'Has the government simply become too big to manage?'

Detail view of the US Capitol east facade in the early morning sun

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 4 March 2024

'America blew almost $2 trillion. Make it stop.'

Kathryn Anne Edwards at Bloomberg

Congress has a chance to get the federal budget under control, says Kathryn Anne Edwards. Next year, it can decline to extend costly provisions in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The law's "authors sold it as a fiscal miracle drug" that "would simplify taxes" and boost revenue, jobs and economic growth, but it cost nearly $2 trillion, "while failing to deliver the promised benefits." Stopping the bleeding will show lawmakers can benefit from "lessons learned."

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.