News media the last few weeks has been dominated by the avalanche of actions the Trump administration has taken in its first four weeks of office, which have attacked nearly every institution in American life. As a reward for the over $250 million invested by Elon Musk in his election victory, Trump has allowed him full freedom to cut government programs and spending as necessary, to bring the supposed efficiency of the private sector to the federal government.
This federal funding is necessary to contribute to critical medical research, from supporting under-resourced schools and ensuring every kid has the right to a robust education to providing assistance for working families to put food on the table or a roof over their heads. But this is to be expected from an administration whose Department of Education has put civil rights investigations on halt and whose chair of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has stopped the agency from doing the work it was established to do.
As of Feb. 14, more than 250,000 government workers have either lost their jobs or are in the process of getting their offers terminated. While the Trump administration and Musk, who has become the de facto president, claim that these agencies and employees were employed in doing things like sending $50 million worth of condoms to Gaza (not true), this assault is in fact on the work that supports Americans of all backgrounds and allows for the United States to be the leader on the world stage when it comes to scientific innovation.
While Tesla gets a $400 million contract with the State Department for armored trucks (any conflict of interest here), Congress is considering $2 trillion of cuts to Medicaid, which provides funding for millions of sick Americans, regardless of their financial situation.
The Trump administration has taken its close margin of an electoral victory in November to be a mandate from the whole country, to exert the office of the presidency however they like, believing themselves to be unstoppable. Instead of taking these actions through the legislative process, the administration has overwhelmed the country with a blizzard of executive orders that threaten every aspect of American life and everyday people’s ability to go about their lives with dignity.
In high school, I spent my summers interning for my local state representative and assisting constituents, people from my hometown in the Midwest, getting access to a whole host of benefits from food to housing assistance, that every American is entitled to as a resident of this country. I came to Wellesley inspired by the school’s history of producing women who go on into roles of public service.
Seeing the assault on federal workers, those who ensure that this nation’s resources are harnessed to help the most vulnerable, is insulting. Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, claiming that recipients of federal aid are part of the “parasite class,” is a slap in the face to every single taxpayer who asks the government simply for a life of dignity instead of getting subsidies for their trillion-dollar companies.
These cuts to federal funding are not just an attempt to make the government more efficient, or even a totalitarian assault on institutions of democracy, but signal signs of a society from which kindness and empathy are starting to disappear. Referring to the needy who pay their taxes and receive minimum support as mooching off the government, reflect the world we live in where the whims of an egotistical billionaire have repercussions for millions. Poverty, disease, unrest –– a democratic government has a responsibility to address these issues because they affect everyone once our leaders stop carrying, we face a troubling future for our society.
