The Struggle-La Lucha Baltimore bureau sat down with SLL writers Apryle Everly, Colby Byrd, and Jace Carter to understand what’s happening with student loans.

What’s going on with student loans?

AE & JC: We are officially in crisis mode. Starting back in early April, the Trump administration issued an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education (DOE), which, for those not familiar, was the primary institution through which federal student loans and grants get disbursed and collected. Although this EO couldn’t be carried out without approval from Congress, most of the staff already got fired within days after this announcement. 

Next, Trump ordered that the entire federal student debt portfolio, totaling up to $1.7 trillion currently, be moved from the DOE to the Small Business Administration (SBA), which, on the surface, doesn’t seem like such a major change, as the SBA is another federal agency, meaning we’d still be debtors of the federal government. Whether or not this move does actually occur remains to be seen; we have no clear answers yet. However, we do know that moving the student debt portfolio from the DOE to the SBA would be 1) illegal, 2) administratively and practically difficult, and 3) could lead to possible errors with people’s loan servicer accounts. 

Emphasizing the third point, for those still with outstanding loan payments, The Debt Collective (the first debtors’ union within the U.S.) strongly recommends going to studentaid.gov to find your current loan details and downloading and/or screenshotting your payment history, to protect yourself against these potential errors. 

Moving the student debt portfolio to the SBA also raises a serious concern regarding the privatization of federal student loans. We’ve already seen Trump’s fascist administration, with the help of Musk’s DOGE, carry out mass layoffs of federal workers and either make cuts to essential services for working people like Medicare / Medicaid, Social Security, SNAP, etc., or privatize essential services like the Postal Service. 

Could the portfolio move from the DOE to the SBA be just the first step in a lengthy legal loophole to then fully privatize student loans by handing them off to predatory corporations like Sallie Mae, SoFi, College Ave, or Ascent? Per Education Data Initiative, the average private student loan interest rate in 2025 falls anywhere between 3.45% to 16.24%. The capitalist class has completely screwed over my generation, Millennials, and Gen Alpha and Beta after us. 

On April 29, GOP members on the House Education and Workforce Committee introduced the most dangerous higher-ed bill in U.S. history, the “Student Success and Taxpayer Savings Plan,” which, as of the day this was written, May 22, has passed the House and is now pending Senate approval. This bill, which would be voted on as part of a budget reconciliation package, strips the DOE of virtually every authority to cancel student debt, eliminates every loan repayment program and subsidized student loan (specifically grad plus loans which allow grad students to cover the full cost of their attendance), and cuts Pell Grant eligibility. In other words, this bill is essentially saying that now only the wealthy few can attend college, while working-class students will receive no help from the federal government to learn or pursue a career.

But perhaps the most gutting update of all: Since May 5, the Trump administration has restarted student loan collections on default accounts after a five-year hiatus, affecting over 5.3 million borrowers. The DOE is only giving 30 days’ notice of collection, instead of the usual 65 days, and may be skipping normal collection procedures. 

This means that borrowers could have their wages garnished, and almost 200,000 people are already being warned that their Social Security and other federal benefits could be seized as early as next month. Retirees are especially at high risk, as over 2.9 million people 62 years and older have student loans (a 71% increase since 2017!), and if they lose their Social Security benefits, they will not receive critical essentials like food and transportation.

This all comes on the heels of a record-breaking $1 TRILLION war budget for 2025, in addition to further tax breaks for all the bloodthirsty billionaires who endorsed Trump’s 2nd presidency. Make no mistake, these progressively evil acts are nothing short of a declaration of war on the working class, particularly students, who have already faced immense repression from the ruling class for almost two years for protesting Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing of occupied Palestine.

CB: Currently, I am paying $600 a month on my student loans. My family is also paying on another college loan, where they are paying $400 a month. Before I got these payments set up, I was paying near to and sometimes over $1,000 a month on payments of one single loan. Other than the payments themselves, navigating the services and websites is a nightmare. Requiring multiple logins, and with different loans, you have to have multiple accounts and sign in to different portals.

How is it going to affect you?

JC: I currently owe roughly close to $70,000 in federal student loans through both Nelnet and ECSI, with close to $5,000 of that total being unpaid accrued interest through the day before this was written, May 21. I graduated from my undergrad program in May 2023 and went straight into my one-year master’s program, and I graduated from that program in September of 2024. Both my undergrad and grad loans remained in deferment until this past February, and my first loan payment was due in March. I immediately put that loan in forbearance because, despite how low the monthly payment is ($331.70) compared to the average for most people ($500-700+), I simply can’t afford to make consistent payments right now.

This is largely due to the fact that I’ve already been making $448 / month payments to my dad since March for all the Parent Plus loans he took out during my time in undergrad to avoid either one of us having to pay off $9-10,000+ tuition balances per semester. It’s total bullshit though because these loans are in his name, not mine, meaning he legally bears the responsibility. 

Due to his extremely terrible economic circumstances, though, he’s making me and my brothers pay up for what he can’t afford. I don’t have a good relationship with him, but unfortunately, I can’t avoid paying him. I don’t have time for unnecessary lawsuits right now. I have been making really small $50 / month payments on my much smaller loan balance through ECSI, just to get rid of it quicker.

I’m extremely worried that should our loans collectively end up getting fully privatized in the near future, my loan interest rates could be jacked up even higher than what they already are now, making it damn near impossible to make any regular payments. Despite having a job that pays a fairly decent salary (by 2025’s standards, at least), my monthly rent / bills / expenses far outweigh the net wages I’ve been pulling in. I’m also very worried at the fact that we can only receive loan forbearance for a total of up to three years before we’re forced to make consistent payments or risk default and then collection, as described earlier. 

And I know it won’t stop simply at wage and benefit garnishment either; try debtors’ prisons. The private prison industries are foaming at the mouth at the sight of another big profit-booster. As communists, we already know the endgame the capitalists want and have already been getting: for all the working class to be hopelessly indebted to them for the rest of their life. This student loans crisis is a disease that will continue to spread and will affect everyone, not just us, current or former students.

AE: So far, those who have recently graduated from college have had a decrease in the off-ramp time, the time between graduating college and the time where you have to start making payments for your student loans. For me, I graduated in May 2023, and I had to start making payments in November 2023. Personally, I have recently had a run-in with what can happen if you miss student loan payments. 

My parents were the people making payments for my student loans since it started back in November 2023. They had stopped making payments without my knowledge, the loan provider switched without my knowledge, since the provider has no legal reason to contact you to inform you what has occurred. I was only made aware when I noticed, about two months ago, that my credit score had dropped almost 300 points. 

This was gut-wrenching because there is no way to easily reverse this in the short term. I couldn’t explain to the credit company that it was my parents who didn’t pay because the loans are in my name. I did the responsible thing afterwards. I called the loan provider to place my student loans on forbearance. Loan forbearance is an interim period of time where you are not responsible for making loan payments. The maximum amount of time you can have forbearance is three years. I am currently in my first year now. 

I wanted to call attention to this because so many young people need to understand just how much this debt can ruin your ability to move through life. For example, my friends and I are looking for a new place to rent, with my credit being affected by my loans. It now means I can’t be on any primary lease, as most reputable places wouldn’t rent to someone with my current credit score. 

CB: The loans are obviously affecting the money I have to be able to afford basic necessities like food, clothing, rent, and to cover emergencies. They are also a slight detriment to my mental health. As I said in my previous answer, all of the different log-in portals and loans and emails are confusing and do not give good updates or a clear way to interpret everything going on. Also, the stress of paying my loans and rent keeps very little money in my pocket and destroys my ability to put money away for savings. 

Luckily, I am not marked for collections on my loans like many other people paying loans off, but just the threat of being on the receiving end of state harassment over my loans feels terrible, and I stand in solidarity with those who are going through that and worse right now.

What would you like to see happen?

JC: Nothing less than a total reversal of all policies and executive orders regarding student debt, going all the way back to the 1970s when Ronald Reagan notoriously proclaimed that “free college would create a dangerous, educated proletariat,” that have led us to this exact point. No more student debt, and free, accessible college for all! No human should be a “loan” to an occupier on stolen land, the same way that no human can be “illegal” on stolen land. 

Biden had the opportunity at any time during his presidency to invoke the Higher Education Act of 1965, that would’ve forgiven student debt, the same way the government was swiftly able to forgive hundreds of thousands of dollars on average worth of PPP loans for the parasite class. But, in typical Democratic Party fashion, he simply paved the way for Trump and his fascist administration to further strip away our rights to an education, while simultaneously placing the blame on us, barely surviving working-class people, for not voting for his genocidal prosecutor-in-crime, Kamala Harris, as next president. 

We cannot continue relying on this system – a system that is working exactly as it was designed – to simply fix and reform itself. This total reversal must be accomplished by all working-class people of this country, united and ready to fight back, by any means necessary.

AE: I would like to see the elimination of all student debt that people currently have, and for all higher education of public universities to be free for students. People need to understand that the majority of jobs in the U.S. that pay near a living wage require you to now have a master’s degree. This means one to five years of post-undergraduate education. The average master’s degree two-year program can cost $36,000-93,000. This is on top of what a student would already owe for undergrad. As a person who only holds a master’s degree, I am finding it nearly impossible to find a job, even with experience and a degree that will pay me something worth coming into the office for. 

CB: I would like to see loan forgiveness nationwide happen. Whether it be full loan forgiveness or half the total forgiven, any amount to alleviate the stress on both my wallet and mental health would be amazing. With any form of loan forgiveness or erasure, people, including myself, could put that newly opened up money into developing ourselves better for the future instead of being burdened and shackled to the past. 

Remember Steven Hatfill? He was the main suspect in the 2001 anthrax deaths before the FBI turned its attention to Bruce Ivins.

Five people were killed by anthrax being sent in envelopes through the mail. Among them were the Black postal workers Joseph P. Curseen, Jr. and Thomas L. Morris, Jr. These attacks, which terrified millions, began one week after the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

Hatfill has now been named an adviser to the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under Trump.

One of the reasons that Hatfill was under suspicion was his support for racist regimes. This included going to pre-liberation Zimbabwe in 1978, when the African country was run by white settlers who called it Rhodesia.

Their leader, Ian Smith, declared, “I don’t believe in majority rule, black majority rule, not in a thousand years.” 

Smith was no different than the white landowners from South Africa who are being welcomed as “refugees” by Trump.

When Hatfill arrived in so-called Rhodesia, a liberation struggle — or Chimurenga — was being waged by Africans against Ian Smith and his white minority dictatorship. Thousands of Africans died fighting for freedom. By 1980, the people of Zimbabwe had overthrown Ian Smith and colonial rule.

Hatfill was already enrolled in the Godfrey Huggins Medical School, which is now the University of Zimbabwe’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. He graduated in 1983 with a doctor’s degree.

 It’s alleged that Hatfill claimed to have served with the Selous Scouts, a death squad that hunted liberation fighters and massacred many Africans during the Chimurenga. These terrorists were blamed for an anthrax outbreak that killed 182 people and thousands of cattle.

Hatfill then went to South Africa, where the apartheid system 

was still in power and was keeping Nelson Mandela in prison. Its Nazi army was continuing its war against the People’s Republic of Angola.

The war against Zimbabwe

Hatfill may have been exaggerating his racist activities, particularly 

whether or not he had any connection with the bloodthirsty Selous Scouts. But his bragging only burnished his credentials with the military-industrial complex. It certainly endeared him to Trump’s aides.

Hatfill had no trouble getting hired by Science Applications International Corporation, a major military contractor. Or being employed as a researcher for the U.S. Army’s biological warfare laboratories at Fort Detrick in Maryland. 

Keeping Ian Smith and his fellow white settlers in power had been a holy cause for racists in the United States and Britain. Soldier of Fortune magazine encouraged mercenaries to volunteer to fight for the white minority government.

Writers for William F. Buckley’s National Review magazine and the ex-or maybe not-so-ex CIA ghoul David Atlee Phillips formed the 

American-Rhodesian Association. Many researchers believe that Phillips played a key role in President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

In 1971, the U.S. Senate lifted sanctions passed by the UN on chrome imported from Ian Smith’s white supremacist regime. This was the senators’ response to African delegates welcoming the People’s Republic of China to its rightful seat in the UN. 

The wealthy and powerful have continued their attacks against Zimbabwe. For 25 years, the U.S. has imposed severe sanctions on the African country, which include cutting off Zimbabwe’s access to credit from Western financial institutions. 

This was revenge for Zimbabwe’s people taking back their land, which was stolen by white farmers. That’s what should have been done after the U.S. Civil War.

Formerly enslaved Africans deserved the land that they had worked for centuries, along with members of Indigenous nations from whom it was stolen. The slogan “land back” echoes from Wounded Knee to Palestine.

Reopen the anthrax investigation

Hatfill also became an attractive job candidate for the Trump administration because he endorsed quack cures for COVID-19. The entire crew of Trump’s health appointees — starting with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  — are quacks.

This goes hand-in-hand with Trump’s proposed budget that will cut 14 million people from Medicaid by 2034. 

Another reason Hatfill was hired was his support for the phony claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump. This big lie was the rallying cry of the fascist mob, which was allowed to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

There’s never been a satisfactory answer to who committed the 2001 anthrax attacks, despite the FBI hounding Dr. Bruce Ivins to commit suicide. The attacks helped drive through the misnamed Patriot Act — which gave U.S. spy agencies greatly increased power to wiretap and other violations of civil rights — through Congress.

The U.S. Army has had a long record of experimenting with anthrax and other biological weapons.

The war criminals in the Japanese Army’s Unit 731, who killed at least 14,000 people in biological warfare experiments, were given immunity from prosecution after World War II. This was in exchange for sharing their research with the Pentagon. (“Unit 731 Testimony,” by Hal Gold.)

In 1968, 6,000 sheep were killed by a nerve agent near the Army’s Dugway Proving Ground, 85 miles west of Salt Lake City. 

The body of the U.S. Army’s anthrax expert Frank Olson was found outside a New York City hotel on Nov. 18, 1953. The official story was that Olsen jumped out of a window because of an LSD experiment gone bad. His son Eric Olson believes his father was murdered. 

The FBI claims that Dr. Bruce Ivins was guilty of the 2001 anthrax attacks. After Ivins committed suicide, the FBI closed the case. 

Many people have doubts about Ivins’ guilt, including his co-workers at Fort Detrick. Dead people like Lee Harvey Oswald or Bruce Ivins can be blamed, but can’t testify. 

If Ivins was responsible, that means the attacks came from within Fort Detrick using the U.S. Army’s supplies of anthrax.

It’s time to reopen the investigation into the 2001 anthrax deaths. And take another look at Steven Hatfill.

The brief but intense conflict between India and Pakistan has been widely described not only as a military confrontation but a war of narratives. Occurring in the aftermath of the deadly Pahalgam attack in Kashmir on April 22, 2025, International observers noticed the stark contrast in responses: India’s aggressive stance and Pakistan’s call for de-escalation. This scrutiny was prompted by the Indian state and media’s use of dehumanizing propaganda and their repeated, unsubstantiated accusations labeling Pakistan as a “terrorist” state, raising concerns about India’s domestic policies concerning its 200 million Muslim population.

The two nuclear-armed countries share over a 3,000-kilometer (2,000-mile) border. The ceasefire declared on May 10, 2025, marked the end of a dangerous escalation. However, the deeper battle — driven by vilifying narratives and Islamophobia, exacerbated by India’s ambition for regional dominance — continues to reverberate across the region and the world.

From Pahalgam to ceasefire: A timeline of escalation

On April 22, a brutal terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, killed 26 civilians, mostly tourists. A little-known group, The Resistance Front, claimed responsibility for the attack. India swiftly blamed Pakistan for backing the attackers, a claim that Islamabad vehemently denied. From the political leadership to celebrity figures across the board, Pakistan condemned the Pahalgam attack. 

The sympathy, which may have come from Pakistanis knowing all too well the pain of losing innocent lives — nearly 70,000 from 2000 to 2019 in terrorist attacks — was seen on the other side of the border as hollow words reeking of complicity. While Pakistan called for an independent investigation into India’s claim of Pakistan’s involvement, what followed was a rapid military escalation. India launched “Operation Sindoor” and began attacks in Pakistani cities and Azad Jammu Kashmir on May 7. India claimed that its strike killed 100+ “terrorists” and Pakistan reported the Indian missiles hit residential areas, killing 40 civilians, including children, apart from 11 military personnel.

Three days of cross-border artillery exchanges, drone warfare, and missile strikes brought the two nuclear-armed neighbors to the brink of full-scale war. By May 10, after international diplomatic pressure (U.S. President Donald Trump included), a ceasefire was brokered.

Background of the Kashmir Valley: silenced, occupied, and sanitized

The Pahalgam attack happened in Indian-occupied Kashmir, which is one of the most heavily militarized zones in the world, with estimates of over 600,000 Indian troops stationed in the region. Following the controversial accession of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir to India in 1947, the region has remained a flashpoint between India and Pakistan. While initially granted special autonomy under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, this status was revoked unilaterally by the Indian government in August 2019, effectively dissolving the region’s limited self-governance and converting it into a territory ruled directly from New Delhi.

Kashmir may be portrayed as a picturesque valley in India’s media, but the state’s pervasive military strategy impacts every corner of civilian life:

• Checkpoints, surveillance towers, and armed patrols are a daily reality
• Mass arrests, including minors, and curfews are frequently imposed
• Journalists, academics, and human rights defenders face harassment, imprisonment, and censorship

The Indian government has also employed advanced surveillance technologies, including facial recognition and drone monitoring, often with support from foreign allies like “Israel.”

Post-Pahalgam: Retaliation instead of reflection?

What ensued after the Pahalgam attack, however, was not a reckoning of the Kashmir occupation. The Indian mainstream media, largely aligned with the ruling government, blamed Pakistan for meddling in India’s internal affairs — implying Kashmir was a strictly Indian affair — and raised calls for retribution. On platforms like X (formerly Twitter), hashtags calling for the complete destruction of Pakistan trended for days. Users drew comparisons between Pakistan and Gaza, invoking imagery of total annihilation and dehumanization.

Normalization of media propaganda

Indian actress-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut took to Instagram to say that Pakistan “is full of bloody cockroaches. A horrible, disgusting country full of terrorists that needs to be wiped off the world map.” Concurrently, mainstream Indian media falsely reported and celebrated the complete destruction of major Pakistani cities by Indian attacks.

This rhetoric in India reflected a deeper, more troubling trend: the growing acceptance of Islamophobia in its public discourse, where rejoicing in a neighboring country’s destruction is justified by consistently dehumanizing its population. Over the years, Pakistanis have increasingly been portrayed as monolithic extremists, a narrative that found fertile ground in a media ecosystem that is dominated by nationalist voices.

This certainly has not happened overnight. India’s profound ideological transformation met its height when Narendra Modi assumed office in 2014. The fuel of this shift is Hindutva, a form of Hindu nationalism that envisions India as a Hindu-only nation, marginalizing its religious minorities, particularly Muslims and Christians.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is closely aligned with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing paramilitary organization that has long advocated for a Hindu-first identity. Under Modi’s rule, the RSS has gained unprecedented influence over state institutions, education, and media.

As a result, Muslims, who make up over 200 million of India’s population, have faced increasing discrimination. From lynchings over beef consumption to discriminatory citizenship laws like the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the state has institutionalized exclusion.

The global power illusion and internal contradictions

While fuelling a deep-seated Islamophobic exclusion, India paradoxically promotes its diversity — enabled by its billionaires, technology sector, iconic film industry, and religious tourism — as it pursues global aspirations. This projection contrasts with its domestic realities: suppressing indigenous communities, marginalizing religious and ethnic minorities, and weaponizing nationalism to consolidate power.

This internal contradiction was laid bare during the May 2025 India-Pakistan escalation. The calls for Pakistan’s destruction by Indian politicians and media were not isolated outbursts: They were the culmination of years of state-sanctioned Islamophobia, nurtured by a political ideology that sees diversity as a threat rather than a strength.

A turning point for global Islamophobia?

Pakistan’s measured response, juxtaposed with India’s aggressive media campaign, has prompted some international voices to reconsider long-held biases within South Asia’s geopolitical landscape.

As the dust settles over what the world witnessed in real time — the dangers of unchecked hate, misinformation, and digital radicalization — one question looms large: Could this moment mark a much-needed and perhaps awaited turning point in the global conversation around Islamophobia?

Whether the unmasking of India’s terrorism accusation leads to meaningful change remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: The war may have ended on May 10, but the battle for truth — and justice for Kashmir — is far from over.

Following is a fact sheet about how Trump’s “big beautiful” budget bill cuts essential services and benefits for workers to give to the wealthy. The fact sheet was put together by the Louisiana Workers Councils. Some examples relate to Louisiana, but most of the statistics are for the U.S. as a whole. A PDF version is available here. 

Louisiana Workers Councils Fact Sheet

Medicaid and ACA subsidized insurance

Medicaid is being ripped to shreds 

The MAGA movement claims to support health care for vulnerable Americans, but their budget tells a different story. 13.7 million people will lose Medicaid — nearly 1 in 5 current enrollees. Nationally, 72 million rely on Medicaid, including 1.6 million in Louisiana and 180,000 in New Orleans. Another 500,000 low-income Louisianans get subsidized ACA coverage. Everyone on Medicaid or ACA plans will suffer from these cuts. 

Here’s What They’re Really Doing: 

1. $715 billion slashed from Medicaid — the biggest cut in history. 
2. 13.7 million kicked off Medicaid immediately, including 304,000 Louisianans. 
3. States forced to pay double — Washington currently covers 80% of Medicaid costs, but Trump wants a 50-50 split. Killing the provider tax (how states fund their share) means massive cuts — fewer covered, fewer services, more suffering. Louisiana lawmakers will jump at the chance to gut care even further. 
4. 175,000 Louisianans already lost Medicaid in the past year — not because they didn’t qualify, but because of paperwork traps. 
5. New costs and fewer benefits:
   o Copays for doctor visits
   o Fewer covered medications & services
   o Lower pay for doctors (so fewer will accept Medicaid)
   o Yearly spending caps (once you hit the limit, no more care)
6. Rural & urban hospitals / clinics will close as funding dries up. 
7. Red tape nightmare:Recertification every 6 months with stricter rules — many will lose coverage just from missed paperwork. 
8. Nursing home disaster:
   o Mass closures from funding cuts
   o No more minimum staffing rules (elderly left neglected)
   o Home health care slashed — forcing disabled & seniors into institutions
9. ACA subsidies eliminated — 500,000 low-income Louisianans will lose insurance. Most can’t afford replacements. 
10. Work requirements = poverty trap:
    o Unemployed adults must work 80 hrs / month to keep Medicaid
    o Forces desperate people into exploitative low-wage jobs
    o 21% of New Orleans youth (16-24) are unemployed — where will they find work?
11. Disabled people abandoned: Cuts to in-home care will force many into institutions or homelessness. 
12. No more food / benefits on Medicare Advantage plans. 
13. WIC & Meals on Wheels starved: Severe cuts or total shutdowns — hunger will skyrocket. 

The Bottom Line: 

This isn’t “saving money” — it’s a war on the poor, sick, and vulnerable. Millions will suffer, hospitals will close, and families will be bankrupted — all to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. These cuts are cruelty by design.

Housing Assistance 

The Trump administration’s budget slashes billions from critical housing programs. In New Orleans alone, 20,000 people remain on the Section 8 and public housing waiting lists, which are now closed — meaning no new applicants can even get in line for help. 

Key Housing Cuts in the Proposed Budget: 

1. Gutting Section 8 & Federal Rental Assistance 

• $26.7 billion cut to federal rental aid, effectively ending Section 8 as we know it. 
• Shifts responsibility to cash-strapped states, leaving millions without support. 
• Currently, only 1 in 4 eligible families (2.3 million) receive vouchers due to funding shortages (actual need is closer to 10 million people). 
• 645,000 fewer people would lose assistance nationwide, including 14,000+ in Louisiana. 

2. Arbitrary Time Limits on Rental Aid 

• Imposes a two-year limit for adults without disabilities, kicking thousands off assistance. 
• Thousands of children will also lose housing when their parents are cut off. 

3. Eliminating Affordable Housing Programs 

• Cuts $3.3 billion in Community Development Block Grants, halting construction and repairs nationwide.  
• Ends the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, stripping funding from affordable housing providers. 
• Consequences:
  o More families lose homes due to unaffordable maintenance/insurance costs.
  o Due to tax and insurance increases, rents in New Orleans rose 14% in 3 years.

4. Slashing Homelessness Assistance 

• Caps homeless aid at 2 years and “consolidates” programs, leading to massive job and resource cuts. 
• 166,000 permanent supportive housing units for the formerly homeless would lose funding. •  Homelessness already rose 18% between 2023 and 2024 — a record increase — yet the budget cuts homelessness prevention grants by 12%. 

5. Cutting Disaster & Emergency Housing Aid 

• Reduces disaster recovery assistance (critical for hurricane survivors in Louisiana). 
• Eliminates 70,000 emergency housing vouchers from the American Rescue Plan, hurting people at risk of homelessness and domestic violence survivors.
• Because emergency vouchers under the American Rescue Plan come as a block grant (meaning it  has limited funding) funds are already running out more quickly due to soaring rents — now they’ll vanish faster. 

SNAP 

867,000 Louisianians depend on SNAP benefits
86% are Children, Seniors, and Disabled People 

• Nationwide, 1 in 8 people receive SNAP benefits, which are already inadequate. At the maximum benefit, SNAP provides barely more than $2 per person per meal. Trump’s proposed cuts would be the largest cuts to SNAP in history, resulting in millions of people going hungry.  
• Congress wants to cut $230 billion from food assistance programs over 10 years.
• The budget also cuts $425 million from CSFP, which provides food for low-income seniors. 
• It raises the age limit for SNAP work requirements from 54 to 64. 
• Previously, people with dependents under 18 were exempt from work requirements; now, that age is lowered to seven. 
• Their budget transfers SNAP costs to the states, going from 50% federal money to 25%.  
• Without funding or support, some states will stop providing SNAP completely. Over the next 10 years, Louisiana would lose $4.7 billion in SNAP funding. 
• These cuts will cause significant job losses, with about 143,000 lost nationwide and 78,000 losses in agriculture, grocery, and food processing.  
• Over 600,000 students in Louisiana use the free or reduced-price lunch programs, which is 91.9% of students participating in school lunch programs. 
• Following the lead of U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., many states are restricting what food can be bought with SNAP or other food programs. These restrictions, which include limits on buying products made with flour, would limit food access in areas where “healthier” options aren’t available or affordable. 
• The Trump administration is not actually interested in providing healthier food: they already ended two programs in Louisiana that brought fresh, local food to food banks, schools, and childcare centers. This was a cut of $660 million nationwide, about $12 million for Louisiana. They also added extra restrictions on food assistance programs, making it harder for schools to access funds by increasing the percentage of students from low-income families attending the school from 40% to 60% minimum. This will mean 12 million students will lose access to food aid. In Louisiana, 469 schools no longer qualified.

Social Security 

Social Security operates independently from the federal budget, funded by its two trust funds, which hold $2.9 trillion in reserves. For 30 years, Social Security ran a surplus. But these funds have been repeatedly drained by the Treasury — often to finance military budgets.  

Even after these withdrawals, the trust funds remain solvent — but the situation is getting worse. Under current law, the ultra-wealthy pay just one month of Social Security taxes, while the Treasury and Commerce Department continue siphoning money from the program. 

Trump is aiming to sabotage the Social Security Administration, setting the stage to push for privatization. If privatized, Social Security funds could be invested in the stock market or cryptocurrencies instead of secure Treasury bonds — jeopardizing retirees’ financial security. In the recent Wall Street crash, many 401(k) pension funds lost a lot of money. It is worth remembering that billionaires were pre-warned about tariffs that crashed the system and made billions selling stocks in advance. 

The proposed budget bill grants $4.2 trillion in tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires — without exempting Social Security from taxation. But the biggest threat is the deliberate sabotage of the system, endangering benefits for current and future recipients. 

1. No Increase for the Most Vulnerable
   o Over 40% of Social Security recipients rely solely on their benefits, with no other income.
   o Rising living costs erode real income yearly while poverty-level Social Security payments remain the same.
   o The decline of employer pensions has forced more retirees to depend entirely on Social Security.

2. Office Closures Despite In-Person Requirements
   o The Social Security Administration (SSA) is shutting down offices while forcing new applicants to apply in person, creating barriers to access.

3. Sharing Sensitive Data with Elon Musk & DOGE Affiliates
   o Private entities, including Elon Musk and DOGE-linked groups, are being granted access to Social Security information, raising serious privacy and security concerns.

4. Severe Staffing Shortages
   o The SSA has cut thousands of jobs, leaving staffing at historic lows — delaying services and worsening backlogs.

5. Political Sabotage of Experienced Leadership
   o Qualified administrators are being replaced by Trump loyalists who aim to dismantle and privatize Social Security rather than protect its stability.

6. MAGA Takeover
   o Howard Lutnick, Trump’s Commerce Secretary overseeing Social Security, mocked beneficiaries, saying only “frauds” would care about missed payments after a court ruling threatened shutdowns.

7. Deliberate System Disruptions by DOGE-Linked Groups
   o Cyberattacks and system failures — orchestrated by DOGE-affiliated gangsters — have crashed phone and online services, leading to extended outages and wait times.

War Budget 

Survival Programs Get Cut, War Profiteers Get Rich 

75% of Trump’s proposed budget — our tax dollars — funds war and repression (DOD, DOJ, CIA, DHS, etc.). Total spending on war and repression exceeds $2.5 trillion when including: 

• The Department of Energy (which manages nuclear weapons) 
• $952 billion in interest payments on debt from past military spending 

The U.S. maintains 900 foreign military bases — compared to China’s one overseas base. The U.S. military budget is larger than the next 10 countries combined. 

Budget Priorities: Guns Over People

✓ Pentagon: $1.01 trillion (+13%) 

✓ DHS (Border Patrol, ICE, migrant prisons): $107 billion (+65%) 

✗ HUD (housing): -$34 billion (-43%) 

✗ Health & Human Services: -$33 billion (-26%) 

✗ Education: -$12 billion (-15%)

Who Profits? 

The Treasury is looted by: 

• Oil / gas corporations 
• Weapons manufacturers 
• Big Tech 
• Wall Street banks                            

Many war-profiteering corporations pay $0 in taxes. Many even get more in rebates than they pay in taxes. GE, for example, got $423 million in rebates in 2023. 

Billionaire Elon Musk Gets Rich By Stealing Our Tax Money 

While Trump and Musk’s DOGE slash social programs and lay off thousands, his company SpaceX is set to receive $25 billion for Trump’s “Golden Dome” space weapons program. As of February 2025, Musk has received $38 billion in U.S. government contracts, loans, and subsidies (Washington Post). 

Nuclear Madness 

Trump demands $12.9 billion more for nukes — despite the U.S. already having 5,000+ nuclear weapons (enough to end human civilization many times over).

Statement on the Resistance News Network

In the 24 hours leading up to the killing of two zionist diplomats late last night, over 90 Palestinians ascended to martyrdom in the #Gaza Strip.

Every day, the US-backed zionist occupation carries out war crimes and massacres against the Palestinian people. It has repeatedly expressed its intention to perpetrate a genocide against Palestinians, and continues to do so with little repercussion from the rest of the world.

Conservative estimates suggest that over 55,000 Palestinians have been martyred since the start of the zionist aggression on Gaza, but the true number has yet to be determined. The zionist entity, with American weapons, funds, and diplomatic covers, unleashes horrors on the people of Gaza every day, depriving them of food, water, a medical system, a home, and any semblance of normal life.

Within the United States itself, Palestinians have been harassed and assaulted by fanatical zionists. One Palestinian child, Wadie Al-Fayoume, was even killed in Illinois on October 14, 2023.  (https://t.me/PalestineResist/15178)

Despite this, press conferences were only called to woe the loss of two “diplomats” who represent this monstrous entity, which itself has not hesitated to airstrike embassies. Condemnations will hang thick in the air across Western countries as people suddenly remember the morality they’ve forgotten for the people of Palestine. Just yesterday, zionist forces opened fire on a delegation of over 25 European and Arab diplomats who were visiting #Jenin. (https://t.me/PalestineResist/77473)

Actions to help the Palestinian people will continue to be criminalized, boycotts outlawed, and even speech restricted. The struggle to center Gaza with the objective of halting the zionist aggression and lifting the siege will intensify. While the establishment is mourning, the genocide of Palestinians continues unabated.

https://t.me/PalestineResist/77507

Si bien el proceso de independencia es una lucha constante en todos los frentes, este año en Puerto Rico, se nos ha obligado enfrentar a la administración local más incapaz que ha tomado las riendas de la colonia en los últimos años. La nueva gobernadora Jeniffer González, pertenece al partido Nuevo Progresista que tiene como única ideología, adherirse a los Estados Unidos de América como un estado más. Y ahora, ese partido se ha quedado con las manos vacías, porque ya los congresistas estadounidenses han dicho contundentemente que no permitirán la estadidad para Puerto Rico.

Desde que comenzó el 2 de enero pasado, la gobernadora ha ido de fracaso en fracaso, y ya varias personas que ha designado para puestos cruciales en su gabinete, han sido rechazadas por la legislatura por no estar cualificadas. Así que a cinco meses de su juramentación, aún no ha podido completar su gobierno. 

Y para evadir esto, se ha pasado de viaje en viaje al exterior, o grabando videos vergonzosos con su marido titulados De Todo Menos Política. 

Pero ya muchos sectores del pueblo se están cansando, incluyendo hasta aquellos que votaron por ella. Cada día se suman las manifestaciones en su contra exigiendo que gobierne para el pueblo y no para los intereses privados de sus allegados corruptos.

Y si esto sigue así, se podría repetir el verano del 2019 cuando el pueblo sacó a otro gobernante del PNP, a Ricky Roselló.

Esperemos que así sea.

Desde Puerto Rico, para Radio Clarín de Colombia, les habló, Berta Joubert-Ceci.

Staging for a strike?

As threats of an Israeli strike on Iran grow louder, the United States is making quiet but unmistakable moves of its own. Over the past month, Washington has quietly repositioned strategic bombers and fighter squadrons to Diego Garcia, a remote U.S. military outpost in the Indian Ocean, squarely within striking distance of Tehran.

The official rationale is force protection. But the scale and nature of the deployments have sparked speculation that Washington is laying the groundwork for potential military involvement in an Israeli-led operation, or, at the very least, sending a message to Tehran that it won’t stand in the way.

Roughly a month ago, the U.S. Air Force deployed six B-2 Spirit bombers to Diego Garcia, a third of its active fleet of nuclear-capable stealth aircraft. These bombers, capable of flying directly from the U.S. to targets across the globe, don’t require forward deployment to be effective. Which is why their presence on a remote island in the Indian Ocean is raising eyebrows.

The B-2s have reportedly been used in prior strikes against Ansar Allah targets in Yemen, though with limited strategic effect. Following the declared conclusion of U.S. operations in Yemen, at least some of the B-2s were replaced by four B-52 strategic bombers, another long-range platform associated with show-of-force missions.

But then, additional firepower arrived. An entire squadron of F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets was flown to the base. While these jets have strike capabilities, open-source intelligence analysts suggest they were likely deployed for base defense. That assessment, if correct, underscores that the Pentagon sees Diego Garcia not just as a staging ground, but as a potential target in a broader escalation.

Meanwhile, intelligence signals point to real movement on the Israeli side. A CNN report this Tuesday cited intercepted communications and activity on the ground indicating that Israel is preparing to strike Iranian nuclear facilities. U.S. officials reportedly believe the plans are active and serious.

In April, Donald Trump remarked that Israel would “lead” any such operation. That comment was interpreted by many as a nod of support, if not a green light, from Washington. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, has repeatedly warned that his government will not allow Iran to become a nuclear weapons state.

Yet even as diplomatic channels remained open, the introduction of new U.S. “red lines” appears to have derailed progress. U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff recently declared that Iran must halt all uranium enrichment, a demand not included in the original 2015 nuclear agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Iranian officials rejected the move outright. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated that enrichment is a sovereign right and a non-negotiable issue. Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei dismissed the new U.S. conditions as “nonsense.”

And on May 22, Araghchi issued a sharper warning: Iran, he said, would take “special measures to defend its nuclear facilities” if Israeli threats continued. The statement was deliberately vague, but left little doubt that Tehran is preparing for contingencies.

In Washington, meanwhile, influential think tanks are ratcheting up pressure for a hardline approach. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) has called for the complete dismantling of Iran’s enrichment infrastructure. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) has urged more sanctions. The Atlantic Council argues the U.S. must avoid “reviving Obama’s Iran deal.”

Simultaneously, Dana Stroul, a former Biden official now at WINEP, has argued that Iran’s current weakness presents an opportunity for military action. Her view echoes a growing consensus across Washington’s think tank circuit: that Tehran is vulnerable, and now is the moment to strike.

These are the same voices that helped shape past U.S. interventions in the region. Their resurgence now, alongside tactical military deployments and rhetorical escalations, suggests a familiar pattern.

What’s missing from the conversation is any real public debate about the consequences. Not just for Iran, but for U.S. interests, regional stability, and the American public. A confrontation with Iran would carry significant consequences, yet few in Washington have publicly questioned whether such a conflict serves America’s national interest, save for outliers like Rep. Thomas Massie, who has drawn fire from powerful lobbies simply for asking whether this is our fight to begin with.

The buildup at Diego Garcia may be interpreted as precaution. But it’s also a reminder of how quickly precaution becomes policy, and policy becomes war, especially when shaped by proxies, pressure groups, and allies with very different interests.

Wars don’t always begin with votes. In fact, they often begin with quiet deployments far from view, and even farther from the American people they will ultimately affect.

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47

Source: Mint Press News

The Chiquita workers’ strike is part of a nationwide protest movement against pension reforms approved by Panama’s right-wing government.

In a stark display of racist arrogance, President Donald Trump derailed a recent meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa when he launched into a rant alleging that the government of South Africa is engaged in “white genocide.” 

As President Ramaphosa was encouraging the U.S. President to “listen to the voices of South Africans,” Trump interrupted claiming there were thousands of stories demonstrating widespread violence against white South Africans.

In no uncertain terms, this rhetoric has to be condemned as the vicious racist lie it is. Many have analyzed Trump’s language towards oppressed people generally as being “code” for racism. There isn’t any code. There is just Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s racism laid out plainly. 

The idea that an oppressed group of people are intent on engaging in genocide against white people is not particularly new. Trump and Musk have simply adopted the age old rhetoric of Adolf Hitler, David Duke, and the entire South African apartheid regime. Simply put, this fascist ideology asserts that any social or political gains by oppressed people represent a threat to the existence of white people. 

This pernicious ideology is meant to spread fear and pit the working class against itself. This cannot be allowed. Trump and Musk’s assertions of an anti-white genocide in South Africa are based in complete fascist mythology and not in any sort of fact, just like the assertions of the fascist demagogues who came before them. 

Trump’s disgusting display towards President Ramaphosa is more proof that the Trump / Musk administration isn’t merely engaging in rhetorical racism. This rhetoric is indicative of an effort to erase the history of and any progress made by Black and African people.