OPINION:
Today’s taxpayers and future generations alike can be grateful that the Trump administration is making good on its promise to get the federal budget back on track.
For the current fiscal year, the deficit is down a whopping 27%, which will ultimately help alleviate the cost-of-living crisis left behind by the Biden administration. After four years of blowout spending and its inflationary fallout, voters demanded change from the radical left’s big government agenda. President Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are delivering, and fiscal year 2026 (which began Oct. 1) is off to a much better start than the previous one.
The latest monthly statement from the Treasury Department lays out the facts as clear as day. The deficit for the current fiscal year was down $167 billion compared with the same period in 2024, when Joseph R. Biden was president.
To achieve such a large reduction, the Trump administration has been burning the deficit candle at both ends: simultaneously reducing Treasury outlays while increasing tax receipts. Those outlays for the first two months of this fiscal year were down about $55 billion, or 4%, while receipts rose $112 billion, or 18%.
This deficit reduction is really a continuation of the progress that began shortly after Mr. Trump took office. For example, the final two quarters of the previous fiscal year, which had no overlap with the Biden administration, ended with a deficit reduction of more than one-third compared with the same period in the previous fiscal year.
Mr. Bessent has repeatedly spoken about “bending the curve” when it comes to the federal deficit, which means shrinking the deficit enough that the economy is growing faster than the debt. It also means ensuring tax receipts are growing faster than the cost of servicing the debt.
These changes will put federal finances back on a sustainable path and ultimately balance the budget. That’s important to American families because runaway government spending is what caused 40-year-high inflation, the faster rise in interest rates in just as long and a frozen housing market. The cost-of-living crisis the Trump administration inherited was the direct outgrowth of the previous government’s profligacy.
Rolling back that spending will likewise roll back its deleterious effects. To that end, the Trump administration has been cutting spending wherever possible by rooting out Biden-era abuse, corruption, fraud and waste through efforts like the Department of Government Efficiency. This whole-of-government approach has identified billions of dollars in savings for taxpayers.
Additionally, one-time spending measures are being allowed to simply expire, unlike the way the previous administration and Congress perpetuated COVID-19 spending year after year.
On the tax-receipt side of the equation, the Trump administration has been working to supercharge economic growth, which in turn increases the tax base and brings in more revenue to the Treasury. Regulatory and tax reforms are removing barriers for entrepreneurs to provide consumers with more products and services at lower prices.
Tariffs have also contributed to higher Treasury receipts, with customs duties for October and November exceeding four times the levels in those months last year.
Although the deficit is squarely in the sights of the Trump administration, Congress has been much less interested in addressing the problem. Congressional Republicans seem too weak to help Mr. Trump succeed, while congressional Democrats would be thrilled to help Mr. Trump fail. Sadly, the big spenders in the legislature are still winning.
Much of the low-hanging fruit identified by DOGE needs congressional action to achieve savings for taxpayers. For example, billions of dollars in wasteful and duplicative payments in foreign aid under the Foreign Assistance Act will ultimately need to be stopped by the legislature, not the executive; however, Congress is sitting on its hands.
Members of both parties in Congress contributed to the gargantuan federal deficit, and they both need to get on board with cutting spending. That’s especially true for Republican members who campaigned on fiscal discipline and addressing the cost-of-living crisis, which has been fueled by profligate government spending.
They made this mess. It’s time they helped Mr. Trump and Mr. Bessent clean it up.
• E.J. Antoni, Ph.D., is chief economist and the Richard Aster fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a senior fellow at Unleash Prosperity.
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