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DOGE's IRS cuts could cost the government $500 billion - proof it's not about balancing the budget [1]

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Date: 2025-03-24

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face— forever” George Orwell, 1984

It’s not about balancing the budget. Trump wants to tear down the government

On Saturday, the Washington Post published an article titled and subtitled:

Tax revenue could drop by 10 percent amid turmoil at IRS Staff cuts and disruptions related to the US DOGE Service have officials bracing for a sharp loss of revenue.

WaPo fleshed out the story.

Senior tax officials are bracing for a sharp drop in revenue collected this spring, as an increasing number of individuals and businesses spurn filing their taxes or attempt to skip paying balances owed to the Internal Revenue Service, according to three people with knowledge of tax projections. Treasury Department and IRS officials are predicting a decrease of more than 10 percent in tax receipts by the April 15 deadline compared with 2024, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share nonpublic data. That would amount to more than $500 billion in lost federal revenue; the IRS collected $5.1 trillion last year. For context, the US government spent $825 billion on the Defense Department in fiscal 2024. (Bolding mine)

It could not be clearer that Trump’s aim is not balancing the budget .

The evidence

Conservatives claim to be deficit hawks. Conservatives lie about everything. Ergo, conservatives lie about being deficit hawks. That’s a statement of logic. Let’s also ask if there is any evidence to support the premises of that syllogism.

Yes, there is.

You cannot turn on your device without hearing a conservative list the deficit as the second biggest existential threat to the US after trans-Americans. And the MAGA godhead, Donald “I cannot tell the truth” Trump, has made lying a sine qua non of contemporary conservatism.

The proof of the statement goes beyond logic.

Balancing the financial books requires that income matches outgo. Conservative balanced budget crusaders bang on about reducing outgo. However, you never hear a peep out of them about increasing revenue. Instead, they go the other way — and work like hamsters on crack to promote tax cuts.

That is fiscal suicide.

Voodoo Economics 2.0. Defund the government

To convince the MAGAs that less is more, these fiscal absolutists say that tax cuts lead to increased economic activity and a skyrocketing GDP — which in turn increases tax revenues. For 45 years — since Reagan inflicted voodoo economics on the citizenry — there has been no evidence for that contention. It is cynical, magical thinking. But it works to get conservatives elected. So here we are.

And where we are is voodoo economics on steroids.

Not only are conservatives promising the oligarchs they have suffered enough — that more tax cuts are on the way — they are stripping the Internal Revenue Service of those workers who ensure that people pay those reduced taxes.

IRS auditors are unique among federal employees in that they generate more income than it costs to employ them. In a market context, it would be like landlords trying to improve their cash flow by cutting maintenance staff and rent collectors.

MAGAs may not grasp the concept, but regular folks understand the lunacy.

In September 2024, before Trump took over, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CFRB) analyzed the effect of a continuing resolution introduced by the GOP House that would extend the $20.2 billion in rescissions to the IRS in the then current appropriations bill. The net effect was to add $45.6B to deficits.

Trump and his DOGE vandals have decided that was not enough red ink.

Trumponomics — aka, economics on acid

Trump tells his base that his tariffs will not only offset the legislative loss of revenue (tax cuts) and the side-effect decrease in government income (IRS enforcement cuts), but they will also balance the budget. But before celebrating their boy’s fiscal acumen, the base should consider his track record.

Not just the bankruptcies and failed businesses but also his promise to balance the budget “ fairly quickly ” in his first term. Here are the numbers , both with and without the exceptional COVID expenditures — note how Trump stacks up against his successor .

​

Anyone who believes what Trump says is an intellectual peer of the hundreds who died at Jonestown .

Warning to the oligarchs

So far, MAGA has remained loyal to their cult leader. But those on the top of the economic pile, who think the citizenry will take anything they are given, should consider that even the have-little have limits. Two months into the current Trump term, there has been no significant increase in inflation or joblessness and no interruption of social security payments. The mass deportations have yet to start. Tariffs are not yet widely rolled out.

But as soon as recession clouds loom, GOP reps will receive calls. As craptastically as their town halls have gone so far, they should expect worse. And in 2026, the voters will decide every House and 33 Senate seats. By then, the administration’s true aim — the destruction of the government with its concomitant economic downturn — will be evident.

Warning to the voters

It is likely that Trump, Musk, and the rest of the anti-America crowd are working hard to ensure the 2026 elections do not take place. Could it happen? Why not? It has before. In March 1933, the Nazis won a plurality in the Reichstag. It was the last free election anywhere in Germany until 1949.

The difference is that, in the 20th century, America and its allies restored democracy to West Germany. In the 21st century, no one will be able to restore democracy to the US — except for the citizens themselves.

There will be blood.

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