“Some Good” Ideas In Project 2025? MAGA House Republicans Agree

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Project 2025 took center stage at the presidential debate, as former President Donald Trump embraced many of its extreme priorities. Similarly, Speaker Johnson and House Republicans have been governing from the Project 2025 playbook, advancing a budget and legislation that mimic Project 2025’s policies.

Just look at how Speaker Johnson and Project 2025’s agendas overlap: 

Removing insurance protections for people with pre-existing conditions

Project 2025 would separate the subsidized Affordable Care Act exchange from the non-subsidized insurance marketplace and, in doing so, give “the non-subsidized market regulatory relief from the costly ACA regulatory mandates,” which likely includes prohibitions on charging more to insure individuals with pre-existing conditions. (Page 470) 

Speaker Johnson is a member of the Republican Study Committee, whose budget proposal would “weaken protections for people with pre-existing conditions, replacing many of the ACA’s provisions with a pool of funds states can use for that purpose.” 

Banning abortion medication and putting IVF at risk nationwide 

Project 2025 declares that life begins at “the moment of conception,” which puts abortion and IVF at risk. Project 2025 also proposes using the Comstock Act to make the delivery of abortion medication by mail illegal (Page 450, Page 562) 

Speaker Johnson cosponsored the Life at Conception Act, which would outlaw abortion from the moment of conception and puts IVF at risk, and is a member of the Republican Study Committee, whose budget endorses the Life at Conception Act. Speaker Johnson voted for the FY24 Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Administration Appropriations Bill, which repealed an FDA measure allowing abortion medication to be sent to patients by mail. 

Giving huge tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations 

Project 2025 proposes implementing just two income tax brackets, which would raise taxes on Americans in the current lower brackets and lower taxes on Americans in the upper brackets. Project 2025 would repeal the corporate minimum tax and lower the corporate tax rate from 21% to 18%, resulting in a $500 billion tax cut for corporations. (Page 696) 

Speaker Johnson voted for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which gave massive tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations and “helped billionaires pay a lower rate than the working class for the first time in history,” and he supports legislation to make these tax cuts for the wealthy permanent. Johnson voted against establishing a 15% minimum tax on corporations, and he is a member of the Republican Study Committee, whose budget endorses repealing that corporate minimum tax. 

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