Trump’s first 100 days in office have shown how committed he is to billionaire hand-outs and fast-tracking profits for corporations before investing in the needs of the American people. To pay for massive tax cuts for the rich and a disastrous border control regime, Republicans intend to slash Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and other essential programs that our communities desperately need.
From February 24-26, we joined People’s Action Institute and 23 member organizations like ours in Washington, D.C., for three full days of lobbying congressional representatives and rallying against the proposed $5 trillion in tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. Along with ally organizations, we came together to oppose severe cuts to health care, housing support, and climate protections to prioritize putting money in the pockets of billionaires and corporations.
Working with partners at the Congressional Progressive Caucus, People’s Action Institute organized a press conference on Capitol Hill, telling D.C. lawmakers how deep cuts to essential services harm their families and communities and demanding that corporations and billionaires pay what they owe to the people.
TPL’s board chair, Cate Readling, came to fight for the over three million people in Illinois whose healthcare is now at risk—just like the over 70 million people across the country if our leaders cut funding for Medicaid. Eliminating their access to care is violence that will hurt everyone, she said.
“If you think you won’t be impacted, consider what the ER waiting rooms will look like when the people who were covered by Medicaid now no longer have access to routine care,” she said. “When funding for public hospitals and clinics is cut, what do you do then when your kid has a life-threatening allergic reaction?”
After meeting with their members of Congress, People’s Action Institute led a march to the D.C. offices of three companies behind our nation’s housing, health, and climate crises that will cash in on federal Republicans’ planned tax giveaways.
These protests targeted Blackstone, an investment company that has become the nation’s largest corporate landlord; UnitedHealth Group, the country’s biggest health insurance company; and American Gas Association, representing more than 200 energy companies that provide services to 189 million Americans. Together, we rallied in front of institutions that profit off our pain while buying politicians to protect their profits and lower their taxes.
As part of our ongoing Care Over Cost campaign, we visited the D.C. offices of UnitedHealth Group, a systematic denier of vital medical care. In a display of our power, we peacefully marched through their lobby. Hannah Peterson, a seminary student at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and an organizer with our Health Care Task Force, emceed a powerful program outside, drawing attention to the millions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid on the horizon.
“Republicans are already funneling our tax dollars out of programs our communities need and into pockets of private corporations and billionaires,” they said. “We deserve a government that uses our money to fund our care, not one that uses our money to line the pockets of corporations.”
Our members are back home, but this fight is in no way over. The 2025 budget proposal passed through the House of Representatives but has yet to be in the Senate. As these drastic cuts move forward, we’re taking this fight back to Illinois, ensuring that the people’s priorities come before the profit-seeking motives of billionaires and corporations.
