“The Trump administration’s tariffs will lower deficits by a combined $4 trillion over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office said Friday, a substantial increase from its last projection in June,” Axios reports.
“Tariffs are quickly becoming a part of the country’s economic reality, making them harder to get rid of by the day.”
“The IRS plans to ask workers who accepted offers of deferred resignation and early retirement to come back to work — an attempt to make up for staffing losses after the agency found it had vacancies in critical jobs,” the Washington Post reports.
“The tax agency — which lost nearly 25,700 employees, or 25 percent of the workforce, from buyouts, resignations and firings — told employees that it now wants to reverse some of those losses by reassigning workers, asking workers who took buyouts to return and launching a hiring campaign.”
A Penn Budget Lab analysis finds President Trump’s immigration policy will increase deficits by nearly $1 trillion over the next decade — even with the new funds allocated to the effort in the recently passed tax law.
The study also finds the law will reduce GDP by 3.3% over the next 10 years.
“The Trump administration is asserting authority to withhold billions of dollars from low-income housing services, education assistance, medical research grants and other programs approved by Congress,” the Washington Post reports.
“The new practices are likely to reignite a clash over the administration’s power to freeze dollars approved by Congress, usurping authority that the legislative branch has under the Constitution.”
Politico: “Vance will visit Peachtree City, Georgia, on Thursday to sell Republicans’ recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act — which the White House is now referring to as ‘working family tax cuts.’”
“Vulnerable incumbents and deficit hard-liners are joining forces in an unlikely partnership, pushing House GOP leaders to put earmarks on the table to head off a government funding fight this fall,” Politico reports.
“The federal coffers are due to dry up Sept. 30. And, as part of any agreement to avert a shutdown Oct. 1, a significant segment of the House Republican Conference is now demanding the inclusion of so-called community project funding. That’s the name Democrats gave their earmark rebrand in 2021 after Republicans banned a more permissive version of the practice for a decade.”
Politico: “An influential group of House Republicans has invited a chief architect of the hard-right push for deep Medicaid spending cuts to brief congressional aides Thursday as GOP leaders quietly map out a possible second party-line reconciliation package.”
“Donald Trump’s Navy and Air Force are poised to cancel two nearly complete software projects that took 12 years and well over $800 million combined to develop, work initially aimed at overhauling antiquated human resources systems,” Reuters reports.
“The reason for the unusual move: officials at those departments, who have so far put the existing projects on hold, want other firms, including Salesforce and billionaire Peter Thiel’s Palantir, to have a chance to win similar projects, which could amount to a costly do-over.”
And a good point from John Gruber: “I don’t want to be a ninny about this, but why is Reuters flatly describing the Navy and Air Force as possessions of the president? Did they ever describe them as belonging to Joe Biden, or Barack Obama? I don’t think they did, and a cursory search suggests they did not, but even if they did, it was wrong then. Now is not the time for sloppy language around this.”
“A growing number of blue cities and states across the country, from Washington state to Rhode Island, are looking at ways to wring more revenue from their richest taxpayers,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Lawmakers are boosting tax rates on robust annual incomes, hiking capital-gains taxes, and putting new levies on luxury vacation homes.”
“Some state legislators have proposed higher taxes in response to projected shortfalls in federal funding related to President Trump’s new tax law, which extends a broad federal tax cut to the wealthy. The law also makes deep cuts to funding for such programs as Medicaid, pressuring states to make up some or all of the shortfall.”
“The U.S. government’s gross national debt has surpassed $37 trillion, a record that highlights the accelerating debt on America’s balance sheet and increased cost pressures on taxpayers,” the AP reports.
“The Trump administration’s claim that it is saving billions of dollars through DOGE-related cuts to federal contracts is drastically exaggerated,” Politico reports.
“Through July, DOGE said it has saved taxpayers $52.8 billion by canceling contracts, but of the $32.7 billion in actual claimed contract savings that Politico could verify, DOGE’s savings over that period were closer to $1.4 billion.”
“The U.S. government’s budget deficit grew nearly 20% in July to $291 billion despite a $21 billion jump in customs duty collections from President Donald Trump’s tariffs, with outlays growing faster than receipts,” Reuters reports.
“Republican-led cuts to public assistance programs – carried out at the behest of Donald Trump’s administration – will lead to 2.4 million fewer Americans receiving food stamps, among them families with children,” The Guardian reports.
Associated Press: “The CBO estimates that the 10% of poorest Americans will lose roughly $1,200 a year as they experience restrictions on government programs like Medicaid and food assistance, while the richest 10% of Americans will see their income increase by $13,600 from tax cuts.”
Punchbowl News: “Democrats requested the new data from the non-partisan CBO, and they’ve been quick to seize on it. Democrats have been hammering the GOP over Medicaid cuts and tax cuts for the wealthy, making that contrast the core of their political message on the law.”
“House Republicans are pushing for a second megabill. The Senate GOP’s not so sure,” Politico reports.
“After a grueling ordeal to get President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” signed into law last month, Speaker Mike Johnson and other leaders are already talking about crafting at least one more domestic policy package that can pass along party lines in the Senate.”
Politico: “A federal appeals court panel shot down a Trump administration bid to make secret a public database of federal spending that researchers say is crucial to ensure the administration is not flouting Congress’ power of the purse…”
“It voted unanimously to give the administration until Friday to put the data back online. Two of the three appeals judges assigned to the matter also signed onto a forceful opinion declaring that the administration’s bid to conceal the data was an affront to Congress’ authority over government spending.”
“President Trump is removing Billy Long from his job leading the Internal Revenue Service just two months after he was confirmed as commissioner,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Long, a former Republican congressman and staunch ally of Mr. Trump, is expected to be nominated to an ambassadorship, the people said. It is unclear who will next lead the IRS, which has had six different people in charge this year.”
“The magnitude of the cash savings from this summer’s federal tax legislation is starting to take shape at America’s biggest companies,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“In short, changes like allowing upfront depreciation of assets and immediate expensing of research-and-development expenses will bring swift windfalls to American corporations but also lasting tailwinds. This in turn has provided incremental fuel to stock markets, a counterweight to risks from tariffs and other policy uncertainty.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.