Hold Your Horses And Don't Count Your Chickens

America is brimming with joyous optimism. Trump will make America great and prosperous again. The border will be closed. Migrant criminals will be deported. His 2017 Tax Reform Act will be renewed, saving taxpayers $500 billion next year alone. Further tax reduction efforts will fuel future growth. The Justice Department will once again pursue justice and the FBI will concentrate on fighting actual crime. Deficit spending will come to an end and the $36 trillion national debt will, at least, not go any higher. “Happy days are here again.’

Donald Trump made many laudable promises, but will those promises be kept? And how will Americans react if unforeseen circumstances interrupt the progress? Will public disappointment and discontent give Congress to the Democrats in the 2026 mid-term elections? What will become of MAGA then?

Elon Musk believes he can slash $2 trillion from the federal budget by July 4, 2026. The DOGE will do it by cutting the waste, fraud and abuse out of government programs. Only, what is one man's waste is another man's pork, bacon, earmark, member item, constituent service, protective tariff, farm or business subsidy, pay-to-play privilege or too-big-to-fail bailout.

How many lawsuits will be filed to thwart the DOGE from carrying out its vital mission? What pressure will be placed on Congressmen and Senators to derail the proposed spending cuts? Politicians, after all, aren't accustomed to “disappointing" the lobbyists and organized interests they rely on for campaign endorsements and future fundraising. And then there is the mandatory gaggle of social entitlements that can’t be touched.

But never mind the lobbyists and pressure-group tactics the organized interests will bring to bear. Politicians also have down-home constituencies to please. If they don’t bring the “bacon” back home their opponents can accuse them of doing nothing for the suffering people.

Then there are the factors that promise to increase future spending. Congress recently appropriated $100 billion to help the hurricane victims of North Carolina. Current estimates put the cost of helping the Los Angeles fire victims at $200 billion. There is the cost of (1) locating and deporting thousands of criminal migrants, (2) procuring expensive new weapon systems, including a fleet of hypersonic missiles that our adversaries have already deployed, (3) hardening the nation’s electric grid to prevent an electromagnetic pulse attack that could wipe out electric service across the nation, (4) replacing the arms and munitions that have been sent to Ukraine and Israel over the past few years and (5) constructing an “iron done” missile defense system.

Monetary policy must also be considered. To keep the economy on an even keel, the Federal Reserve, an independent agency, manipulates interest rates. By the close of 2024, the Fed lowered the interest it and the nation’s banks charge for loans by a full 1%. This easy money policy was implemented to stimulate demand and bolster economic performance. Due to the inflationary impact lower interest rates normally exert and the Treasury Department’s need to sell its bonds to an inflation-weary public, the U. S. Treasury raised interest rates a full 1%. No one can say how future rate adjustments will impact the economy.

Steeply rising insurance charges and interest rates on home mortgages, credit cards, auto and student loan debt (not included in the monthly consumer price index or CPI) have hurt millions of families. And the independent Federal Reserve, not the president has the power to manipulate the money supply.

The future is not cast in stone. We the people still have free will. If Trump’s projected golden age is ever to arrive, Americans will have to keep the politicians’ feet to the fire. Americans will have to stop clamoring for financial aid from their legislators, for as Gerald Ford warned in 1976, “A government that is big enough to give you anything you want is big enough to take everything you have.” What’s more, the politicians must be put on notice. All the campaign contributions in the world won’t save their seats from an enraged, politically engaged electorate.

Jerome Huyler holds a PhD. in political science. He is a former assistant professor and the author of Locke In America: The Moral Philosophy of the Founding Era (1995) and Everything You Have: The Case Against Welfare. Jerome answers questions regularly on Quora.com.

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author's own.