The Backbone

By Anastasios Gordon Sekandi updated at 08:12 EAT Monday 16 June 2025

Elena Ramirez ran a small logistics company in Fresno, California. She didn’t wear suits or sit on government panels, but her company kept grocery shelves stocked from Bakersfield to San Francisco. She paid her taxes on time, employed fifty workers, and kept her trucks running day and night. She wasn’t rich, but she was reliable — the kind of citizen America was supposed to be built on.

One Thursday morning, she turned on the news while pouring coffee. The president had just announced he was considering cutting off federal disaster aid to California because of a political disagreement with the governor. “They don’t listen,” he said. “Why should we keep paying for their mess?”

President Donald Trump takes a question from a reporter during an event where he signed a resolution blocking California’s rule banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035 in the East Room of the White House on June 12, 2025. Trump’s administration has reportedly discussed halting “formula funds” to the state’s education department.

Elena almost dropped her mug. “Their mess?” She thought of the wildfire last year that nearly consumed her warehouse, of how her company had donated supplies to shelters and offered overtime pay to drivers during evacuations. No one in Washington had helped her then.

As the pundits argued on-screen, she stared out the window at the line of trucks pulling into her lot. Diesel engines rumbled. Payroll had gone out yesterday. She’d paid over $150,000 in federal taxes this quarter alone.

Across the country, people like her — small business owners, nurses, mechanics, software engineers, farmers — were keeping the lights on. They paid the bills.

Elena sat down and opened her laptop. She drafted an email to her congressional representative. It was calm, factual, and firm.

“Governance should be fair. We’re not pawns in a political game. We’re the ones funding the board you play on.”

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