Trump’s ‘Highway Robbery’ Plan
To be sure, trashing the federal government is all about money, but it’s not what you’re thinking.
Let’s say that you’re a rational person. So, you’re probably assuming that President Trump is anxious to reduce the size of our federal workforce because our government is inefficient. That efficiency is the goal. Laying people off is just the means or result of carefully identifying and correcting inefficiencies. And he’s cutting back because we can’t keep funding the government by borrowing and paying interest on so, so many trillions of dollars of debt.
President Trump would certainly be right if improving operational efficiency and reducing our national debt were his objectives. Unfortunately, they’re not.
Increasing the efficiency of government has nothing to do with it. That’s the sucker pitch. Elon Musk and other Presidential henchmen aren’t taking the time to study the departments and agencies they’re dismembering, because efficiency has nothing to do with it. Cutting is the objective.
They’ve even gone so far as to shut down the National Nuclear Security Administration only to find out after everyone they’d fired had left, that the NNSA is responsible for overseeing our nuclear arsenal. Nuclear bombs, missiles, and such. “Uh oh.” Realizing that might be a really important government function, they rescinded the firings only to discover that they couldn’t get in touch with everyone they’d kicked to the curb to hire them back. That they couldn’t reach all the people they fired is not surprising after turning off everyone’s government email accounts – and having fired the staff whose help they need to get in touch with everyone. The geniuses working for Musk aren’t the computer-savvy wizards Trump has led us to believe they are.
To be clear, not only did Musk and Trump not take the time to do an honest-to-goodness efficiency audit of the NNSA, but they didn’t even bother to Google the agency to find out what they do. Or did.
That President Trump rescinded the firings demonstrates how little thought is going into the process of shrinking government. That he hasn’t reversed the cuts he’s made to the Centers for Disease Control shows how little he cares about the American people. …Does it not even occur to him that the work of the CDC might one day save his own life and the lives of his own children and grandchildren?
As you know, Donald Trump and Elon Musk want to cut a trillion dollars out of the cost of government. That’s their stated goal, but reducing the national debt has nothing to do with it. Talking about debt reduction is just raw meat for the media and Trump’s base. No. To borrow from the Meghan Trainor lyrics, “It’s all about the budget.”
You see, President Trump and Congressional Republicans are planning to avert the rapidly upcoming March 14 government funding crisis and pass a new budget. This new budget, so we’re told, includes massive tax reductions mostly for wealthier Americans. Including people named Trump and Musk, among many others who supported Trump’s re-election.
To pass this budget, the President needs every Republican vote he can get. Real, authentic fiscal conservatives in Congress can’t stomach – and might not approve – a budget with tax cuts that significantly increase our national debt. Tax cuts for pretty much no other reason than to benefit higher-income individuals and their companies.
What’s President Trump’s solution to get his budget passed? It’s simple. Lay off enough people to cut the costs of government by the trillion or so dollars that the tax cuts he’ll propose will reduce federal government tax revenues. So, theoretically, no effect on the national debt.
That’s right. President Trump, with the help of Elon Musk, is in the process of transferring hundreds of billions of dollars on which the American people are counting for essential government services to the pockets of higher-income individuals and companies, himself included.
I’d call it “highway robbery,” but the White House and affected agencies are all located on the city streets of our Nation’s Capital. Whatever, it’s got to rank up there among the greatest heists of all time.
Les Cohen is a long-term Marylander, having grown up in Annapolis. Professionally, he writes and edits materials for business and political clients from his base of operations in Columbia, Maryland. He has a Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Economics. Leave a comment or feel free to send him an email to [email protected].