I think the gop has tried to cut spending.
Cutting surplus government workers.
Closing agencies that are not needed because another agency does the same thing.
Cutting wasteful forgien aid. And making sure the forgien aid we do send is useful.
Small easy cutting like npr and other things that should not be fed funded.
Tariffs that seem to be saving money. Which i hope is used to pay off debt and not vote buy.
The big ones health care, medicare, medicaid, Ss, Ssi, welfare spending and defence spending are going to need both parties to give up a lot.
I will take on the gop holly grail first. Defence. I seem to remember that the military has been trimmed some. What we cant do is trim defence so much that it puts our soilders in peril without the equipment they need. Or make military family members live on peanuts while they do the work of protecting the United States.
The rest SS, SSI, medicare, medicaid and obama care is going to cause the democrats to scream the GOP is throwing grandma off a cliff ect. Their favorite scare tatics. Think about the latest shut down all over extending what was suppose to be temporary help during covid.
There have been many gop offers to try and stop the bleeding of tax dollars from these programs and from what i have seen all the democrats will discuss is raising taxs.
Any spending that has been cut is a cut in spending. It is a separate equation from INCREASES in spending on other things.
It is separate from new tax laws that may (or may not) alter federal revenue.
It is separate from the overall deficit, and the overall debt. (Though a simple google search would reveal that the 2025 deficit was smaller than 2024.)
Any spending that was cut was spending that was cut. Period. It would not have been cut without the initiatives that sought to cut items.
I will fully admit that I am disappointed in the (lack of) extent that cutting did. But cuts were cuts nonetheless, and any progress on that ā even just marginal ā is a step in the right direction.
If the goal is to just cut, for the sake of cutting. Then both Dems and Republicans cut.
If the goal is to reduce the deficit and debt then cuts cannot then be replaced with net increases in spending elsewhere. That would mean an increase in spendingā¦ which is what Trump admin 1.0 and what 2.0 is doing.
Good post.
If a spending cut in one area is offset by a spending increase in another area, then they are not separate in the context of this conversation, which is overall government spending. Overall, government spending went up under the first Trump administration and is on track to do the same in the second. No different than recent Dem administrations.
I can agree with this in theory, but until both parties decide to take on the three things that are driving the vast majority of our debt, Iām not giving them any credit for cutting spending with one hand while they increase spending with the other.
For you.
This thread was about what DOGE cut. Not what Trump or Congress increased.
Thatās why I stated this:
One caveat to that: If you know of some spending that was increased BECAUSE there were cuts somewhere else, I would accept your argument.
By and large, increases in spending āover thereā in the budget were going to happen whether or not DOGE cut something āover hereā. At least those DOGE cuts happened.
OK, thank you for explaining your POV.
You should probably file your taxes early this year. Good luck everyone!
The Internal Revenue Service is asking seasoned employees without any direct tax experience to perform entry-level tasks of answering phones and processing tax returns, a step impacted staff call unprecedented as the agency scrambles to prepare for filing season.
The reassigned workers, who are being detailed out on an involuntary basis, are coming from the IRS human resources and, potentially, the IT departments. Some employees reported that supervisors first asked for anyone who had experience in the front-line fields to consider the roles, but they ultimately chose many individuals with no prior experience working directly on tax issues.
The details come as IRS has dramatically slashed its workforce, cutting more than 20,000 employeesāor more than 20% of total staffāin the last year. The divisions seeking internal staffing support have seen similarly significant losses to their workforces and have struggled to rebuild in time for filing season, according to a new report from the IRS inspector general.
Itās all automated. File them correctly and nobody needs phone reps or anything else. Direct deposit within 10 days. Amazing stuff.
Make a mistake and they fix it for you too.
Delete it right back if they overpay.
No need to appeal or argue.
