{"id":4365,"date":"2026-08-04T12:37:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=4365"},"modified":"2026-08-04T12:37:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:37:05","slug":"the-real-cost-of-trumps-inaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=4365","title":{"rendered":"The real cost of Trump’s inaction"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Are we so distracted by political budget battles that we are completely blind to the three literal threats to human survival happening right now?<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more What Todd Blanche\u2019s new Senate deal isn\u2019t telling you<\/a><\/p>\n

I used to think the major tradeoff was between \u201cguns and butter\u201d \u2014 between defending the nation and attending to our most pressing social needs. <\/p>\n

That view put the federal budget at the center of debate. And it assumed a zero-sum game in which the more we spent on the military, the less we had for the poor. As Ike said in 1953, \u201cEvery gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that old zero-sum game isn\u2019t the biggest cost Trump is imposing on us. <\/p>\n

Yes, Trump\u2019s war in Iran and the $1.5 trillion he wants for the Defense Department next year will make it harder for us to meet the nation\u2019s other needs. As will the dramatic cuts he\u2019s made or proposed in public health, education, Medicaid and Medicare, and nutrition assistance. <\/p>\n

Yet the biggest cost is the cost of doing nothing<\/em> about three worsening crises that threaten the very survival of America and the world: climate change, AI, and widening inequality. <\/p>\n

Almost all Americans \u2014 indeed, most human beings \u2014 are now subject to the escalating costs of climate change. How much more evidence do we need? <\/p>\n

This summer has been a living hell. Wildfires have forced around 60,000 people to evacuate parts of Washington state, destroying hundreds of buildings and leaving thousands without power. Fires in Canada turned the skies orange and the air foul across a large part of the eastern United States. Millions of lives have been threatened by a deadly heat dome. <\/p>\n

Even if Trump weren\u2019t worsening climate change by subsidizing fossil fuels, simply doing nothing<\/em> would be shameful enough because the crisis is growing so fast. Years ago, climate scientists predicted exactly what\u2019s occurring right now. Trump\u2019s lack of leadership \u2014 no, his outright sabotaging of global efforts to stop the planet from becoming uninhabitable \u2014 is one of the worst sins of his sinful regime. <\/p>\n

AI\u2019s dangers are also now upon us. <\/p>\n

If you believe that humans are in total control of AI, you haven\u2019t been paying attention. Recently, at least two of OpenAI\u2019s models escaped a sealed testing environment and broke into the servers of another AI company. The AI models \u201creasoned\u201d that the solutions to a cybersecurity test were on that other company\u2019s servers, so the models snuck onto the internet and hacked into the other company\u2019s solutions. <\/p>\n

Read more GOP pushback mounts as signs of post-Trump Republican Party begin to emerge<\/a><\/p>\n

This is chilling. The possibility of AI models escaping human control to do horrendous damage to human life is growing exponentially. Here again, the Trump regime\u2019s inaction is a huge cost that\u2019s soaring by the day. <\/p>\n

My candidate for the third existential threat is wealth inequality, which is also out of control. Billionaire wealth is surging to monarchical heights while the wages of the typical American aren\u2019t even keeping up with price increases \u2014 meaning that most of us are getting poorer. <\/p>\n

The problem isn\u2019t inequality per se. <\/em>It\u2019s the consequences <\/em>of inequality \u2014 especially widening corruption. Billionaires are using their wealth to bribe politicians to reduce their tax rates (which are already lower than most Americans face) and to stop lawmakers from regulating fossil fuels or AI.<\/p>\n

Full circle. <\/p>\n

Of course, there are still guns-versus-butter issues. Federal budget priorities are important. America faces a yawning budget deficit and can\u2019t possibly do everything that needs to be done. Dollars spent on the military are literally taking food from America\u2019s hungry. <\/p>\n

Yet on the largest existential crises of our time, where the costs of inaction are rising to frightening levels, the solutions don\u2019t require extraordinary government expenditure. They require thoughtful environmental and AI regulations, and far higher taxes on the wealthy.<\/p>\n

Democrats and progressives running for Congress, governorships, and other positions must speak out loudly and clearly about the rapidly rising costs of inaction on climate change, AI, and inequality. <\/p>\n

Demand action. Educate the public. Condemn the Trump regime and its backers \u2014 Big Oil, AI, and the billionaire class \u2014 for threatening the very survival of humans on the Earth. <\/p>\n

Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https:\/\/robertreich.substack.com\/.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Trump admin tactics are putting crews in danger as millions of acres burn<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the nation debates defense spending, a new warning claims the cost of ignoring runaway AI, extreme weather, and soaring wealth inequality will devastate the American middle class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4364,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nThe real cost of Trump's inaction - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=4365\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The real cost of Trump's inaction - Next Address America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While the nation debates defense spending, a new warning claims the cost of ignoring runaway AI, extreme weather, and soaring wealth inequality will devastate the American middle class.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=4365\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next Address America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-04T12:37:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=4365#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=4365\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a4840e0eb2094ec31aed2107d53108b3\"},\"headline\":\"The real cost of Trump’s inaction\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-04T12:37:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=4365\"},\"wordCount\":790,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=4365#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/10c8b711deeba128ef2409f4efa7ca96.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=4365#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=4365\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextaddressamerica.com\\\/?p=4365\",\"name\":\"The real cost of Trump's inaction - 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