FLBear5630 said:
whiterock said:
FLBear5630 said:
Waco1947 said:
whiterock said:
FLBear5630 said:
whiterock said:
FLBear5630 said:
whiterock said:
good grief you are confused. YOU are the one simultaneously complaining about the deficit being too big for too long and Trump slashing too much too fast.
I am the one who's speaking reality - that it would politically and economically reckless to try to slash the budget to balance in a single cycle, in no small part because it is entitlements driving the deficit. The more pragmatic policy would be to cut as much as you can up front and try to grow your way into sustainable ratios. That is exactly what Trump's stated plan is. And he is making good progress on it.
Trump's budget raises CBO deficit projections, which are never accurate, because they have too many static assumptions and baseline projections, leading to nonsense like keeping the current tax rates in place equating to a budget cut.
You are going to look really, really foolish as things continue to improve......
You do have a blind spot here. For a reasonable, normally intelligent poster the fact that you can't see that "how" they are implementing policies can be a negative. No matter how noble or correct a policy is if the execution is handled in a boorish, amatuerish method it is a negative. DOGE was just that, the amatuerish, boorish implementation of a policy everyone pretty much agrees.
Every president promises to cut the size of government, but none of them ever do anything about it. We finally get one who does. And you insist that how he did it undermines the benefit of actually doing it?
A good comparison, Biden leaving Afghanistan. We all agree, including Trump, that we needed to get out of Afghanistan. Sound policy decision. The execution of that policy was amateurish, haphazard and ultimately a negative.
What a misanthropic analogy. The cuts Trump has made to civil service payroll, honoring decades-old GOP promises to eliminate agencies, etc......has been rendered to the level of the Abby Gate bombing in Kabul? All those cuts to government, because of how they were done, is now equivalent to the Taliban retaking Afghanistan?
Regardless of whether things get better, how those people were treated and the side show Trump turned it into will be a negative in future elections going forward. You will see Elon with a Chainsaw, Elon standing at parade rest behind Trump in staff meetings, and hear how the FAA, NOAA and others had to hire people back because of the amateurish way they did it.
So if he'd just been nicer about how he slashed payroll and decomissioned agencies, everything would be peachy? None of the entrenched interests would have complained had they been cut by hands wearing velvet gloves?
Was the policy good? Absolutely, if he wants to reduce the size of Government, he isn't the first, we all agree. We all agree the inclusion training and diversity distracted from the mission. How, was a disaster.
As for those number getting better. What timeframe are we talking? 6 months? 1 year? 2 years? 2028? In the short term, you will see revenue increases. What happens in the mid and long term?
So many problems with that last part.
1) CBO definitions are arbitrary, like extending current tax rates being equivalent to a tax cut.
2) CBO projections do not take future tariff revenues into account.
3) CBO projections are static, do not allow for any dynamic effect of stimulus or tax policies.
4) CBO projections do not take any of the DOGE waste/fraud/abuse cuts into account.
5) CBO projections do not take any of the passed or pending recissions packages into account
6) CBO projections do not take any of the civil service workforce reductions into account.
7) CBO projections do not take any of the DOGE process improvements into account (e.g. a single ERP for USG)
>>>DOGE fraud/abuse/waste numbers + annualized tariff revenues are over a quarter of the PROJECTED deficit.<<<
Again. Repeat after me:
-Slowing the rate of growth in government spending is a positive thing.
-Accelerating economic growth to generate more tax revenues is a positive thing.
-Trump has a pragmatic plan to grow our way into a viable financial situation.
-So far, Trump is making tangible, concrete progress on his plan.
The most unreasonable idea of all is that Trump could have done all that without making anyone angry.
Repeat after me, you have to actually have numbers that show it. But, once you get the "right" people in place, they will show a rosy picture, as delinquencies and foreclosures are rising...
The numbers show a USG budget surplus for the month of June, for the first time in decades. The numbers show economic growth beating expectations.
Those are positive numbers. right?
By the way, where did I mention CBO? You are the only one using CBO. Might want to move to another source...
LOL the deficit projections you are citing are the CBO generated numbers.
Is CPI good? Or are they against Trump? Just want to know before I look... That's right, you can't tell me, it depends on if it is good or bad...
The CPI numbers are nominal increases against worsening job numbers. That is instructive as the Fed has a dual mandate - to fight inflation AND facilitate full employment.
that notorious Maga rag USA Today says - mixed results.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/08/12/cpi-report-data-inflation-july/85618971007/
Mixed results is what one would reasonably expect with massive policy changes looming, most of which have only been in place 4-6 weeks.
Cutting interest rates lowers the federal deficit.
- Inflationary pressure: Artificially low interest rates for prolonged periods could risk igniting or re-igniting inflation, especially in a near-full employment economy, according to Reuters. Higher inflation could negate any savings on debt service costs by eroding the purchasing power of the dollar and potentially leading to higher future interest rates if the Federal Reserve is forced to act to bring inflation under control.
- Investor confidence: Maintaining interest rates at levels perceived as too low or politically driven could erode investor confidence in the long-term stability of the economy, Reuters says. This could make it more difficult or expensive for the government to borrow in the future, negating the benefits of initial rate cuts.
- Underlying fiscal imbalances: Even with lower interest rates, if the government's underlying spending and revenue policies create a structural deficit, the positive effect of lower rates might only be temporary.
Lowering the federal deficit reduces inflation pressures from deficit spending.
think it thru.....
The Federal Deficit is tracked by the Treasury. You keep looking a models, I am looking at the actual deficit. Everything you have been saying is what could be... I am talking what is.
Make up your mind on timeframe. TRACKING actual deficits is a rear view mirror. PROJECTING what future deficits might look like in response to policy is windshield work.
You make a point, is the budget surplus a positive thing? First is it real? I guess it is reported by CBO, correct? The same models you can't trust. So. let's say it is real.
LOL you simply do not understand how all of this stuff works. You said above (correctly) that the Treasury reports actual outcomes at the end of each month, then suggest (incorrectly) that CBO also reports them. CBO does not report them. They simply plug the Treasury numbers into their projection models as baseline data.
The question on whether that is positive or not is how is it used? Did it lower the deficit? If so, than is it a great thing. Or did we pump it into more Government spending, only spending you like. Maybe Defense, we will need more National Guard monies now that they are Federalized. Than no, it is not a good thing. It is more of the same.
Month by month numbers matter, but they are not determinative for long term impacts. We had a (substantial and very rare) surplus in June. We had a larger than expected deficit in July. Only fools would argue that one number or the other is instructive as to the impact of Trump policies. The sober mind would average the two out to get a better idea of what they might tell us, and then remember that Trump's BBB did not get passed until the end of July. Anyone making any serious attempt to get a handle on where we might be headed would have to note that the spending which occurred in June/July is, by law, a Biden budget mitigated by Trump's payroll RIF, agency closures, etc...... Trump critics are not trying to do any of that. They're just engaging in insanity, squealing that he is cratering the federal government agency by agency yet not saving a dime.
Reality is, any impact the BBB might have, plus/minus, cannot be reasonably imputed because it was not actually signed into law until the two periods had elapsed. But you just gotta gotta complain about Trump very day because you hate his schtick so much, so here we are.....
Keep saying it. Maybe it will come true or closer to what I think you want is just for people to believe it is true. So far, we are seeing no indications of debt relief or lower spending that will get us to not havng to deficit spend. But, you will get the sheep to listen because you use big words...
lol
We actually did see an indication of lower spending in June...... (surplus).
We actually do see indications of lower spending in USG - reducing workforce an agency at a time.
We actually do see implementation of reforms that will lower operating costs (Invida ERP govt-wide, etc....).
-clawback efforts are inviting furious legal challenges.
-recissions packages are working their way thru Congress, billions of dollars at a time.
If none of that was real or consequential, why all the lawsuits to stop him from doing it?
Do you seriously mean to suggest that double digit cuts to discretionary spending will not have any impact on spending?
Other facts that are inconvenient to your argument:
-Trump inherited Biden's budget.
-it took 6 months for Congress to amend it (with the BBB) - Dems in lock-step to kill it.
-new budget negotiations (for FY2026) are just now starting (and Dems are apoplectic).
...and on and on and on....
Your suggestion that there have been no positive changes, no signs of improvement is simply disconnected from reality. Your suggestion that we go from a $1.9T deficit to balance in a single cycle is utterly unserious. The plan has been stated - to cut $1T out of spending, then grow the economy (and tax revenues) to cover the rest. There is a wide array of evidence that progress is being made on both.
but neverTrumpers gonna neverTrump........