Richard Rubin of The Wall Street Journal politely explains the lie behind Trump’s “big beautiful budget plan”: it will not cut the deficit. It will increase it.
WASHINGTON—House Republicans pushed President Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax-and-spending bill past a key hurdle late Sunday night, but the last-minute grappling has them colliding with a stark reality: The plan won’t reduce federal budget deficits and would make America’s fiscal hole deeper.
The bill could reach the House floor this week, and it is a tenuous balance between the party’s tax-cut wing and factions seeking larger, quicker spending cuts. To get a bill through the House with their 220-213 majority, GOP tax cutters trimmed their ambitions and scheduled some breaks to expire. Many spending hawks, meanwhile, backed the plan while groaning that it doesn’t go far enough fast enough. Others are holding out for more…
Moody’s Ratings, in downgrading the U.S.’s AAA rating on Friday, said it didn’t expect Congress to produce material multiyear spending or deficit reductions. Publicly held federal debt stands at about $29 trillion, nearly double the level when Trump and Republicans passed the 2017 tax law. Nearly $1 in every $7 the U.S. spends goes toward paying interest, more than the country spends on defense.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“The Republican-backed tax and spending bill that’s now moving forward in the House is getting a reality check from Wall Street. That’s because the proposed tax breaks are projected to far OUTSTRIP any savings in the bill, potentially leading to mounting U.S. debt and a worsening fiscal outlook, according to economists and policy experts.
If the bill moves forward without significant changes, the U.S. would likely find its debt levels spiraling higher in order to finance the tax cuts.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gop-tax-bill-reconcilation-deficit-moodys-debt-spending/
LikeLike
Our economy is out of kilter, and there is no easy fix. Tax cuts for billionaires will explode our federal debt. Cutting Medicaid and food for hungry children here and around the world will not fix our deficit. They are cruel policies that harm the most vulnerable with the least amount of political agency.
According to Prof. Scott Galloway we will not be able to dig out this hole unless we rein in spending on healthcare. His blog is always informative and insightful, particularly for those of us that do not have a background in economics or business. He claims we cannot seriously address the deficit unless we directly restructure our private healthcare system and Big Insurance. Cuts to services for the poor while simultaneously giving billionaires a tax break will only make our economy weaker in his opinion. Galloway’s perspective is often entertaining and informative, and he always backs up his assertions with data. https://www.profgalloway.com/the-fix/
LikeLike
I fail to see any difference between the new Trump/Repugnican tax bill and Jonathan’s Swift’s “A Modest Proposal.”
Or, another literary parallel: The rich in this country are a Pantagruelian maw, consuming everything and everyone.
LikeLike
“Pantagruelian” is an adjective derived from the name of the character Pantagruel in François Rabelais’sGargantua and Pantagruel. It generally describes something that is enormous, gigantic, or very large. It can also refer to something with a voracious appetite or that is insatiable. “
AI said this. Al Gore might have put it differently. Al Kaline even more so.
LikeLike
More seriously, the tax proposal seems like other Republican programs, an attempt to undermine the character of the American experiment in self-governance, to the end that a very few wealthy people have more control over.
LikeLike
Kids will go hungry because of this. Some of them might starve.
LikeLike
And that is quite serious
LikeLike
So, Bob, you flip the script of Swift’s “Modest Proposal.” Instead of eating the children, you think we should eat the rich. At that point, I become a vegetarian.
LikeLike
In both cases, Swift’s proposal and the Trump/Repugnican tax giveaway to the very rich, those who will be irreparably harmed are poor children.
Thr rich in the United States will keep pushing their toy until it breaks.
LikeLike
These days, Diane, if I did this, I would probably be arrested and sent to El Salvador.
LikeLike
You can’t meaningfully cut the deficit without doing one or more of these four things: (1) cut military spending, (2) cut Medicare; (3) cut social security, or (4) raise taxes on the middle class. And even if you did one or more of those things, you probably still couldn’t cut the deficit meaningfully if interest rates rose significantly. Trump is literally doing everything wrong.
LikeLike
you could meaningfully cut the deficit if you raised taxes on those who can afford to pay them. Unfortunately, this would also cause the economy a shock not unlike Covid era re-orientation, as spending habits shifted due to the change.
LikeLike
It’s always a shock to hear how certain big corporations are making billions in profits but pay little or no taxes.
I wonder what Elon Musk pays in federal taxes.
LikeLike
Embedded within the reconciliation bill is a $20+ billion tax giveaway for a first-ever national school voucher program. It includes generous tax credits (dollar-for-dollar decrease in the amount of taxes owed, more if you donate property). It major change in policy that moves tax dollars away from public schools and into private, mostly religious schools. Yet nobody is talking about it, which is what the Republicans want. Please shine some light on this whenever you tald about the reconciliation bill.
LikeLike
Project 2025 spelled out what Trump would do: defund public schools, transfer federal funds for Title 1 and special ed students to the states, where they can be used for vouchers, unrestricted. Meaning the money won’t be earmarked for kids who are low-income or those with disabilities. It will underwrite the tuition of kids in private and religious schools.
LikeLike