2026 of President Trump “lean budget“Is out, and at first glance, he gives defenders small governments to encourage. It offers deep cuts to national agencies, calls for eliminating redundant programs and gestures to revive federalism by changing power and responsibility in the United States.
But this budget is more rhetorical than revolutionary. As impressive as Trump's envisaged cuts are – $ 163 billion – they lose a chandelier because the budget version envisaged in the congress also requires an increase in border defense and safety expenses, as well as the extension of tax reductions of 2017. And for all its inflamed statements, the budget does not really face the engines of our budgetary crisis.
Fortunately, the budget devotes recognition of the Ministry of Efficiency that federal sprawl has become unmanageable. It proposes to finance the environmental justice programs, to cut the budgets of the National Institute of Health and National Science Foundation, to reduce the Ministry of Education and to eliminate the well-being of businesses as a climate policy.
He also rightly calls for cutting national endowments for arts and human sciences – two anachronisms without constitutional justification. Art and education do not need federal management; They need freedom.
The budget is withdrawn from Washington microgestion of local affairs. Education subsidies, housing subsidies and green energy projects are better cut and managed by governments of states or the private sector. The unique federal fixes for everything, from school lunches to water systems have failed. The devolved authority is not only constitutional; It's practical.
But these fillings are wrapped in a document which nevertheless supports an inflated government. Even with discretions, 2026 discretionary expenses would essentially remain unchanged to $ 1.6 billion. In some respects, the budget devotes the expenses of the Biden era.
Then there is the defense. For all the rhetoric of “America first” on maintaining a domestic objective, Trump's budget does nothing to brake the Pentagon Free tax for all aimed at projecting power into the world. Absolutely the opposite: he offers a 13% increasePushing the basic defense expenses beyond $ 1 billion, including $ 892.6 billion in discretionary expenses supplemented by $ 119.3 billion in compulsory spending and an additional $ 150 billion to adopt by the Congress reconciliation process.
The Pentagon remains the largest federal bureaucracy and among the least responsible. He has not succeeded in a full audit since 2018, but he obtained an increase. If “Peace by force” means virgin checks for defense entrepreneurs and redundant weapons systems, we must rethink our definition of force.
Consider the new F-47 fighter plane included in this budget. As Jack Nicastro notes In Reason magazine, this plane – presented as the most advanced ever built – is under development to replace the F -35, which was a boondoggy funded by taxpayers. Until now, the F-35 has cost taxpayers more than $ 400 billion, well beyond the initial expected cost, and should total 2 dollars of dollars during its lifespan. He suffered from technical failures (including at some point, the flight problems in the rain) and some doubt that he will never be fully functional.
Given the government incentives that gave us the F-35 mess to us and since the air fight moves to automated or remotely piloted systems, why will we believe that our money will be better spent on the F-47?
Trump’s budget also increases internal security expenditure, supporting another sprawling bureaucracy. The large -scale approach to the President of Expulsion, although politically popular with his constituency, costs a lot of money. Like the David Bier notes from Cato InstituteBlind deportations are likely to reduce the workforce, reduce tax revenue and undervalue economic growth-while ignoring immigration reforms based on Merit that Trump claims to support.
Finally, there is the omnipresent elephant in the room: rights. Social security, Medicare and Medicaid represent almost 60% of spending and are the main engines of our debt. However, they are mostly intact in the current budget sketch. The administration promises a more complete plan later to show where the savings would be found, but we heard this before – and the president of the House Mike Johnson said on Tuesday that the Republicans block some of the most effective approaches To cut Medicaid. But mathematics are simple. Without serious reform of rights, no reduction in discretionary expenditure can avoid a debt crisis.
Bipartite incapacity to govern in a responsible manner is not only a policy of policy; It's moral. The deficit expenditure and the burden of the reimbursement of the debt take place on private investment, feed inflation and load future generations with obligations of which they do not have a say. The United States is on the right track to exceed its debt file from the First World War era by 2029. If this budget is really the plan to reverse the course, we are in trouble.
Yes, Trump's new budget has light points, but these gains are neutralized by massive defense expenses, expensive immigration priorities and persistent gadgets. At best, he maintains a defective status quo. We don't need more than the same thing; We need proof of a serious turnaround. Until it happens, we have no other choice but to assume that Trump's budget is another Grand Government Plan in small government clothes.
Veronique de Rugy is main researcher at the George Mason University Mercatus Center. This article was produced in collaboration with the union creators.
