Republicans Will Let Kids Go Hungry to Feed the Rich, Says Groundwork’s Jacquez

Republicans Will Let Kids Go Hungry to Feed the Rich, Says Groundwork’s Jacquez

Today, GOP senators are preparing to force through a budget that would slash Medicaid, food assistance, and other vital programs that millions of Americans rely on, all so they can shower billionaires with trillions in tax breaks. As part of their scheme, they are relying on a misleading accounting tactic that obfuscates the true cost of the Trump tax plan, which could now reach nearly $6 trillion.

Groundwork Collaborative Chief of Policy and Advocacy Alex Jacquez reacted with the following statement:

“Trump’s tax giveaway is so unpopular and economically harmful that Republicans in Congress are replacing math with magical thinking to move it forward. But no number of budget gimmicks can change the fact that the Trump tax plan is a shakedown of working families to line the pockets of billionaires and wealthy CEOs.

“Regardless of how they spin it, Republicans will kick millions of Americans off of Medicaid and force kids to go hungry if it means their billionaire donors are satisfied.”

Email press@groundworkcollaborative.org to speak with a Groundwork expert about the tax fight.

BACKGROUND

• Republicans are relying on a misleading accounting tactic that obfuscates the true, multi-trillion-dollar cost of extending the Trump tax plan. In reality, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that extending the TCJA would cost $4.5 trillion over the next ten years and $37 trillion over the next 30 years.
• Recent analysis from the Treasury Department found that on average, a full extension of Trump’s 2017 tax law would give the top 0.1% of Americans an extra $314,000 in the first year alone. Meanwhile, the 94 million families in the bottom half of the income distribution would get less than $1 a day.
• The vast majority of the benefit from the TCJA’s corporate tax giveaways went to corporate executives, the highest-paid employees, and shareholders. 90% of workers did not see a raise as a result of the slashing of the corporate tax rate.
• The TCJA gave the richest 0.1% of Americans a tax cut 277 times larger than what teachers, nurses, and other middle-class households received. In its first year alone, the TCJA gave 82 ultra-wealthy households $1 billion in total savings. Meanwhile, over one-third of taxpayers saw no changes in their taxes or faced a tax increase under the law.
• The TCJA incentivized corporations to supercharge stock buybacks and returns to wealthy shareholders. In 2017, the year before the law went into effect, S&P 500 companies spent $540 billion on stock buybacks. In 2024, they spent $925 billion – an increase of nearly 60%. In 2025, Wall Street predicts that stock buybacks could exceed $1 trillion for the first time in history.
• The absolute last thing Americans want lawmakers in Washington to do is write a check to the corporations who price-gouge them or give more money to the wealthy who already don’t pay their fair share.
  • 63% of voters oppose tax breaks for the wealthiest households and nearly 70% oppose tax breaks for large corporations – including over half of Republicans.
  • 59% of voters, including 68% of Independents, say the bigger problem with government is that it “prioritizes the interests of billionaires, big corporations, and lobbyists instead of looking out for the average American” over DOGE’s “waste and inefficiency” argument.
  • Overwhelming majorities of voters do not want DOGE to cut the programs it is already attacking, including:
    • 88% of voters find it unacceptable to cut Social Security.
    • 90% of voters find it unacceptable to cut veterans’ health care.
    • 88% of voters find it unacceptable to cut Medicare and 82% find it unacceptable to cut Medicaid.
    • 84% of voters find it unacceptable to cut natural disaster readiness and response.
    • 76% of voters find it unacceptable to cut SNAP.