Source: The Dispatch
by Yuval Levin
“If you listen to how Republicans in Washington talk about federal spending these days, you might imagine that we have entered an era of budget restraint. ‘Fiscal responsibility is what we do as conservatives,’ House Speaker Mike Johnson said in February. ‘And we have a $36 trillion federal debt. We have a giant deficit that we’re contending with. I think we need to pay down the credit card.’ … But although Republicans’ concerns about the debt are well grounded, their claims to have picked up the mantle of reform in response are baffling. … The tax and spending proposals that Republicans are crafting this spring are in fact recklessly profligate. And no one dares to touch the entitlement programs that are the actual chief sources of the government’s fiscal challenges.” (05/13/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/congress-trump-administration-budget-deficits-entitlements/