Thomas Massie is not my favorite person, but he is absolutely right about the recklessness of the current proposed “Big Beautiful Bill.” The US has a deficit and debt problem. This problem has led to higher interest rates, which are themselves a significant component of inflation. US debt has been downgraded and it isn’t going to be bought at all except at high interest rates. The right response would be serious reform of entitlement programs, elimination of many other large spending categories, and serious tax reform that would eliminate loopholes. Instead what we get is a joke that enlarges the deficit and does nothing to limit spending.
In fact, Republicans seem to fine with spending or tax policies that benefit only rich people, mostly Democrats. Like expanding the deduction for state and local taxes–that only helps rich people. Not eliminating the renewable energy boondoogle–wasteful spending that is largely used to recycle money to Dem politicians. No reform of irrevocable trust and private foundation nonsense that only benefits the rich. Meanwhile the average American will pay more in interest to buy their house, if they can afford one, or a car; or on credit card debt, which many people rely on just to get by.
For a President who claims to care about average Americans, Trump favors policies that are extremely harmful to them–high tariffs and high interest rates. We should all hope that the current version of the reconciliation bill doesn’t pass and that there are enough Republicans with a conscience to force real spending reductions and honest tax reform.
I think this is just a little bit unfair. The problem for Speaker Johnson is that he can not do anything without getting 99% support in his caucus, so just a few members can screw things up by digging in their heals on any given spending cut. It would more accurate to say that some House Republicans (and all Democrats) are fiscally reckless. There is a good discussion of that here:
https://spectator.org/take-the-win-on-the-big-beautiful-bill/
That does not make the bill any less disappointing, but it does explain the problem.
In that article, McKay speculates that the plan is for Trump to do the cutting via impoundment and then for Congress to codify those cuts via a rescission bill that can not be filibustered. That seems plausible. I very much doubt that Trump has given up on DOGE.
I agree that growth alone can not get us out of this mess. But growth is vital. With 3% GDP growth, 2% inflation, and a debt of $3.6 trillion, a deficit of $1.8 trillion keeps the debt to GDP ratio constant. That is just about where the projection is for 2026. Of course, constant is not good enough, but impoundment/rescission, if it happens, will then get things moving in the right direction.
I don’t pay too much attention to the gloomy 10-year CBO projections. They usually get those wrong.