Let’s tackle taxes first. Scott Bessent, a hedge fund manager about to become Trump 2.0’s treasury secretary, warns of “economic calamity” if Congress doesn’t pass tax cuts for billionaires (see story here). If you believe this, you deserve to pay taxes so he doesn’t have to.
Now for spending cuts. Trump has put Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy in charge of finding things to take away from the peasants so they and their fellow billionaires don’t have to pay taxes.
Mother Jones said (here) they’ve proposed “killing veteran’s health benefits, Pell grants, Head Start,” and the National Institutes of Health, which “funds most basic biomedical research,” and privatizing federal prisons.
A few days ago, Politico reported (here) that a leaked GOP memo indicates Republicans in Congress are considering major cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, and food stamps (see my posting here).
As an alternative, Mother Jones suggests targeting Pentagon waste and rescinding tax breaks that mostly benefit the wealthy. But don’t hold your breath for that to happen under a Trump administration.