Project 2025: The Devil in the Details

As the 2024 election year chugs along, we’re getting more details about the (frankly, terrifying) plan that ultra-conservatives intend to implement should Donald Trump retake the White House. It’s called “Project 2025.” Until recently, this disturbing blueprint to remake the federal government into a rightwing authoritarian state was a bit under the radar; now more and more details are emerging.

I wrote about the broad strokes of Project 2025 earlier. But as more of its 1,000-plus come out, we’re learning just how much of an impact it could have on the daily lives of ordinary Americans. Here are just a few.

THE WORKPLACE: Project 2025 would make it harder for workers to form a union. It also wants to scrap the 40-hour work week (hard-won by unions in the past), making it easier for bosses to demand longer hours without any overtime pay. The plan aggressively rolls back child labor laws and makes it easier for companies to deny health insurance or paid time off by deeming workers as “independent contractors.

On a related note, they also hope to reduce the corporate tax rate to 18%. At present, it’s 21%. The Biden administration wants to claw back some of the tax loopholes and huge profits of big business by raising it to 28%; this would generate $1.3 million in revenue over 10 years. We’ve all heard how businesses like Amazon pay almost nothing in taxes; Project 2025 wants them to keep getting away with it.

HEALTHCARE: In this plan, there’s a big push to privatize Medicare and reduce essential benefits and coverage that almost 19% of the population relies on.

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS: Now that Roe has been rolled back, and IVF is under fire (with access to contraception probably up next), Project 2025 plans to go even further in efforts to control a woman’s body. Mifepristone is a drug frequently used in medical (vs surgical) abortions. In fact, half of all abortions are medically induced. Project 2025 plans to go after the FDA to remove the drug from availability and to criminally prosecute anyone supplying/buying it or sending it through the mail.

A few other nuggets worth sweating over:

-- Project 2025 intends to roll back any LGBTQ rights currently on the books.

-- No help with student debt relief. Currently, 44 million Americans are on the hook for student loans which, with predatory interest rates, can take decades to pay down. Biden wants to address that, but nope, not Project 2025. They want to keep that crippling debt on the backs of the middle class.

-- Dismantling climate initiatives. Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act invests money into “green” technology to help address the worsening climate crisis while providing new jobs. Project 2025 would kill it, while mandating the use of damaging fossil fuels over solar, wind, electric.

-- Mass deportations. Stephen Miller is a former advisor to Trump, and viciously anti-immigrant. He recently outlined a draconian plan to round up thousands of immigrants, “stage” them in mass camps, then deport them without any kind of due process. I don’t know about you, but that smacks of cattle cars and work camps across Poland and Germany.

-- Ramping up Christian Nationalism efforts across the country. It would include religious “tests” and creating/interpreting laws based on Biblical tenets. Oh, and they want to outlaw pornography. Ironically, the “redder” or more religious the state, the higher the pornographic consumption. So good luck with that.

Even if Trump should lose the 2024 election, this ultra-conservative roadmap is out there and ready to go. Should the GOP win control at any point, you can bet they’ll pull the trigger on turning America into something more like Iran. At this stage, voting “blue” at every level – local, state, and federal – is the only antidote.

Vote accordingly.

Cindy Grogan is a writer, lover of history and "Star Trek" (TOS), and hardcore politics junkie. There was that one time she campaigned for Gerald Ford (yikes), but ever since, she's been devoted to Democratic and progressive policies.