The New York Times had an article recently highlighting farmer Skylar Holden of Missouri, who had supported Trump but now was likely to lose his farm due to Trump’s freeze on programs and payments from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Cost-sharing contracts between the Federal government and farmers – CONTRACTS – are not being honored by the Federal government, leaving farmers throughout the country holding the bag. Farmers have spent a lot of money to improve their farms under this Act based on the promise of reimbursement by the Federal government. See YouTube under “Skylar Holden, Missouri”. Farmer Will Westmoreland, also of Missouri, has an excellent YouTube piece where he responds to Holden’s dilemma, laying out Trump’s lies to producers. In a short piece he summarizes how the right wing media environment (and it is an encompassing environment starting with Fox news and AM radio in rural areas) has been creating distrust and hatred of government and anyone who doesn’t share this view for 40 years.
Elon Musk’s DOGE isn’t eliminating waste and fraud in the Federal government but eliminating the agencies that are investigating him and his companies – as he does so he is destabilizing our country, our economy and threatening our national security. These actions have real consequences.
