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Andrew Tobias
Andrew Tobias

Money and Other Subjects

Actions We Can Take — Today

February 16, 2025February 16, 2025

But first:

Not counting the military, there are 2.6 million federal employees.  On average, including benefits, they earn on the order of $140,000 a year.  That works out to a little more than $350 billion a year.  If Elon Musk fired half a million of them, that would save just 1% of the budget — not counting the cost of paying them unemployment benefits and the loss of tax revenue levied on their earnings (and the cost of losing the value of their work, just in case they had not been totally useless, as he seems convinced they are).

Maybe an even better way to reduce our deficit would be to collect more tax revenue from our wealthiest citizens and corporations by letting the Trump tax cuts expire on any income above, say, $1 million — and by adequately funding the IRS to collect those taxes.

Both ideas are anathema to the billionaires who now control our government (though not to billionaires like Nick Hanauer, Mark Cuban, Oprah Winfrey, J.B. Pritzker, and Warren Buffett).


I found this PBS interview of Philip K. Howard and Will Marshall on the right way to make government more efficient thoughtful in the extreme.



And now:

Indivisible just launched its Musk or Us Toolkit. Check it out!

To see what their Zooms are like, here was Thursday’s.

Register for their next one?  3pm Eastern Thursday.

Also:

  • Their latest Indivisible organizing guide. (If you live in a blue state, check out their blue state guide.)
  • How to respond to Trump’s unconstitutional overreach.
  • Their step-by-step toolkit for planning a meeting with your member of Congress.
  • How to stay prepared and secure during a second Trump administration.

Ready to start organizing your community? Fill out this form and let them know.



 

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