“If we don’t tackle entitlements, we’re not being serious, or credible, or honest.”
If they can cut $10 trillion over 10 years, then that is serious - and it sets up entitlement reform next.
If they clear out non-defense discretionary spending first, in a really unprecedented way, they will gain great credibility to take on entitlements next (if still needed, after growth turns up).
All this bureaucratic crap SHOULD be cut first anyway, before digging into the livelihoods of the working poor and middle class.
The added beauty is that most of this government overgrowth is precisely where the leftists have been digging in, so you can disproportionately prune them out of power when you eliminate the whole activity which draws them - government organizations dedicated to racial identity issues, climate change, income redistribution, etc.
Just defund the left en masse, and cut the government permanently in the first budget - it is the real waste.
$10 trillion assumes major entitlement reform. We can't get to that number without tackling health care and Social Security, which are 60 percent of the budget.