“Mammoth spending bills are bankrupting America!” Elon Musk wrote over a shared tweet showing the national debt trendline resembling an unclimbable mountain. “ENOUGH.”
Musk, who heroically sacrificed millions of his own money by leading the Department of Government Efficiency, likely views the failure of Republicans to codify his cuts — and the president’s executive orders — as a betrayal. (RELATED: Bureaucracy Beats Entrepreneurship — Musk Leaves Washington)
The federal debt exceeds $36 trillion. When Ross Perot made deficits his signature issue when he announced for president in 1992, the federal government owed less than $4 trillion.
Americans failed to listen to that billionaire in 1992. Perhaps, now that the debt has increased nine times its amount from then, they will listen to this billionaire now.
The dummyspeak recently emanating from another billionaire sounds, if one listens closely enough, ventriloquized from the far Left.
“I am very pleased to announce that, after all of these years, I agree with Senator Elizabeth Warren on SOMETHING,” Donald Trump posted at Truth Social. “The Debt Limit should be entirely scrapped to prevent an Economic catastrophe. It is too devastating to be put in the hands of political people that may want to use it despite the horrendous effect it could have on our Country and, indirectly, even the World.”
Did you catch that bit of sophistry?
The president talks about the debt limit as not a restraint on “political people” but instead a tool for them to wreak havoc on the country. If only we could eliminate the limits on profligacy, then we could borrow $5 trillion, $10 trillion, and many trillions as the Treasury printing presses can churn out. That scenario does not sound like one that leads to prosperity in the long run.
Most Republican politicians sadly agree with the big-spending, big-deficits, big-government booster of the Big Beautiful Bill. (RELATED: Five Quick Things: The Rescission Cometh)
“With all due respect,” Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters, “my friend Elon is terribly wrong about the one big, beautiful bill.”
Johnson should reflect on how he came to wield the gavel. Matt Gaetz and a small band of Republicans toppled Kevin McCarthy because, according to the rebels, he too often, too enthusiastically collaborated with Democrats to increase government spending and deficits.
When a Democrat sits in the Oval Office, this amounts to a cardinal sin. When a Republican does, Republicans insist that other Republicans behave like Democrats lest they face primary challenges engineered by the White House and RINO labels hurled at them by people who agree with Elizabeth Warren on fiscal issues.
Some Republicans seek power for power’s sake. Other Republicans seek power to strip the federal government of it.
Donald Trump, Mike Johnson, and the other self-described conservatives increasingly resemble Gollum clutching for that ring. They want not more freedom for us but more power for the government — but only when they hold power. When Democrats hold power, GOP leaders liken them to the Dark Lord Sauron in their covetous quest for more power at the expense of our freedom.
What else explains the party traditionally associated with smaller government pushing a monstrosity called the Big Beautiful Bill? Barry Goldwater intuitively understood that “big” does not describe any “beautiful” legislation. Why cannot Trump, Johnson, and company?
Interest on the debt already exceeds what the federal government spends on Medicare, Medicaid, and defense. The only piece of the federal pie that receives more dollars is Social Security.
“Net interest has been exploding over the past few years, with payments rising from $223 billion in 2015 to $345 billion in 2020 before nearly tripling to $881 billion in 2024,” the Committee for a Responsible Government noted earlier this year. “In 2025, CBO projects net interest will total $952 billion, a near-record 3.2 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and interest will eclipse its record as a share of the economy in 2026.”
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the so-called Big Beautiful Bill will increase the debt by $2.4 trillion above what it already would have been over the next decade. It increases the debt ceiling, the one the president seeks to eliminate, by $4 trillion. It includes some very good spending cuts. Unfortunately, pet government programs of Republicans, and the tax cuts, more than offset all that.
The adjective “big” for any piece of legislation serves as foreshadowing that the text that follows leads to nothing good. How about a Small Beautiful Bill? Even a smaller Big Beautiful Bill would likely transform Republican no votes into yeses.
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