A month into President Donald Trump’s golden-age second term, his economic policy has become very clear: shrink the government, and turn the savings over to taxpayers.
Two points stand out.
First, there’s a DOGE dividend in the cards, perhaps $5,000 per head from $2 trillion worth of savings as Elon Musk and company blow up all the waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption endemic to the DC swamp.
And second, Mr. Trump wants his tax cuts. And he wants them now.
And no Republicans in the Senate or House should stand in the way of these Trumpian priorities.
For one reason, they are spectacularly good policies to grow the economy and produce a new blue-collar boom.
And second, he’s the President. He won the election, by a wide margin, carrying the popular vote and all seven swing states.
Therefore, the Congress — and I’m thinking of the Senate in particular right now — should give the President what he’s asking for.
Here’s what the President said last night:
So I’ll be working with the Republican Congress to pass the largest tax cuts in American history. And that includes, obviously, yeah, that includes we have to extend the Trump tax cuts… Including no tax on tips and hopefully no tax on Social Security and no tax on overtime. And that overtime one is a sleeper, because I think a lot of people are going to be spurred on to do a lot of extra work when they hear that.
There’s Mr. Trump’s explicit list of tax-cut promises during the campaign. He wants promises made, promises kept. And the Republican Congress must give it to him. Trump ran on that commitment to his working-class coalition.
And let me remind — from President Trump’s Truth Social post yesterday: “the House Resolution implements my FULL America First Agenda, EVERYTHING, not just parts of it! We need both Chambers to pass the House Budget to “kickstart” the Reconciliation process, and move all of our priorities to the concept of, “ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL.”
And, by the way, Vice President JD Vance told CPAC this earlier today, “I actually talked to the President about this yesterday and he said to me, look, it’s very rare that you can get two reconciliation bills done in one Congress, which is why he thinks we’ve got to do a lot with that one big, beautiful bill.”
What’s more, Mr. Trump has signed on to the idea of DOGE dividend checks. Here’s what he told the press aboard Air Force One last night:
I love it. A 20% dividend, so to speak, for the money that we’re saving by going after the waste, fraud, and abuse and all of the other things that are happening. I think it’s a great idea. // 20% would get back a lot of money to the taxpayer, and also it gives an incentive for the taxpayer to go out and report things to us where we can save money.
Additionally, Mr. Trump has warmed to the idea that a Republican budget resolution should include a plug that would represent at least $1 trillion of DOGE savings.
When asked by the press last night about potential ways for Congress to pay for his tax cuts, he immediately said, “If you take a look at DOGE and you see what’s happening, we’re saving billions of dollars.”
And, once again, I will reference Senator Mike Crapo, the Republican Chair of the Finance Committee, who continues to try to persuade people that budget reconciliation rules permit the House and Senate budget committees to form their own baseline, including a current policy that would score the extended Trump tax cuts as neutral in their deficit impact.
And the CBO must react to the Republican budget baseline, rather than the other way around.
So, Senators, give President Trump what he wants — please.
