THE WASHINGTON UNION REBUKE: NO. 13

THE MIDDLE CLASS CORRECTION:

The Rebuke

This administration betrayed the middle class — the backbone of the Republic — by treating its prosperity as expendable and its sacrifices as endless. Instead of stewarding a balanced economy in which working families could thrive, it delivered windfalls to billionaires and corporations while leaving everyday citizens to shoulder the burden of rising costs, stagnant wages, and hollow promises. Tax codes were rewritten not to serve fairness but to serve the wealthy; public investments were redirected not to strengthen communities but to enrich shareholders. The middle class was not preserved — it was plundered.

The centerpiece of this betrayal was a tax scheme disguised as reform. Cuts were directed overwhelmingly toward the top one percent, while corporations received permanent relief and workers were handed temporary crumbs that vanished like smoke. Billionaires paid effective rates lower than their secretaries. Multinational corporations booked profits overseas while reaping domestic benefits. Carried interest loopholes and pass-through exemptions ensured that financiers and executives escaped responsibility, while the family living paycheck to paycheck was told to wait for prosperity to “trickle down.” The result was not growth for all but concentration of wealth for the few, widening the gulf between Wall Street and Main Street.

At the same time, essential costs for families soared. Healthcare premiums climbed while protections were dismantled. Prescription drug prices rose unchecked, forcing parents to choose between medicine and groceries. Housing costs skyrocketed as affordable supply dwindled, while tax incentives favored developers and investors over first-time buyers. Childcare remained out of reach, college debt ballooned into a generational shackle, and retirement security eroded as pensions disappeared and Social Security was eyed for cuts. For families trying to sustain a middle-class life, every necessity grew heavier while every promise of relief was redirected upward.

The betrayal extended to wages and work itself. Productivity surged, profits soared, but paychecks stagnated. Union power was suppressed, collective bargaining undermined, and workplace standards eroded, leaving workers with less leverage even as corporations amassed record profits. Tax incentives that were supposed to spur job creation instead funded stock buybacks and executive bonuses. Infrastructure — the roads, bridges, schools, and broadband that sustain middle-class life — was neglected, sacrificed for short-term gains and partisan gamesmanship. The message was unmistakable: billionaires could thrive, but families would have to scrape by.

The cultural cost was as devastating as the financial one. Generations once told that hard work would yield stability and dignity were left disillusioned. Parents realized their children might be worse off, not better. Homeownership, once the cornerstone of the American Dream, slipped out of reach. Families juggled multiple jobs, endured unpredictable schedules, and lived one emergency away from ruin, while billionaires amassed fortunes so vast they could not spend them in a dozen lifetimes. The middle class — once the engine of democracy — was treated as disposable fuel for an economy designed to lift only the very top.

At its heart, this is a betrayal of balance, fairness, and trust. A Republic cannot endure if the vast majority are told to carry the burden while a gilded minority takes the gains. Government cannot claim legitimacy if it redistributes wealth upward while leaving families in precarity. The promise of democracy is not that billionaires will prosper, but that ordinary citizens will have the chance to live with dignity, stability, and hope. By abandoning that promise, this administration endangered not only family economics but the very foundation of the Republic’s social contract.

The Correction

The Washington Union Party affirms without hesitation: the prosperity of the middle class is the prosperity of the Republic. The correction we declare is comprehensive, structural, and permanent. It insists that tax policy, economic growth, and public investment be measured not by the fortunes of billionaires but by the well-being of families. The true test of an economy is not how high wealth climbs, but how broad dignity spreads.

The correction begins with the tax code. Billionaires and multinational corporations must pay their fair share. The carried-interest loophole will be closed, pass-through games ended, offshore tax havens pierced, and stock buybacks taxed to prevent manipulation at the expense of workers. A wealth tax on the ultra-rich will ensure that those who have benefitted most from the Republic contribute proportionally to its upkeep. The corporate tax rate will be restored to levels that sustain fairness, while targeted relief will flow to small businesses and family-owned enterprises that create jobs, not extract profit. Tax credits for families — child tax credits, earned income credits, mortgage credits — will be expanded and made permanent, ensuring that relief flows directly to households, not to hedge funds.

The correction extends to wages and work. A living wage will be established as the federal standard, indexed to inflation and regional cost of living. Collective bargaining will be strengthened, union-busting outlawed, and labor standards expanded so that work is rewarded with dignity. Overtime protections will be restored, misclassification punished, and wage theft prosecuted with real penalties. Worker ownership and profit-sharing will be encouraged through tax incentives, ensuring that productivity gains translate into shared prosperity.

Healthcare, housing, childcare, and education — the pillars of family economics — will be fortified. Prescription drug prices will be capped, Medicare empowered to negotiate, and universal coverage advanced so that no family faces bankruptcy for falling ill. Housing affordability will be tackled with major investments in supply, stronger protections for renters, and first-time buyer supports. Childcare will be treated as infrastructure, with subsidies and expanded public provision to ease the burden on families. Student debt will be relieved through forgiveness and interest caps, while higher education is made affordable for future generations. Retirement will be secured by strengthening Social Security, expanding pensions, and mandating employer contributions to retirement savings.

The correction also rebuilds the public square that sustains middle-class life. Infrastructure investment will be massive and forward-looking — repairing bridges, modernizing transit, expanding broadband, and preparing for climate resilience. These investments will not only create jobs but lower costs for families by ensuring reliable public goods. Public schools will be revitalized, vocational training expanded, and apprenticeships supported so that every child, regardless of zip code, has a path to middle-class security.

Equally, the correction affirms that fairness must replace favoritism. Public subsidies and contracts will be conditioned on raising wages, honoring labor rights, and investing in communities. Corporations that dodge taxes or offshore jobs will lose public benefits. Billionaires who hoard wealth while evading responsibility will find their loopholes closed. The Republic cannot afford an economy that rewards speculation while punishing work. The correction demands an economy that works for families first, not financiers.

Finally, the correction is cultural as well as economic. It reclaims the promise that work will provide stability, that children will inherit greater opportunity, and that prosperity will be shared broadly, not hoarded narrowly. Families must once again be able to plan for the future with confidence — to buy homes, save for college, care for loved ones, and retire in dignity. The correction proclaims that the middle class is not a special interest but the Republic itself. To defend its prosperity is to defend democracy.

The Verdict

The judgment is clear: guilty. Guilty of betraying the middle class while enriching the billionaire class. Guilty of rewriting tax codes for the few while leaving families to struggle with rising costs. Guilty of starving public investment, suppressing wages, and treating family economics as expendable. Donald J. Trump and his administration stand condemned for their deliberate assault on the balance of the economy. They promised prosperity but delivered plunder; they promised relief but delivered giveaways to billionaires; they promised growth but delivered inequality. These were not accidents of governance — they were choices, made with full knowledge, defended with arrogance, and celebrated as victories.

We hold and declare: any government that treats billionaires as untouchable while leaving families one paycheck from ruin has betrayed its covenant. Any administration that hands permanent relief to corporations while offering temporary scraps to workers has abandoned fairness. Any leader who allows healthcare, housing, childcare, and education to become luxuries rather than guarantees has placed democracy itself at risk. These are not mere differences in economic theory; they are violations of justice and crimes against the Republic’s promise.

The harm is visible in every household budget stretched to breaking, in every family that cannot afford childcare, in every young adult crushed by debt, in every parent working two jobs and still falling behind. It is visible in hollowed-out towns, in stagnant wages, in children who inherit anxiety instead of opportunity. It is visible in the cynicism that grows when citizens see billionaires fly to space while they cannot pay for a doctor’s visit. The betrayal is not abstract; it is lived daily by millions.

Therefore, we affirm with clarity: the Trump administration’s legacy on the middle class is one of shame. It weakened families, widened inequality, and mocked the very idea of shared prosperity. It will be remembered not for defending the Republic’s backbone but for bending it toward the weight of oligarchy.

Our ruling is absolute. The middle class is the Republic. It cannot be bartered for billionaire gain, delayed for partisan advantage, or dismissed as collateral damage. The Washington Union Party declares that family economics will be strengthened, wages raised, healthcare secured, housing made affordable, and education opened to all. This is the verdict of history, and it shall endure.