Deficits Don't Matter (Anymore)!

In 2003, when the Bush administration sought a second, massive round of tax cuts, Dick Cheney famously said: "Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter." And of course they don't -- if the Republicans control the purse strings. For the eight years of Obama's presidency, of course, deficits were the worst thing in the world, and would certainly drive the economy over the edge of the cliff, so that the U.S. turned into Greece. Now that Trump and the Republicans have complete control, of course, suddenly "deficits don't matter."



Click here for an article at Daily Kos, by Kerry Eleveld, entitled "Team Trump eyes ginormous deficit spending, pitting Republicans against one another on taxes." Eleveld says:

Now that control of government spending is at Donald Trump's tiny fingertips, he's like an unsupervised kid in a candy shop looking to OD on sugar. He wants it all: major tax cuts, a spike in military spending, massive infrastructure spending, and, of course, his big beautiful multibillion dollar wall. All of this without offsets in the form of tax revenue will balloon the deficit to epic proportions, a far cry from the mantle of "fiscal responsibility" Republicans have been claiming for decades. But that doesn’t bother Trump—he doesn’t care about making tax cuts “revenue neutral” (i.e. continuing to supply the government with the same amount of revenue), let alone cutting spending. Rachael Bade writes:

A number of Trump advisers in recent weeks have privately questioned whether tax reform needs to be “revenue neutral,” according to multiple people familiar with early-stage tax reform discussions. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) personally reached out to administration officials to argue that tax cuts without corresponding offsets would spur faster economic growth, and conservative groups such as Club for Growth and Heritage Foundation second that idea, bolstering the argument in the eyes of the right.

Oh yes, now that the GOP is control, growing the deficit is a net plus—after years of being the end of the world as we know it. Paul Ryan, if he retains any sense of dignity, should stand firm against tax cuts that aren't revenue neutral.

During a private tax reform meeting with Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, strategic adviser Steve Bannon, and son-in-law Jared Kushner two weeks ago, Ryan reiterated that stance. And sources familiar with the talks said nobody objected.