San José, CA – On Tuesday, May 23, the Trump administration unveiled its proposal for the federal budget for the coming fiscal year that begins October 1. The proposed budget, if passed, would the biggest attack on poor and working people in more than 30 years.

San José, CA – On May 12, more than 200 Palestinian Americans and their supporters packed a Santa Clara County room for the 16th annual Palestine Cultural Day in San José, California. Samir Leymoun of the Palestine Heritage Committee welcomed people to the event with a tribute to Palestinian parents and the ongoing effort to keep the struggle of Palestine visible.

San José, CA – Since Donald Trump became president on Jan. 20, he has carried out two of his three campaign pledges to attack immigrants. He issued an executive order that called for a wall on the Mexican border, and his proposed budget includes a down payment of $2.6 billion to start the construction on the wall. Trump also issued another executive order calling for increased staffing for immigration enforcement and expanding deportations to include all the undocumented, with the final decision to be made by ICE agents. His proposed budget also calls for almost $2 billion to step up deportations and for hiring more ICE and Border Patrol agents. This executive order also threatened sanctions on local governments that did not cooperate with immigration authorities.

Traducción: Edward C. Tolentino

San José, CA – On Wednesday, May 3, House Republicans passed Trumpcare Version 2 with only two votes to spare. President Trump lobbied heavily to get the amended American Health Care Act (AHCA) through the House of Representatives. To win over the ultra-right wing so-called Freedom Caucus, House leader Paul Ryan added amendments that would allow states to opt out of the minimum requirements for health insurance introduced by Obamacare.

San José, CA – On May 1, thousands gathered at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in the heart of the Chicano/Mexicano community in east San José to kick off May Day. They then marched through downtown to the Arena Greens park. The march was many times larger than the year before, and many unions and community groups were represented. In addition to traditional themes of immigrant and workers’ rights, there were many anti-Trump protesters as well.

an José, CA – On Thursday, March 16, President Donald Trump presented his first budget proposal to Congress. That proposal, combined with his backing of the House Republican American Health Care Act (AHCA) proposed the week before, add up massive cuts to programs that help the poor and working class, together with large tax cuts for the rich. Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, told the press with a straight face that the budget proposal was “compassionate” even though those facing the biggest cuts are children, seniors and the disabled.

ACHA would give hundreds of billions in tax cuts to the rich

San José, CA – On Monday, March 13, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its report on the proposed American Health Care Act or ACHA. The ACHA is the House Republican bill that is supported by President Trump. The CBO report estimated that 14 million would lose health insurance the first year after the passage of the ACHA. This number will rise to 24 million people who would lose health insurance over the next ten years. This will basically double the percentage working-age adults who go without health insurance from 10% to 19%. This would save the federal government $1200 billion, most of which will go to tax cuts that mainly benefit the rich.

The American Health Care Act

San José, CA – On Monday, March 6, the House of Representatives Republican leadership, backed by President Trump, rolled out their plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA, also known as Obamacare). The Republicans hope to ram their bill, known as the American Health Care Act or AHCA, through congress this month, without an analysis of how many people would lose their insurance coverage or how much it would cost.

On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the removal of 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent from the West Coast of the U.S. to concentration camps. Despite not a single case of espionage by Japanese Americans, they were removed en masse by a combination of what has been called “war hysteria, racial prejudice, and a failure of political leadership” under the guise of national security.

El 25 de enero, el presidente Trump firmó una orden ejecutiva que da inicio a la construcción de un muro fronterizo entre México y los EE.UU., incrementa el número de agentes de patrulla fronteriza, y aumenta la cooperación entre las autoridades federales de inmigración y las agencias locales de policía. Esta es la primera orden ejecutiva de Trump contra los inmigrantes y sin duda alguna no será la última.

San José, CA – On Jan. 25, President Trump signed an executive order ordering the construction of a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, an increase in the number of Border Patrol staffing, and stepping up federal immigration authorities’ use of local police. This is the first executive order on immigration by Trump, to be followed by others in the near future.

Republicans in Congress have already voted to cut the taxes that pay for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Up to now these tax cuts have been vetoed by President Obama. But with the inauguration of Donald Trump, Republicans in the Senate and House will be free to cut ACA taxes and give hundreds of billions of dollars to the richest Americans.

Commentary by Masao Suzuki

One of the first things that Donald Trump said that he would do as president is repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) also known as Obamacare. The ACA has dramatically reduced the number of Americans without health insurance, from more than 41 million in 2013 to less than 29 million two years later, a drop of 13 million people. A repeal of the ACA would increase the number of uninsured by 20 million people, so the that number of uninsured would rise to record levels.

While Donald Trump claims to be for the working man, his tax proposal is just another Republican tax cut for the rich and big business. The biggest single tax break would be for corporations, whose tax rate would be cut from 35% to 15%. This and other tax cuts for corporations and other businesses would cut federal tax revenue by about $4.5 trillion dollars over the next ten years, or about $450 billion dollars a year. This would mainly benefit the top 1%, who own about half of corporate and business wealth and other high-income individuals who could change their tax status to be a business.

El presidente electo Donald Trump ha prometido una nueva fase de represión contra los inmigrantes indocumentados en los EE.UU., de los cuales el 70% son mexicanos y centro americanos. Durante su campaña presidencial, Trump se dirigió a los inmigrantes mexicanos con ataques racistas, llamándolos narcotraficantes, criminales y violadores. El “Nuevo Contrato con el Elector Americano”, plan de acción para los primeros 100 días de su administración, cumple con las promesas de su campaña.

President-elect Donald Trump has promised a new level of repression against undocumented immigrants in the U.S., 70% of whom are Mexican and Central American. Throughout his campaign for president, Trump has targeted Mexican immigrants with racist attacks, calling them drug dealers, criminals and rapists. His new “Contract with the American Voter” describing his 100-day action plan follows through his campaign promises.

Report shows rising income inequality while maintaining myth of the middle class – Commentary by Masao Suzuki

San José, CA – In December of 2015 the Pew Research Center released a report on the decline in middle-income Americans, who now make up a minority of the population, down from 60% in the 1970s. Their share of income has fallen even more, from more than 60% in the 1970s to only 43% in 2014, as upper-income households share has risen from 30% to 49% over the same period of time. The Pew report also has other important information on wealth, debt, occupation and education, which were generally not reported in the mainstream corporate media.

Problems around the world hit U.S. economy

San José, CA – On Oct. 2, the Department of Labor reported that the U.S. economy created only 142,000 net new jobs in September. This was in much less than the 200,000-plus jobs that mainstream economists expected. Even worse, the Labor Department reported that their revised estimates for July and August turned out to be 59,000 fewer new jobs than originally reported.

Spy accusations part of U.S. preparations for war with China

San José, CA – On Sept. 11, the Justice Department dropped its charges against Xi Xiaoxing, who had been chair of the physics department at Temple University, until his arrest in May. Professor Xi’s home was raided and searched by a dozen FBI agents at dawn, some with guns drawn, when he was arrested and led away in handcuffs in front of his wife and two daughters. He was charged with sharing designs for a ‘pocket heater’ used in superconductor research with scientists in China.