Bonus Sample: The GOP Thinks Food Stamps Are the Real Problem
Project 2025 is the libertarian conservative Heritage Foundation’s systematic governance plan for the next Republican president. The 920-page plan aims to implement the "unitary executive theory," which would give all of the power of the US government to the executive branch—Donald Trump, if he wins in November.
This week, Derek and Julian investigate the chapter on the Department of Agriculture, which aims to strip funding for food stamps and welfare programs and further deregulate Big Ag. And if you think the author is part of a climate change denial think tank, you'd be correct.
Head to factormeals.com/conspirituality50 and use code conspirituality50 to get 50% off your first month plus 20% off your next month!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
To support independent media, access our entire catalog of bonus episodes, and listen to everything ad-free, please visit patreon.com slash conspirituality.
You can also access these full bonus episodes on Apple Podcasts.
Thank you for your support.
All right, Julian, we're back on the Project 2025 beat since the election is creeping closer.
As a reminder, Project 2025 is the 920-page presidential transition playbook produced and published by conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation.
Now, we covered the scope of this project in full on episode 187 on the main feed.
It was the first episode we did in 2024.
And you and I, Julian, have discussed the chapters on the Department of Health and Human Services in January, and also the governmental media agencies in early February.
Yeah, I mean, they're very open about wanting to make American government Christian again and gut both progressive initiatives and anything that takes care of the needs or protects the rights of real people, all while obliterating environmental protections and giving corporations and billionaires carte blanche.
That's sort of the thumbnail sketch as far as I'm concerned.
Yeah, and I also wanna note that we're recording this on the day after Donald Trump dropped his new Bible.
I'm sure you've seen that.
You haven't seen, you've seen it?
No, I haven't seen it, yeah.
Okay, the God Bless the USA Bible, which is the Bible plus the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and the Pledge of Allegiance.
Last night, Jordan Klepper on The Daily Show was like, it's all great, because he's never read any of those.
So, to call the Project 2025 document Dystopian is not hyperbole.
It is the culmination of a decades-long plan of basically stripping away every last facet of the New Deal and incorporating a Christian nationalist government in America in which total power goes to the president.
It's not hidden agenda.
You, listener, can go to Project2025.org right now and download the document we've been waiting through And you can very clearly see that they want to implement the unitary executive theory if a Republican wins the presidency in November.
That is the idea that the president holds all power and all the other branches support them.
And since that nominee is going to be Donald Trump, we know that now, He would very gladly be crowned king and have someone else do all the actual bureaucratic work, and that is what Heritage is trying to do.
Yeah.
Not only would we have this impulsive, venal, ignorant sociopathy back in the most powerful role in the world, but this time there would be a very well-oiled machine taking advantage of the opportunity to rapidly transform America's government in all the ways this document lays out for anyone to see.
So today, let's look at the chapter on the Department of Agriculture because that has crossover considering how often we talk about food on this podcast and sort of how that dovetails with wellness.
And it was written by Darren Baxt.
Okay, let's give a quick bio.
Darren is currently the director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute's Center for Energy and Environment, and he's also a senior fellow there.
CEI, his employer, is a nonprofit libertarian think tank that focuses on regulatory policies, and guess what?
This institute has brokered in climate change denial for a while.
In fact, one of their main stated objectives is to overturn regulations instituted thanks to the work of 60s-era environmentalists and their movement.
Baxt is considered one of the institute's most effective advocates for free market environmentalism.
Now, if that Orwellian term isn't immediately apparent to you, it means that the free market will solve our environmental problems.
So this is just the person you want leading the Department of Agriculture, since factory farming definitely isn't a driver of climate change.
In fact, here's the CEI founder in 1992 discussing global warming.
Most of the indications right now are that it looks pretty good.
Warmer winters, warmer nights, no effects during the day because of clouding.
Sounds to me like we're moving to a more benign planet.
More rain, richer, easier productivity to agriculture.
Yes, that's worked out so well.
That's aged very well as well.
CEI's longstanding goal is, I kid you not, to recapture the moral legitimacy of capitalism.
I guess they feel that all those people who actually think an inhabitable planet is a good thing have been infected with the mokwai virus.
Woke mind virus.
Woke mind virus is one of my favorite statements in the past few years.
You can't even say it.
You've been so indoctrinated.
When you try to say it, your brain just like short circuits.
I am so infected.
They did.
So, they are here to champion the invisible hand of the market.
That is what this organization is.
They also fought against Obamacare and Dodd-Frank because of course they did.
So, before joining CEI, Baxt was a Senior Research Fellow in Environmental Policy and Regulation at the Heritage Foundation.
He also worked for the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, which, as a reminder, is not a government agency, but a business lobbying group.
He also worked for the free market think tank, the John Locke Foundation.
He writes, I guess you can call it writing, he writes about topics like regulating tailpipes being dangerous to consumer freedom, carbon tariffs are terrible for society, and Biden's something something freedom.
Here's an actual quote from his anti-tailpipe regulation screed.
This is one of the most extreme rules ever finalized by a federal agency.
The EPA's rule would restrict the ability of Americans to buy gas-powered vehicles, a chilling abuse of power, and a wanton disregard for individual freedom.
Unhinged from reality, the EPA is ignoring the fact that consumers don't want to buy electric vehicles at the level the Biden administration envisions.
