Project 2025 is a ‘Sledgehammer to Democracy’, says Georgia lawmakers

Longtime U.S. Representative Hank Johnson, State Senator Sonya Halpern, and State Representative Derrick Jackson held a press conference in Atlanta during the week of the Republican National Convention to highlight Donald Trump’s extreme Project 2025 agenda and its dangerous implications for Georgians, from women’s reproductive rights to Social Security and Medicare, and our democracy.

What is Project 2025 and how does it affect you?

Trump’s Project 2025 is a 900-plus page document and a preview of MAGA extremists’ radical wish list and plans for a second Trump term, including enacting a nationwide abortion ban, cutting Social Security and Medicare, raising taxes on the middle class while giving handouts to billionaires, and gutting checks and balances to give Trump unchecked power to pass his extreme agenda.

Some of the other plans in Project 2025 include:

· Reinstating and expanding Trump’s racist Muslim ban

·      Putting more guns in schools , through arming teachers

·      Trump is planning to build huge camps to detain suspected illegal immigrants while they wait to be cruelly deported and rip families apart.

·      Stop all acknowledgement of gender identity and LGBTQ+ people

·      Instead of promoting LGBTQ+ equity, Project 2025 calls for the government programs to be “replaced by policies that support the formation of [straight] families.” (pg 451)

·      Reinstating the ban on patriotic transgender Americans serving in the military (pg 104)

·      Cutting money from school meals, which Project 2025 calls an “entitlement program” (pg 302), despite it being the only hot meal for many food insecure children.

·      Dismantling the Department of Education and attempting to claw back Biden’s student loan forgiveness .

·      Eliminate the early education Head Start Program (pg. 482)

·      Roll back all the progress we’ve made on tackling climate change. (pg 522-534)

Project 2025 was nearly completely nonexistent during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week. Despite dozens of speakers taking the stage, the controversial Trump-positive document wasn’t a topic of discussion during the four-day convention , according to The Atlanta Voice on-site reporting.

Johnson describes Project 2025 as a “radical policy proposal” proposed by Trump and his manner of lawyers. He also said the project will serve as a blueprint for the first 120 days of the Trump administration, if elected.

“Trump wants to take us back to that time where politicians-controlled bureaucracy. This project is aimed to roll back America’s rights, freedoms, and radically make America elevated to a macro-organization promoting Trump,” he said.

Jackson said he’s been reading the document bit by bit, describing it as “taking a sledgehammer against our democracy”. He said he cannot recall not one page, paragraph, or sentence where it’s a good thing for the American people, democracy, or our allies.

“Whether you’re white, black, old, young, straight, gay, military, non-military, there is not one thing good for you, it will devastate everything here in the United States, but it will also negatively impact our NATO allies,” he said.

Halpern also agreed with Jackson and Johnson by saying the project and a second Trump term would be “disastrous” not only for democracy, but for women’s rights.

“As a woman and a wife, myself, I’ve experienced firsthand the joys and the challenges that come to reproductive health. My husband and I have been blessed with three beautiful children, but our journey has not been without its unexpected moments,” she said.

Halpern said she and her husband know the pain and suffering of a miscarriage and needing medical intervention in the form of drugs to complete the process.

“We also know the surprise that comes with an unplanned pregnancy, which turned our family of four into a family of five,” she said. “Think about your family members and friends or colleagues who struggled with fertility and have turned to IVF to make their dreams of motherhood a reality.”

Additionally, Halpern said there are nearly 30% of women in the U.S. today who don’t have access to the abortion process.

“We don’t have to imagine what a second term will do because Trump and JD Vance themselves have already told us they would like to make that number 100%,” she said. “This isn’t something we’re imagining, they already worked to do it.”

Furthermore, Johnson said Trump is desperate to distance himself from Project 2025, but the American people will not be fooled. “He might try to deny it, but Trump literally put in place the architects of Project 2025 and those architects are the same people who drafted the Republican Party classmate and his own vice-presidential pick, JD Vance, who praised the project,” he said.

Also, he said the project promotes a nationwide ban on abortion and eliminates the Department of Education. He said it will take away Veterans benefits and will cut benefits to seniors on venture and social security, all so Trump can reward his fellow millionaires with another huge tax cut.

“Project 2025 punishes the middle class and raises cost for families, while weakening healthcare protections for people with preexisting conditions,” he said.

Johnson said Project 2025 is a “remarkable document” in its profoundness in terms of changing democracy as we know it today.

“It would be a bad thing for the American people should Project 2025 come to fruition and that is what Donald Trump will do if he is elected in November and that’s why we need to make sure that doesn’t happen,” he said.

Additionally, Johnson said getting the word out to voters about Project 2025 is extremely important because they are being given misinformation.

“Voters need to depend on trusted sources of information, like the Atlanta Voice. It’s trusted voices like you all that will get the word out to the people,” he said. “The people understand what’s happening and they want truth, not too much of it because they’re being deluged with information.”

Jackson said the more citizens start to learn about the project, the more voters, especially women, will realize we have to turn out the vote. “We just have to just keep talking about it,” he said.

We will show up and show out for President Joe Biden in November because the stakes are far too high to sit this one out, Johnson said.

For more information on Project 2025, visit https://shorturl.at/JjmXE .

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