October 09, 2024

Commentary: Project 2025 poses alarming threat to Alaska

2 minutes

Tory O’Connell Curran (Photo by Travis Hudson)

Note: Opinions expressed in commentaries on Raven Radio are those of the author, and are not necessarily shared by the station’s board, staff, or volunteers.

My name is Tory OʼConnell Curran and this is my opinion. Alaskans may vote early beginning October 21st. Voting for Trump and Vance includes supporting Project 2025, the Presidential Transition Project of the Heritage Foundation. I would like to highlight a few things that would mean for Alaskans that you might not be aware of:

It would eliminate NOAA and the National Weather Service – no more weather or marine forecasts, no federal fisheries surveys (page 664);

It would effectively eliminate overtime pay through several mechanisms, for instance calculating overtime based on monthly instead of weekly hours (page 592); So when Trump said he wouldnʼt tax overtime pay there would be nothing to tax.

It would shift the tax burden to the middle class. Alaskan households earning less than $168,000 would face significantly higher taxes – for example between $3,000 and $6,000 more per year for a family of 4 making $100,000 (Democracyforward.org);

It would eliminate the FDIC – government-backed deposit insurance (page 705);

Students enrolled in public schools would be required to take a military entrance exam but students in private schools would not (page 102/103);

It would limit disability benefits for our veterans potentially impacting 20,000 disabled Alaskan veterans (pages 649-650);

It would put limits and lifetime caps on Medicaid benefits – over 62,000 Alaskans will be at risk for losing coverage (page 463);

It would raise the cost of prescription drugs for over 30,000 Alaskans by eliminating out of pocket Medicare drug cost limits (page 465);

95,000 women in Alaska would lose guaranteed access to free emergency contraception and it puts contraception availability at risk (page 485);

It would criminalize mailing of misoprostol effectively creating a nationwide abortion ban including in Alaska where our state constitution guarantees a personʼs right to privacy including abortion, and it takes away critical care for rural women as this drug treats and prevents postpartum bleeding, the 2nd most common cause of maternal deaths (page 459);

It would eliminate Head Start, impacting 3,000 children in 100 Alaskan communities (page 492);

It would eliminate the Dept of Education including Title 1 funding cutting nearly 7% of Alaska teaching positions (page 480) among other cuts (page 326);

It would increase food insecurity by restricting food access programs like SNAP and WIC (page 299-300)

As alarming as all of this sounds it is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of how a Trump/Vance administration would make life more difficult for regular Alaskans. The entire document is online to search and read if you would like to do your own research; you don’t have to take my word for it. My name is Tory OʼConnell Curran and for these and other reasons I am excited to be voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz for President and Vice President. Thank you.

References:

https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf

Pbs.org

What is Project 2025.net

Medscape.com

Democracyforward.org

https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/P2025-AK.pdf

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/project-2025-tax-trump-economy-heritage-foundation-how-it-works/?fbclid=IwY2xjawE5_QJleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHVPWTRXpSAMkTj8ahIvQGtYEUP9P8yPfftX8X_TCqTwjOm1DQeRWTMAPEg_aem_gND59JpaIjFLvyjbM4JCrA

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