In the shadows of Elon Musk’s imploding DOGE cut promises, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) is desperate to convince the GOP’s budget hawks that he can indeed find trillions of dollars in federal savings over the next decade. At the same time, Republicans have committed to extending and even building upon the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was passed during the first Trump administration, despite numerous sources of research indicating that the economic growth did not cover the lost tax revenues as assured. The latest GOP budget negotiations darken the future of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) disaster relief and Medicaid funding—ironically both lifelines more to red states over blue states.
The heavily promoted illusion of Elon Musk as a financial savior through his destructive Department of Government Efficiency frenzy has since been punctured after he once again revised down the estimated cost savings by his task force to a meager $150 billion, instead of the promised $2 trillion. With Musk preparing his exit from government, expert analysis suggests his mere $150 billion in supposed savings are matched by roughly the same amount in actual costs associated with those cuts. Thus, the chaos, cruelty, and firings bought us nothing. All this comes amid a recent report from the Treasury Department citing record deficit spending during the first six months of the fiscal year.
