Hundreds participate in a rally against the economic policies of the Trump administration on April 10, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)
The Trump imposed tariffs and budget cuts have led to protests in front of Congress, with speakers expressing concerns about the disproportionate impact on lower and middle-class Americans.
Taking into account the repercussions of 911, the United States centered great financial crisis of 2008, and, COVID19, many analysts are of the view that the tariff policies of Donald Trump may lead to similar economic shocks.
What all those shocks produced were greater inequalities in Western liberal democracies.
After COVID, wealth inequality in the United States reached levels unprecedented since the Great Depression, with the richest 0.1% owning as much as the bottom 60% of the country.
What's more, the tariffs come on top of a 2025 budget bill, which seeks to impose austerity on ever more needed government services, and that has led to protests in front of Congress.
I'm a Native American woman, and we've had so much stripped and stripped and stripped, and it feels like they're trying to do that to an entire society, and that's absurd.
It's absurd. So I just feel like it is absolutely nonsense to be coming into a position and saying, like we have it so much right now, more than everybody, but we don't quite have enough.
Protestor 01
The short term effect of tariffs usually translates into price hikes, which would come after years of record inflation, while austerity measures would force people to pay for services which the government used to provide, or at least subsidize.
You have to take a look at how it affects everybody. And if we take a look at the millionaires and billionaires ... their lifestyle won't change.
But to the, you know, single mom who's depending on ... these kinds of budget issues, or, you know, a retired person who's living paycheck to paycheck, depends on Social Security, when you cut these kinds of programs, their lives are destroyed, not just mildly impacted, but destroyed.
Protestor 02
We are human, and we need to help. We don't want you to cut nothing. We want you to make it better because you're saying you want to make America great again and we want to participate.
And if we don't give the benefits, a lot of people are going to pass away, the education going to be bad and we want to share America and make it great again.
We want to make it. We want to be part of that, because we work for it.
Protestor 03
The lower house of Congress has just passed this year's budget bill after assurances of at least $1.5 trillion in cuts.
The 2024 budget totaled $6.8 trillion representing a possible cut of around 22%.
After decades of raiding the wealth of the lower and middle classes, exacerbated by tariffs and a pro wealthy austerity budget which is likely to provoke a recession, the short term economic outlook for the average American looks increasingly bleak.
