While Albany continued to slog along toward the end of the legislative session, a perhaps not surprising twist in Washington overshadowed much of New York’s politics: the public breakup between billionaire Elon Musk and President Donald Trump. The first public evidence of the developing rift was Mr. Musk’s critique of the President’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” that was approved by the House of Representatives and is under consideration by the U.S. Senate.

The “Big Beautiful Bill” is an attempt by the President to get his top-line fiscal policies approved by the Congress. The 1,000+ page bill would:

• Extend and increase the nation’s debt limit, allowing it to borrow more to pay its bills;
• Cut billions of dollars from federal programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid, programs that provide food and health care to low income Americans; and
• Extend trillions of dollars in tax cuts, primarily benefiting the well off.

According to the Congressional Budget Office – the office that offers an independent analysis of fiscal matters before the Congress – the President’s plan would increase the nation’s debts by $2.4 trillion over the next decade.

This increase in the nation’s debts would represent roughly 150% of the United States’ gross domestic product – the total market value of the goods and services produced within the United States in a year.

To put that in some context, after World War II, the U.S. debt to GDP percentage was a bit over 100%. The President’s plan – as approved by the House – would push the nation into unknown fiscal debt territory.

When Mr. Musk served in the Trump Administration as its de facto leader of the “Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), part of its mission was to make government more efficient. In one press event in the Oval Office, Mr. Musk said, “If we don’t do something about this deficit, the country’s going bankrupt….And it’s essential for America to have the resources necessary to provide things to its citizens and not simply be servicing vast amounts of debt.”

Musk’s concerns about the nation’s finances were echoed by members of Congress, for example one New York Representative stated, “Our national debt is now over $35 trillion. As a father, it pains me to see the debt we are saddling on our children and grandchildren.” Indeed, opposition to the President’s plan is, at least to some extent, driven by the legislation’s failure to reduce the nation’s debt.

Proponents have argued that the tax cuts will stimulate economic activity and that will help the nation grow its way out of its fiscal plight. While it’s likely that the tax cuts will stimulate the economy, it won’t offset the massive losses in revenue.

There is simply no way to reduce spending in any significant way without savaging politically popular programs. Indeed, some of the opposition in the Senate is due to the House budget’s planned cuts to Medicaid, which if enacted would eliminate health insurance for millions of Americans.

After World War II, the nation embarked on a strategy to eliminate its massive war debt. An important component of that was to run federal budget surpluses for many of the years following the war. By the mid-1970s, the nation had reduced its debt to GDP ratio to about 25%.

One important component of running those surpluses was to raise taxes – particularly on the wealthy. After the war’s end, the highest tax bracket was raised to 91 percent at its peak.

Starting in the mid-1960s that began to change, with a steady reduction in the highest tax rates from 70 percent in 1965 to just under 40 percent today. Those reductions happen to correspond to the nation’s growing debt-to-GDP.

Part of the defense of slashing federal spending is the desire to reduce the mounting and unsustainable national debts. But the President’s plan, at least as drafted by the House, forces those who rely on federal programs to feel the pain while allowing the well-to-do to escape any of the pain – in fact the wealthy will further benefit.

How does that make sense? All Americans have a stake in the future of the nation – as was the case after fighting and winning World War II.

This time a combination of a global pandemic, a financial meltdown, and tax policies that have reduced the financial burden of the wealthiest Americans, have driven the nation’s debts to the worst that it has been in nearly a century.

And the plan before the Congress is to make it worse.

We all live in the same nation. We will all sink or swim based on the nation’s decisions. Tax cuts will do nothing meaningful to help the nation’s financial crisis. New Yorkers should look to their Representatives to protect the nation’s financial future, not worsen it while eviscerating the U.S. safety net that protects the most vulnerable among us.