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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe White House is living in an alternate economic universe - Washington Post Editorial Board
By Editorial Board
June 30 at 5:44 PM
FOR A few wondrous hours on Friday, Americans were transported to an alternative reality in which the federal deficit is coming down rapidly, in part thanks to the massive tax cuts enacted by the Republican Congress and signed into law by President Trump last December. Our guide on this magical mystery tour was Larry Kudlow, President Trumps director of the National Economic Council, who claimed on Fox Business News that the tax cuts were generating huge new economic growth and throwing off enormous amount of new tax revenues, with the result that the deficit . . . is coming down. And its coming down rapidly. Alas, the dream ended when Kudlow clarified to The Post on Friday afternoon that he was stating expectations about future deficits. The economy is so strong right now its going to produce lower deficits. I probably should have said future deficits, Kudlow said.
Were glad to learn that Kudlows claim was a fantasy too far even for the Trump White House. But his new version isnt much of an improvement reality-wise. The fact is that the estimated $1.2 trillion reduction in federal revenues over the next 10 years that the Republican-majority Congress enacted six months ago has widened what was already a large hole in federal finances. The cash hemorrhage has already begun. As The Posts Aaron Blake reports, for the first seven months of fiscal 2018 (October through April), the deficit stood at $385 billion, 12 percent more than for the same period last year. Even if Mr. Kudlows vaunted supply-side-effect produces enough revenue to make up that gap a generous assumption the most he could say is that the deficit remained flat, not that it came down, much less rapidly.
Mr. Kudlow engaged in this flight of election-year hyperbole in the same week that the Congressional Budget Office was issuing a nonpartisan report on the nations long-term fiscal outlook. According to the CBO, the federal deficit at the end of fiscal 2018 will be 78 percent of gross domestic product, roughly double its postwar average.
Astronomical as that number is, it will only get bigger the longer our elected officials dither. If Mr. Kudlows comments are any indication, this White House intends not only to put off action on the nations fiscal predicament but to pretend it doesnt exist.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-white-house-is-living-in-an-alternate-economic-universe/2018/06/30/efc1639c-7bca-11e8-80be-6d32e182a3bc_story.html
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)republican lies are dangerous for America
riversedge
(70,091 posts)Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)ever work out? And Kudlow...clueless as any TV Fox talking head.
Notice how this all went unchallenged on Fox Business...business! And no challenge to the obvious lie.
"I forgot" to say "future"?? That is what children say! I forgot! Not MY fault!
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,964 posts)Trump and the Trumpanzees are going to get bitten by reality. Hard.
GoCubsGo
(32,075 posts)Tell us something we don't already know. It will take decades to clean up this mess--if we can clean it up at all.