I don’t know indiana State Representative Chis Campbell, and I had to look up her district (26) but everyone in Indiana ought to understand the contents of her recent newsletter, detailing the losses that Indiana will sustain as a result of the carnage being wreaked by the Trump/Musk administration.
Deep-Red Indiana, where citizens love to hate the federal government, is the state third-most reliant on federal funding. We are behind only Louisiana and Mississippi (a statistic that gives credence to the frequent accusation that Indiana’s terrible legislature wants to turn Indiana into the Mississippi of the north).
According to Representative Campbell, nearly 44% of Indiana’s budget comes from federal agencies and grants.
So what are a few of the biggest impacts Trump’s plans will have on Hoosiers? Rep. Campbell lists them.
First, there’s the projected impact of Trump’s insane tariffs. The Conversation calculates that Indiana will be the third most impacted by those tariffs, losing $4.82 billion (a 1.12% decrease in our GDP), primarily in the auto, manufacturing, and agriculture industries. “The auto industry, one of Indiana’s biggest economic sectors, is expected to lose $28.2 billion because of these tariffs.” It is projected that a Hoosier family of four will spend an extra $2,836 each year, “equivalent to half a year’s worth of utility payments.”
If Trump is successful in ridding us of the much-maligned Department of Education, Indiana will lose $1.8 billion we now get for K-12 and higher education.
The Division of Family Resources (DFR), which primarily funds schools with a high number of low-income students or students in need of special education, receives a little under $2 billion from the federal government. Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) receives approximately $670,000 in Title III funding. These dollars help students who are learning English as a second language, and they benefit approximately 6,400 students in the IPS system. Additionally, students with disabilities rely on the DOE to enforce the right to an individualized education plan.
Then there’s Medicaid.
Congressional Republicans have proposed $880 billion in federal cuts, which would be impossible to achieve without cutting Medicaid or Medicare. Since roughly 70% of Indiana’s funding for Medicaid comes from the national government, Indiana could be in a serious bind. It’s estimated that close to 484,000 Hoosiers would lose their health care coverage if these federal cuts are passed and Indiana fails to cover the costs.
As Representative Campbell notes, the assault on healthcare isn’t confined to Medicaid. Cuts to the NIH–the National Institutes of Health–will dramatically affect Indiana University and Purdue University, both of which rely heavily on federal funding to conduct on-campus medical research.
Cuts to HUD will worsen Indiana’s challenging housing market. We are already one of the most difficult states in which to rent (Fort Wayne is ranked the third least renter-friendly city in the U.S.). And since HUD enforces fair housing laws, Trump’s cuts to the agency will join his other efforts to revive Jim Crow.
If Trump was capable of rational decision-making, he would re-think his wildly unconstitutional Executive Orders and his support for Musk’s equally unconstitutional chain-saw “efficiencies,” because the data shows that the mayhem is hitting Red states like Indiana far harder than it is affecting Blue states.
It is unlikely that Trump understands that differential impact, or recognizes the European Union’s very deliberate effort to target its responses to his tariffs to the states inhabited by his supporters. As the linked article from Fortune reports:
The EU measures will cover goods from the United States worth some 26 billion euros ($28 billion), and not just steel and aluminum products, but also textiles, home appliances and agricultural goods. Motorcycles, bourbon, peanut butter and jeans will be hit, as they were during President Donald Trump’s first term.
The EU duties aim for pressure points in the U.S. while minimizing additional damage to Europe. The tariffs — taxes on imports — primarily target Republican-held states, hitting soybeans in House speaker Mike Johnson’s Louisiana, but also beef and poultry in Kansas and Nebraska. Produce in Alabama, Georgia and Virginia is also on the list.
Unfortunately those of us in Red states who aren’t members of the MAGA cult will suffer along with everyone else. And of course, residents of Blue states won’t escape the effects of the combined madness (Trump, Musk) and cowardice (Republicans in Congress).
As the consequences become increasingly impossible to ignore, the resistance will grow. It is already gathering speed: over 11,000 people turned out to hear Bernie Sanders and AOC in bright-Red Greeley, Colorado, and an amazing 34,000 turned out in Denver.
Even in Red Indiana, Town Halls are packed with Americans who aren’t going down without a fight. And as the cuts to Social Security staffs make access difficult-to-impossible, those crowds are exploding.
Unfortunately, the brainwashed MAGA will not believe any of this to be the fault of their Orange Jesus. It’s the elite Europeans, or the libtards, or Biden, or media lies, etc etc etc. To paraphrase, They are blind, and cannot see. And, they will never vote D. Or for a woman. Or a gay. Or a minority of any kind.
The wealth “profits” involved in higher education has become obscene. It sounds like for preschool and disadvantaged kids to be taken care of these higher education expenditures have to be financed. Maybe I understood that wrong. But I have seen it in higher education elsewhere as well. In other words, common teachers in most public schools aren’t getting paid what they deserve unless the wealth of higher education gets obscene amounts of money. I hope I’m wrong, but it doesn’t really sound like it in the context. Great blog as usual! I know I’ll be sharing it. I just got caught up on the education issues.
I like the targeted attacks on Trump’s base – MAGA states are already dependent on the federal government. We’ve known that for a long time. However, have you heard Braun or any Red State governor complaining yet?
Mike Johnson, like most MAGATs, believes the crowds at Sanders and AOC events are shuttled in protesters. They share photos where the same people are there – obviously, that’s not the case, but they twist anything and everything to fit their narrow view of the world. Rupert Murdoch has taught them how to do that.
Most of the MAGATs are too ignorant to understand what a self-inflicted wound means. They don’t even grasp simple cause and effect. If they did, they never would have used Signal to execute a military attack against a foreign enemy. It does make me wonder how many and how often other MAGA officials use Signal for official government business. By the way, I love people who take the time to find a media navigator rating on a news site instead of just reading the article. LOL
They tell on themselves that they prefer the echo chamber. It’s why I refuse to shut down X even though it’s turned into a far-right, crazy algorithmic world. Especially in this environment, you can’t ignore anything coming once you realize you live under the uniparty rule.
And seeing that we live in a uniparty-controlled oligarchic world, what is the explanation for (gaslighting) the negative impacts on the states? Braun wants to cut property taxes because seniors and other fixed-income folks are choking on higher prices for everything. These Red States have a conundrum and must gaslight folks to cast blame elsewhere. What will you do when you control both the state and federal government and prices go way up? It will be tricky, even with Murdoch’s help.
Thank you, Sheila. You and Heather Cox Richardson, are helping to keep our eyes open. And I mean for EVERYONE, not just the Trump, Musk, Vance, Hegseth Group. You’re protecting the United States of America. Again, thank you.
If everybody is pissed that government doesn’t work, that is the very definition of success for the MAGAT movement. Has anyone noticed that several states have legislative proposals for a constitutional convention? It takes two thirds to call one. My advice is look at the balance of power before voting for it.
If things keep going their way, the Koch Consortium will notch a big win. The new Constitution will make gun ownership mandatory. Penalties for crimes against property will be extreme. The death penalty will be available to punish those who threaten the oligarchy. The Bill of Rights will be replaced by a list of wrongs, for which one might be sentenced to a life of servitude.
There won’t be three branches of government. The executive will determine what is necessary to assure peace and prosperity to the rulers. He won’t be a king, because he can’t pass the title on to his firstborn son. Only the board of directors will determine succession.
If you’re okay with this, do nothing. If not you must do something. Even small things add up.
I read this, just now:
“Goodbye to diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
“Hello to disorder, entitlement, and impunity.”
Then there are economics.
Pretty soon red states will be the impoverished cousins that blue states will feel or be obligated to support.
Why? A new evangelism has gripped the land and enveloped the hearts of many who instinctively follow the orange broadcasts of their new lord and savior.
We are staying for a few days in Florida with one who we love while grinding our teeth as she politely tells us why she believes both in Jesus and MTV (Musk, Trump, and Vance + teammates Johnson and Roberts).
It will be nice to return home among our own people and pets.
I’m curious to see if & how many Republicans show up at Victoria Spartz’ town halls this week. They moved the Westfield event to a conference hall, so they expect a big crowd. My hope is that Reps are already feeling the effects of this regime, and are getting as ticked off as the rest of us. So far, to all appearances, every event I’ve been to is overwhelmingly Dem-attended; whether Reps were there or not, but we MUST get them to work with us. Until Reps start speaking up the same way as we are, it’s all just ‘radical leftist’ propaganda, according to MAGA, and will have little to no effect on regime actions.
The Republican playbook is directed at favoring the rich. In the case of DOGE, the intent is to reduce the expertise in the agencies they want to fail so they can privatize them, liquidate them and take the money for themselves. We can already hear the keening whine about privatizing the postal service and education. Social Security will very soon become broken and dysfunctional. They’re doing it on purpose.
But the MAGATs don’t care. As Todd points out, they really are that stupid and will happily take aim at their own feet, pulling the trigger repeatedly and asking for more ammunition. When I lived in bright red central Texas, the joke was that Jesus himself could run for office as a Democrat and he’d lose 72 – 28.
Our politics depend on ignorance of the population. Maybe hunger and galloping poverty will finally get people to pay attention. Not the MAGATs, of course, but the people who actually USE their brains for something other than confirmation bias.
Beyond pulling things apart so that they can casino on the result, the Trumpers do not give a damn about harms to anyone else.
our state NoDak is ridding us of property tax, seems the energy sector will fill the void,until it kills off everyone. up here in NoDak we had a oil boom, and it wont be back. all the oil field workers today who worked the Bakken,do not like NoDak. and the locals dont like the riff raff thats follows them in..The ass kissing to the oil/energy elite and the big bucks of the few, decide who gets what. the politicians on the right still think primary scholl and its teachers are just paid baby sitters. i spoke with a 20 year old whos dad i do buisness with. seems she never had a minute of social studies or civics in her whole time K-12. but she is aware of it. but lacks empathy and knowlege of why. kill off the DOE and ya get this. we are expecting a major shut off on tourism from Canada,eh!. we have 3 walmarts in the bismarck area. for a small town,that depends on Canadian visits,farewell, trump decided to sink your investments that was supported by cross border sales…somebodys tesla got my bumper sticker,,hehehehe..trump/putin,project 2025..wear it well..
Petes def of DEI, thanks i need such educated humor to shoot back at the trumpers i work with, thats my ammo,,,best wishes.
js where you are is a successful rural village by NY standards but is being economically strangled by the OJ himself playing Jango with the 50 states, where we all fall down.
I like the old Humpty Dumpty story better.
Know Trump & wife bought $ bit coins
& after the value went up, they sold theirs before they went down.
Assuming this is true, could we find some other places he has found to put personal dollars in his pocket? Knowing for a fact this is a main goal?
California sends $83 billion a year to the federal government; that’s just one example of where blue states sit on the equation, on the giving end of course. Indiana, on the receiving end, as you point out, won’t be getting its usual share and neither will Mississippi nor Louisiana… Even, reportedly, Texas is on the receiving end. So, on the face of it, we have a stellar example of folks choosing to ignore “their best interests,” let alone acting on them. Hating Biden—and the “libs”— is so satisfying, isn’t it? Gets you quite a distance, like maybe not getting those projects that Biden’s administration was taking to your states under the Infrastructure Act…bringing money and jobs to help your economies….. Just sayin’
If we still have Governor Holcomb, I think we would have a prayer for getting some negotiating going but this new guy Mike Braun he is not gonna budge one bit because he is in Trump‘s pocket really really deep so we just have to deal with whatever we get I guess.