The United States Needs A Spending Chainsaw

Authored by Daniel Lacalle,

The latest figures published by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are staggering. $75 billion saved in two weeks. Some of the items they have slashed are astonishing, including payments to transgender musicals in Ireland, DEI in Serbia, or decolonization of curriculum vitae. This is a two-week result, so it should be applauded. However, there is a lot more that needs to be done.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the United States will have a $6.1 trillion deficit, despite record receipts of $17 trillion, a growing economy, and declining unemployment. Furthermore, they expect an annual deficit of $5.6 trillion in the 2026-2029 period.

As Scott Bessent has correctly stated, the United States does not have a revenue problem; it has a spending problem. The CBO expects annual outlays of $23 trillion in the 2026-29 period.

What do we know?

No revenue measure will eliminate the deficit. 

The United States’ governments have implemented numerous tax increases in the past decades and the national debt continues to reach record levels. Additionally, when revenues rise, governments spend even more than before.

The US spending problem comes from a completely unsustainable increase in mandatory spending, which is never audited and simply rises without control. 

Mandatory spending is expected to increase to $14 trillion per annum. 

Overspending and inefficiencies in these programs have never been properly tackled.

The measures announced by the Trump administration so far may bring an additional $300 billion in revenues. If the current pace of savings announced by DOGE is sustained, it could reach $1 trillion. However, as time passes, some of the savings are more difficult to find. Furthermore, the deep state machine is doing all it can to prevent any more cost savings, even using the judicial system.

The United States needs a chainsaw, like Milei implemented in Argentina. Considering that state and local departments will resist as much as they can and try to sabotage any spending cut, the government needs to implement a mandatory zero deficit in all administrations, effectively stopping the debt hemorrhage in the system.

The United States needs to do this because it is the only way to end the persistent inflation problem that plagues America, and it is essential to maintain the United States dollar as the world reserve currency. Furthermore, not implementing these drastic cuts will likely lead the United States to an economic decline like the French and UK ones. High taxes, elevated government spending, and constant deficits have made these once strong economies stagnate, lose competitiveness, and cripple investment.

Milei proved that drastic cuts can be implemented without hurting the economy. He has slashed inflation and reduced poverty, and the economy was already in a robust growth mode by the third quarter. The Argentina case was significantly more challenging than the United States one. It is time to bring the chainsaw and end the political spending spree.