Finding the Courage To Take Down the Debt

Does President Trump’s incoming administration have the ideas, discipline and expertise to rein in the federal government’s galloping deficit spending and runaway national debt? We will soon find out.

This time around, the president is trying something unique, creating a department of government efficiency (DOGE) now headed by entrepreneur Elon Musk after Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out. He has the goal of cutting $2 trillion from U.S. spending. That’s a tall task.

In fiscal year 2024, the U.S. budget was $6.8 trillion with a deficit of $1.8 trillion, adding to a $35.5 trillion national debt. In essence, the government last year borrowed 26 cents for every dollar it spent. Imagine we all go to supermarkets and ask the owners to loan us 26% of our grocery bills, which we pay interest on but never pay back. At some point, the owners stop lending to us, or the supermarkets go broke.

We as a nation face the same dilemma. If we don’t curtail the deficit spending and start chipping away at the national debt, a day will come when investors stop buying the Treasury bills that fund government spending and America goes broke.

Most economists see a common-sense solution, but it will take time and fortitude. First and foremost, grow the economy. That means giving the free-enterprise system an opportunity to innovate and produce goods and services that America and the rest of the world want and need. Second, restrict the national debt’s expansion: It cannot grow faster than the economy.

America has the tools to save itself, starting with world-class financial markets that make capital readily available for economic activities on all scales, from massive government infrastructure projects to startup companies that can revolutionize the way people live, work and play. However, government bureaucracies sometimes get in the way of common-sense solutions with excessive and time-consuming paperwork and redundant approval processes that hit hardest on small- and mid-size companies, the growth engines of the U.S. economy.

That’s where DOGE comes in. Initially, the agency appears to be focusing on whether the government needs all the other 438 government agencies and how to best streamline the ones worth keeping. Musk is asking what is each department’s core function? To answer that question, an elite cadre of civic-minded free-enterprise advocates was asked to come up with recommendations for consolidation and increased efficiencies.

But good ideas without the expertise to implement them are wasted time. The answer might be Russell Vought, the nominee to lead the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. A veteran of the last Trump administration, Vought has written extensively about how our federal bureaucracy could be more effective and efficient, and where spending could be trimmed. He also knows the ins and outs of the Washington, D.C., labyrinth.

So, it seems the pieces might be in place for America to finally start dealing with its deficit and debt problems, but only if we as a people have the courage.