'Buyer's remorse': Working-class Latinos who backed Trump risk punch in the pocketbook
President Donald Trump owes his re-election in part to some gains among working-class Latino voters who rolled the dice on a change in economic policy — but that change is likely to hit them worse than anyone else, wrote former Congressional Hispanic Caucus communications strategist Kristian Ramos for Salon.
The fact is, he wrote, Trump's policies will actually worsen everything that has been squeezing these voters — something he appeared wholly unconcerned with even on the campaign trail.
"The nation’s affordability crisis has uniquely impacted Latinos," wrote Ramos. "As reporter Jack Herrera notes, '80% of Latinos are working class. Their experience of the economy the past four years — COVID shutdowns, inflation, gas prices, housing costs — was rough. That put the incumbent Democrats at a disadvantage.'"
Trump capitalized on this, blaming inflation on the Biden administration. But in reality, under Democrats, "employment is up, wages are growing, manufacturing jobs are higher than ever, and inflation has dropped significantly" — and when you actually look at his plans, they are uniquely targeted to worsen affordability on nearly every level, Ramos continued.
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For starters, he said, there are all the cuts to vital programs and services Republicans plan, including "changes to Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, and popular climate measures. These cuts alone would deeply hurt Latinos who live in climate change frontline communities and have benefited from the cost-saving energy rebates in the Clean Energy Plan. Worse yet, nine million Latinos are insured through the Affordable Care Act and 6.5 million Latinos use Medicare — roughly 10% of all enrollees." And all of this is to pay for big tax changes that will make lower-income workers pay $800 more on average while cutting taxes on the rich.
But that's just the beginning, Ramos wrote, because Trump's aggressive tariff proposals will raise the prices of goods all around the country — as will his plans for large-scale deportation of workers.
"Undocumented workers account for 22% of all U.S. agriculture jobs, 15% of all construction jobs, and 8% of all manufacturing jobs," Ramos explained. "Mass deportations could result in labor shortages—deeply impacting supply and driving up the cost of specific goods and services in these sectors. This is especially true of grocery prices, where inflation rattled consumers and remained stubbornly high during much of Biden’s presidency."
Ultimately, he concluded, "The cumulative effects of all of these policies will be terrible for Latinos, which could leave many feeling a sense of buyer's remorse for voting for Trump" — and to defeat Trump's agenda, "Democrats must make the case directly to Latinos that we are on their side, tell them how we would make their lives better, and underscore precisely how toxic Trump’s policies are for our communities."