Bringing Back Common Sense: How Trump’s Policies Are Hurting the America He Promised to Save
I was helping at our local food pantry today. Our conversation drifted to the increased number of people we are serving, and the policies, which are causing hardships on Americans. People who have worked hard their entire life, ex-military who now need help, mothers who have had their food stamps cut, a retired police officer with a disabled son.
There’s a difference between tough leadership and reckless pride. Between policies that protect our country and those that punish its own people. Somewhere along the way, we’ve forgotten that “America First” should mean Americans first — not the ultra-rich, not corporations hiding their profits overseas, not politicians playing strongman on TV.
What’s happening right now isn’t strength — it’s sabotage. Tariffs, tax cuts for the wealthy, and slashing support for the poor and disabled are not the marks of a nation rising again. They are the signs of a country turning on its own citizens, hollowing out its middle class, and crushing the very people who believed the promise of “making America great again.”
1. Tariffs and Trade Wars: The Hidden Tax on the Working Class
Let’s start with the latest hammer blow, a 100% tariff on goods from China. Sounds bold, right? Sounds like payback? Wrong. It’s a tax — plain and simple — and you and I will pay it.
We import almost everything from China: clothing, electronics, tools, furniture, even the parts that go into American-made cars. Doubling the cost of those goods doesn’t make China suffer — it makes American families pay twice for the same thing. Prices will soar, small businesses will crumble under the cost of materials, and inflation will come roaring back.
Who benefits? Not the working man trying to fix his truck or the mother buying school clothes. It’s the same story as always, the big corporations and wealthy investors who can shift production or hide behind tax loopholes. Everyone else gets stuck footing the bill.
Tariffs aren’t a weapon against our enemies, they’re a tax on ourselves. And this trade war has already started to look more like a war on the American wallet.
2. Tax Cuts for the Wealthy: Feeding the Top, Starving the Bottom
Remember those “massive tax cuts” we were told would unleash prosperity? They did — for the top 1%. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was sold as a blessing for small business owners and workers. In truth, it shifted billions to corporations and the wealthy while adding trillions to the national debt.
Now Trump wants to make those cuts permanent, or even expand them. He calls it “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Maybe it’s beautiful to billionaires, but for working Americans it’s an ugly con.
Every dollar handed to the rich through tax breaks has to come from somewhere, from you, your children, and your grandchildren. That’s why budgets are being slashed for programs that actually help people: health care, education, housing, food assistance, and disability support. We’re told we “can’t afford it,” yet we somehow can afford to pad the pockets of those who already have more than enough.
Trickle down economics didn’t work in the 1980s, and it isn’t working now. The wealth doesn’t trickle, it floods upward.
3. Cutting Services for the Poor, Disabled, and Elderly: Cruelty in the Name of “Efficiency”
Let’s talk about the quiet victims. The people without lobbyists, headlines, or political power.
Across this country, we’re watching cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, disability programs, and community services for low-income families. These aren’t “inefficiencies”, they’re lifelines. Cut them, and you’re not trimming fat; you’re taking food off the table, medicine out of the cabinet, and hope out of the heart of the vulnerable.
I’ve heard the line, “We need to balance the budget.” Sure. But you don’t balance the budget on the backs of the poor while billionaires buy their third yacht. That’s not fiscal responsibility. That’s moral bankruptcy.
When a government stops protecting its weakest citizens, it loses its moral compass. The people who will pay first are those who can least afford it, the single mother, the disabled veteran, the elderly man trying to live on Social Security while rent goes up and grocery prices explode.
4. The False Patriotism of Economic Chaos
Every time Trump swings his tariff hammer, the stock market shudders. Global trade partners retaliate, American exports dry up, and small-town factories close. But on the campaign trail, it gets dressed up as “toughness.”
It’s not toughness — it’s tantrum politics. A leader who really loved this country would protect stability, not chaos. Would strengthen the economy from the ground up, not gamble it away on photo ops and slogans.
There’s nothing patriotic about wrecking supply chains and inflating costs so badly that ordinary Americans can’t afford to live decently. We don’t become strong by bullying our trading partners and punishing our own people. We become strong by producing, innovating, educating, and working together.
5. A Nation Divided by Design
These policies aren’t accidents. They’re deliberate choices that divide this country, rich vs poor, urban vs rural, insiders vs outsiders. They feed resentment and fear, because when people are struggling, they’re easier to manipulate.
The same administration that waves the Bible at rallies turns around and guts programs that feed the hungry and heal the sick. That’s not Christian leadership, it’s hypocrisy wrapped in a flag.
The Gospel says to care for “the least of these.” That’s the test of any nation claiming to honor God. Our government has forgotten that, it’s up to us, the people, to remind them.
6. Common Sense Says Enough Is Enough
Common sense used to mean something in this country. You don’t raise prices on your own citizens and call it victory. You don’t slash care for the disabled and call it reform. You don’t cut taxes for billionaires while the middle class drowns in debt and call it prosperity.
Common sense says government should live within its means without crushing the poor. It says that fair trade means balance, not punishment. It says leadership is about service, not self-promotion.
We used to understand that strength isn’t about bluster, it’s about integrity. Now we have a man in power who measures greatness by stock tickers and applause counts, while the nation beneath him grows weary, divided, and poorer.
7. What Real Leadership Would Look Like
Real leadership would mean rebuilding America’s manufacturing base through investment and innovation, not reckless tariffs. It would mean fair taxation, making sure those who’ve benefited most from this country give back their share. It would mean strengthening programs that help people climb out of poverty rather than pulling the ladder up behind them. And it would mean governing with humility, understanding that serving the people isn’t about domination but stewardship.
8. Bring Back Common Sense Before It’s Too Late
We don’t have to keep heading down this road. But pretending everything is fine won’t save us. Tariffs, tax cuts, and service cuts are tearing at the fabric of our nation. If we keep going like this, we won’t need foreign enemies, we’ll collapse from within.
It’s time to break back common sense, to return to basic truth:
• A great nation takes care of its people.
• It values fairness over favoritism.
• It rewards work, not wealth hoarding.
• It measures success not by how loud its leaders shout, but by how well its citizens live.
America doesn’t need another trade war, another billionaire tax cut, or another heartless budget cut. What we need is honesty, compassion, and good old-fashioned common sense.
And it’s time we demand it, before the America we love becomes just another broken promise. I encourage you to get involved. Write and call your representatives. Make your voice heard. If we all do that, things will change. Our representatives will hear us. If they don't respond then next year we will support new ones that do.
If you don't know how to reach your congressman or senator here is the link below. Don't fill out an online form. The most effective way is to call. Let me know what you think in the comments below.