The GOP's Legislative Civil War Against Humanity

Trump's Budget Means We Are No Longer Our Brothers Keeper

Unsplash free photos: by Matt Collamer

A clever lawyer (are there any other kind?) once asked Jesus, “What is the greatest commandment?” Jesus responded that one should love God with all their heart and show that love for God by loving their neighbor as themselves… it is the “greatest commandment,” according to the wise sage.

Let’s come back to this conversation shortly. It is key to a discussion about the Trump budget.

A Hierarchy of Needs

In his groundbreaking essay in 1943, Abraham Maslow’s “A Theory of Human Motivation” theorized that there is a hierarchy of needs that all humans possess. You have likely seen a pyramid-shaped diagram (see below) that starts at the bottom with physiological needs: air, water, food, shelter, and clothing. These are the minimum essentials that any human needs to simply survive.

The second tier of needs is the safety needs. These include personal security (free from violence, war, terror, crime, or other threats), health and wellbeing, stable environment, financial security, and safety nets.

The top three tiers are those that allow human achievement, progress, happiness, and prosperity. Once the basic human physical and safety needs are met, the potential to create new ideas, jobs, art and creativity, businesses, and entrepreneurial endeavors is released.

The basic question that any society must answer is, who is responsible for providing for these first two tiers? Is it the individual’s responsibility only? Or, is there a cooperative-societal responsibility to help one another? In other words, who is my neighbor?

What if…just WHAT IF…as a society, we decided to provide the essentials for the first two tiers so that the human potential of the top three tiers could be unleashed? What would happen in a society organized in such a way? That would be the way of sustainable capitalism. (More on this in a future column.)

This model would come closer to the gospel ideal of loving our neighbor. Indeed, for those who want the U.S. to be a “Christian nation,” there is no other way to that goal.

Two thousand years before Maslow came along, Jesus of Nazareth addressed this question. In a conversation with an “expert in the law” who asked Jesus what he should do to be saved, Jesus told him to love God and love his neighbor as himself.

The lawyer, trying to legalese his way out of this responsibility, asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”

Oh, I’m so glad you asked that question, Mr. Lawyer.

Jesus responded with a story of the Good Samaritan. It is the parable most are familiar with…at the end, the Samaritan was the one who took care of the man who had been assaulted and robbed. A priest and a Levite had quickly passed by the man, not wanting to take responsibility. The Samaritan used his own money to care for him and paid for his future medical needs.

Jesus then asked the lawyer, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” “The one who showed him mercy,” replied the expert in the law. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

“The one who showed mercy…” “Blessed are the merciful…” These are such “woke” concepts to the religious right.

While you may not want to leap immediately from the Good Samaritan to justify a socialist system from this passage, it does illustrate an important societal principle. We are all neighbors and have a responsibility to care for each other. We are all interconnected with each other, and the well-being of one affects the well-being of all. You show that you love God by loving and having compassion for your neighbor.

American Pragmatism Created An Economic Boom and A Middle Class

Historically, in the United States, we have answered the question about who is responsible with a middle ground between complete privatization (meaning no one is responsible) versus a massive democratic-socialist system. It has been described as a “mixed system” with both free markets and governmental intervention to mitigate the worst effects of the free market.

Starting with the 1930s New Deal, Americans embraced the concept of reciprocity, meaning we understood that if we took care of those too ill, poor, elderly, or disabled to care for themselves, there would be a reciprocal benefit to society.

In other words, if we provide a bare minimum of support for the first two tiers of Maslow’s needs, it would result in better health outcomes, an expanding economy, and the cost of social programs would multiply the return on the original investment many times over. Loving your neighbor has, in this pragmatic model, a social and economic benefit beyond just simple altruism.

The New Deal, combined with the GI Bill after World War II, created the American Dream and a thriving middle class, although not everyone was allowed to participate. People of color were generally excluded from these benefits. But the funds for this middle-class investment came from higher marginal tax rates on the wealthy. At one time, that marginal rate was as high as 90%.

This philosophy was expanded in the 1960s through the Great Society programs that introduced Medicare, Medicaid, and SNAP benefits, which were extended to non-white people. We became our brother’s keeper. While stopping short of a complete social democratic system, we at least acknowledged that as a society, we had a responsibility to help those who are less fortunate, at least with minimal support.

Additionally, education programs were introduced, including Head Start for all children and a pathway to affordable college education, which in turn improved the prospects for Americans to achieve success on their own. Greater levels of education have been shown over and over to produce not only higher income, but also better health outcomes and lower criminalization rates. The whole society benefits.

The result was the most massive expansion of the middle class in the history of the world. Standards of living rose, life expectancy increased, poverty was kept at proportionally low levels, and with the addition of the Affordable Health Care Act under Obama, more people were covered by health insurance than ever before.

This was the bargain or social contract that has undergirded America’s rise to economic domination and success from the 1930s until the 1980s. If we want to make America great again, it would be wise to emulate that model. Invest in the basic physiological and safety needs of all Americans, paid for by a significant yet fair tax on the wealthiest individuals in society, and we would create an economic boom like no other.

Unfortunately, starting with Ronald Reagan, so-called “experts in the law” devised a way to keep more of their money through a “trickle-down” theory of economics. This trickle-down approach was designed to end the social contract that provided a basic safety net. The contract has been eroded and undermined by a philosophy that views those who struggle to meet their basic needs as deficient, lazy, or morally corrupt. The undertones of bigotry are ever present in this view.

The Poor and Economically Disadvantaged are not my Neighbors

Instead of loving your neighbor, shaming your neighbor for not having enough wealth was the new formula. Despising the poor and disabled for having the audacity to continue to live and ask for help from those who have more than they will ever need was considered to be a waste or fraud.

It was an inversion of the parable of the Good Samaritan. The hero is now the priest and the Levite, ones who keep more and more of their money and contribute to the impoverishment of the indigent masses.

Starting in the 1980s, we have systematically transferred trillions of dollars away from those at the bottom or middle of the pyramid to those at the top (see chart below). The wealth gap has expanded every year, until today, under Trump’s bill, it is no longer a trickle, but a tsunami of wealth that will be given to those who already have almost eternal amounts of wealth.

The Trump budget reveals the once-hidden attitudes of derision and disgust that those who are wealthy have for the vulnerable, the poor, the disabled, and those who have little means. They want nothing to do with their “less than” fellow citizens. The Trump budget is a war against those in need. They are declaring loud and clear, we are not our brother’s keeper, and no one is our neighbor, well, except maybe the other billionaires.

The Trump-backed budget bill just passed by Congressional Republicans is more than just a fiscal blueprint; it is an immoral document that reveals a harsh vision for America’s most vulnerable. Behind its tax cuts for the wealthy and deep spending reductions lies a political ideology that treats poverty as a moral failure and illness. It is considered to be a burden rather than a shared responsibility. Rather than a hand up, this budget is a slap down toward those who have come to rely on societal support for their needs.

Trump Budget as Fiscal Warfare

I argued in an earlier column that we are already in a Civil War. This budget is part of the civil war we are currently experiencing. It is legislative warfare against those most unable to fight back. Here is how this war is being conducted through the Trump budget:

War on Healthcare

The budget proposal includes hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, the program that provides health care to over 80 million low-income Americans, including children, pregnant women, people with disabilities, and seniors in nursing homes. These are our neighbors.

The bill attempts to shift Medicaid from an entitlement program to a block grant model, effectively capping how much states receive, regardless of rising health care costs or public health emergencies.

This change would force states to ration care, reduce eligibility, or cut essential services such as long-term care and mental health treatment. The impact would fall hardest on the elderly and people with disabilities.

The Levite says,…Are you sick or disabled? Pay for your own damn care…it’s not my fault you can’t care for yourself, so why should I pay for it? That Good Samaritan fellow was a sucker.

War on the Poor

A key feature of the budget is the imposition of harsh work requirements for Medicaid, food stamps (SNAP), and other assistance programs. These proposals operate under a familiar but false assumption: that the poor are lazy and need punishment to be productive. These folks are our neighbors.

In reality, the majority of able-bodied adult recipients of SNAP and Medicaid already work, often in jobs without benefits or sick leave. New job requirements simply add another layer of bureaucratic red tape for poor people to sort through.

At the same time, the bill expands tax cuts for corporations and high-income individuals, building on the 2017 Trump tax law. The contrast is glaring: while the poor are expected to prove their worth to receive food or medicine, the wealthy are rewarded simply for having wealth, no red tape needed.

The Priest says,…You don’t make enough to buy groceries? Prove your need, get a job. It’s your damn fault you don’t make enough; besides you are essentially lazy. That’s why you are in the predicament you are in…it’s not my responsibility to support you.

The War on Food Assistance

The budget slashes billions from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over the next decade. It also targets the Section 8 housing voucher program and public housing maintenance funds. This will directly increase food insecurity and homelessness, especially among families with children, veterans, and the disabled.

These are our neighbors.

At a time of rising housing costs and food inflation, these cuts are not just financially damaging; they are dehumanizing. The message is clear: if you are poor, you are undeserving of dignity, shelter, or sustenance.

Trumpublicans say…No freeloaders needed or wanted. It isn’t my fault you don’t have the means to provide for your basic physiological needs…it isn’t my damn fault you are homeless or hungry. Don’t ask me to pay for your indigence.

The War on the Disabled

The Trump budget seeks cuts to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), claiming they are riddled with fraud — a claim repeatedly debunked by the Social Security Administration and independent audits. These programs support people who are too sick to work, including children with severe developmental disorders and adults with terminal illnesses.

They are our neighbors.

The cuts would make already-complicated application and appeals processes even more inaccessible, leaving many disabled Americans to fall through the cracks.

The wealthy say….Are there no poor houses, are there no private charities? Society doesn’t have a responsibility to care for those who are disabled. Your parents probably were irresponsible drug users anyway, and that is why you ended up the way you did. Not my responsibility, don’t ask me to pay for your parents’ moral failings.

The War on Public Health Infrastructure

Public health infrastructure also takes a hit. The budget cuts funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and public health preparedness programs, weakening our ability to respond to future pandemics or opioid crises. Rural clinics and programs to address HIV, maternal health, and mental illness face deep reductions.

The Christian Nationalists say….You can’t afford vaccines? You can’t afford mental health services? You can’t afford maternal healthcare? Sorry, not my responsibility. If you acted responsibly, you wouldn’t be in such need. It’s your damn fault that you have HIV or are addicted to opioids. Why should I pay for your irresponsible behavior?

This budget is not just numbers on a page; it's a redistribution and expansion of suffering, shifting resources from vulnerable Americans to the wealthiest under the guise of economic efficiency and austerity. There is nothing austere about this budget. It will increase the national debt by roughly $3 trillion. Most of that debt is in the form of tax cuts to wealthy individuals.

Long-Term Impact of Trump’s Budget

While the rich gain from tax cuts, the poor and vulnerable are left to fend for themselves in a system rigged against them. The result will not only be individual hardship but widespread community destabilization, especially in areas already struggling with poverty, addiction, and disinvestment.

There will be long-term effects from this budget. This budget creates a long-term negative economic feedback loop, which will ultimately cost more than any cost-saving cuts.

Less available food and housing will create worse school performance and, therefore, limited economic contribution and mobility.

Worse healthcare for millions losing coverage means more emergency room visits, driving higher local health costs with less money to pay for it. It will mean shutting down some rural hospitals and clinics.

Increased homelessness and hunger will lead to more crime and instability, which places more taxpayer burden on policing and jails while making many sectors of our society less safe.

Trump’s budget bill is a war of attrition on the less wealthy in our society. Through declining healthcare, access to food, and other forms of assistance, death rates will climb. We are already seeing life expectancies stall or even fall. It is slow-motion, economic obliteration.

Make no mistake. This is a war and a complete severance of our societal connection to each other. It puts greed over need, cynicism over ethics, and short-term gain over long-term sustainability. And, it is all cloaked in religious rhetoric that is meaningless.

In a recent speech by Donald Trump he ended with the phrase, “We love you, God.” Christian Nationalists went gaga over the phrase. If this is true, then according to Jesus, the corollary is to love your neighbor. Loving your neighbor means seeing to their basic physical and safety needs.

Trump’s budget does the opposite…it shows that his rhetoric is just that…empty phrases with no meaning. It is a mockery of the teachings of Jesus. For a group of people who claim to be Christians, the denial of basic human needs for our neighbors is a cynical and gross interpretation of anything to do with faith.

We must fight back against such an attack.

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