Considered by some to be a pie-in-the-sky aspiration of fiscal conservatives, President Donald Trump is now raising hopes that he can use growing tariff revenues, rescission spending cuts and new court rulings shrinking government to put the nation on a path toward a long-elusive balanced budget.
"I'm looking at these dollars every single day, and it's an exciting time to make sure that we are taking a crack at this $37 trillion of debt that we're placing on the back of our children and future generations," Rep. Julia Letlow, R-La., a House Appropriations Committee member, told Just the News on Tuesday.
Letlow praised Trump for her rising enthusiasm, saying voters "have a president that is committed to making sure that we have an America that will prosper again. He is setting us on that course. He's done it once before. He's doing it again."
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The courts are also empowering Trump to cut deeper with layoffs and restructuring of federal agencies.
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The Court stated that the administration was likely to succeed in arguing that the executive order and related memoranda were legal, though it did not rule on the ultimate legality of the layoffs.
This decision was a significant step toward Trumps goal of downsizing the federal bureaucracy, moving ever-closer to a balanced budget.
The Supreme Court also ruled to allow the Department of Government (DOGE) to proceed with utilizing Social Security records to conduct its work of identifying and eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. The decision allows DOGE to utilize sensitive records with fewer transparency requirements as it also seeks to downsize the federal government.
Tariffs could greatly enhance the impact of government cuts proposed by the Trump administration and codified in the recently-passed "One Big, Beautiful Bill" with new revenues.
As of July 1, the United States has reaped $106.1 billion dollars in tariff revenue. If the same pace and level of tariffs remain the same, that would translate to around $300 billion added to Treasury annually.
Rescissions could also prove to be a fruitful way of clawing back tax dollars.
Numerous members of Congress, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have indicated that the $9 billion rescission package would be the "first of many," possibly compounding savings for the American people.
Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., who sits on the powerful Budget, Rules and Financial Services committees, told Just The News, "We've got a math problem in Congress. We spend too much. I hope we can keep them [rescission packages] coming and show the American people that since we have the House, the Senate and the White House, that we mean what we say, and we're true conservatives. I'm excited about it."
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The last time the federal government's revenue matched its expenditures was in 2001 when the budget recorded a surplus of $128 billion.
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Republicans in both chambers will need substantially more intestinal fortitude to make that happen before next year's midterm elections. But by padding the treasury with tariff revenue and decreasing the federal workforce, which subsequently reduces costs associated with payroll, resources and facilities, a balanced budget may be more than a pipe dream under Trump.
Trump is never one to shy away from trumpeting good news before the good news actually arrives, so he's huffing the Hopium as well.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that during his second term, there is a real opportunity to balance the budget, a lofty goal that has eluded four presidents, including Trump as 45th president. Between bringing in an unprecedented $106 billion in tariff revenue thus far, shrinking the size of government thanks to the Supreme Court's rulings on federal layoffs, and continued rescission packages, he said, "I have a real shot."
"We're taking in tremendous amounts of money. You saw that we had a $25 billion surplus last month. And the tariffs haven't really started by comparison to what they will be," Trump told Just The News, No Noise television show, in a wide-ranging interview that aired Wednesday night.
Trump noted that the majority of the current tariffs currently relate to automobiles, car parts, aluminum and steel, but that on August 1, the tariffs will extend to other foreign goods, accelerating tariff revenue that could contribute substantially to an alternative to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). "We could use the External Revenue Service, and we wouldn't even need the Internal Revenue Service. But the money is very substantial. It's hundreds of billions of dollars."
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In a moment of levity, Trump recalled comments Tuesday from Kenneth Langone, the co-founder of Home Depot, who just months ago called tariffs, "bullsh*t." In a course reversal Tuesday, Langone told CNBC's Squawk Box, "Look, let me tell you right now, I am sold on Trump. In fact, I'll say this: I think he's got a good shot at going down in history as one of our best presidents ever."
What do you think? Is the Timeline splitting again? Are we moving on to the Timeline where Congress actually passes a balanced budget over the next four or five years?
Can we get any Timeline Witches to cast spells to help us jump Timelines?
Unrelated:
Noam Blum
@neontaster
I compiled a list of every political figure (not including journalists and pundits) that appeared on Stephen Colbert's show in 2024. Try to see if you can spot some sort of pattern:
Hakeem Jeffries (x2)
Bill Clinton
Tim Waltz
John Fetterman
Kamala Harris
Mark Kelly
Ketanji Brown Jackson
AOC (x2)
Pete Buttigieg
Nancy Pelosi
Hillary Clinton
Bernie Sanders (x2)
Elizabeth Warren (x2)
Adam Kinzinger
Gretchen Whitmer
Jamaal Bowman
Cory Booker
Doug Emhoff
Stephen Breyer