Ask HN: Should tariff war revenue be spent: Farmers, Kids, Fund the Shutdown

The budget has already been signed, we know how it'll be spent: tax breaks for the wealthiest and funding ICE similarly to the marines ($25 billion a year).

What happened to DOGE and the goal of paying down the debt?

It seems if the goal for to decrease spending, we shouldn’t need to raise the debt limit. And revenue from tariff’s should be used to accelerate paying down the debt.

I know everyone seems to not care about that anymore and moved on, but I haven’t.

Servicing the debt is the biggest expense in the budget. If we don’t get it under control it will be the whole budget. If we can eliminate that debt, then we’ll have all kinds of money for other things.

If they've exceeded revenue by $4T since May, $190B is going to get them less than a week.

$1T deficit per month is not sustainable.

Isn't the tariff revenue already "spent"?

US still is spending more than it brings in right?

    -$4T/4mo = -$1T/mo

    -4,000,000,000,000
  + +0,190,000,000,000
  --------------------
    -3,710,000,000,000

CNN recommended:

"White House says it will use tariff revenue to fund federal food aid for mothers and young children" https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/07/politics/tariff-revenue-feder...

"Trump considers massive bailout of at least $10 billion for American farmers hurt by his trade war" https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/05/business/farmer-bailout-trump...

"Trump’s tariff revenue could help keep the government open. Why isn’t that happening?" https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/06/economy/tariff-revenue-govern...