A new year should offer optimism and hope that opportunities to improve ourselves and our world will be present. But for me, 2025 ushered in fear about the future and despair at the political leadership taking over on Jan. 20. Fewer than 50 percent of American voters voted for a Republican leader whose political stances were based on lies and unrealistic promises. Many real issues exist for America’s poor, working, and middle-class citizens. I listened as voter after voter said they were struggling and voted for new leadership because food, housing, health care, and insurance cost too much.
The campaign promises to help the average American have disappeared. The Republican president-elect has admitted he can’t do anything about high food prices. There never was a plan to help average Americans with their kitchen table concerns. Instead, 13 billionaires have been nominated for top positions. Two billionaires have been asked to form their own unelected and unapproved office of efficiency. One billionaire warned Americans that working Americans will have to bear more challenging times as he plans to carve $2 trillion from the annual budget.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party has said its priority is to renew the Republicans’ 2017 tax cuts for the top 10 percent, which added $8.4 trillion to the national debt the first time around. Recently the Republican-led Congress indicated that they plan to investigate the Jan. 6 committee that investigated the Republican Trump-led insurrection. How will those Republican tax cuts and bogus investigations help Americans?