicaid, and millions of people would lose their health insurance; that’s happening.
So I try to tell people: it is so important for them to raise their voices and say, ‘This is not what we asked for. This is not what we were looking for when we wanted a change in direction.’
If we want to strengthen the US economy, we’ve got to put money back in the pockets of working people, not take money out of their pockets and deliver it to the billionaire class in the form of bigger tax breaks.”
Linden on Political Consequences of Republicans’ Harmful Economic Agenda:
“We should not lose sight of the fact that there are millions of American families today just very worried about their economic future. They are scared of what is happening. They are hurting. People have – are worried about losing their jobs. They’re worried about prices going up. They’re worried about losing their health care. And, you know, we should talk – we can talk politics all day, but we have to remember … underneath all this is real people who are really, really suffering, and Donald Trump and his allies in Congress are making things worse.
I cannot imagine a more toxic policy mix of cutting people’s health care, raising their grocery costs, and then using that to pay for tax breaks for rich people. It is like designed in a lab to be politically toxic, and it’s baffling to me from a political standpoint. …
I genuinely hope that Republicans in Congress take a different tack here. They can. They know what happens when they try to take people’s health care away and when they make things difficult for working people. They know what happens when they raise prices for everybody in America. They should take a different path here. They still can. It’s not too late.”
Linden on Trump Failing to Protect American Jobs, While Raising Costs for Working Families:
“It’s one thing to say, we want to protect American jobs. We want to maybe use some tariffs to do that in targeted ways. But one question that people should ask is: What is he doing with the revenue that people are paying on these – on these taxes on imported goods? Is he investing that back in manufacturing here in the United States? Is he giving it back to those same workers who have been left behind?
No, they are spending it on tax breaks that mainly go to very wealthy people and, in some cases, to corporations who are also shipping jobs overseas.
The 2017 tax law – people don’t talk about this enough – that he signed instituted a lower tax rate for profits overseas than here at home, and they want to double down on that.”
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