Taking a dive into Project 2025

We’re hearing a lot about Project 2025, but what is it? It is an 887-page recommendation of policy changes for a conservative president based on the Heritage Foundation’s Mandate for Leadership program, which has been issued every four years since 1980. The Foundation said former President Trump implemented 67% of their recommendations in his first year.

Here are 25 key points I’ve collected from many sources, including both pro and con meetings, media and reading through it. See how they may affect you.

The project proposes to:

• Disassemble the Department of Education, ending all federal financial support for public schools and all Title I programs for low-income students.

• Shift the tax burden from the wealthy onto the middle class. If you make more than $10 million annually in Colorado, you’ll see a tax cut of $1.5 million; if not, a typical family of four will pay about $2,776 more.

• Cut Social Security by raising the retirement age from 67 to 69 and cut benefits for those receiving it. 

• Limit or add a lifetime cap on Medicaid benefits, affecting low-income and disabled residents. 

• Raise the cost of prescription drugs by eliminating out-of-pocket Medicare drug costs and limiting the government from negotiating lower prices.

• Eliminate some emergency contraception medications from free preventative care requirements.

• Instruct the Department of Justice to misapply the Comstock Act, a pair of laws from 1873 and 1909, to criminalize the mailing of abortion medication, even where abortion is legal. 

• Charge the DOJ to take legal action against officials who refuse to bring cases against women and doctors who violate state abortion bans.

• Eliminate Head Start, which provides access to no-cost childcare for low-income families. In Colorado, one in five daycare spots will be lost.

• Replace income- and family-size driven student loan repayment plans with a one-size-fits-all program that will increase payments for all borrowers. Payments may increase by $2,700 to $4,100 each year.

• Remove health care protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

• Allow employers to deny workers access to birth control through insurance.

• Persecute LGBTQ+ Americans by removing all federal protections in employment and marriage.

• Allow the government to monitor pregnancies for miscarriages and penalize states that don’t submit data on how many abortions take place within their borders.

• Tax employer-paid health insurance.

• Instruct the Department of Labor to focus health and safety inspections on only certain offenders, usurping state and local government prerogatives. It would also amend hazard-order regulations, allowing children to work “dangerous jobs” in “dangerous fields.”

• Eliminate overtime pay by allowing employers to average workers’ time over a longer period.

• Eliminate public sector unions and collective bargaining rights.

• Fire all civil servants and give the president the power to hire, bypassing Congress. 

• Center power in the executive branch to crack down on political dissent, using the Insurrection Act to quash all protests. 

• Allow for widespread firing of librarians and educators who teach or lend certain books. 

• Ban all universal school meals, because the federal program is an “entitlement program.”

• Shift to a more nationalistic and America-first approach, away from being global citizens.

• Encourage the rollback of environmental concerns affecting public health and climate change.

• Eliminate Cyber Command, hindering Homeland Security from monitoring election security.

Of note, this report mentions restrictions on women 101 times, and fewer than 20 on men.

And there’s more … .

– Rep. Barbara McLachlan, D-Durango