Matt Weidinger discusses one bad public policy that unites Democrats and Republicans.
The House of Representatives recently passed by a single vote Republicans’ “One Big Beautiful Bill” that reflects President Donald Trump’s tax and spending agenda, and GOP senators are now working to put their own stamp on the bill. Given that partisan pedigree, you would think this bill had little in common with legislation that Democrats crafted during the Biden era. But a comparison reveals one dangerous issue that both parties agree on: significantly increasing deficits and debt.
Consider the last two administrations. Before Trump’s first term started, gross federal debt stood at $20 trillion. Despite his promises to pay it off, four years later it had risen to $27.7 trillion, up more than $7.7 trillion. In four years under President Joe Biden, the debt grew to $36.2 trillion, up another almost $8.5 trillion.
Those figures include the massive federal response to the Covid pandemic, which spanned both administrations. …
… Republican’s Big Beautiful Bill harbors similar gimmicks. Much attention has focused on Democratic opposition to its significant proposed savings in food stamps and Medicaid benefits. But despite those savings, CBO estimates that the legislation would explicitly add $2.4 trillion to already huge deficits expected over the next decade, driven by still greater tax cuts. Some Republicans have sought to wish away much of that, arguing that extensions of current tax policies don’t count. But that doesn’t change their real effect on increasing deficits and debt.
Even that is an underestimate. Just as Democrats proposed short-term benefit expansions, Republicans are proposing tax relief lasting only through the Trump administration. If these policies are made permanent by future Congresses, the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that they would add another $1.7 trillion to deficits over the coming decade. While that’s less than the $3 trillion in hidden spending increases in Build Back Better, the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that, counting the extension of its tax cuts plus interest, total debt would rise by more than $5 trillion during the next decade under the GOP bill.
