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- Mar 13, 2025
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It has always been the genius of Demagogues to rob the public while convincing them they're being rescued. The latest version of this age-old con is Trump’s so-called "spending cuts"--an austerity masquerade draped in red, white, and blue. It’s not about reducing debt. It’s a grift--a tax-cut Ponzi scheme ending in disaster, but not for the billionaires behind it.
In 2017, Trump slashed taxes for corporations and the wealthy, ballooning the deficit by trillions. His allies cheered. Now, in a stunning act of economic vandalism, he wants to "fix" the problem by gutting the very institutions that make the country work
In my opinion, for years, the right has followed a simple playbook:
Cut taxes for the rich, blowing a hole in the budget.
Declare a deficit/debt crisis (or just ignore it.)
Slash services, lay off workers, privatize everything.
Repeat.
Trump’s second-term agenda is the billionaire libertarian dream: purge agencies, fire civil servants, and gut public programs--not to fix spending, but to justify more tax cuts. It’s a bait-and-switch: first, empty the treasury; then demand we drain it further.
The central flaw is the belief that the U.S. government should run like a business. But how do you shrink the debt when all the “shrinkage” is used to pay for massive tax cuts--cuts that mostly benefit Trump, Musk, and their billionaire friends?
This isn’t policy--it’s pillage. It's the looting of a nation in broad daylight.
So this means all those firings will reduce revenue $500 billion, which will have to be financed by borrowing and money printing, causing more debt and inflation.
And when the crisis comes? When years of cuts leave public institutions hollowed out, and the interest on the debt consumes all revenue?
Brace for these options:
• Raise taxes sharply, risking recession.
• Slash Social Security and Medicare, leaving millions exposed.
• Print more money, devalue the dollar, and trigger inflation.
The same voters who cheered Trump's “discipline” will watch their roads crumble, their schools close, their paychecks shrink. Meanwhile, the architects of this disaster will retreat to offshore accounts and golden parachutes.
This isn’t governance--it’s engineered collapse.
A real solution would close tax loopholes, raise corporate rates, and ensure the ultra-wealthy pay their share, but more importantly to eliminate the cause of debt problem (more on this below), cutting spending wholesale doesn't fix the problem. It would mean targeted spending cuts, not reckless purges. But Trump and his backers don’t want a functioning government. They want an extraction machine--one that extracts from you in order to serve them.
DOGE--the so-called Department of Government Efficiency--is central to this scheme. It's a scam. Sold as an “audit agency,” it is legally redundant, economically pointless, and constitutionally dubious. The GAO and Inspectors General already handle government audits--quietly, without the chest thumping, grandstanding heriocs, with experts, protocols, and oversight.
And Musk? He’s no savior. He built his fortune on taxpayer subsidies, now posturing as a waste-fighting populist while recommending mass firings that would devastate federal services. The total federal payroll is a mere 0.7% of the national debt. Even firing every worker wouldn’t make a dent.
Yet that’s the plan: eliminate agencies now, so that when the next tax cuts come, they can say it’s “paid for.”
The goal is not efficiency. The goal is permanent austerity. To make government small enough that it only serves the rich--while everyone else pays the price.
Here’s what I believe we need instead:
Reform the Appropriations Process: Tie new spending to long-term sustainability. Consider a balanced budget amendment with emergency exemptions.
Tame the Banking System: Coordinate monetary and fiscal policy to avoid debt spirals. Review/reform reserve requirements and lending protocols.
End the Tax-Cut Scam: Raise corporate rates. Close loopholes. We had a progressive tax (on the high end) before, it works.
Strengthen Fiscal Coordination: Align Congress, Treasury, and the Fed so spending doesn’t fight monetary policy.
Fiscal austerity isn't the answer, just turning the ship around is the answer, and the debt crisis will slowly work itself out.
In 2017, Trump slashed taxes for corporations and the wealthy, ballooning the deficit by trillions. His allies cheered. Now, in a stunning act of economic vandalism, he wants to "fix" the problem by gutting the very institutions that make the country work
In my opinion, for years, the right has followed a simple playbook:
Cut taxes for the rich, blowing a hole in the budget.
Declare a deficit/debt crisis (or just ignore it.)
Slash services, lay off workers, privatize everything.
Repeat.
Trump’s second-term agenda is the billionaire libertarian dream: purge agencies, fire civil servants, and gut public programs--not to fix spending, but to justify more tax cuts. It’s a bait-and-switch: first, empty the treasury; then demand we drain it further.
The central flaw is the belief that the U.S. government should run like a business. But how do you shrink the debt when all the “shrinkage” is used to pay for massive tax cuts--cuts that mostly benefit Trump, Musk, and their billionaire friends?
This isn’t policy--it’s pillage. It's the looting of a nation in broad daylight.
The Treasury Department and officials with the Internal Revenue Service are predicting a drop of more than 10 percent in tax receipts by the April 15 deadline, The Washington Post reported.
The unprecedented decline would amount to more than $500 billion in lost revenue. Officials who spoke to the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity said the sudden drop is due in large part to President Donald Trump’s gutting of the federal government.
So this means all those firings will reduce revenue $500 billion, which will have to be financed by borrowing and money printing, causing more debt and inflation.
And when the crisis comes? When years of cuts leave public institutions hollowed out, and the interest on the debt consumes all revenue?
Brace for these options:
• Raise taxes sharply, risking recession.
• Slash Social Security and Medicare, leaving millions exposed.
• Print more money, devalue the dollar, and trigger inflation.
The same voters who cheered Trump's “discipline” will watch their roads crumble, their schools close, their paychecks shrink. Meanwhile, the architects of this disaster will retreat to offshore accounts and golden parachutes.
This isn’t governance--it’s engineered collapse.
A real solution would close tax loopholes, raise corporate rates, and ensure the ultra-wealthy pay their share, but more importantly to eliminate the cause of debt problem (more on this below), cutting spending wholesale doesn't fix the problem. It would mean targeted spending cuts, not reckless purges. But Trump and his backers don’t want a functioning government. They want an extraction machine--one that extracts from you in order to serve them.
DOGE--the so-called Department of Government Efficiency--is central to this scheme. It's a scam. Sold as an “audit agency,” it is legally redundant, economically pointless, and constitutionally dubious. The GAO and Inspectors General already handle government audits--quietly, without the chest thumping, grandstanding heriocs, with experts, protocols, and oversight.
And Musk? He’s no savior. He built his fortune on taxpayer subsidies, now posturing as a waste-fighting populist while recommending mass firings that would devastate federal services. The total federal payroll is a mere 0.7% of the national debt. Even firing every worker wouldn’t make a dent.
Yet that’s the plan: eliminate agencies now, so that when the next tax cuts come, they can say it’s “paid for.”
The goal is not efficiency. The goal is permanent austerity. To make government small enough that it only serves the rich--while everyone else pays the price.
Here’s what I believe we need instead:
Reform the Appropriations Process: Tie new spending to long-term sustainability. Consider a balanced budget amendment with emergency exemptions.
Tame the Banking System: Coordinate monetary and fiscal policy to avoid debt spirals. Review/reform reserve requirements and lending protocols.
End the Tax-Cut Scam: Raise corporate rates. Close loopholes. We had a progressive tax (on the high end) before, it works.
Strengthen Fiscal Coordination: Align Congress, Treasury, and the Fed so spending doesn’t fight monetary policy.
Fiscal austerity isn't the answer, just turning the ship around is the answer, and the debt crisis will slowly work itself out.
