Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts Did Not Pay for Itself. Congress will Still look for Spending Cuts

Can Trump cut Government spending even more? Yes, he probably could. It would be detrimental to the United States citizens. It appears we concerns about spending exceeding tax receipts in 2025 and creating deficits. There is a solution to all of this.

Passed under Reconciliation, Trumps Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was to pay for itself with increased productivity and economic growth resulting in greater revenue. It was a lie from the get-go. The TCJA did not result in greater revenue hence more deficit spending. Having a Covid epidemic did not help either as it resulted in more spending. Food companies also added to the issues with increasing prices and cutting package sizes. Can’t label them Schooner Tuna examples, now can we?

Just to let you think on this one also, the Bush tax cuts did similar and we still have not caught up with them when Trump did his mystical magic with the 2017 tax break. Layer of layer tax breaks. So which is it?

Cut programs or increase taxes? Cut programs or increase taxes? I pick the latter as those programs did not pay for themselves and the burden “will” fall upon those in the upper tax brackets. They were to spend or invest in stuff creating greater productivity. They did not.

So, read CBS News analyzation of what is going on in spending by Trump. Then think about what I just wrote. Choose . . .

“Despite Trump’s promised cuts, U.S. spent more than $200 billion more in first 100 days than last year,” CBS News

Despite his promises to cut spending during the campaign. Trump in his first few months in office, President Trump‘s federal government has spent more than $200 billion more in his first 100 days as compared to the same time period last year.

Indeed , the government is spending more, day to day, than was spent in nine of the last 10 years. The exception: 2021, when the government was spending trillions to fight the coronavirus pandemic and prevent an economic disaster.

CBS News analyzed the Treasury Department’s daily financial reports to track the money flowing out of every government account each day since Mr. Trump returned to office. Here’s a breakdown of what we found for spending through April 29. We will be tracking and updating the spending throughout the year.

How is it possible given the high-profile repeated announcements of layoffs, canceled contracts, claims of fraud elimination by Mr. Trump and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency and belt-tightening across the administration.

The answer partly lies in the fundamentals of the government’s budget when it comes to big-ticket expenditures that the White House can’t fully control or massive changes to the way the U.S. pays for aging Americans’ retirements and medical care.

The rest of the answer is politics. The conservative base that elected Mr. Trump and the Republican majorities in Congress may not support cutting the other biggest share of federal spending, the operations of the U.S. military and caring for veterans.

Look at some of the areas representing the largest spending and largest increases in Mr. Trump’s first 100 days as compared to the same time period in prior years.

According to our analysis of the Treasury Department’s daily reports on accounts, many of the largest persistently rising costs are direct payments to the military and seniors.

The federal government’s habit of spending more money than it takes in means the national debt is growing. Paired with higher interest rates, the daily price tag of paying the interest on the debt is skyrocketing. The amount over the last three months is about double the amount paid out just three years earlier.

And the daily payments on bonds and other securities that show up in the Treasury Daily Statement cover only cash interest paid to public debt holders. There are other elements of the government’s debt obligations that only add to the cost.

One way a Trump administration can impact the budget is through the civilian workforce. This has been a focal point of Musk and DOGE via layoffs and buyouts. However, many of those attempts are facing legal challenges and have delayed or reversed firings.

Despite the announced staff reductions, one of the biggest areas of the increasing spending in the beginning of Mr. Trump’s second term remains federal salaries. Workers were given a 2% raise when then-President Biden signed an executive order two days before Christmas, a move allowed because of Congress’ inaction on permanent federal budgets.

Combined, it’s the military and veterans, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and debt payments driving the lion’s share of federal spending over the last decade. In the last full fiscal year, they accounted for nearly two-thirds of federal government outlays. The breakdown has barely changed over the last decade.

The vast majority of the attempted cutting so far by DOGE has been outside those areas, focused on smaller targets that might prove popular with President Trump’s political base, such as foreign aid, the Education Department and grants to colleges and universities.

“If the savings are rather small and the pain is high, DOGE is going to be a liability,” said Nat Malkus, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, who has been tracking DOGE’s work. Malkus adds . . .

“If you really want to cut federal spending, you’re going to have to cut into the programs where the lion’s share of the money is. That’s Medicare and Medicaid, Social Security and we spend a lot of money on interest.”

There are some significant one-year spending reductions in some agencies and spending categories. 

Here’s a look at some of the largest reductions since Mr. Trump took office.

“The fiscal year ends September 30. There’s still a lot more year left so let’s see where we are at the end of the year,” said Stephen Miller, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy.

A look at DOGE cuts advertised

Musk’s DOGE team has focused its attention on many smaller spenders among federal programs.

DOGE’s website claims the task force has already saved that much, at $160 billion, between canceling grants, contracts and leases and making cuts to the federal workforce. On its “wall of receipts” site online, the office reports the largest reductions so far come from the Department of Health and Human Services, General Services Administration, Department of Education, Department of Labor and Office of Personnel Management.

Only about $60 billion, or less than 40%, of that alleged savings are itemized on the office’s online “wall of receipts” and even those itemizations have included errors and lax documentation.

In his work at the American Enterprise Institute, Malkus said his review indicates the savings is more likely to be around $80 billion.

Even the $160 billion advertised as saved so far by DOGE would be tiny in the context of the larger federal budget and national debt.

The administration has already spent more than $200 billion more than last year in a little over three months, according to CBS News’ analysis of Treasury reports.

The advertised savings represents less than 2% of a full year’s national budget. That’s akin to a family with $10,000 in monthly spending trimming its bills by $200 a month.

The supporters of the administration’s cost-cutting efforts have characterized it as necessary to root out fraud and waste and to take a bite out of the national debt. However, the Treasury Department reports that debt stands at $36 trillion as of this week.

The $160 billion advertised DOGE savings is about 0.5% of the debt, so the reduction from DOGE’s efforts would be like a family with $10,000 in credit card balances paying it down by $50.

An independent analysis by the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan nonprofit that studies the federal workforce, also reported recently that the disruptions caused by the DOGE cuts may have cost taxpayers $135 million.

Musk recently said his work with DOGE is winding down.

Explore the spending details yourself

I am not going to add the 5 charts that are included in this section. I would have to have the ability to click from each chart page. However, the chart can be found at the very end of John Kelly’s CBS News analysis of Treasury Daily Statement. Updated through spending on April 29, 2025. An excellent report by John Kelly of CBS with a contribution by Taylor Johnston. CBS News: “Despite Trump’s promised cuts, U.S. spent more than $200 billion more in first 100 days than last year.”