America Voted For A Fairy Tale But Got A Fable

America voted for a fairy tale. People wanted to believe that we could force other countries to make us rich, cut waste to eliminate the deficit, and make prices go back in time. They wanted to think we could be a world leader while staying out of world affairs and that our problems weren’t created by ourselves but caused by migrants, foreign nations, and inclusivity.

America voted for promises that can never be kept.

• We can’t cut our way to a surplus

• We can’t tariff our way to prosperity

• We can’t reduce prices with a snap of our fingers

The fairy tale is a fable full of lessons. But will America learn from it?

Elon Musk, co-leader of the fake Department of Government Efficiency, promised $2 trillion in cuts from the federal budget. This would more than eliminate the deficit and create a healthy surplus, allowing for more tax cuts aimed primarily at corporations and the wealthy. Many other Republicans promised similar feats. The idea is that our problems aren’t a lack of revenue but one of wasteful spending that could be easily tidied up.

Musk has admitted that the $2 trillion goal isn’t happening and would consider reaching even half of that an achievement. They won’t.

In 2023, the federal government brought in $4.44 trillion in revenue. Social Security, which doesn’t add to the national debt, cost $1.4 trillion. The defense budget was $820 billion, and Congress has increased it twice since then. Interest on existing debt was $660 billion. Healthcare was $1.5 trillion. From those categories alone, all of the revenue is used up. There are still veterans and federal retirement programs, economic security programs, education, transportation, and more, which total over another trillion dollars. The entire cost of the federal government was $6.14 trillion, creating a deficit of $1.7 trillion.

The idea that we can somehow cut our way out of that hole while continuing to create tax cuts and loopholes for corporations and the wealthy is absurd, but that is the Republican promise. Increasing taxes and GDP growth is the only way to solve the problem.

Trump spent his campaign talking about how he would reduce prices. His explanation ranged from not having one to claiming we’d drill, drill, drill to blaming windmills for the price of bacon. Today, Trump admits that prices are unlikely to go down because that’s now how inflation works. Prices continue to go up over time. What matters is the rate at which those prices increase and the rate at which wages rise. The idea that we can reduce prices anytime we don’t like them is fantasy.

Trump also campaigned on ending the war in Ukraine before he even took office. That hasn’t happened and isn’t going to happen. It also isn’t going to happen as soon as Trump takes office because it is a challenging situation where our shared enemy is waging a tyrannical, war-crime-filled invasion against our ally.

Ukraine shouldn’t have to give up any territory, and we should ensure that our ally has what it needs to defend itself. Some Republicans want to abandon our ally, not because they genuinely believe in isolationism, but because they believe in imperialism, and Russia is offering an example.

In a complete 180 from the campaign rhetoric of staying out of other countries' affairs, Trump has now said he wants to take over Greenland, the Panama Canal, and Canada and invade Mexico to go to war with drug cartels. Republicans are cheering this on after demanding we stay out of world conflicts.

Then there is the Brexit-style claim about tariffs: We can put tariffs on all imports from all countries, and America will become the richest it has ever been. So rich that our entire budget will be solved and income taxes can be reduced. The problem with that claim is that every aspect of it is false. The American people will pay for tariffs, which will skyrocket inflation. Other countries will introduce retaliatory tariffs that will destroy our economy. Tariffs have a place but must be used sparingly and for specific circumstances.

During the 2024 campaign, one candidate discussed enacting measures to protect against corporate price gouging during an emergency, investing in millions of house starts, conversions, and renovations to reduce housing costs, continuing to increase prosperity for the working and middle classes through new jobs and higher wages, and protecting our position on the world stage through supporting our allies and developing agreements with other nations.

That same party kept unemployment low over the last four years, created 16 million jobs, increased the number of Americans with healthcare, have real wages (wages adjusted for inflation) higher now than before the pandemic, with the highest gains made by the lowest earners, tackled infrastructure, and reduced the debt-to-GDP ratio.

But America ignored all of that and voted for the promise of easy solutions with no hard work and no waiting. They ignored the progress made and rewrote history to pretend that Trump’s last presidency was great up until the pandemic.

In reality, from the beginning of 2019 to before the pandemic hit, America saw a loss of manufacturing jobs, the deficit climbing rapidly due to excessive tax cuts, a record number of border crossings, credit card debt, and Americans relying on federal assistance. Just as many Americans lived paycheck to paycheck as today and our nation’s world standing fell to record lows.

Our population has grown up with a stable democracy in the world's most powerful, wealthy, and influential nation. It has made people take our freedom for granted while searching for an enemy to blame for our problems.

The result is a break from reality where migrants seeking a better life are blamed instead of corporate greed and compromised politicians, where we think we can make other nations build our walls and pay our bills, and where far too many voters believe our democracy isn’t worth preserving because we all aren’t millionaires.

America has lost perspective and embraced fantasy, which will result in four difficult years. Will people treat that as a wake-up call or dig deeper into the fairy tale belief that we can solve every issue without one ounce of hard work or sacrifice?