The many issues that Rep. Dusty Johnson gets wrong about the budget reconciliation bill that's in Congress
On Tuesday, Feb. 25, the House passed a budget reconciliation bill that doesn’t pencil out.
Before the vote, Rep. Dusty Johnson posted a video in which he made the following claims:
We are in trouble.
Raising taxes on the rich will not solve the problem.
Putting work requirements on those receiving “welfare programs” will save “hundreds of billions of dollars.”
The rules of reconciliation protect Social Security, Medicare, and SNAP benefits.
Let’s dig into these claims.
“We are in trouble.”
In January 2021, ProPublica pointed out that Donald Trump, in his first term, had already created vast debt that would impact our economy for years. The bulk of that debt is still weighing on us today, which by the way was incurred before the COVID pandemic.
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Trump's lack of spending restraint helped the deficit and the debt soar. By the end of 2019, the debt had risen to $23.2 trillion. The change in corporate taxes from 35% to 21% was the most damaging part of the cuts. Rep. Johnson voted for the cuts and later voted to raise or suspend the debt ceiling five times during the first Trump administration.
Trump’s tariffs on steel, aluminum and other products triggered a global trade war, hitting American farmers particularly hard. To offset their losses, his administration had to funnel billions of dollars in aid to the agriculture sector.
Then the pandemic hit along with the related stimulus package passed in a bipartisan bill. The federal government had to inject stimulus money into the economy. It had to be done and is a great example of what we expect from a government by the people, for the people.
Rep. Johnson and Republicans are facing a crisis of their own making. The tax cuts that were supposed to create extraordinarily high economic growth and produce tax revenue equal to higher taxes on lower economic growth never materialized.
Some may point to deficits under President Barack Obama. But you actually need to look back to 2001 when Republican President George W. Bush oversaw two unfunded wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that added trillions to the national debt. From there we had a Great Recession, an injection of federal dollars, and a strong recovery under President Obama.
I would also like to note that there are members of the Democratic Party who would say deficits are not the issue that Republicans make them out to be. But, we can agree if Dusty is worried about deficits he maybe should have spoken up during Trump 1.0.
“Raising taxes on the rich will not solve the problem.
The funding bill passed by the House will extend the 2017 tax cuts for the next ten years. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates this will add $4.6 trillion to the deficit. If other Trump campaign promises are implemented that number grows to $11 trillion.
My math says that if we don’t extend those tax cuts benefiting the wealthy and corporations, we will save $4.6 trillion over the next decade. And if we looked at increasing taxes on the rich, my math tells me we would save even more. I also want to mention that to keep the 2017 tax cuts, the Republicans must raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion.
The majority of income earners in America will see their taxes increase while the top 5% will get the benefit of the tax cuts.
Then there is unelected billionaire Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) which is claiming to slash federal spending. These claims have been debunked and DOGE has quietly deleted all five of the biggest ticket items off the “wall of receipts.” The total “savings” continues to plummet.
I do want to take a moment to remind Republicans that they have control of the government and can make spending cuts through the normal course of legislation. It just takes courage.
The budget plan passed on Tuesday calls for $300 billion in new funding for border security, immigration enforcement, and military spending. Committees, including the committee that oversees Medicaid, have been told to find at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts.
Oh uh, that appears to be another math issue.
From former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg: “A defining policy battle is about to come to a head in this country. The Republican budget will force everyone — especially Congress and the White House — to make plain whether they are prepared to harm the rest of us in order to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest.
Let’s review the math:
The House plan calls for keeping the 2017 tax cuts totalling $4.5 trillion in taxes, primarily for the wealthy and corporations.
It adds $300 billion for immigration, border security, and military spending.
It enables those cuts and spending in the short term by raising the debt ceiling by $4 trillion.
Work requirements will save “hundreds of billions of dollars.”
Economist Robert Reich noted that “[t]he top 0.1% of Americans control $22 trillion in wealth,” while “[t]he bottom 50% control $3.8 trillion in wealth.” If we are already trillions of dollars in debt Dusty, how are you going to find that money in the pockets of the poorest Americans?
The rules of reconciliation protect Social Security, Medicare and SNAP benefits.
This administration has no respect for norms, laws, or the Constitution. To date, there are 74 lawsuits against Trump’s executive orders. Congress has ceded all power to Elon Musk and allowed him to slash funding that they obligated in the first place. On Wednesday, Musk led the first Cabinet meeting of the administration as though he were the president.
DOGE has been allowed access to the private data of American citizens without proper background checks. Nonprofits, farmers, and contractors are being financially damaged because promises made by the federal government have been rescinded. Federal employees with experience, knowledge, and skills have been fired, including critical positions in nuclear weapons and bird flu research.
To put it bluntly, I don’t trust that any of our institutions or laws mean anything to this administration.
Nikki Gronli grew up in Aurora. Among other roles in both the public and private sectors, Gronli was appointed state director of USDA Rural Development by President Joe Biden on March 28, 2022. She has been politically active over the years and is a past chair of the Minnehaha County Democratic Party and vice chair of the South Dakota Democratic Party. She ran for the Minnehaha County Commission in 2018.
Photo: Rep. Dusty Johnson, public domain, wikimedia commons
