One of the truest things ever said about politics is, “To govern is to choose.” As the contours of the Republican Party’s massive tax cut and spending bill begin to emerge, it should come as no surprise that the party of President Donald Trump has no interest in either governing or hard choices.
The Washington Post reported last week that the GOP is coalescing around “a massive tax and spending bill to codify President Donald Trump’s campaign promises that will not require substantial spending reductions, according to three people familiar with negotiations, because party leaders have decided to write off the multi trillion-dollar cost of new tax cuts.” On Jan. 31, 2025, reporters Jacob Bogage and Marianna Sotomayor wrote that the “House GOP nears plan for Trump’s agenda — but may not have the votes.”
It is perhaps the most on-brand thing imaginable that Trump would want to massively increase the U.S. deficit and leave it to blue states to figure out how to pay it all back at some indeterminate point in the future. Why make hard choices when you have no intent to govern?
If Democrats are smart, they can turn this situation to their advantage. But before we get to the “how” of it all, let us finally put to rest the notion that the Republican Party has ever had much interest in fiscal responsibility.
I was born in 1971. Since that time, there have been four Republican presidents post-Nixon: Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush and Donald Trump. Under Reagan, the national debt tripled by the time he left office. Under Bush the younger, his tax cuts, Iraq War, and Medicare Part D policies left the U.S. with a higher deficit in fiscal year 2009 than in any other post-WWII year. And in the first Trump administration, deficit spending relative to GDP increased by a larger amount than all but two prior presidents.
In fact, the only fiscally responsible Republican of my lifetime, George H. W. Bush, was drummed out of office because he had the temerity to increase taxes as part of an effort to tame Reagan’s deficits.
And, after all, why should Republicans be careful with the nation’s purse strings? As I argued in my last column in these pages, it is the blue states that are footing a disproportionately large portion of the federal bill. Even better, the massive deficits that Republican presidents leave their Democratic successors constrain Democrats’ ability to enact their policies. Which is why the GOP has famously embraced the “deficits don’t matter” mantra first articulated by Dick Cheney. Make a mess and leave it for the Democrats.
As the Democrats cast about for the right place to make a stand, they should consider unifying in opposition to the GOP’s latest deficit bonanza. And the message should be a simple one: “No new deficit spending.” This makes sense for several reasons.
First, blue states should resist Trump’s efforts to have us fund his priorities. I don’t know about you, but having lost an election because people were angry about the price of eggs and Biden’s age doesn’t seem like a good reason to give out massive tax cuts to rich people.
And if the GOP is dead set on handing out those tax cuts, Democrats need to put Republicans through the painful process of governing. That means forcing Republicans to choose which programs to cut to fund those tax cuts.
Trump has steadfastly pushed back on cuts to entitlements because he knows those programs are just as popular with Republicans as they are with Democrats. He is urging his party not to choose because he knows those choices will be painful and may doom the tax cuts themselves.
Second, Democrats need to make sure we keep as much dry powder as possible because the amount of repair needed by the end of this administration will likely be massive. The exodus from federal agencies that will take place over the next four years is almost certain to be historic and incredibly damaging. It is also likely that Trump will leave our alliances with foreign countries and trade relationships in tatters. All of this will cost a great deal to fix.
Last, if Democrats can stay unified around a “no new deficits” approach, they have a chance at splitting the GOP coalition. After all, despite the broader Republican fiscal hypocrisy articulated above, there remains a vocal minority of Republicans that oppose new deficits.
They tanked Kevin McCarthy’s speakership over this precise issue. And with just a three-seat majority in the House, the chances are good that Democrats can peel off enough Republicans to defeat any effort to hand out $5 trillion in tax cuts. Of equal importance, a unifying “No new deficits” motto will help keep Democrats unified against Trump’s near certain effort to peel off some of their ranks — for instance, by conditioning California wildfire disaster payments on an agreement to go along with the rest of the bill.
The Democratic Party has been biding its time and licking its wounds since the election, and I get it. But the time has come for the good guys to get off the mat and fight back. The GOP’s hyper-partisan tax cut bill is the perfect place to do it.
Stephen Hackney is a candidate for Evanston’s 1st Ward. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.
