Trimming Big Government
When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, a strident theme of his campaign — to cut government waste and finally rein in out-of-control spending — kindled hope among his supporters that, at last, America’s mammoth and unsustainable federal debt could be brought under control. The 45th president is, after all, known for his business acumen, and made one of many fortunes with a television show in which he displayed his gimlet-eyed approach to business by unsympathetically firing subordinates who failed to make the grade. Surely the man who turned “You’re fired!” into a popular usage was equal to the task of trimming Big Government down to size.
Yet here we are, near the end of President Trump’s first tumultuous term in office, and the results have been mixed, to put it charitably. The president has drastically cut federal regulations, as promised, and cut taxes as well. The economy has responded enthusiastically to more favorable investment conditions, resulting in millions of new jobs and substantial growth in the long-stagnant manufacturing sector. All of this is certainly praiseworthy.
But the national debt has continued to balloon under President Trump, with the president’s successive budget proposals, including the most recent, giving little evidence of a will to cut government spending in a meaningful way. According to official statistics, the national debt now stands above $23 trillion (although the total amount of federal of liabilities, including “off-budget” entitlements, is much higher), and shows no signs of shrinking, or even leveling off, anytime soon.
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