WASHINGTON — The nationwide debt has develop into a rallying cry for Republicans as they search to dismantle the federal authorities, justifying the presumably unlawful elimination of life-saving international help, shopper protections and most cancers analysis by the hands of President Donald Trump’s administration and Elon Musk’s so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity.
“Our crippling national debt and massively growing interest on our debt will destroy us. Not destroy one political party or the other. It will destroy all of us together,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) proclaimed at a congressional listening to on Wednesday.
After largely ignoring the debt and driving up deficits in his first administration, President Donald Trump is now unilaterally shuttering federal companies and freezing spending authorized by Congress in an effort spearheaded by Musk.
However the cost-cutting pursued by Musk and DOGE throughout the authorities — a lot of which has been challenged in court docket and will but be reversed — is microscopic on the dimensions of Republicans’ total home coverage agenda, the centerpiece of which is an extension of tax cuts that will add doubtlessly trillions of {dollars} to annual funds deficits over the subsequent decade, making the $36 trillion nationwide debt develop even greater and sooner.
Republicans insist their insurance policies will propel the financial system and increase federal tax receipts sufficient to cowl the projected income misplaced as a consequence of tax cuts. A spread of funds forecasters, from the Congressional Finances Workplace to the Yale Finances Lab to the conservative Tax Basis, have mentioned that extending the tax cuts may certainly assist the financial system, however dismissed the thought they may pay for themselves.
Whereas Greene’s DOGE listening to was underway on Capitol Hill this week, Republicans on the Home Finances Committee unveiled a funds blueprint calling for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and $300 billion in new spending on protection and border safety, with these figures offset by simply $1.5 trillion in spending cuts. Total, it might add an additional $4 trillion to the federal funds deficit in 10 years.
“This is what happens every single time there’s a Republican in the White House,” Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the highest Democrat on the committee, instructed HuffPost. “After spending years and years talking a good game on deficit and debt when there’s a Democrat in the White House … when they’re in charge, they actually make the deficit and debt significantly higher than any Democratic president ever has.”
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Adopting a funds decision within the Home and Senate is step one Republicans should take to unlock a particular “budget reconciliation” course of permitting them to bypass a Democratic filibuster within the Senate.
The Home GOP define requires as a lot as $880 billion in financial savings from Medicaid and as a lot as $230 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Vitamin Help Program, which means vital cuts to applications that assist tens of hundreds of thousands of People afford well being care and meals. The precise particulars of the cuts aren’t spelled out; it might be as much as the committees that oversee the related companies to provide you with specifics. Republicans will doubtless search stricter eligibility guidelines for individuals who can’t show they’re gainfully employed.
The funds additionally requires a $4 trillion hike to the federal government’s borrowing restrict — one thing Republicans in previous years have used as leverage to attempt to extract spending cuts from Democrats as a result of failing to boost the restrict may trigger the federal government to fail to pay its money owed, doubtlessly triggering a monetary disaster. Trump has inspired Republicans to cope with the debt restrict as shortly as potential, and a $4 trillion improve would doubtless be the most important in U.S. historical past.
One Republican on the Home funds committee, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), mentioned he believed the funds plan’s cuts have been too small — however he mentioned he anticipated Musk to make up for it.
“Much of my disappointment in this resolution is compensated by the extraordinary work being done by Elon Musk and his team at DOGE,” McClintock mentioned. “I am confident they are setting the stage for hundreds of billions of dollars of cost savings that are not reflected in this budget resolution, but that are real and imminent.”
McClintock additionally mentioned he apprehensive his colleagues’ progress and income suggestions assumptions have been “far above the economic consensus,” however that the DOGE deregulatory onslaught would show everybody mistaken.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) praised the Musk-driven effort to shutter the U.S. Company for Worldwide Growth, saying, “We’ve got many more to come, like Social Security. We have many more to come, like the Department of Education. The American people are going to see where their tax dollars have been spent.”
Home Democratic Chief Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) highlighted Norman’s comment on social media, saying Norman “made clear that House Republicans are coming for your Social Security benefits next.”
Norman instructed HuffPost that he believed Musk would uncover a considerable amount of “improper payments” made by the Social Safety Administration. The Authorities Accountability Workplace, a spending watchdog that predates DOGE, in 2023 recognized greater than $7 billion of improper funds from the Social Safety Administration beneath its retirement insurance coverage and Supplemental Safety Earnings program. Trump has repeatedly mentioned he doesn’t need Republicans to the touch Social Safety or Medicare regardless that they’re an enormous a part of federal spending.
Shuttering USAID, if courts in the end approve of the transfer, may save tens of billions yearly. The company oversaw $40 billion in 2023, based on the Congressional Analysis Service, although it’s doubtless some USAID capabilities can be continued by the State Division, which absorbed the company final week.
To this point, DOGE’s purported financial savings don’t come near matching the quantity of the tax cuts they goal to energy — cuts that will clearly profit Musk’s backside line.
Republicans within the Senate, in the meantime, are engaged on their very own invoice to extend army and border spending whereas setting apart the tax provisions that they plan to handle later this yr. Home and Senate Republicans will not be aligned in terms of technique or the extent of cuts to applications wanted to assist offset the price of their agenda.
“I would say whatever entitlement reforms they are baking in, it’s not going to be enough,” Sen. Todd Younger (R-Ind.) instructed reporters on Thursday when requested in regards to the Home Republican funds plan. “They need to go more, more, more. Now is the time to be aggressive.”
For Democrats, the hole between the tax cuts the GOP is pushing and the comparatively minimal fiscal affect of DOGE up to now is proof the trouble is extra about seizing energy than about fixing the nation’s fiscal stance.
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“DOGE doesn’t seem to really be about saving money,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) mentioned. “I mean, ultimately the only way they get the numbers that they need to pass the massive billionaire and corporate tax cut is to cut services for regular people. You can’t get the money they need to pad the pockets of their rich friends without coming after Medicaid or Medicare or schools or the Affordable Care Act or nutrition programs.”
“So, you know, I think DOGE is just a corruption scheme to pad Elon Musk’s pockets. I don’t think it’s about saving money,” he added.
