The federal budget definitely needed pruning, and the Democrats knew this as well. While the Democrats are letting the Republicans walk themselves into losing the Midterms, I am not sure the Democrats have any vision to offer for working class Americans. The American working class would benefit from more social programs like those in Nordic states, but it’s hard to do that when the national debt is already at eye-watering levels. It might be an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think aggressively cutting spending is a bad idea given that it will help you quickly identify core components or people who need to brought back, or who need to stay. If the US will ever be a anti-fragile democracy it’s via implementation of Nordic states-like social programs, but the unnecessary components of the federal budget first need to be identified and cut away.