Trump's tariffs and tax cuts are crushing Main Street and making Mar-a-Lago elites rich

President Donald Trump’s tariffs are already the biggest middle-class tax increase in modern history, raising the prices he promised to lower. Now even more tariffs threaten an economy already staggering from the uncertainty set off by Trump’s erratic policies, attacks on the rule of law, and threatening statements.

Adding more injury to injury, Trump and his MAGA allies just forced the "Big Beautiful Bill Act" through the House of Representatives -- by one vote. Their divisive, financially unhealthy approach boils down to trillions in tax cuts for the ultra-rich, devastating cuts in basic health care and food services, and crippling new debt for us, our kids, and grandkids. Worse yet, right after the bill passed, Trump proudly announced more job-killing, cost-raising tariffs on allies and iPhones.

When he ran for president in 2024, Trump promised us inflation would end "immediately" and that we’d feel prices falling on "Day One." To millions of 2024 swing voters -- a decisive voting bloc in the election -- that was the whole point of choosing him. But now prices are higher, economic growth is declining and life is harder than it was when Trump took the oath of office in January.

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Since Inauguration Day, consumer sentiment has plunged to historic lows. Moody’s downgraded America’s credit rating for the first time in over 100 years.  Ford and Walmart are raising prices because of the tariffs.

Now, instead of making our economy take off like a "rocket ship," as he also promised, Trump is killing it with a sweetheart tax deal for his Mar-A-Lago friends. A president who promised to stand up to the establishment is effectively laundering taxpayers’ money to line the silk pockets of his own preferred elites -- to the detriment of middle-class families and American business. 

Now, the American economy, which was unequivocally outperforming every other country on earth when Donald Trump took over, is falling behind in ways it hasn’t in decades. 

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Special tax giveaways, like a write-off for buying private jets, are paid for with the biggest Medicaid cuts in history, higher health insurance premiums, and gutting food programs for distressed working families. They’re putting the rest of the price tag on the nation’s credit card, adding trillions to the debt and raising the cost of a house, car, or student loan.

In communities all over the country, the tariff taxes are crushing supply chains and freezing hiring decisions. Port traffic is sporadic, and retailers warn of empty shelves in the stores.

In North Carolina, Trump’s tariffs are penalizing the manufacturers he claims to be supporting, killing jobs and reducing U.S. exports.  Just when a Greenville-based manufacturer was on the verge of plant renovations that would add 25 new jobs, the equipment they needed to expand was hit with a new tariff. The manufacturer was explicit: "Our company has been working for years to install a state-of-the-art manufacturing line in our North Carolina plant … Unfortunately, today’s tariffs make it uneconomical to ship this line to the U.S."

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In Michigan, auto plants and their suppliers are feeling the brunt. And it’s not all about cars and trucks, the Murrays from Ferndale, Michigan, sell baby supplies to the growing families in their community. They say that because 80% of their industry is sourced from China, their business is on the ropes. They worry that the price for their customers will be out of reach, or their products not available at all. 

This MAGA agenda comes at the expense of basic economic security for average Americans. Tariffs rob them of their buying power and their jobs.  Billions in cuts to Medicaid and Medicare. Cancelled health coverage for millions. SNAP, the nation’s food relief program, would be starved. Trump’s tax cuts come straight out of programs that help the neediest people in society.

Meanwhile, job-creating, cost-cutting policies like the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act’s energy and manufacturing policies are being senselessly undermined -- harming red states and blue states alike.

Whether you are an autoworker in Detroit, or a soybean farmer in Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s home state of South Dakota, Americans are tangibly worse off now than they were in January.  

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As a Republican and a Democrat who worked on behalf of presidents from both parties, we agree that most people’s lives will suffer unless we stand up to higher inflation, slower growth and crippling debt. That’s why we recently helped launch the Cost Coalition, a bipartisan campaign aimed at telling the real stories about the fight for the American Dream. 

We are featuring the people outside of Washington who want to work a good job, put food on the table, keep their kids on track, and give back to their community. From small business owners to faith leaders to veterans and military families, we believe America can get back on track if Washington focuses on kitchen table issues.

It all starts with lowering costs by standing up to MAGA, on behalf of Main Street.

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