What is happening in the economy may be just background music at the moment, as the Trump administration attacks civil liberty, immigrants, and the rule of law.

But it rhymes. Trump and co-president Musk are acolytes of Ayn Rand (not that Trump ever read anything). In their eyes, there is no such thing as society, only heroic individuals exercising power. The role of government is to protect these individuals, then get out the way. Drown government; privatize everything.

Trump, DOGE, and Republicans are working together to cut government programs and cut taxes for the wealthy. And they lie a lot, since none of this is in the interest of non-wealthy Trump voters.

They really need a tax cut?

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House Republicans are proposing a $4.5 trillion extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, many of which are set to expire at the end of the year. That would be a $60,000 tax break for the 1 percent and less than $500 for the bottom 60 percent. That $500 is less than the likely price increases of Trump’s tariffs.

Lie #1: The 2017 tax cut (including a corporate tax cut that is not scheduled to expire) would lead to economic growth, trickle-down wage increases, and increased tax revenue. It did not happen. And now there isn’t even much trickle-down rhetoric, just naked greed.

According to budget rules, Republi- cans will have to come up with spend- ing cuts to make up for revenue loss if the tax cut is extended. Enter ketamine- fueled Elon Musk and his DOGE coding goons.

Lie #2: He promised $2 trillion in sav- ings by eliminating government “fraud and waste.” (There are too many lies. We’ll stop counting.)

DOGE is firing government workers and eliminating agencies (e.g., USAID, Consumer Finance Protection). There are 2.3 million federal workers, a whop- ping 2 percent of the labor force. The number has remained steady since 1970. They make $106,000 on average. If Musk fired every last one, that would be about $250 billion.

So, where can he get $2 trillion? Not from “defense.” We’ll need it to take over Canada, Panama, and Greenland, and to continue funding Israel. Yes, of course, Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security. Severe cuts in Social Security staffing are already making it difficult to get benefits that are due to folks. Republicans are threatening $80 billion cuts in Medicaid grants to the states.

Is this just “austerity theater,” to rev up MAGA devotees? Maybe. It’s the “liberal” agencies that are being attacked first. Or is it that DOGE is central- izing decision-making, using chaos as a cover, to enhance Trump’s autocratic executive power. Maybe it’s both.

Of course, there is indeed govern- ment waste and fraud. Overpayments to Medicare Advantage insurance companies amount to $83 billion a year. We pay way too much (twice as much as other countries) for Big Pharma drugs.

There is a huge uncollected “tax gap” of $700 billion a year, wealthy tax cheats not paying what they owe. One dollar spent on hiring IRS auditors and enforcement personnel yields $12 in revenue. Now there’s efficiency! Of course, Trump is slashing the IRS.

The government is going bankrupt?

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Republicans know that extending Trump’s tax cuts will increase the bud- get deficit. Supposedly they care about that, as the party of fiscal prudence. More lies and theater and hypocrisy: they care if it’s more spending on child- care or medical care. They don’t care if it’s a tax cut for the rich.

The federal government budget defi- cit is $1.8 trillion. The national debt is $35 trillion, close to 100 percent of GDP, as high as it was during WWII. Those are big numbers, but not a crisis. US government debt, Treasury bonds, are perfectly safe investments. So far.

But why is the national debt so large, and rising over past decades? For some good reasons and one bad one. When banks tank the economy, as in 2008, government spending and budget deficits are needed to revive it. The same was true for the Covid crisis, to support families. Otherwise, unemployment and misery would soar.

The bad reason is tax rate cuts for the rich that began with Reagan, reducing the country’s tax base and the progres- sivity of the tax system. Thus increasing inequality.

Is a high national debt a problem? No, it’s not a crisis, but it is used as a weapon by right-wingers to oppose expansion of the US’s already meager social welfare state. And tax cuts for the rich leave them with money to buy government bonds, on which they get interest paid by the rest of us.

The news may look sometimes like a bunch of people in clown costumes throwing spaghetti at a wall. But there are serious consequences. Flashing little cards, as Democrats did when our oligarch-in-chief was speechifying and lying, will not cut it anymore.