Source: Gideon’s Substack
by Noah Millman
“DOGE is rampaging through the federal government, but its efforts to decimate the federal workforce have had no effect so far on government spending — as one would expect given that bureaucratic head count is a very small percentage of federal spending, that indiscriminate firing often leads to more short-term costs, and that for a while at least we’re still paying these people not to work. Maybe we’ll start to see savings if Congress actually does cancel some programs, but even then the amount of money involved is not consequential in the larger budget context. Trump’s major legislative initiative, meanwhile, is to extend the tax cuts from his first term which are set to expire. If enacted, this would massively expand the federal deficit at a time when it is already out of control.” (03/25/25)
https://gideons.substack.com/p/steering-into-the-fiscal-crisis