The Trump proposed government efficiency department, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, has pledge to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, “not with a chisel but rather a chainsaw,” to give the millionaires and billionaires not just their 2017 tax cut reauthorized but a second big tax cut. This tax cut gave them $69,000 and the rest of us $70.
To achieve this, Musk and Ramaswamy proposed cutting 10 programs: veterans health care for 9.1 million veterans, eliminating drug development and opioid addiction treatment, housing assistance (including Section 8 vouchers), Justice Department programs (other than carrying Trump’s legal requests), education spending (federal grant money to states and communities for schools), any NASA programs not involving Space-X, health care and student loan programs (including Obamacare and its 45 million recipients and a substantial part of the Medicaid and CHIP programs), all security programs (including arms made in America by American workers sold to allies, foreign aid, anti-narcotic trafficking programs, and the Peace Corps), and the Headstart Program (more than 800,000 children cared for, plus job placement, schooling and job training for a half million parents of those children).
Even if all of these cuts are put into place, only $650 billion would be saved. Musk has pledged to hand Donald Trump another $1.6 trillion in cuts, roughly 1/3 of the federal budget.
Other than the trillion-dollar defense budget, the next largest part of the budget is debt service for the federal debt, including the $8.7 trillion in debt that was accrued during the first Trump presidency. National governments cannot refuse to pay debt, default on debt or declare bankruptcy, unlike the businesses under the Trump umbrella.
Will these budget cuts and tax cuts for the rich spur the massive economic growth and prosperity that the 49.7% of voters who elected Donald J. Trump are demanding to turn around their economic lives?
Sources:
Jacob Bogage, “Ten programs that could be on the ‘government efficiency’ chopping block, The Washington Post, Nov. 16, 2024
The “Elon Musk plan to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget” film clip was shown on “The Lawrence O Donnell Show” on MSNBC, Nov. 20, 2024, as well on “The John Oliver Show” on HBO, Nov. 17, 2024.
Frank Vozak
Oak Park