Ten House Republicans who fashion themselves policy wonks are out with their diagnosis of what ails the American worker. Their proposed cure is a future that would be brutish, nasty, and short.

The Hobbesian, dog-eat-dog, policies the Republican Study Group proposes would enhance the power of those born to privilege, just so long as nothing knocks them off their comfortable perch. The report proposes:

No forgiveness of student loans even though our federal government authorized students to borrow huge sums to attend worthless commercial schools that went bankrupt, leaving them with no degree, just debt. The Republican plan lacks even the mercy provisions for debtors written into Hammurabi’s Code almost 4,000 years ago, which wiped away debts when storms, war or corruption ruined a borrower’s finances.A turn away from comprehensive higher education, especially liberal arts, to focus on technical skills and employability rather than developing the rigorous and thoughtful minds that enable young people to become informed citizens.Throughout, the report makes recommendations that would require a larger federal government workforce to police workers, students, poor people, and immigrants.Empower workers by further weakening, if not eliminating, unions. The Republican Study Group report calls for workers to have more freedom to negotiate directly with their employers, a solution in search of a problem. “Our approach would unleash the full potential of the American people by refocusing labor policy to provide workers more control over their own future,” the report states. Given that individual workers are mostly commodities, that’s the equivalent of urging that each grain of wheat in a silo be free to negotiate whether it goes into the grist mill first or last.Get tough on the poor and immigrants, who are portrayed as greedy thieves who shirk work, especially during the pandemic. The poor and hungry get the blame for high levels of what the report artfully calls “improper payments” despite evidence that mostly these are screwups by federal agencies, not applicants. Not a word, by the way, about thieving defense contractors, farmers, and other business operators even though a link in the report is full of examples where such businesses benefit from fraud, waste, and abuse.

The report’s attacks on labor unions comes right out of the Donald Trump playbook.