Democracy Out Loud #434: Class war

The proposed Congressional and NC state budgets are breathtaking in their cruelty.

It is difficult to take in the magnitude of the devastation that will happen if these budgets are passed. Federal cuts shift costs to the states, and our state budget continues a long trend of cutting public services for the sake of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. NC has cut public services by 1/3 since 1980 despite nearly 100% population growth. The current NC budget will bring corporate taxes to zero. Also, the federal budget contains a provision which automatically ends Medicaid expansion, which could kick 650,000 North Carolinians off their medical insurance.

Same thing with SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), which serves 40 million mostly women and children (1.4 million in NC); Congress wants to cut its funding by 30%, shifting costs to the states. The work requirement is bogus; it is just a sadistic way to kick people off the program. More than 3 million people will lose this assistance under the proposed federal bill. 80% of North Carolina’s SNAP households include someone who is working, and most of these households include children.

According to former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, After-Tax income under the GOP budget will cause people making less than $17,000 a year to LOSE $1000. People making between $17,000 and $51,000 a year will LOSE $700. People making over $4,300,000 a year will GAIN $389,000.

Then there is the deficit. Then there is the massive increase in spending for ICE and its associated for-profit vendors and the ridiculous increase in money for the Pentagon, much of it to be paid directly to Elon Musk for the doomed “golden dome.”

Economist Paul Krugman said it best in “Attack of the Sadistic Zombies: The GOP Budget is Incredibly Cruel - and that’s the point.”

Here are some talking points when you call your NC legislators about the state budget. Email Governor Stein as well; word has it that all those Democratic Representatives voted for this budget because he told them to. WTF????

5Calls.org can help you with calls to your US Representative and Senator. Repairers of the Breach can help even more; they have a handy tool with talking points. Study it and call your Representatives and Senators.

The truth is we will probably not be able to stop these budgets. But this summer we have to try, and if we can mobilize massive public pressure it is likely we can block some of the worst effects. In addition to calling legislators, talking to people and writing letters to the editor are important actions.

If you can possibly go to Washington DC for Moral Monday with The Poor People’s Campaign on June 2, I hope you will go. A lot of us will be there. Register now for the bus from Raleigh. Write to Sangria (sangria.noble7@gmail.com) at the NC Poor People’s Campaign about vans leaving from Durham or Fayetteville. Or organize your own carpool. I am going to take public transportation because I want to be part of the entire action, which means going a day early and planning to stay a few days after. If you want to explore that option, email democracyoutloud@gmail.com.

The next day, June 3, is another big action in Washington: “No Deal for Big Oil Billionaires.” You can RSVP and get more information at this link, and if you are taking action at home, here is the toolkit.

To join with those most impacted by this budget and prepare for the summer, come to the Union of Southern Service Workers office in Durham this Thursday May 29 for “Defiance Training” from 5 pm to 8 pm. You can get more information and sign up at this link.

I am hoping a lot of our people from Wake County will attend the important “People’s Assembly Gathering” by Blueprint on May 31 from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm. You can find out more and register at this link. (from Mark)

In Durham, check out the panel discussion on that same day (below) led by a member of the Democracy Out Loud community, Oraly Spatz. It will be in Spanish with simultaneous English translation. You can register by texting 984-234-9183 or emailing maria.padilla@durhamnc.gov.

In Cary on June 4 at 7 pm, Greenwood Forest Baptist Church is sponsoring an event, “How to End Christian Nationalism.” You can sign up at this link.

If you are on social media, check out Demcast’s toolkit.

I am writing this on Memorial Day, and am thinking of this as a day to remember ALL the people who have died as a result of violence, including but not limited to the often senseless wars that have cost so many veterans their lives. I have never understood why some lives seem more precious than others, why the senseless murder of the young couple in Washington means more than the senseless murder of children in Gaza, why our legislators don’t seem to care that 800 people a day already die of poverty in the United States, and why the assaults and murder of Black people by police seem to be an accepted part of American life. On the fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd yesterday, as Sherrilyn Ifill wrote in a not-to-be-missed essay, Police Brutality is Part of our Democratic Crisis, “The prognosis for change is grim.”

See also, “Since George Floyd’s Murder, Police Killings Keep Rising, Not Falling,” from Portside, May 25, 2025.

Want to support undocumented people in your community? Attend a meeting or training this week with SiembreNC.

Make plans now to attend the mass mobilization on June 14 at a location near you. We need millions of people on that street that day saying that we do not agree with what the Trump administration is doing to our country.

W. Kamau Bell’s commentary on Trump’s cuts to public television is about more than PBS and well worth reading. And watch the videos, especially the first one.

Our next book group is on June 4, Wednesday, at 3 pm. We are reading White Poverty: How Exposing Myths about Race and Class can Reconstruct Democracy by Rev. Barber and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. Email Marci at democracyoutloud@gmail.com if you want to be added to the book group.

Republicans in the NC General Assembly plan to cut corporate taxes to zero; these are the same corporations that hire people at the minimum wage of $7.25/hour or not much more, workers who are on Medicaid and SNAP so that they can simply survive. Now the same people who want to cut taxes for billionaires and corporations are cutting Medicaid and SNAP. There has been a massive transfer of wealth from the poor and working class to the wealthy for decades, and these current proposed budgets are the biggest and most deadly of all. We have to fight them with everything we’ve got.

Everyone is invited to join us on our weekly zoom this and every Tuesday from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm. “Doors open” at 11 am; please come early if you are new. This week we will discuss what actions we can take to fight these budgets, among other things. If you need the zoom link, email Jewel at DemocracyOutLoud@gmail.com and tell her a tiny bit about yourself.

The way we (individually and collectively) respond to this moment is incalculably important. I hope we are noticing the ways we are growing stronger, more fluid, and more resilient, and how we are deepening our relationships and extending our networks. These are the things that will build the world we want to see.

love, Karen

“Healthy democracy cannot exist in a country where armed officers of the state can do what they did to Tyre Nichols and get away with it. But admitting this would compel us to concede what I have said for years. Trump did not begin the unraveling of our democracy. He has been an accelerant. If we are to build a stronger democracy in this country, Americans will need to take responsibility for the many doors that were left open for Trump to walk through. If we make it out of this period with the remnants of democracy in place, this particular door – of brutal, racist policing by armed officers of the state - must be closed.” - Sherrilyn Ifill, May 25, 2025, Substack, Police Brutality Is Part of Our Democratic Crisis. So Why is it Left out of Democracy Discussions?

“I don’t pretend to know all the answers to how we get out of this period as an intact democracy. But I do know this: we cannot stop. So, we take this one step at a time. But we cannot let up.” - Sherrilyn Ifill, May 14, 2025, Substack. “Part 2 - How We Navigate the next 100 Days”