Progressives have suddenly found themselves lost in the political wilderness, caught in a self-inflicted trap of anger and fear. From the sound of their fury, they could be there for a long while. (Thoughts and prayers.)
With Democrats now irrelevant, the second Trump administration has four years to take a wrecking ball to the Washington establishment, including deep cuts to federal spending and an overhaul of the bloated bureaucracy.
To understand why the wrecking ball is needed, look at the annual budget deficit − $1.8 trillion in fiscal year 2024. In a time of relative peace and prosperity, the deficit grew 8% in one year, even though federal revenue increased by 11%. In other words, the Biden-Harris administration collected significantly more money from taxpayers in the last fiscal year but still managed to blow up the deficit by an additional $138 billion. That’s simply unsustainable.
Enter President-elect Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Musk operates at another level, building the most valuable automaker in the world in Tesla and the most important entity (public or private) in space travel and satellite communications with SpaceX.
Can Musk succeed where Obama’s Simpson-Bowles failed?
If Musk and Ramaswamy are able to accomplish even a portion of what they envision − cutting $2 trillion in government spending ‒ it could provide a remarkable boost for our economy.
“They’re going to need inside Washington budget experts like ex-Capitol Hill staffers and the like,” Chris Edwards, a Cato Institute economist who specializes in government spending, told me. “People (who) used to be on the budget committees on Capitol Hill and used to work for the (Office of Management and Budget). They’re going to need those sorts of people to tell them exactly how and what they can cut.”
This isn’t the first attempt to cut government spending. In 2010, President Barack Obama created the Simpson-Bowles commission to recommend budget cuts that would trim the deficit over a 10-year period.
The commission’s recommendations failed to gain traction in Congress. In fact, the federal government has added about $16 trillion to the national debt since Simpson-Bowles was created. So there’s reason for cynicism. Trump and Congress will need to actually cut the programs Musk and Ramaswamy recommend, even if the president needs to use his veto power to do it.
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Edwards said Republicans need to be serious about deficit reduction starting next year.
“(Republicans) need to at least show deficits kind of on a downward path,” the Cato economist told me. “They don’t have to do a massive spending cut next year, but they’ve got to show financial markets and the Federal Reserve that the deficits are on a downward path.”
It’s a misconception that the executive branch doesn’t play an important role in how the economy functions. The massive federal deficit helps fuel inflation. And as Edwards noted, “The deficits and debt are so large now we’re in uncharted financial territory for this country.”
DOGE should cut this department first
The Cato economist said DOGE could start to deliver better efficiency by initially focusing on a popular but underperforming section of the budget. A proposal to target federal spending on K-12 education might seem radical, but it also would signal that Musk and Ramaswamy are serious.
“K-12 schools is easily the biggest and most attractive opportunity for Trump and his team to cut,” Edwards said. “George W. Bush made a big show of signing the No Child Left Behind legislation … and greatly increased federal subsidies and federal intrusion into the schools. That obviously failed. Test scores are down. I think today’s Republican Party has completely changed on education. … There’s been the huge success of school choice.”
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I second Edwards’ suggestion.
While public schools are necessary, more and more spending hasn’t led to better results.
The Department of Education’s budget for this fiscal year is almost $80 billion ‒ nearly $10 billion more than the enacted budget only five years ago.
On Tuesday, Edwards and co-author Adam N. Michel published an article that recommended $4.8 trillion in specific cuts over the next 10 years, including selling off Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and transforming Medicaid funding by sending block grants to the states.
Democrats are sure to whine about those ideas and others. Republicans should ignore them and focus instead on saving taxpayers’ money, getting the deficit under control and saving America from an economic disaster that will hit if the nation stays on its current course.
Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four kids. Sign up for her newsletter, The Right Track, and get it delivered to your inbox.