Project 2025 August 21st Update

Project 2025 is a 920-page plan spearheaded by the powerful and extreme far-right Heritage Foundation. More than 100 organizations support this blueprint for autocracy. Their stated goal is to create an “ideal” America that would see women, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, people of color, and others deprived of their hard-won constitutional rights and the erosion of environmental and education protections. It also advocates for a frightening centralization of power in the executive branch. Rooted in hate and Christian Nationalism, the plan promises to “rescue the country.” Read GPAHE’s full analysis of Project 2025 and the groups behind it.

GPAHE tracks the activities of those behind Project 2025, and their plans for an authoritarian and Christian Nationalist America, no matter who is president, and the groups in this extremist movement are relentlessly implementing initiatives at local, state, and federal levels.

Please take a look at our profiles of prominent Project 2025 advisory board members. We’ve recently added five more groups to the list, detailing disturbing information about the individuals and ideologies behind Project 2025 supporters: the Foundation for Government Accountability, the Teneo Network, the 85 Fund/Honest Elections Project, Students for Life of America, and the Center for Renewing America.

This week we look at Project 2025’s plan to tax health benefits for millions, Shell Oil and the fossil fuel industry’s support of Project 2025, and how tech company Oracle is helping Project 2025 develop a database of thousands of potential hires for civil service jobs. We’ll also hear from Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA and William Wolfe of The American Conservative in their own words.

The Hidden Tax Bomb in Project 2025 That Could Cost Workers Billions

Buried within the controversial Project 2025 blueprint is a provision that could dramatically alter the landscape of employee benefits in America, the Economic Policy Institute’s advocacy arm, EPI Action, reports. This little-known proposal, part of a broader conservative policy agenda, aims to fundamentally change how employee benefits are taxed, potentially leading to higher costs for workers and reduced benefits packages.

“The current tax code has a strong bias that incentivizes businesses to offer employees more generous benefits and lower wages. This limits the freedom of workers and their families to spend their compensation as they see fit—and it can trap workers in their current jobs due to the jobs’ benefit packages,” Project 2025 posits.

The crux of the issue lies in a seemingly innocuous number: $12,000. On page 697 of the Mandate for Leadership, Project 2025 proposes capping the tax deductibility of employee benefits at this amount per worker annually. In simpler terms, employers would no longer be able to deduct the full cost of benefits they provide to their employees if those benefits exceed $12,000 per year.

This may sound like an abstract accounting change, but its real-world impact could be significant. According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, based on 2022 data, over 15 million workers could see their benefits affected, and these workers could face up to $12 billion in additional taxes.

Currently, employers can deduct the full cost of benefits they provide to employees as a business expense. This includes health insurance premiums, retirement contributions, and other non-wage benefits. Under the Project 2025 proposal, any amount over $12,000 per employee would no longer be tax-deductible for the employer.

Faced with this new tax liability, employers are likely to respond in one of two ways: They could move money from benefits to wages, which would increase workers’ taxable income, or in a worse scenario, employers might simply reduce benefits to stay under the $12,000 cap. Either way, workers stand to lose.

The impact would be particularly pronounced when it comes to health insurance. The Economic Policy Institute’s analysis found that 70 percent of workers with family health insurance plans would be affected, and 42 percent of workers with “plus one” plans (covering themselves and one dependent) would see their benefits taxed.

For families relying on one parent’s employer-provided health insurance, the consequences could be severe. This is especially true for households where one parent works part-time to care for children, as part-time workers often don’t qualify for employer-sponsored health insurance.

What makes this Project 2025 proposal particularly concerning is its lack of inflation adjustment. The $12,000 cap would remain static, meaning that as healthcare costs inevitably rise, more and more workers would find themselves over the limit each year. It’s a ticking time bomb for worker benefits.

This proposed change in tax policy could have far-reaching effects on how Americans receive and pay for their healthcare and other benefits. Workers could face higher out-of-pocket costs for healthcare, reduced quality of health insurance coverage, increased taxable income leading to higher tax bills, and potential loss of other valuable benefits.

As the debate over healthcare and tax policy continues, it’s crucial for workers to stay informed about proposals like those in Project 2025 that could significantly impact their financial well-being and access to essential benefits. The devil, as they say, is in the details.

Shell Oil Donates to 14 Project 2025 Groups

Project 2025, a blueprint for authoritarianism that proposes radical changes to the federal government, has recently come under scrutiny due to its ties to the oil industry. 

At the heart of this initiative are plans to dramatically reshape environmental policy in the United States, including a systematic dismantling of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a rejection of mainstream climate science. 

The consequences of Project 2025’s policies for major players in the oil and gas industries are extremely lucrative. Their effects on the environment are potentially dire. 

That the Shell USA Foundation, the grant-making organization associated with the oil giant, supports several Project 2025 organizations is not surprising, but it has done so in direct contradiction to its stated policies.

Project 2025’s embrace of fossil fuels at the expense of the planet is blatant. The Mandate for Leadership document outlines a series of drastic measures aimed at curtailing the EPA’s authority. These include proposals to slash the agency’s workforce by 50 percent, eliminate its enforcement office, and rescind key climate regulations. Project 2025 also advocates for the U.S. to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement and questions the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change, arguing that climate policies are based on “highly uncertain” science.

The architects of Project 2025’s environmental policies are former Trump administration officials with strong ties to the fossil fuel industry and a history of climate change skepticism. William Perry Pendley, who leads the Department of Interior chapter of the Mandate, has dismissed climate change as “junk science” and labeled believers as “kooks.” Pendley ran the Mountain States Legal Foundation, heavily funded by fossil fuel companies, for 30 years before joining the Trump administration.

Mandy Gunasekara, author of the EPA chapter and fellow at Heritage (and former fellow at the Project 2025 supporters the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the Independent Women’s Forum), is credited with orchestrating the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Accord, of which she has said “does nothing to actually improve the environment here in the United States or globally,” and the repeal of the Clean Power Plan during her tenure in the Trump administration. In 2019 Gunaskera testified before Congress in defense of ExxonMobil when the company was accused of sowing doubt about the climate crisis.

Bernard McNamee, responsible for the Department of Energy chapter, previously worked on Texas’ legal challenge to the Obama-era Clean Power Plan. “Fossil fuels are not something dirty, something we have to move and get away from,” McNamee said in 2018 during his tenure as a director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s energy program. “They are the key to not only our prosperity but to the quality of life.” His remarks were made at an event sponsored by oil industry conglomerate Koch Industries, which has donated $9.6 million to Project 2025 groups since 2020.

As The Guardian reports, tax records reveal that between 2103 and 2022, the Shell USA Company Foundation, associated with oil giant Shell, has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to religious right and conservative organizations, including 14 groups on Project 2025’s advisory board.

At the forefront of Project 2025 is the Heritage Foundation, which received $23,321 from Shell’s foundation. The Heritage Foundation, known for challenging the scientific consensus on climate change, published a commentary in 2023 stating that “climate change models are poor predictors of warming.” In January 2024, Heritage issued a report claiming that, “Contrary to media reports and environmental organizations’ press releases, global warming offers no justification for carbon-based regulation.”

Another significant recipient is the American Family Association (AFA), which received $59,264. This organization, known for aggressive anti-LGBTQ+ activism, has also waded into climate denial, publishing articles such as 2022’s “Climate Change Agenda Is an Attack on God’s Creation,” and calling renewable energy an “environmental disaster. Fossil fuels, on the other hand, are readily accessible, affordable, and have a much, much smaller environmental footprint than all renewables,” AFA claims. 

The Heartland Institute, a longtime purveyor of climate disinformation, received $5,000 from Shell’s foundation. This organization has been at the forefront of climate change denial for years. In June 2024, Heartland published an article in defense of fossil fuels. “Wealthy countries wishing to rid the world of crude oil, coal, and natural gas, without replacements in mind, would be immoral and evil, as extreme shortages of the petroleum products manufactured from fossil fuels will result in billions of fatalities from diseases, malnutrition, and weather-related deaths in both the developed and the under-developed economies,” the article states.

Other recipients of Shell’s funding who are involved with Project 2025 include the Texas Public Policy Foundation ($8,275), which claims “progressive activists are bullying businesses and governments to divest from fossil fuels,” and the Discovery Institute ($3,300), known for advocating the teaching of “intelligent design” as an alternative to evolution in public school science classes and arguing for more carbon dioxide, not less, as great things happen during warming periods, Discovery argues.

The remaining Project 2025 organizations receiving Shell Foundation donations include Hillsdale College ($105,748), Alliance Defending Freedom ($58,002), First Liberty Institute ($19,100), the American Center for Law and Justice ($14,321), the Leadership Institute ($7,125), the Family Research Council ($3,399), the Media Research Center ($2,528) and the Claremont Institute ($1,975)

The Shell USA Company Foundation contributed a total of $544,010 between 2013 and 2022, The Guardian reports, to these and other organizations that broadly share an agenda of building conservative power. These groups are involved in activities such as advocating against LGBTQ+ rights, restricting access to abortions, creating school lesson plans that downplay climate change, and drafting policies aimed at overhauling the federal government.

Shell, like many of its peers, has publicly committed to reducing its carbon footprint and investing in renewable energy. Its webpage says Shell USA funds organizations devoted to “Improving economic and social justice outcomes for undercapitalized communities, Promoting diversity, equitable and inclusive outcomes for our employees, business partners and community members, Supporting safe and healthy environments and promoting better health outcomes.” 

None of these qualities could be ascribed to any of the Project 2025 supporter organizations Shell has funded. Contradicting its own stated policy undermines the company’s credibility on both environmental and social issues.

Oracle’s Alleged Role in Project 2025: A Tech Giant’s Quiet Involvement

In the realm of Silicon Valley’s tech behemoths, Oracle Corporation stands as a $370 billion cloud-computing colossus with a client list that reads like a “Who’s Who” of global influencers. From cutting-edge AI firms like OpenAI to Airbnb and Netflix, Oracle’s reach is vast and well-publicized. However, the San Francisco Chronicle reports the company may be involved in a project far more controversial and less transparent than its typical ventures.

Project 2025’s scope is sweeping and contentious. It proposes dramatic policy shifts including severely restricting a woman’s right to bodily autonomy including contraception, mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, potential criminalization of transgender identity, and the elevation of Christianity in American governance. 

At the heart of Project 2025 lies a strategy to overcome obstacles faced by previous conservative administrations. The plan hinges on a new employment category that would allow the replacement of thousands of career federal employees with political appointees. This is where Oracle’s alleged involvement becomes crucial.

According to a New York Times report from April 2023, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts claimed that Oracle was tapped to develop a secure personnel database. This digital platform, described by some as a “conservative LinkedIn,” aims to provide up to 20,000 pre-vetted candidates by the end of 2024. 

Paul Dans, a key figure in Project 2025 until his recent resignation, and former chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management, articulated the project’s ambition and Oracle’s role in helping Project 2025 prepare for a conservative presidential administration: “Our goal is to assemble an army of aligned, vetted, trained, and prepared conservatives to go to work on Day One to deconstruct the Administrative State.”

Despite the high-profile nature of this alleged collaboration, Oracle has maintained a conspicuous silence on the matter. The company’s public disclosures, extensive customer index, and media releases make no mention of any involvement with Project 2025. When approached for comment by the San Francisco Chronicle, both Oracle and the Heritage Foundation declined to respond to inquiries.