The budget deficit for last 12 months is $1.9T. If we got the deficit down to $0.5T, it would still be awful, but at least the debt/GDP ratio would (probably) be shrinking instead of growing. But that’s $1.4T of spending cuts and/or tax increases without tax cuts or spending increases—an average of $4,000/citizen. If we broke promises to various countries, and zeroed out foreign aid (most of which returns to the US in the form of spending on US military production), that would be $200 of the $4,000 at some damage to the economy. The Department of Education could be zeroed out, but that’s not even $800 of the $4,000. There aren’t easy painless cuts to make to get to $1.4T. Everybody has been living a materially richer life at the expense of a government budget deficit, and reducing that huge deficit will have a similar material effect. There aren’t easy tax increases, either. If we added 10% to the rate in every personal income bracket (including the $0 bracket), that would get us about $1.4T — but only if you assume that unprecedented tax increase wouldn’t cause a recession, or people stopping working as their top tax rate exceeded 60% including state and local taxes. (Similarly, you can’t exempt the middle class from tax increases and close the gap either without major spending cuts the middle class will also feel; we’re pretty close to the top of the Laffer Curve and 10% more might be past it given blue state tax rates.) So you’d need a larger increase to get to $1.4T. And are you willing to pay even an extra 10% of your AGI to close the debt? And the $1.9T deficit is artificially low because the economy is doing relatively well. A recession and a bear market would spike the deficit to even worse levels by increasing automatic safety net spending while decreasing tax revenues. A vicious circle, because the debt increases interest rates. As Mamdani’s success shows, we don’t even have voters willing to give up a pipe dream of a free lunch, much less pay the piper to get spending under control.