Fear of Trump's budget deficit "It's immoral, it's wrong, it has to stop"
Elon Musk is leaving the White House: his mission has failed. Donald Trump's Big Beautiful Bill threatens to deepen the US budget deficit. This not only worries Musk, but also other Republicans.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Elon Musk has failed with his DOGE efficiency department: instead of saving two trillion dollars, he has only managed to save 175 billion.
- This is not the only reason why the US budget deficit is likely to increase, but also because of Donald Trump's so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which Musk criticized when he left Washington.
- Experts are also complaining that Trump's budget is cementing higher US debt: if interest rates on US government bonds continue to rise, Trump could find himself in over his head.
- Resistance is now mounting among Republicans in the US Senate.
The Elon Musk chapter in the White House ends on June 1. His "friend" has done a "fantastic job", says Donald Trump about the richest man in the world. His DOGE efficiency division has "found things that are incredibly stupid and incredibly bad", according to Trump.
The savings made by DOGE could double or triple, the 78-year-old speculates, while Musk nods. 101 million dollars had been cut from DEI projects in the Department of Education. 59 million dollars would be saved because hotel rooms for illegal immigrants would no longer be rented in New York.
Trump also repeated the myth that eight million dollars had been spent on making mice trans - even though the research was on transgenic mice. The fact is that these figures are a far cry from the two trillion dollars that Musk originally wanted to save. Most recently, there was only talk of 175 billion dollars.
Big Beautiful Bill: US deficit increases by 3.8 trillion dollars
The South African-born president has clearly missed his target of tackling the US budget deficit: Trump's so-called Big Beautiful Bill will add 3.8 trillion dollars to Uncle Sam's debt over the next ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Musk has therefore criticized it: "I was frankly disappointed with the massive spending bill that increases the budget deficit, doesn't reduce it and undermines the work of the DOGE team," the 53-year-old complained on "CBS News" about the Big Beautiful Bill. "I think a bill can be big or beautiful, but I don't know if it can be both."
It's not just the "big, beautiful" bill that Musk dislikes: "Tariffs always have an impact," says the father of many children, referring to Trump's trade policy. When asked what he thinks about the fact that foreign students will soon no longer be allowed to study at elite US universities, as Musk himself once did, the billionaire does not want to comment.
Widely differing forecasts
The US budget has also been criticized by other conservatives. "All the rhetoric about trillions in spending cuts has led to nothing," Michael Strain from the right-wing think tank American Enterprise Institute complains to the AP news agency, "and the tax bill spells that out."
Mike Johnson, on the other hand, defends Trump's budget: "The CBO is sometimes right with their projections, but they're wrong every time when it comes to forecasting economic growth," the Speaker of the House of Representatives told NBC. "They always underestimate the growth that will be achieved by cutting taxes and reducing regulations."
While the CBO expects economic growth of 1.9 percent, Trump's economic advisers believe that industry and trade will grow by 3.2 percent annually over the next four years and 7.4 million jobs will be created, according to the AP.
Debt could crush the US government
This calculation includes the effects of Trump's tariffs, tax relief and a falling deficit, says the chairman of the advisory committee. According to Stephen Miran, the deficit is "a very significant concern" for the White House.
Others call these predictions pure fiction: "I don't know of any reputable [expert] who has raised their growth forecast significantly because of this legislation," Harvard economist Jason Furman shakes his head. "These are mostly not pro-growth, pro-competitive tax cuts. The higher long-term interest rates will actually do the opposite and hurt growth."
Incidentally, the US deficit currently stands at 36.1 trillion dollars. The interest that Washington has to pay on ten-year government bonds has skyrocketed from 2.5 percent in 2017 to 4.5 percent today. If interest rates continue to rise as a result of erratic economic and foreign policy, for example, the USA will no longer be able to afford its debt.
Republican senators are standing in the way
What happens now? The Big Beautiful Bill still has to pass the Senate, where Trump's party has a majority of three votes. Two Republican senators have already announced their opposition: Ron Johnson from Wisconsin and Rand Paul from Kentucky say the deficit worries not only them, but also party colleagues.
According to Paul, there are four senators who do not want to agree if nothing is changed in the plan. "It's immoral, it's wrong, it has to stop," warned Johnson on CNN. The spending policy is at the expense of children: "We have to reduce the deficit."
This was actually Elon Musk's job, but he is now out. "I'm in a dilemma," he tells CBS News: "I don't want to speak out against the administration, but I also don't want to take responsibility for everything the administration does."
