Politics and views in the United States.

Congress passes a last-minute budget stopgap. Trump's second-term tariffs could harm farmers, and future budget cuts could reduce much-needed federal programs. 

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2024 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

House Democrats have successfully funded the government at levels requested by President Biden in order to meet the needs of the American people in terms of their health, safety, and economic well-being.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says he's grateful to see Congress pass a bipartisan budget stopgap despite last-minute delays.

The deal funds the government until March and provides $100 billion in disaster relief for people hit by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

It resembles the deal Democrats negotiated with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, which presidents like Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk publicly opposed.

It did not include the death ceiling increase Trump wanted.

In response to Johnson's working with Democrats, some Republicans say they want to replace him with Musk.

It would be unprecedented, but not against the rules to have a Speaker who's not a member of Congress.

In his own defense, Johnson says this kind of last-minute scramble won't happen again once the GOP takes over.

Things are going to be very different around here.

This was a necessary step to bridge the gap, to put us into that moment where we can put our fingerprints on the final decisions on spending for 2025.

Meanwhile, American farmers are at a crossroads with markets volatile and Trump headed back to the White House.

The president-elect has committed to imposing the same kind of tariffs, which in his first term cost agricultural exports $27 billion in losses, much of it due to a trade war that slashed soybean sales to China.

Ben Lilliston with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy says farms did get emergency aid last time, but too much of it went to the biggest agribusinesses.

That definitely is a concern because we've seen consolidation in farmland.

We're losing farmers, particularly losing small and mid-sized farmers, and this would be just another advantage for the largest operators.

The Internal Revenue Service has an uncertain future given Trump's pick to run the agency.

Former Missouri Representative Billy Long co-sponsored legislation to eliminate the IRS and replace the income tax with a national sales tax.

Thompson professor of accounting Ryan Polk says replacing the income tax with a sales tax would have intensely negative impacts.

When you defund or reduce the funding at the IRS, you run the risk of a less helpful IRS, meaning that the average everyday taxpayer might be worse off when they have a question.

Thirty House Republicans have signed a letter calling for Trump to end the agency's free tax filing program.

The government competitor to TurboTax is part of efforts to make tax collection more user-friendly and has gotten an overwhelmingly positive response.

The Musk-led effort to cut a third of the federal budget would likely mean deep cuts to safety net programs like Medicaid, CHIP, and SNAP used by 85 million low-income Americans.

Carolyn Myers with Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children says that could leave many of the 1.2 million Pennsylvania kids now enrolled without health coverage.

They don't have access to the comprehensive health benefits package that Medicaid offers, which identifies early problems, regular well-child visits, immunizations, tracking physical and mental development, bloodlet testing, dental vision and hearing screenings.

I'm Edwin J. Vieira for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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