It is -10 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday as I write this post. In our fifth week of the new administration the tentacles of corruption and incompetence are beginning to reach into our lives. Really going to need an extra cup of coffee this morning. I’m in the resistance now.
The two bellwethers of government change for our family are Social Security and Medicare. On Monday Team DOGE breached Social Security. The Washington Post reported:
The acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration left her job this weekend after a clash with billionaire Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service over its attempts to access sensitive government records, three people familiar with her departure said Monday.
Michelle King, who spent several decades at the agency before being named its acting commissioner last month, left her position Sunday after the disagreement, the people said.
Our Social Security usually hits the bank on the Monday before the fourth Wednesday. It’s less than a week before we know if we are impacted this month.
The Federal budget is far from finalized, yet the U.S. House of Representatives struggled to come up with savings to offset the $4.5 trillion in tax cuts they propose. They aren’t really trying to cover the gap. They are half a trillion dollars short of their $2 trillion over ten years goal. Even though the president instructed house members to leave Medicare alone, the Energy and Commerce Committee, which handles health care spending, is asked to cut $880 billion over the decade. Details are not available but expect Medicaid to take a big hit this time. The sentence “They are coming for your Medicare” can’t be far behind.
That’s not all. The National Park Service fired two of seven workers at the Effigy Mounds National Monument, which along with the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum is one of two Iowa sites managed by the National Park Service.
Iowa people we know will be impacted by the freeze in federal research funding from the National Institutes of Health. The funds go to multiple locations, including the University of Iowa near where we live.
According to the Washington Post’s Artificial Intelligence news aggregator, “Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service is seeking access to a heavily guarded Internal Revenue Service system that includes detailed financial information about every taxpayer, business, and nonprofit in the country.” We all should pay taxes, and the rich their fair share.
The grim reaper is knocking at the door to claim our federal support to give a tax break the country cannot afford.
Nothing we do is apolitical. The commonplace “let’s keep politics out of it” is the stuff of folklore. It denies an essential truth about us as humans. Among other things, we are political animals. We have to resist the onslaught of this Republican governance.
I am descended from people who fought in the American Revolutionary War. Perhaps I get it genetically: I am not afraid of conflict because these colors don’t run.
Journey Home 
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