Letter to the editor:

Former president Donald Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, the 922-page document from the ultraconservative Heritage Foundation, describing what the next Republican administration will do. Trump claims he knows nothing about it; however, his name appears in the document more than 300 times, more than 70 of the contributing authors worked in the Trump administration (including several of his cabinet members), it was featured on his reelection campaign web site last spring, and he even referred to it in a speech at the Heritage Foundation, saying, it “lays the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do.”

It’s impossible to fully summarize here what the plans are, but some of the main points—including page numbers as documentation—are: Eliminate the Department of Education and Head Start (p.285, 482); repeal the Medicare drug price negotiation program that ensures $35 insulin for seniors (p.465); end overtime pay when working more than 40 hours in one week, replacing it with a monthly average (p.592); eliminating farm subsidies and the Agricultural Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage programs (p.204, 295-297). Also: Amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act (p.582); gut the Environmental Protection Agency (p.422); end the Respect for Marriage Act (p.451); reduce the corporate tax rate (p.696); require states to monitor and report all abortions, overturn the law requiring hospitals to treat women who are miscarrying, and eliminate birth control from insurance plans (p.455, 473, 585); gut the Affordable Care Act (p.449-497), leaving millions without health insurance; and eliminating many health conditions that qualify for veterans’ disability benefits (p.650). The plan also allows the president to fire thousands of federal employees and replace them with loyal political appointees and control the department that oversee national elections (p.562); eliminate the National Weather Service (p.664); order troops against U.S. citizens; jail librarians and teachers over banned books (p.5); and required students in public schools to take the military entrance exam but exempt those in private schools (p.102-103).

I urge voters to research Project 2025 for themselves if they question the validity of the above documented points and to think very hard about the kind of country they want to live in before they vote.

Patt Heise

Williams Bay