> The reason I still give them benefit of the doubt on their intentions is...because they did come out and say that 20% of the savings should go back to taxpayers as a refund and that 20% should go directly to reducing the debt. That being said, these are nice things that people would want to hear so I too am paying attention.

I'd rather the government keep the money and use it to pay for the many services that it provides. Like ensuring that I have clean water, unadulterated food, clean air, a functional banking system, healthcare, safe vehicles, making sure that unemployed people don't starve, researching infectious disease remediation, performing scientific research, maintaining national parks, making sure that kids have a baseline education, doing humanitarian work around the globe, and a thousand other things I don't have the time to enumerate.

You are not paying attention if you believe that a crack team consisting of the world's richest man and half a dozen tween interns physically invading government offices and dismantling entire departments fast enough to make your head spin is anything other than "ill intent".

You realize that the entire executive branch excluding defense is like 10% of the federal budget.

There isn’t enough money to be saved to give you back anything.

You're giving them the benefit of the doubt because they made a vague promise to give you a bigger tax refund?

You give them the benefit of the doubt because they tell you exactly what you want to hear?

Did they mention which tax payers those 20% will be going back to?

Do you think they can be trusted to tell the truth?

This is Clientelism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clientelism

It's what authoritarian populists do when they get control of governments. They "hack" the economy with short-term stimulus and giveaways to keep the rubes content and happy while they dismantle civil society and the rule of law and entrench themselves.

Economic stagnation and decline usually follow within a couple year, but if they've entrenched themselves well enough, they don't have to care about public opinion very much and can shift to repression.

I did have a question about that. Where does the other 60% go? Isn’t the whole point to reduce the debt?

I’m sorry but the naivety of your comment is absolutely hilarious. Good luck getting your refund when the IRS is being ran by a handful of angsty young adults