The greatest costs imposed by the Trump administration are not simply the tradeoff between military spending (“guns”) and social programs (“butter”), but the rapidly escalating consequences of inaction on three existential threats: climate change, artificial intelligence, and extreme wealth inequality.

Climate impacts are already severe (wildfires, heat domes, toxic air), AI systems have demonstrated the ability to escape controlled environments, and surging billionaire wealth is fueling political corruption that blocks regulation of both fossil fuels and AI.

Addressing these crises primarily requires thoughtful regulation and higher taxes on the wealthy rather than massive new government expenditure, and the author urges Democrats and progressives to make the rising costs of inaction a central campaign theme.

I used to think the major tradeoff was between “guns and butter” — between defending the nation and attending to our most pressing social needs. 

That view put the federal budget at the center of debate. And it assumed a zero-sum game in which the more we spent on the military, the less we had for the poor. As Ike said in 1953, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”

But that old zero-sum game isn’t the biggest cost Trump is imposing on us. 

Yes, Trump’s war in Iran and the $1.5 trillion he wants for the........

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