Austerity budgets are a gift to populists

ACROSS EUROPE AND ELSEWHERE, GOVERNMENTS' EMBRACE OF SOCIALISM FOR THE RICH AND AUSTERITY FOR EVERYONE ELSE HAS FUELED THE RISE OF MAGA-LIKE POPULIST MOVEMENTS

- Martijn Konings

Time after time, austerity budgets have provided populist political parties with political openings.

In the UK, France, Poland, and elsewhere, populists have used austerity budget cuts to browbeat “fiscally responsible” governments.

Because of this dynamic, it is hard to believe that Elon Musk thought that US President Donald Trump’s interest in Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency was motivated by a genuine commitment to saving public money. His sense of betrayal was nevertheless strong enough that he lambasted Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) which is forecast to add trillions of dollars to the US federal budget deficit and national debt - as a “disgusting abomination.” Even Steve Bannon, a key architect of Trump’s populist MAGA agenda and Musk’s ideological adversary, has made similar criticisms of the bill, as have prominent Senate Republicans like Rand Paul and Ron Johnson.