I was under the illusion that, with Donald Trump back in charge and the wind at his back, Washington Republicans might actually take off the gloves, say eff-it, and take on the swamp. With the failures inherent in the Big Beautiful Bill, it appears I was wrong. I don’t blame Trump. This abysmal betrayal of the American people was written in the halls of Congress.
The Republicans in Congress talk a good game, but when it comes to actually doing what they say they’re going to do, it turns out they’re really snake oil salesmen. Not that this is new. Remember when they ran on killing Obamacare throughout Obama’s presidency, then bungled it when Trump became president?
We’re now watching that same treachery play itself out in real time, and it involves the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that just passed the House. This monstrosity ostensibly does a number of good things.
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First and foremost, it extends Trump’s 2017 taxes that were set to expire. It also increases spending on border security, and, apparently, it cuts federal support for Planned Parenthood. All of these are good things, but they’re the equivalent of trying to save the Titanic by emptying water over the side one bucket at a time while a thousand gallons of water pour into the hull every second.
What this bill doesn’t do is cut spending or cut the deficit. Indeed, it puts the deficit on overdrive, just as interest rates on government debt seem to be heading upward. The president’s advisor, Stephen Miller (who is one of the smartest guys in Washington), has pushed back by pointing out that spending cuts didn’t balance Reagan’s tax cuts. True, but then, if I remember correctly, Reagan didn’t have a national debt 125% the size of the GDP that needed to be serviced.
A small part of this problem has to do with the calendar. This budget began to be written back in December after it became clear the GOP would have both houses, but before they were technically in complete control. As such, this Frankenstein started being put together long before DOGE showcased exactly how dysfunctional the federal government is. But that’s no excuse. It’s been over 4 months since that Elon Musk-managed vehicle started highlighting problems.
This One Big Beautiful Bill Act demonstrates exactly why the federal government is as screwed up as it is. They say that you can’t turn around a ship on a dime, and that’s true. But there’s a difference between turning on a dime and setting a course, full speed ahead, for the closest iceberg.
This bill literally adds $2.5 trillion to the government’s debt and runs a deficit larger than Biden’s last one! At the same time, it basically allows the government to go on with business as usual. There are no major cuts to spending. There is no elimination of departments. There is no substantial paring of regulation. There’s basically the same budget compiled by the Democrats, RINOs, and the administrative state every year, with infinitesimal changes except for the taxes.
This bill doesn’t reflect the will of the people; it reflects the will of the establishment and the swamp.
If Congress really wanted to fix the budget, its members would take to heart many of the recommendations and revelations from DOGE, as well as codify much of what Trump has done or tried to do via Executive Orders. Hell, it doesn’t even eliminate the Department of Education, something Trump explicitly ran on.
This bill cuts $4 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act, Joe Biden’s attempt to get everything, including the kitchen sink, into the budget, including green energy, social spending and taxes on the rich. Four billion sounds like a lot until you understand that the IRA is a $1.4 trillion boondoggle.
The reality is, 2/3 of the federal budget, fully $4 trillion out of $6 trillion, is wealth redistribution. Even if you argue that Social Security isn’t that, which is mostly true, and remove it, you’re still looking at almost half the federal budget being wealth distribution of one sort or another. How much of that is waste, fraud, and abuse?
Elon Musk had initially suggested that he thought $2 trillion could be cut from the budget. He lowered that target to $1 trillion, and in the first 4 months of the year, DOGE has done a yeoman’s job and cut $170 billion of waste. And that’s with just 100 people on staff and facing a bureaucracy of literally millions who scheme and obfuscate at every turn in order to maintain the cash pipeline. Imagine how much a DOGE team of 1,000 could do!
But more than actual cuts, DOGE recommended things like personnel cuts, cutting green energy subsidies, and, of course, cutting regulations. But relatively little is actually being codified in law. That’s despite the fact that 67% of Americans support DOGE cuts of at least $1 trillion, 77% support looking at the entirety of the budget to find savings, and 78% support cutting spending to balance the budget. Indeed, so little is being cut that Elon Musk has announced that he will be stepping back to refocus his efforts on his companies and play a much smaller role in political spending.
Inspired by promises to cut spending, taxes, and regulation, MAGA voters powered Republicans to win the White House, take the Senate, and retain the House. They had the richest and possibly the smartest man in the world not only on their side, but knee deep in funding MAGA politicians, getting them elected, and working around the clock to ferret out corruption and fraud in government. Plus, every day seemed to shine more light on the corruption of the Democrat/swamp machine.
As a result of all of this, Republicans found themselves the beneficiaries of the most passionate electorate America may have ever seen. They were on top of the world. And what did they do with all of this momentum? Worse than nothing: They gave us Democrat lite.
No major regulatory cuts. No major cuts to wealth redistribution programs. No departments and few programs actually eliminated. No reining in of the imperial judiciary seeking to derail Trump at every turn. Instead, rather than listen to voters and take a sledgehammer to the twin albatrosses of regulation and spending, they use a dull putty knife to create the illusion of actual progress.
Of course, we all know why nothing ever changes in Washington. Politicians go to DC and most get sucked into the Georgetown cocktail party scene grift, and being invited to pontificate on Sunday morning shows and give speeches to groups of deep pocketed donors from industries who hold the Sword of Damocles over their heads.
The fact that Donald Trump didn’t care about any of that and wasn’t swayed by it is one of the things that made him so appealing. That’s the reason MAGA put him back in the White House.
Unfortunately for the country, however, the GOP in Congress is led by swamp weasels Mike Johnson and John Thune, and Trump is Gulliver to their Lilliputians. They have no real interest in upsetting the grift applecart despite what America wants. They put America First lipstick on a Business as Usual pig and call it progress. If the GOP loses Congress next year, look no further than its leadership. Like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell before them, they are more interested in the trappings of leadership than actually solving America’s problems.“Rich Men North of Richmond,” indeed.
Follow Vince on X at @ImperfectUSA