Greensboro's African American Community Newspaper since 1967
During the 2024 presidential election, we heard a lot about Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint put forth by the conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, for the administration of Republican president-elect Pres. Donald Trump once he is in the White House.
The more than 900-page authoritarian plan garnered such negative press during the campaign, that Trump tried to distance himself from the plan prior to securing an election win. There are at least 140 people connected to Trump, who have had a hand in devising Project 2025.
Soon after his victory over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump embraced Project 2025 and he and his close advisors are beginning to shape the policies and direction of his second administration.
So, what’s in Project 2025 specifically, and how does it directly affect North Carolina, and ultimately, Black Americans?
FEDERAL JOBS - Project 2025 calls for the dismantling of a number of federal agencies, in addition to the reclassification of thousands of federal workers as political appointees so they can be terminated by President Trump once he officially takes office. According to the Congressional Research Service, there are more than 47,000 federal employees living and working in North Carolina, many of them Black.
EDUCATION - Project 2025 calls for the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education. Such a move would severely impact federal funding of public schools in North Carolina. The plan also calls for the elimination of Title I, the federal program that aids public school systems with large low-income student populations. In North Carolina, at least half of the state’s approximately 2,500 public schools would lose Title I funds and with it the supportive programs to help low-wealth students. More than 6,400 teaching positions may be eliminated, impacting nearly 99,000 students across the state.
HEALTH CARE - When implemented, Project 2025 would impose drastic changes to Medicaid that would severely impact the lives of at least 900,000 North Carolinians, like targeted time limits and lifetime caps on benefits received during a Medicaid enrollee’s lifetime. It could also increase the price of prescription medications for senior citizens on Medicare. Many would be at risk of losing coverage because they are low income and unable to afford comparable coverage.
The federal government would also be barred from negotiating lower drug prices.
CHILD CARE - Project 2025 eliminates access to no-cost childcare for almost 20,000 low-income children, otherwise known as Head Start. This will particularly impact thousands of children living in rural and urban communities, where the high cost of daily childcare is already out of reach.
STUDENT LOANS - Say goodbye to IDRs (income driven repayment) plans. Instead, Project 2025 will mandate a singular program that will increase payments for all student borrowers, including those under the SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education) Plan, costing student borrowers anywhere from $2,700 to $4,100 annually.
SOCIAL SECURITY - Under Project 2025, Social Security will be cut by raising the retirement age for 73 percent of North Carolinians from 67 to 69 years of age. That would cut benefits by $4,100 to $8,900 after one year. A median-wage retiree would lose $46,000 to $100,000 over 10 years, according to two recent Republican Study Committee budget proposals.
TAXES - Look for the overall tax burden to shift from the wealthy to the middle class under Project 2025. A typical family of four in North Carolina would see a federal tax hike of $2,713 a year. Meanwhile, wealthy North Carolinians with more than $10 million in annual income would see, on average, an annual tax cut of $1.5 million.
There are many other areas of American life that would drastically change under Project 2025, according to the plan. We also know that based on Trump’s proposed picks for Cabinet-level secretaries, he will have a strong group of loyalists to carry out his Project 2025 directives.
Readers are urged to pay close attention to what comes down from the incoming Trump Administration in the coming weeks and months before January 20, 2025, Inauguration Day.
