“O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”
Over the years, Americans have had the bravery to preserve our freedom and expand that freedom to cover all citizens regardless of race, gender, religion (or lack thereof), national origin, and sexual orientation from internal political forces striving to restrict freedom for all.
Now, once again, we need to ask: Are we brave enough to fight for our freedom against the political forces trying to remove them? Will we have the courage, determination, fortitude, and, yes, the grit, to stop Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s plan for a new conservative administration?
Project 2025 is a collection of right-wing policy proposals that would reshape the federal government, including consolidating and increasing the power of the president should Donald Trump win the 2024 presidential election. In its 920 pages, there are proposals that would negatively affect everyone regardless of whether we are conservative, independent, or liberal. It would drastically change our identity as a democratic republic.
Project 2025 proposes to fire hundreds of thousands of civil servants and replace them with pre-vetted employees loyal to Trump, making it easier for him to enact his policies.
Project 2025 proposes to lower the “overtime threshold,” which currently protects non-hourly workers who make up to $43,888 annually. Lowering the threshold would leave at least four million working people stuck working long hours without overtime pay.
Project 2025 proposes letting young people work in “inherently dangerous jobs” that are currently not permitted due to significant safety concerns.
Project 2025 proposes restricting access to food assistance programs that go to households that include a child, older person, or person with disabilities and to families with income at or below the federal poverty line. The Project proposes accomplishing this goal by imposing work requirements, which research has shown to decrease the number of people who use food assistance but not increase employment.
Although much research has shown the importance of preschool on children’s overall success, Project 2025 proposes to eliminate the Head Start program, which helps over 1 million children become ready for school. Elimination of the program would remove the mental, emotional, and social support low-income children need to receive a solid foundation for further success in school.
Project 2025 proposes to cut costs in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs by having fewer health conditions qualify for disability benefits related to disabilities caused as a result of their military service, thereby restricting disabled veterans’ access to life-sustaining benefits.
Project 2025 proposes to remove or restrict some of the safety nets for farmers, including limiting them to “unusual situations” — even though the difficult conditions farmers experience are common, not unusual. Proponents also want to reduce the government subsidy for federal crop insurance, which would severely hurt small family farms but would not be a problem for large corporate farms.
Project 2025 would undo Medicare’s ability to negotiate lower prescription prices for seniors and privatize Medicare, making it more expensive.
Kenneth D. Roberts, the primary author/editor of Project 2025, states that pornography (which, in his view, includes books about homosexuality and transgenderism) should be outlawed, and that “the people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.”
There is no place in our democratic republic for these extreme proposals. We need to do all we can to oppose their implementation.
Hank Cetola is a retired professor of psychology. He lives in Adrian.
