The Smiling Head of an Ignorant Party...

 

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson takes questions on tariffs last week. This week he is trying to pass a budget bill that will increase the national debt by $4 trillion over 10 years. ((J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press))

In support of the Felon of the US his lackey Speaker of the House is working hard to further blow up the national debt.

Republicans are not fiscal conservatives nor do they give a rat's behind about anyone bit the very wealthy and the conservative billionaire oligarchs they faithfully serve.

Congressional Republicans are trying to pass a budget this week with a massive tax cut that they say isn’t a tax cut — sleight-of-hand that depends on an arcane accounting device that would make Ponzi schemers blush. The House could vote on the magic math as early as Tuesday; the Republican-majority Senate shamefully gave it a go-ahead early Saturday morning.

Welcome to Washington’s latest act of budgetary smoke and mirrors.

To understand the scheme, you have to go back to 2017, when Congress passed President Trump’s Tax Cut and Jobs Act, which included $2 trillion in tax reductions that mostly benefited the wealthy. To reduce the cost to U.S. coffers, Congress included a “sunset” clause due to kick in at the end of this year. It correctly used a “current law baseline” that showed revenue rising in 2026. Now, Republicans want to switch to a misleading “current policy baseline,” which — presto, change-o — simply assumes the 2026 revenue gains were never in the picture and allows them to say the extended tax cuts are “free.”

This gimmick doesn’t eliminate the cost of the cuts, however; it just hides them. The cost will be real: $4 trillion added to the public debt over 10 years.

The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget slammed the baseline maneuver as “nihilistic, ahistorical, and inaccurate.” Even some Republicans are reportedly uneasy with the plan, denouncing it as "intellectually fraudulent." As one wag put it, “It’s like telling your spouse that continuing to pay for your $900-a-month gym membership is free — since you’ve been doing it already.”

The chicanery serves two political goals.

First, it allows Republicans to posture as deficit hawks while blowing a massive hole in the budget. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, for example, has called the national debt a “time bomb,” and House Speaker Mike Johnson says it is the “number one threat to our nation.” If they get away with the baseline switch, they can continue to claim they care about the debt, all the while raising it by trillions of dollars.

Second, erasing the impact of the original cuts and their extension will also enable Republicans to pass even larger tax cuts than budget rules would normally allow.

The timing of all this couldn’t be worse. Our national debt is spiraling out of control, posing a risk to both the economy and national security. This year alone, the budget deficit is projected to reach almost $2 trillion, while total public debt has ballooned to $28.9 trillion. Alarmingly, we spend more on interest payments than on national defense or Medicare, with debt service becoming the fastest-growing expense in the federal budget. As we spend more to service our debt, it’s harder to find dollars for critical initiatives like education and healthcare.

What the Felon of the US and his lackeys in congress are doing is indeed smoke and mirrors and they know it. But lying is one of the Felon of the US strongest suits and he intends to play it to the fullest. Strong arming anyone in his party that refuses t go along.

It will take a monstrous public outcry and contacting your representatives and senators, threatening them with withering your vote to fight this republican insanity.

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