OVERTIME PAY BOTTOM LINE. “Biden’s rule makes salaries up to $58,656” eligible for overtime. Trump sets it “at just $35,568.” WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? If you earn up to Biden’s amount, ($58,656 a year) $20,000 a year more - you still get “automatically guaranteed overtime pay.” Under Trump, you can only get overtime pay if you make under $35,568 a year.
MEDICAID BOTTOM LINE: The AFLCIO opposes Trump’s Project 2025. It increases drug prices, slashes funding for Medicaid, eliminates the Affordable Care Act and taxes worker benefits.“ More than 88 million people, including 40 million children, in all 50 states and the District of Columbia” are enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP.
WHY MEDICAID’S IN DANGER: Project 2025 is Trump’s 900+ page plan to govern America. His personal friends and administration officials from his 4 years in office wrote it.
SOCIAL SECURITY BOTTOM LINE: Without changes, Social Security will be bankrupt in 11 years. Under “…Trump’s campaign proposals” that will happen in 6 years, says the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a bi-partisan group against large federal deficits. WHY THAT’S IMPORTANT: To save Social Security, payments will have to be cut in 2031 or 2032. 68 million old Americans, nearly 9 out of ten people, get Social Security checks each month. That’s nearly 30% of the people who live in Bandera. To help save these monthly checks, Kamala Harris plans to increase taxes on incomes above $400,000.
GROCERIES BOTTOM LINE: Trump’s tariffs will raise prices on imported groceries, There’s already a tariff on sugar. “It costs twice as much in the United States” as it does around the world.
WHY THAT’S IMPORTANT: The FDA reports “55 percent of fresh fruits and 32 percent of fresh vegetables in the United States” come from outside America. Tariffs will increase prices on avocados, bananas tomatoes, coffee and other foods. There are already tariffs on beef and seafood.
Top ranked economists believe Trump’s universal tariffs – tariffs on everything that’s imported - will shock economic systems in America and around the world, leading to higher costs…..” for the average American household. The cost of gas could increase as much as 75 cents a gallon. The Yale Budget Lab believes typical household costs would rise “$2,600 per year” and in some cases even as much as $7,600 for a typical household.
What do we import? The U.S. annually imports more than $1 trillion worth of goods used directly by consumers like you - cheap electronics from China, food from Latin America and Canada and pharmaceuticals produced in India and Mexico.
All of this will “be particularly painful for low-income Americans.” Trump’s universal tariffs could hit your wallets and purses harder than you ever imagined. So will reductions in overtime pay and social security. If you love your grandma and grandpa, your teenagers, even your dogs and horses, these are good things to keep in mind before you vote.
One last thing: To Trump, a retired reporter like me and reporters you see every day trying to report facts you need to know are “the enemy within.” He’s vowed to shut us up.
Jodie Sinclair is an award-winning writer who holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and resides in Bandera, Texas.
