Once you wrap your head around the reality that every single dollar in the federal budget – every single dollar that once belonged to you – is someone’s sacred cow, it starts to become clear why cutting spending is a near-impossible task.
Trump is not leading on the reduction of spending front - he's letting some members of Congress and Elon Musk tilt that windmill. There's a LOT more than just "fraud and abuse" in the system and this is quite well known. Entertaining anecdotes don't amount to the size in reductions needed, but they do help sell the case. The details in the "One Big Beautiful Bill" aren't available - but they darn sure better include zeroing out vast lines of "green" bullshit - as all that is nothing but a sop to Democrat donors.
I see it as leading in the sense that presidents always get outsized credit and blame for things that happen on their watch. One issue is not having enough members of Congress helping, which includes many who are supposedly on the same side. If spending is not reined in now, then when? Business as usual is not sustainable. People pretend that it is because of the country's power and wealth, but debt catches up to everyone eventually. We have long since passed the point of politics on this; now, it's a math issue, and the maths do not care about your tribal affiliation.
The real gift of human cognitive evolution is that it's provided us with temporal understanding. We don't have to walk off the cliff to know it will kill us. We don't have to get bitten by the snake to know what will happen. We can see the future of our current actions and it is not good for us.
Reducing the size of Federal government employees, selling/renting government properties no longer needed, purging Social security and Medicare/Medicaid roles and expelling illegals and the hold they have on social services and healthcare will make a big difference but it won't be enough. If our conservative leadership can't do the hard work that needs doing, they are no better than liberals. Hard to have much faith.
I increasingly get the feeling it's they WON'T do the work. GOP members love the trappings of being in Congress and, of course, the opportunities for self-enrichment. But they don't much of a taste for governing, which involves tough choices and leads to criticism. I often think they'd rather be the perpetual minority. That way, they can whine about Dems, fundraise off the left's excesses, and be responsible for nothing.
Trump is not leading on the reduction of spending front - he's letting some members of Congress and Elon Musk tilt that windmill. There's a LOT more than just "fraud and abuse" in the system and this is quite well known. Entertaining anecdotes don't amount to the size in reductions needed, but they do help sell the case. The details in the "One Big Beautiful Bill" aren't available - but they darn sure better include zeroing out vast lines of "green" bullshit - as all that is nothing but a sop to Democrat donors.
I see it as leading in the sense that presidents always get outsized credit and blame for things that happen on their watch. One issue is not having enough members of Congress helping, which includes many who are supposedly on the same side. If spending is not reined in now, then when? Business as usual is not sustainable. People pretend that it is because of the country's power and wealth, but debt catches up to everyone eventually. We have long since passed the point of politics on this; now, it's a math issue, and the maths do not care about your tribal affiliation.
The real gift of human cognitive evolution is that it's provided us with temporal understanding. We don't have to walk off the cliff to know it will kill us. We don't have to get bitten by the snake to know what will happen. We can see the future of our current actions and it is not good for us.
Reducing the size of Federal government employees, selling/renting government properties no longer needed, purging Social security and Medicare/Medicaid roles and expelling illegals and the hold they have on social services and healthcare will make a big difference but it won't be enough. If our conservative leadership can't do the hard work that needs doing, they are no better than liberals. Hard to have much faith.
I increasingly get the feeling it's they WON'T do the work. GOP members love the trappings of being in Congress and, of course, the opportunities for self-enrichment. But they don't much of a taste for governing, which involves tough choices and leads to criticism. I often think they'd rather be the perpetual minority. That way, they can whine about Dems, fundraise off the left's excesses, and be responsible for nothing.
I fear you are right. The fact that their constituents are so demanding doesn't help. I'm afraid there are very few real conservatives out there.