These lies are like their father that begets them, gross as a mountain, open, palpable
1
Re: "...President Trump’s proposed budget for the 2021 fiscal year was delivered to the Capitol on Monday morning..."
For the record...I'm STILL waiting for Ronald Reagan's budget magic to 'trickle, down', on all of us!
I CAN think of some things which have trickled down, like the proverbial 'invisible' stain, (on the trousers of a dark suit!), but economic benefits ain't among them!
8
And the people who will get hurt the hardest by some these cuts are Trump’s best supporters. Go figure.....
11
@HeyJoe You can fool more of the people more of the time than you thought as we have learned from voters for Reagan, Bush1, Bush 2 and Trump.
3
@HeyJoe It's easy to figure - Trump's supporters care more about their social issues such as abortion and gay rights than they do about the budget - for them it's an easy trade-off.
1
To quote President George HW Bush, Trump's budget relies on "vodoo economics". Since 2000, the GDP has grown at a rate >3% only 3 yrs (4.1, 3.8 3.5%) and <3.0 17 yrs (avg those yrs=1.87%; 20yr avg GDP growth=2.16%. These were yrs with high inflation and low inflation, high unemployment and low unemployment which suggests that the "independent" economic opinions are 2.2% is right on. Trump will continue to overstate the health of our economy for his benefit and for the long-term detriment to average Americans.
8
Funny how anything Sanders or Warren propose must be paid for.
Yet military increases and tax cuts to the rich no one questions how to pay for it.
I want right wing Democrats to tell me why this is?
17
@Wise12 -- I'd say the Republicans could answer, but they would just spit out the same old zombie lies... It is the exact same reason why Democratic deficits matter, oh they matter -so- much; while Republican deficits are nothing to even mention.
9
@Jim Brokaw
Well Pence just came out and said the deficit doesn't matter, echoing Cheney's view of budgets. But boy does it matter when a democrat is in charge, they wail and cry about deficits and debt. I wonder what kool aid the republicans drink.
6
I would think Republicans should take umbrage at being called rubes. No one likes to be called stupid.
But how are you supposed to feel when the president reinforces by speech and by deed how foolish he thinks his base to be?
Trump knows his loyal followers read his tweets only, and ignore the salient facts the budget shows: a stark and cruel agenda towards the sick and the poor, for starters. The polar opposite of what Trump tweeted, in black and white.
If your cause is just, if your premise is solid, if your intentions are based in goodwill towards all, then you don't have to lie and trick and deceive. Not even yourself.
11
The Republican Party is drunk with power and seems to think that the American people will continue to put up with the 16,000 plus lies being spewed out of the White House’s Twitter misinformation campaign.
Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA and Social Security will be their death nail. Ignoring our climate crisis throws them into the ash heap of history.
9
Anyone who thinks this is a serious budget should have their wallets checked out.
11
Trump's budget is to give as much as possible to the rich and the military-industrial complex, and take as much away as possible from the poor, from environmental protection while conning the suckers with anti-immigrant measures and lying about the deficit. If collectively we let him get re-elected we will get what we deserve - more deficits, pollution, climate disruption, savage economic inequality, failing health care, incivility, hate crimes, homelssness, gun violence ...
13
Republicans have always been bad for the economy and Republican voters are easily conned by them into believing otherwise. Republicans are behave like herd of Buffalo and l live like mushrooms, in the dark feeding on waste. The best years I. recent times were under Clinton who left a balanced budget and to be blown up by Busch. Trump is riding the. Obama recovery from the Busch war debacles. Trump only knows how to borrow because he never repays his lenders which is why only Deutchebank lent to the Trump gang. Americans who vote for him are fools.
9
President Trump has decried the homeless crisis in San Francisco and Los Angeles. So what's his response? Proposing 15% cuts to the HUD budget, including rental subsidies, affordable housing development and public housing. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the budget would cut $5 billion from the Housing Choice Voucher program, which would place over 160,000 families at risk of losing their needed rental assistance.
These draconian cuts to low-income housing programs will only exacerbate our national homeless crisis, and place affordable housing further out of reach of millions of Americans. Sad.
11
@joe westchester
trump will still blame the democrats and his base will believe him. Cultish behavior.
The economy is sound. Do we really need to boost it further with more debt, only to flush it down the toilet with projects like a wall and a military/industrial complex?
How about a green energy economy, something that provide millions of jobs and solves environmental issues at the same time which would then justify the cutting of several regulations? In other words, how about an intelligent budget rather than one that puts the country on the edge of another recession.
123
@David
You ask "How about....?" You should really be asking, "How about Democratic control?" Then your wishes will be granted.
I just hope that the Democrats don't crash and burn in our efforts to win. It always seems that the Republicans have the unity, the message and the thrust to win. All the while the Dems just shuffle around the deck chairs on the Titanic. We need to unite and use some the Republicans' efforts from their playbook. Scream from the rooftops, demonstrate in the street, blast our message out to the streets, and repeat and repeat and repeat. Maybe then we will win.
Every time Democrats say, "the Republicans want to cut Social Security and Medicare" the people on the right accuse us of fear mongering and laugh it off.
But the proof is in his budget proposal. The Republicans really do want to eliminate Social Security and Medicare eventually. Not just cut it some; eliminate it totally. That's what Republican lawmakers want.
So if you actually rely on Medicare and Social Security, or are currently paying into Social Security and Medicare, then it's absolutely illogical and irrational to vote for Republicans.
It can't get any simpler than that.
178
@Mike
It's a pity it can't get any simpler. If it could maybe some of those trump voters might begin to understand what they are doing to themselves.
32
@Mike Trump/GOP will take away ALL social programs; except for Patriot Farmer bailouts
20
@Mike As long as they pay us back all of the FICA payments made over a working lifetime (plus interest), they can abolish SS. Of course, that's silly and we will continue to pay 6.5% to FICA taxes.
Didn't our forefathers call taxation without representation? Basically, looting the taxpayers.
17
Since when has economic reality, scientific reality or any ideologies of this administration been guided by the work product of our best economic and scientific data? It seems to be the case that our government is instead being motivated by ideologies lacking critical thinking skills.
183
@AGoldstein
This administration? How about any Republican administration going back to 1980 at least?
21
@Nathan Hansard
since LBJ they just didn't get their way until Reagan.
7
@hoffmanje
One movie "has been" with the beginnings of dementia plus one reality TV "star"wannabe managed to convince enough voters they were special gods sent to save the USA from liberals who want voters to have a fair opportunity to achieve their dreams with a safety net without holes for the hard times. The cults of Reagan and Trump target much of what is ethical and speak to the better angels of voters in the USA so that the rich can grow richer. Shameful.
4
We’ve reached moral bankruptcy, might as well go for economic bankruptcy also. Throw in the Senate where we’ve suffered a bankruptcy of courage and we’ve got a hat-trick.
438
@JR
Yes, moral and economic bankruptcy - a trifecta. If Trump isn't re-elected, maybe we'll get a Bloomberg buying the presidency.
The cuts in Medicare are already taking effect, and AMTRAK has hired the guy who ran Delta Airlines. He is introducing boxed food instead of the wonderful waiter service that still exists here on the West Coast.
Think of all the wasted trees that made all those budgets.
29
@EB
And no one will read those thick budgets so the wasted trees were taken down for nothing.
5
Since Trump's best interest is also the country's best interest he doesn't need to consult government experts. If his own money managers tell him he's making a lot of money then he tells us that the U.S is doing great! Never been better!
6
A budget that plans for a decade of clear skies, strong winds, and calm seas, with little room for anything else. The legislature would be wise to throw this into the bin and create a bipartisan budget that respects the reality of a recession, climate change, and any number of fumbles that waits in the wings for us.
3
@B
Another issue is the reliance the world has on China to produce parts for companies across the globe. The coronavirus already has two global companies, Apple and Google, closing their doors in China temporarily while the new coronavirus outbreak is playing out.
2
the man can't handle his own money, why have we trusted him with our nation?
9
What? People actually expect a president who serially bankrupted more than a few of his own businesses, and was repeatedly unable (and unwilling) to repay his over-leveraged debt, trust Donald Trump to propose a sensible budget based on realistic assumptions?
Donald Trump has always been a promoter and self-promoter who promises the sun and the stars but delivers the dark side of the moon. He may rail about fake news, but his entire existence depends on fake math.
8
Referencing your headline, "grappling with reality" is the President's forte. So far as I can see he usually wins. So much winning. He was right; I AM tired of it.
3
George H.W. Bush was right when he called it "voodoo economics."
3
I was at the checkout counter at a hardware store, in N.H. behind several contractors who were discussing the President's dishonesty and lack of character.
The conversation left with them and the manager behind the counter shook his head, looked at me and said, "You must be a Trump supporter."
I asked him why he was and he replied he had a hard time with the President's behavior and all his lies but his 401K was doing so well that he could not rationalize voting for anyone else.
I asked if he trusted his investment in the hands of a man who lies regularly and went bankrupt several times en route to the Whitehouse and used his non-profit foundation to buy paintings of himself.
He shrugged, a little taken aback but ready to defend his choice. I immediately let him know I did not care who he voted for. Our relationship had more value than any vote he cast.
After a pause, I asked if he would check the fuel before getting on a beautiful fancy plane to cross the Atlantic ocean even if the captain said there was plenty of fuel in the tanks.
After a pause, I asked if he would check the fuel before getting on a beautiful fancy plane to cross the Atlantic ocean if he were the pilot. I went on to say that his 401K is fueled by an economy that has a trillion-dollar deficit, the plane is captained by an individual who has the only parachute and could care less about "fuel."
I smiled and said, "I think I'll fly with a different carrier."
6
DOA in the Republican Senate. The budget committee already said they will not even hold hearings because the Republican chair is certain it would be too contentious.
Larry Kudlow believes in the tooth fairy. He repeatedly stated that the tax cuts would expand the economy and raise enough revenue to avoid a deficit. This has been Republican mythology since Reagan. We spend far too much on the military and need to reform Medicare spending. Instead the GOP cuts the safety net because the poor and children do not vote
How many corporations did Trump bankrupt? Now he may bankrupt the US.
9
Obviously they peg the economy's growth rate to make their numbers work in order to reassure their supporters, without doing rigorous analysis to justify their conclusions.
2
Did they account for his 400 million in golf games, 12 billion dollar farmer bailout, 3.4 million super bowl party, who know how much in ivanka and jared's travels that are under the table and kept secret; barr's and pompeo's flights around the world trying to gin up foreign assistance to win the election; lack of factories opening in the country; lack of wage increase; the top 1% not contributing to the economy?
17
@Marlene Or the amount of money found missing from the Treasury when Trump and his pals at last depart? Isn't that pretty much the authoritarian script?
@Marlene Interesting asked a relative who argued with me that we have socialism in Canada becasue of our health care. No, it comes from our taxes. I asked him if he had auto insurance, home insurance and for good measure giving billions to farmers - gee I guess that is not socialism. Jim Trautman
1
This brings to mind the stacks and stacks of folders allegedly filled with blank pages. Or, secondly, the 180 plus pages of Jared's Middle East Peace Plan, filled with surprises.
6
What was it that the late Pres. Bush called the idea that tax cuts will 'pay for themselves' by increasing economic growth, again? Oh yes, 'voodoo', that's right. It was then, it still is. And just as the church's resistence of Galileo's insights eventually had to yield to empirical evidence, so too eventually the GOP will have to give up its belief in the magical effect of cutting taxes, particularly for the wealthy. Unfortunately not in my lifetime. Meanwhile, millions will suffer needlessly.
10
Bill Clinton had both a balanced budget and economic prosperity.
At the same time.
14
All that and he was impeached! The Clinton years were some of the best years for most Americans.
Labeling Trump's projections as being optymstic, many, many past predicitons proven to be overconfident, are just more instances of how his spinning, exaggerating, and outright lying since he climbed onto the public stage has gotten 'normalized', as if he's earnestly being truthful, all the while way too much of this outrageous behavior explained away under the rubric, "Well, that's just Trump being Trump".
His fat projections are left hanging there for his base to revel in, never sliced and diced and brought back to the fore where they are shown to have fallen flat.
Time after time this has been going on the past three years. And soon we're about to be bombarded by placards at his rallies stating, "Promise made, Promises kept".
Please!
5
Oh cool. Pricey door stops at taxpayers' expense.
2
"The senior administration official also said a General Motors strike, aerospace giant Boeing’s struggles with its 737 Max aircraft and flooding in the Midwest had reduced growth by an additional three-tenths of a percentage point last year."
Oh, so the growth forecast by the Trump administration excludes the intercession of reality? It's a poor plan that doesn't account for some unforeseen circumstance. If nothing else, we can predict with near certainty that some "unpredicted" event will occur and tweak (or even sweep away) the outcome we hoped for. The pure theoretical model is irrelevant.
3
“2020 is an election year,” the officials write, “and there is the risk that this will distract from implementation of the necessary policies required for continued increases in prosperity.”
Time to cancel the 2020 elections! They are so darn pesky and distracting.
6
@John in the USA
Obama took the reins from George W. Bush and after eight years was responsible for the creation off 13 milliion jobs, and privaste sector jobs at that. And directly in the face of Bush's eight-year job creation total of a NEGATIVE 500,000.
Obama's initiatives were the locomotive behind the greatest recovery of all time with little if any fanfare from anyone!
Trump's gotten a free ride and has been allowed to brag about all he's done to create this great economy all the while spouting how horrible things were under Obama and when Trump took office.
14
So, in a nutshell, the proposed budget ignores history, data, basic economics, and professional expertise to forecast pie in the sky.
Just keep those tax cuts for the rich coming, keep boosting military spending, and slash those pesky social safety nets, and we'll all be livin' off the fat of the land, yessiree, we'll all be truckin' through tall cotton while the economy just grows and grows and grows.
16
Please don't give even peripheral credibility to the assumptions Trump's budget makes. The Republicans have -no- intention of -ever- balancing the budget... and any pretend numbers they have that show otherwise are fabrications, working from the desired result to the 'growth rate projection' they need to make it pretend correctly.
Just more Trump lies. "The tax cuts will pay for themselves." No, they won't. They won't this time, they didn't last time, they never have. Please stop reporting these lies as if they have any credibility at all - they do not.
Trump's budget is DOA in Congress. It is, however a very clear indicator of Trump's priorities... it cuts science; cuts foreign aid while boosting military spending; cuts health care (while Trump proclaims that he won't do so); it cuts environmental spending (while Trump vigorously works to deny climate change). It is a clear statement of Trump's priorities - and it clearly shows just how foolish and how much of a lie everything Trump claims really are.
Watch what he does, and watch what he wants to spend money on - ignore what he -says-, because those words are -all lies-.
15
@Jim Brokaw IDK, the Dems love that military budget. Lots of pork and bacon....
1
@twill - every major Democratic candidate has proposed new taxes to cover their spending plans... while Trump invents numbers to fool his cult followers into thinking he's not taking away their healthcare, taking away their environmental safety, taking away their jobs (as a farmer or factory worker...) - and piling up debt our children and grandchildren will be stuck with. Trump lies to his followers, his budget is smoke and mirrors on a foundation of lies - and people in his cult will believe it. Do you?
6
@Jim Brokaw I know when Trump is lying…..his lips are moving.
I have not seen any Dem pushback on his budgets so far. They are part of this problem.
2
We are talking about a deficit that is more than a 20% of the total budget. When Reagan proposed a less gargantuan deficit with the same claim that it would "pay for itself", George HW Bush rightly called it "voodoo economics". And when Bush 1 rightly increased taxes because it was fiscally responsible his party dropped him like a rock. Voodoo continues to be the guiding principle of Republican economic policy
10
His math is consistent with his logic. Both don't add up.
7
This article has to walk a fine line, and does. Trump’s projections are almost certainly inaccurate. These budgets are just political theatre, they throw meat to his base without actually spending any money. And he gets to take credit for not coming after your healthcare because Dems in Congress will block those elements of his proposal, if they can. The hard part is, Trump isn’t the only one to break with math.
I see the author pointing out how Obama made rosy economic forecasts to justify his budgets too. If the executive budget is just a political statement, maybe it does not need to be mathematically sound. But if the math is absurd and the proposal is cruel, it seems to make a different argument.
“We propose cruelty to show our (Fox watching/Facebook) audience that we agree punishing the poor is the only path to prosperity, and us failing to meet projections happens because politicians are not cruel enough. Blame Congress for our weaker growth.” [Also, ignore climate change].
Since most voters don’t read the budget or stories like this, Trump and surrogates can still campaign on protecting healthcare. Just like they don’t follow litigation so they don’t know Trump and the GOP is suing to end the ACA, including protections for Americans with preexisting conditions.
Should we expect more honest math from all presidents? Yes. Is it worse that he’s lying, acting in bad faith, and doing so to hurt the most vulnerable and all of us, for his personal benefit? I think so.
4
Ask your fifth grader to figure out how high a stack of 20 trillion one-dollar bills would be. There are 3000 bills per foot. That stack would be well over a million miles high.
Ronald Reagan and the Republicans created this disaster. When the rest of the world finally figures out that the USA is as bankrupt at its current president, we will become a third world nation.
It already is in many places. Tax cuts for the rich? That's rich.
15
@George Fleming - a million miles high. Really. That stack would circle the planet 40,000 times.
4
Let’s remember, balanced is just back to somewhere between dead broke and bankrupt.
6
That's the way Republicans get their way: lie, obfuscate, and mislead. That's the way they campaign and that's the way they govern. If they told the truth, the only votes they would get would be from fellow oligarchs. So, they have to fool and mislead the rest of their base.
17
I think trump believes he will eventually declare bankruptcy for the country, erase all that debt and start over.
Worked before, why not now ?
14
@IndependentSam: The panacea was discovered in the 2008 crash. It is called "Quantitative Easing", which is a misleading label for monetizing debt by central banks purchasing their own government's debt securities with electronic currency credits issued to the selling banks. As long as money velocity stays sluggish, there is little or no inflation as the amount of currency expands.
4
In the State of the Union speech, how many times was the national debt mentioned? It’s heading towards 24 trillion under Republicans.
9
Since 1980 the GOP has been telling everyone that, "Tax cuts pay for themselves! And if they don't, well, you'll have to make up for it by taking a cut to your Social Security."
How about this instead, "Tax cuts pay for themselves! And if they don't, well, we'll just have to tax every billionaires and billion dollar company into the middle class."
20
CBO projects annual interest on the debt will increase from $ 475 billion this fiscal year to over $ 700 billion by 2026 which will force the federal government to substantially cut back on funding to individual states. End result will be significant increases in state sales taxes and property taxes to reduce the shortfall. For those who continue to drink the 'Trump Kool Aid', take a peek at the new budget that was submitted to Congress this morning; it's supreme fiction!
8
I may be missing something here, but I do not understand how middle income, or all wage earners for that matter believe the Trump tax cuts benefit them.
A back of the envelope review of past FED reports show personal tax collections under the current tax structure have increased from 45% of total federal tax receipts in 2016 to 46% in 2019. Fed reports also show social security and Medicare collections increased from 36% of the total federal tax collections in 2016 to 39% during 2019, while corporate tax collections were reduced by approximately 2/3 during this same period.
In summary payroll taxes and personal income tax collections for 2016 comprised 80% of total federal revenues, whereas in 2019 these two same components totaled 86% of total federal revenues.
6
@Jim Yes, the more people work the more revenues get collected. With millions more working now the amount of revenues often increase. That is consistent with "supply side" theory. And as corporation taxes were reduced, it meant more people were hired and work and pay taxes. It's all very simple.
1
@Jgarbuz The problem is on an inflation adjusted basis federal revenues are less than they were at the end of 2016. Additionally, that does not change the increased breakdown for personal taxes towards the total revenues collected.
Another problem with your response is during the Bush years the total personal and payroll taxes collected were between 77 and 80% of total federal revenues.
6
@Jim The most interesting stat is the FICA comparison. FICA collection stops at around $130k. The 36% to 39% increase from 2016 to2019 represents an 8% increase paid by those those making $130k or less. With the corporate rate falling, it looks like we now know who is assuming a bigger share of the overall tax burden.
9
Donald Trump’s budget proposals have been defined by a belief that the economy will grow significantly faster than most economists anticipate. The latest version, set for release on Monday, is a brief departure: It concedes, for the first time, that the administration’s past projections were too optimistic.
Sen. Joe Manchin has some stern advice for Trump: Grow up. “For the sake of the country, I hope he does,"
2
I can foresee the future. If Trump is anywhere near correct he will claim victory, and the expert economists will never admit that they were wrong. The experts will blame their inaccuracies on unforeseen events.
3
When Trump talks budget there is a peaceful and joyful contentment that pours over my being. I am very fulfilled by not only the economic policies of Trump but also border security and removing regulations on industry. Trump is working for middle class middle Americans! Trump has and is fulfilling his campaign promises and that is what is scares people. I know we are not used to a president that keeps his word but integrity is hard to find these days, especially with the current crop of Democratic presidential candidates. If any single one of them were to have done something as patriotic as awarding Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Metal of Freedom then they would be held in high regard such as our current leader. No I do not say these things in jest but as an opposing point of view. Don't be haters all the time, Obama spent Billions on green companies that all folded and yet no one on the left seems to remember.
1
@RS We're already in a manufacturing recession, and Obama's job growth and market growth dwarf Trump's.
Blindly basing your opinion of the economy on who's President at any given time is ridiculous, particularly given the the President has almost no sway over the economy.
Also, how's the weather in Moscow this time of year?
18
@RS You said absolutely nothing of substance. Enjoy the peaceful and joyful contentment you'll feel when the people you love (if there are any) lose their social security and medicare benefits.
I think you probably were actually joking.
13
@RS
If you find trump discussing budgets as peaceful and joyful, what are you drinking when you get up in the morning? Trump doesn't care about budgets - he only cares about what will get him elected and/or what will benefit himself and his family. He has added so much debt - but you guys only care about the deficit when a democrat is President.
He's working for middle class Americans? By cutting all the EPA regulations so we have dirtier water and air? Cutting taxes for the rich so we have to pay more? Cutting taxes for corporations who continue to cut employee hours so they can't qualify for health care? He's done nothing to make my life better.
Integrity? Who has integrity? Trump? Which Trump? I want you to find integrity in any trump and show me that integrity! All I see are a bunch of lying grifters taking full advantage of their position.
Giving Rush Limbaugh - a racist, foul mouthed, lying, disgraceful pig, the Presidential Medal of Freedom during the State of Trump was reality TV. This is the same man who rooted for a pedophile to win the senate race in Alabama.
Obama had integrity. Obama cared about the people in this country. Obama cared about saving the planet. Trump cares about getting rid of everything Obama did. Why do you think that is? Perhaps because he is a racist? Or have you forgotten the birther lie he told for years?
You crack me up. What planet are you from anyway?
19
no reason to over react. I'm sure after republicans retake the house, President Trump will work hard to close the deficit cap
I have a feeling that will really cause a panic with some folks
it's time for folks to concede that our president is doing very well for all Americans
2
@Brasto
doesn't the sand get in your eyes?
9
@Brasto
I'm sure after Democrats take the Senate, increase their margin in the House, and take the Whitehouse, then responsible, non-race bating, non-imbecilic adults will fix the mess that the lying, cheating, sexual-asssaulting, lunatic trump got us all into.
There; fixed it for you.
19
@Brasto ---He had the House for his first two years and ran up huge deficits both years. He's as much a fraud as he claimed the Clintons were four years ago.
18
Please remember, ..... this good economy does NOT belong to Trump....he inherited it from the Obama administration. Remember when he took office at the 2008 recession (thanks, Bush!) Obama put together an economic team which included Reich....and they said, it will take 10 years for us to climb out and recover from the losses....and they were right. It is not due to Trump, it is due to Obama's team!
17
trump has destroyed and bankrupted everything he has ever touched. For some reason, delusional Americans think they are going to get rich, when in fact, they are going to go bust.
How do you add 1 trillion in debt and keep the economy going?
By fake means; the whole thing is a giant shell game.
I plan to cash in now before the collapse and leave the country.
I suggest you do the same. Because we will end up like Venezuela.
9
It is said that Woodrow Wilson's Creel Committee (1915-1919) taught Josef Goebbels everything he knew.
I don't understand why 1984 is a best seller and nobody remembers Darkness at Noon. Yes 1984 seems dystopic and we see so much in the GOP desired future to frighten us but this is Darkness at Noon.
3
@Montreal Moe
Yes, I know Orwell read Darkness at Noon before he wrote 1984 and Orwell was possibly Koestler's biggest fan. I also know Stalin was No.1 long before Patrick McGoohan was No. 6 in The Prisoner.
2
Trump “grappling” with math? Seriously? Is that like his “math” on no more deficits? Retiring the debt? Nonsense. And more nonsense. Trump’s budget is a lie like everything else he utters.
9
It’s such a shame to have the US government printing office waste time and paper printing that.
I think what it has cost to haul him around to his golf resorts.
7
Like everything else built on Trump's lies, this budget is built on the false premise of economic growth only found in the fevered minds of Republican acolytes addled by Trump worship. I see nothing that reduces the deficit. I see everything that favors the rich, beggars the poor and ups defense spending which will, in truth, be badly needed to defend us from the enemies Trump has empowered with his idiocy, which they will take advantage of.
6
Cause nothing says you care about 65,000 overdose deaths every year like cutting every possible conceivable program that benefits the working class and the poor all the while giving billions more to the military and the rich.
7
Some creative person on Broadway needs to make a musical comedy about this. Booming deficits, cuts to aid for education and health care, a useless wall that falls over and has holes in it, record military spending with no war declared and MAGA devotees worshiping their Gold Plated Tin God.
Think of the characters, the over decorated General, the Billionaire cigar smoking contractor and the MAGA retirees cursing the deep state for their lack of medical care with the "New Ecomomics" professor with big glasses urching 2 trillion dollar deficits. And of course the Tin Pot on his gold dias spouting absurdities at the audience.
And don't forget the Congressional Committees never ending
investigations into Benghazi and the Bidens.
It's got to be a hit!
7
Trump is betting on he can bluster up a Trillion dollars worth of War and international conflict.
2
Since trump practices fuzzy math much like his fuzzy thinking expect a budget disaster. He is treating our national budget and the taxpayers much like he treated his bankers, lies, smoke and mirrors and cover ups.
5
We have to give the trickle-down medicine time to work. You little people will start seeing the benefits of it any decade now. Any decade. (Hey, this nonsense has been working for Republicans for 40 years. Why should they quit?)
10
Trump does not do budget math. He stiffs his vendors, declares bankruptcy and leaves. Nothing new here.
8
Trump has increased the calendar year deficit from about $575 billion in 2016 to just over 1 trillion in 2019. That's a 75% increase in three years of reasonable growth (not his forecast 4 to 5% rate) when it should have been going down. Are we supposed to take this buffoon seriously.
10
... than most economists anticipate"
Ester Duflo, 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize Winner in Economics, in a lecture in NY, last Friday,m organized by the French Ambassador to the US:
"Economists are somewhat responsible for this. People believe that they are there to make forecasts, when they are useless in this area ..."
Le Monde 2020/02/07
https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2020/02/07/a-new-york-la-lecon-de-dignite-de-l-economiste-esther-duflo_6028707_3210.html
1
We are all enrolled in Trump University now.
10
Trump has great difficulty grappling with reality. He is accursed with being an extreme present hedonist. He live only in the moment, has no recollection of the past and no interest in the future. His being an EPH explains his pathological lying, his profound ignorance of science, history and geography, and his amorality and lack of empathy. He is extremely shallow.
This massive budget request is not Trump's doing. It is made by those who which to get richer off his presidency. So they go to Mar a Lago and whisper in his ear that we need more guns, tanks and ships. Trump, living in his EPH moment, tries to give them their wish.
And those that will suffer when the safety nets are slashed? They will suffer, because they have no one to whisper into the President's ear, at Mar a Lago.
4
Lies, lies and more lies coupled with total cruelty toward anyone in the 99% of voters. We knew that this is how Trump and Republicans wanted to pay for their tax cuts for billionaires--by robbing America of needed social, educational, and economic programs. Trump's "base" has been flim-flammed into thinking that these social programs are designed to steal from taxpayers to provide handouts to "those people" (black and brown people and immigrants). This is yet another layer of lies and deceptions.
We paid $12 billion to farmers to shore up Trump's election. We payed billions in corporate welfare. Then we robbed hungry children of SNAP benefits. incarcerated legal asylum seekers at the border, and frightened legal residents from availing themselves of social programs to which they were entitled for fear of becoming ineligible for citizenship.
The cruelty never stops with Trump, and his supporters lap it up. God forbid that some day they should need help with medical care, unemployment insurance, education, or even repairs to roads and bridges. It is all Trump all the time, and all billionaire welfare all the time.
11
"Reality" has never been an issue with Trump. But, like most budgets is DOA, especially with a Democratic House. Hopefully, Trump wand his OMB Budget Director, Mick Mulvaney, will be able to just "Get over it!"
1
"Trump's budget math grapples with economic reality." Oh for heaven's sake. No it doesn't. How has it not sunk in that Trump doesn't give a plugged nickel for reality? It's like saying "Trump's sharpie map grapples with hurricane forecasts."
When will the media stop giving Trump credit for seriousness and attention to reality that he so flagrantly and obviously does not possess?
6
No ones numbers ever work—not Warren’s or Trumps. And Bernie can’t even give us numbers.
Nice deflection... ? No.
@ehillesum - Bill Clinton's and Obama's numbers came a lot closer to reality than Reagan, W's or trump's.
1
"The budget predicts the economy will grow significantly faster than most economists anticipate."
It's called LYING.... They are lying -yet again.
Plain and simple.
5
Apparently, Trump and his billionaire pals and enablers including Facebook’s master sellout Mark Zuckerberg are propagating the most massive disinformation campaign in history, since they are well aware facts and reality are Trump’s most potent enemies.
The delusional budget assumptions in the Trump budget fit right in.
3
Trump will sacrifice this country’s financial stability to get re-elected.
5
Trump is true to his persona, it never fails.
1
This budget is like his tax returns, all smoke and mirror, at least we get to see this one! If the economy goes down hill he’ll blame the Democrats.
2
The first and last business economic choice that Donald Trump made was his selection of a New York City real estate baron daddy to inherit 295 streams of income from. That shielded him and his ' kids' from being the worst losing businessman in America over a ten year period.
2
Trump doesn't know math. Someone else wrote the budget. Trump only contributed those that were re hated by him and need to be punished.
Shorter version: Trump lies about the budget like he lies about everything else.
2
If all evidence and expertise say that the the budget is an unrealistic con job then why not say so boldly in the headline? I am increasingly concerned about the soft treatment of headlines for this admin and in process how passively complicit news outlets have become to the often cruel, upside down (il)logic of the current wanna be junta.
3
Fast growth? On what new infrastructure?
1
Wow wow wow wait a second.
"In its fiscal year 2011 budget, for example, the Obama administration predicted several years of growth topping 4 percent in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis — a number it never came close to reaching even once."
If my memory doesn't lie, before 2011 people believed that an economic crisis was followed by fast growth, and everybody, in fact, expected this fast growth to return stability to politics. Yes, we were naive on both counts.
But expecting for that fast growth to kick in was still mainstream in 2011, and people were in fact asking why it wasn't happening. The Obama administration was just following common economic wisdom.
Trump, meanwhile, is running on lies and trickle-down.
10
83% isn't just a dream...it's everything he gave to his millionaires and billionaires in 2017, and gave the rest of us the remaining 17% for a couple of years, until his next proposed new scam budget now...our Social Security, Medicare, SNAP for the impoverished, etc.
According to the economists 3% is a just a dream. Trump needs to get over the hump for his reelection. 2 to 1/2% is what the economists propose.
Just remember, He subsidized and paid the agri-business millionaires and billionaires $30 billion of our money before his Chinese trade deal.
Now that he has the Chinese trade deal, Trump should refund back to us the $30 billion he took from us, now that they've been made whole, and leave our earned benefits we worked all of out lives for alone!
10
So if the economy grows at 3%, and federal deficit is no longer a runaway train, why does the budget cut social spending ?
12
@Agnieszka Gill
They have to pay for the multi trillion dollar give-away to the rich in their tax cut.
3
This is Congresses chance at payback. Something Trump understand. Don't pass the budget. Close the government down.
2
@AJ : Presidential budgets are always only suggestions and/or wish lists. All real budgets must originate in the House.
3
Where are the deficit hawks now?
11
@Stephen
I think 60 Minutes found them on the steppes of Central Asia, if you watched last night. In the same place as the hunting falcons.
4
@Stephen Pretending they never said, or meant, what they said when there was a Democrat in the White House. Who cleaned up the last economic mess left by the same people.
3
@Stephen Oh, now they're democrats. It switches depending upon which party has the White House.
For several decades now American students have been lagging behind in math and science. Most of the science and math departments in universities of higher education are now packed with Asian American and south Asian American kids. In the best high schools in the northeast these Asian students excel in science math computers technology data sciences.
It is no wonder that trump’s administration lacks math skills considering those who head the departments (likely white Christian males) have very little math knowledge and skills. America has been dumbing down in education. Lagging far behind Singapore and European countries.
Our president has no value or understanding of the public school system that produced stellar students. He has no idea how these hard working brilliant students get to college of their choice and then spend their entire adult lives paying off student loans.
People in trump admin are scared to tell him about this reality. He will shout down if republicans display an ounce of empathy. This kind of hard line authoritarian policies will hurt Americans for generations to come. My poor kids and grand kids.
13
@petey tonei Well, Petey, you must then be really scared of the democrats budget, remember those entertaining ones from Obama's years? Oh, and remember the ebonics math from a few years back?
Oh, and remember how they changed the SAT scores because our esteemed public school kids scores kept dropping and dropping? Probably not, but look it up.
If China stays quarantined for any length of time, I suspect it might affect these figures.
I wonder what will happen to DJT's supporters if Medicaid is cut, pre-existing conditions are reinstated, the ACA is completely eliminated, a recession comes, or climate change affects the economy.
6
@Mike S. They'll blame immigrants, liberals, Obama, Hillary, and then deny that there were even cuts!
3
@Mike S. Yeah, Mike, and I wonder what will happen when democrats see their own taxes going up, that "put your own money where your mouth is" stuff.
1
Once again trump is showing his total disregard for the common man. Luckily, his budget won't see the light of day as long as the democrats control the house. However, trump continues to please his rich contributors. Meanwhile, trump plans to continue to spend the country into total oblivion with the help of the wall street driven fed.
7
@Tony Frank Dang, Tony, then you must go crazy over the dems proposals. Here's a partial list; reparations for blacks, free health care for all, more pay for teachers, higher taxes, usually on the other people but we know better, paying off student loans, open borders with free healthcare for the illegals, more money to Puerto Rico in spite of their inability to tell us where it was spent, to name a few. Where's the common man in that?
Last week Steve Bannon informed Bill Maher (with a straight face mind you) that the country will "grow its way" out of the mega-debt the Trump administration is piling on year after year. It doesn't matter if Trump and his cronies believe it, so long as they sell it to the base at the next red hat rally.
24
@sloreader: There is no doubt that Trumpublicans could create double-digit (or more) inflation if they put their minds to it.
No problem; as he said during the campaign, he'd just buy back the debt at a discount. I.e., all those Americans with US Treasury bonds in their retirement portfolio would get a nice haircut.
12
@gzuckier
Since 1985, all bond issues financed by the United States and overseen by the U.S. Treasury Department have been issued as non-callable bonds. Such an arrangement provides the government with the most economical method of issuing bonds because investors can be assured of having their securities available though without the convenience of early redemption, referred to as a call feature.
https://www.sapling.com/7796395/treasury-bonds-callable
That means the government cannot force you to redeem your bonds before they mature. In 2020, even 30 year bonds would have been issued after 1985.
Donnie has not a clue about such matters.
You know, he is the self-proclaimed "King of Debt."
And it is equally true that I am the King of Siam.
1
getting slightly off point, Donald Trump loves to embrace the stock market, the dow, yet he has kept his company private, that is because when you go onto the Stock Market in order to have people buy shares you MUST AND SHALL open your books for legitimacy, the other interesting factor how come no one has requested which stocks and in which public companies Trump, his family, and Trump Organizations actually invest in.
How can any of this using shell companies not be looked into? how would there not be a conflict of interest or the possibility/probability of inside trading on the part of Trump, this was a concern for Rep. Collins(now jail)for Mitch McConnell's wife, Secretary of Transportation Chow, for Wilbur Ross.
14
@Rachel Quesnel The stock market was the only thing that did well under Obama, economy-wise, and the good is that pretty much everyone has money in it, especially via their IRA's. Public versus private? Public means the stock price can go up or down based on lots of things, private means it's only your own money at risk. I'm also quite sure our democratic brethren have been investigating everything around Trump, so if there was anything suspicious it would have been leaked a long time ago.
2
@DJOHN Less than 50% of working adults are invested in the stock market.
2
@DJOHN I am familiar with the stock market as I took a major hit in 2008-09, when a private company such as Trump Organization goes Public, that is when you can buy or sell, that is what going public, getting shares, my understanding is that much of the economy that is now enjoyed began under President Obama, and Trump inherited this upswing, as for investigations, maybe to most likely the Democrats have investigated Provided they know his full portfolio and under which names and registrations he uses, if he is the typical Donald, much is hidden and may come out thru Deutsche Bank, I am not certain if you are a Trump supporter if so, your vote and voice is yours, I just dislike this creature who for years has been able to manipulate people with his silver tongue and able to distract from the true person he is.
1
"Trump’s Budget Math Grapples With Economic Reality"
That's standard Conservative economic fare these fast few decades.
11
@John Oh, John, that the standard political fare forever. Don't give OR a bad name.
People are too pessimistic. Of course the economy will continue to grow at 2.8 and 3 and then 4 to 5 percent per year. Tax cuts always pay for themselves and the budget is well on its way to be ballanced. Also, the way to make money is to spend money. With that in mind, I have some beans I'd like to sell you. But not just any beans son, these are magic beans. Just send me all your money, pray, waive the flag and you too can be rich.
21
“Waive” the flag indeed. An ironic error...thanks for the chuckle.
1
Nothing this fraudulent swindler of a fake president does is legitimate or based in rational thought. It's all a show and sleight of hand. His cult refuses to even acknowledge that it was the Obama administration that brought the economy back from the Bush-Cheney recession. They refuse to see that his policies are cannibalizing the nation, leading to bankruptcy while Trump will skate with the booty. This is not economic policy, it is madness.
25
Show us your tax returns, Trump.
22
The GOP has always been the FY deficit party, and the Recession party. The Dems have always been the party that has to fix GOP messes ..
To borrow some familiar Republican lingo, this budget should be D.O.A.
17
This is clearly a socialist program aimed at concentrating the wealth of this country in the hands of Wall Street and War profiteers. Tax cuts for the wealthy, then adding to the already grossly bloated defense budget. For what to perpetuate endless war and keep the wealth concentrated in the military industrial complex. Socialism for the wealthy and war mongers, survival of the fittest for everyone else.
I would much rather have my tax money go to some lazy dude so he can eat than to war profiteers who make weapons to drop on people in another country.
How much more of this stupid economic policy will we tolerate? I thought it had been discredited 10 years ago.
20
Trump as a businessman:
• Inherited plenty
• Boasted that it was his acumen that gave him that plenty
• Wasted that plenty
• Declared bankruptcy
• Hid his taxes that proves he is penniless
Trump as a president:
• Inherited Obama’s plenty
• Boasted that it was his acumen that gave him that plenty
• Is wasting that plenty — golfing, trips to NoKor, trade wars that result to a 24 billion aid to middle America basically turning farmers into card carrying socialists of the Venezualan kind as against Scandinavian socialists
• Is about to declare bankruptcy — note the trillions of deficit that he has singularly added to the federal budget
• Will soon hide in Moscow as soon as he is out of the White House rather than face the SDNY
26
@Opinioned! The last point is key, SDNY has a laundry list of charges that will be levied against him as soon as he leaves office.
10
@Opinioned!
Trump as candidate:
• I’m the king of debt. I know all about debt.
• Maybe we’ll default on all our debt.
• Maybe then we’ll declare bankruptcy.
In the meantime ...
2
@Jim Can't wait!!!
1
Mr. Donald Trump is the President the USA deserves.
He is over 6 feet tall and tells it as he sees it.
What more can you ask?
2
@Robert Kai Eh He makes a lot of effort on his hair and makeup. That's what counts.
And, he's a fit 239 lbs.
2
Let's get real here. Trump is an idiot and knows nothing of anything except being a grifter and a bully. His "economists", chosen for their TV appeal like everyone else in this fake administration, all say what HE wants to bolster his fake economy. When his plans fail to work, he simply lies and spreads more distractions to cover.
What is at stake in this new Republican atrocity, while Trump flies off to hate rallies and golf at several million a clip of OUR tax dollars (plus what WE pay for his feckless family members), is destruction of essential programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security upon which MILLIONS of Americans have planned their retirements and, indeed, survival as they age.
Trump doesn't care. Republicans don't care. THEY have a $1.5 TRILLION tax break for the already rich that WE are paying for. CONSIDER loss of your medical insurance due to pre-existing conditions (a law suit which Trump has pending and about which HE LIED to you at his TV-game-show SOTU abomination the other day), being unable to afford your medical care under Medicare, choosing between medicine to save your life or eating, if you're lucky, and not having enough SS to live on and not being able to work in your old age (NOW).
EVERY SENIOR, every AARP member, SHOULD WATCH THIS WITH A MICROSCOPE. Your life depends upon these programs. Again, Trump doesn't care as long as HE makes money. He'll just get more from Putin and MBS.
14
Of course, everything is "Perfect". After all, who else but a mutiple bankrupt would a nation choose to present budgets and predictions for its econi=omic future?
5
Oh come on ... he's a Bidniss Man --- he's using the same math he used in Atlantic City ......... Surely the Chinese or Russians will buy a bunch of chips that they will never cash in.
There is something FOUL about running up a multi $TRILLION debt by enriching the wealthy and then cutting the social safety programs because there's no money left in the till.
This corrupt administration must GO
11
What an insult!
1
Do not believe your own eyes and ears only what our supreme leader tweets as that is the only truth as confirmed on Fox State TV by sycophants paid by Murdock so he can call Trump anytime he wants. Reality will no longer be tolerated much like North Korea our supreme leader will punish dissidents with all the force and power of the American presidency in league with Toady Roy Cohn clone AG Barr and opportunist Lindsey house guest at Mar a Lago and bible thumping Pompeo who deserted his staff to suck up to Trump not the policy of West Point.
6
The quantum mechanical perfection of laser ring gyros is awesome. Acceleration is trickier to measure than orientation now. Weapons design has moved on to post-GPS navigation.
1
Trump even politicizes the budgeting process. Rather than be realistic about economic realities, he is still sticking to his campaign promise to deliver over 3% GDP growth or as he said frequently while campaigning, even "4 or 5% or more." Well, 2019 came in at 2.1%. But this matter, like most of what Trump says are his own thoughts unvetted by people with true knowledge and most often not reflecting reality. To get to 3% GDP growth would require an increase of approximately 40% in 2020, which most economists are saying won't happen. Instead, they predict a decline in growth. But if his followers continue to believe in what he says rather than what is proven reality, then he is happy... especially if they don't check the numbers or "read the transcript." Meanwhile the budget deficit and national debt continue to grow under Trump -- contrary to his campaign promise that he would greatly reduce or maybe eliminate the debt once president.
2
"if they don't check the numbers or "read the transcript."
That would take reading and math skills or a different narrative coming out of Fox which they don't want to hear.
The cruel irony (and cynicism) is that Republicans scream louder and louder about the dangers of socialism as the income gap gets wider and wider. The best defense is a good offense, I guess.
Socialism isn't even a small threat to the U.S. It's not a threat at all.
Feudalism, on the other hand, is actually pretty near. And Trumps supporters (many of who are practically serfs) are the ones who most support the feudalism they don't even know is a threat.
They are chickens celebrating Colonel Sanders.
8
@Mike The further irony is the Trump supporters' insistence that the rural tilt of the Electoral College is important to ensure their interests aren't buried by the urban majority; when it inevitably results in their electing someone who governs in opposition to their interests.
4
The Administration's new budget of $4.8 trillion is designed to further impoverish seniors, millions of students, the poor and vulnerable groups for whom there is little empathy and humane consideration. The maths and statistics just do not tally, and wild baseless proclamations are made only to attract the base.
All in the helping professions, field of education and health care, as well as activists supported by human rights defenders, should stand up and expose the hypocrisy and lies that are presented to us each day. We must shout back, "Human Rights First".
All just and fair thinking citizens with a conscience should speak to their house representatives and senators, and throw out this heartless and self seeking White House on 3 November!
4
I personally would like to see a budget based on a 2.5% growth and spending based on that. When was the last time that we met our budget growth? When was the last time that we did not deficit spend because we did not meet our budget. Congress needs to be held accountable for any budget that they approve; which could be an automatic reduction in any budget submitted in the next year would be reduced by the short fall from the previous year and this is kept up until Congress can truly pass a balance budget. THE PRESIDENT SHOULD NOT BE PART OF THIS CONVERSATION AS IT RELATES TO THE ANNUAL BUDGET.
6
And the great redistribution continues... Cut taxes disproportionately on the wealthy, then use the resulting budget deficits to justify cutting programs that would help the poor. Or put in more cynical terms, tilt the playing field so the ultra-rich can extract still more wealth from society.
It takes a lot of government support to maintain an oligarch's lifestyle and I think it is about time they started paying their fair share. If a wealth tax sends them running to another country, I seriously think that it would be a boon to the rest of us.
9
@PJM
Socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor is what we have.
2
The president's budget is meaningless. As the Constitution states, all spending must be in accordance with laws passed by Congress. So the president can submit any budget he wants, but it's Congress that decides what goes in the appropriation bills.
11
@J. Waddell However, it does signal the president's priorities, or at least many of them. These include cuts to many things like education and health care that help many of the citizens he claims to care about.
On top of that, like most politicians, he tries to play hide the ball about his administration's effort with republicans to slash health care coverage under the ACA, and hides previous calls to reduce social security and medicare coverage (until after the election).
And his ridiculous build up for the bloated military and opposition to tackling climate change will cause untold suffering in years to come. This is why this horrible man and administration must be stopped. Four more years would be a disaster.
1
Yeah, but apparently the current bankruptcy-claimer-in-chief is of the mind that he can disregard, or impede through delay, enacted Congressional appropriation bills (which are technically laws, once passed).
A bunch of dead Ukrainian soldiers and, possibly, civilians would likely, if they could, attest to that.
President Trump's new budget is all that's needed to show his intentions to starve the things most Americans care about—Medicaid, education, and the environment—and perpetuate his tax cuts for his rich cronies and corporations at any cost.
Can the Democratic candidates please start talking about this and stop attacking each other?
23
@Anima: Trump is driving the arms race to a new level of Mach 25 hypersonic weapons that cannot even be communicated with after they reach speed. This is to deal with the side effects of climate change.
1
Weapons only pay for themselves by conquest and/or tribute. And they can be very expensive to decommission when obsolete.
8
@Steve Bolger
Weapons also pay for themselves when they help presidents extort other countries into helping them cheat in the 2020 election. The phrase "pay for themselves" can also mean "convert public tax dollars into private benefits." In that light, weapons also pay for themselves when they, for instance, facilitate ongoing and future real estate projects in Saudi Arabia.
5
Vote out the GOP!
21
Just like everything generated from this lying cretin, the budget is false, a prevarication, a canard, a whopper, and typical of the worst president of the united states.
Don't just defeat this fake in November, crush him and the GOP, and then enjoy his battle with the SDNY. Register and vote blue.
15
@johnnyd: Not to mention that the entire federal budget of spending is somebody's income. That's socialism.
2
@Steve Bolger Interesting point. It's also the way every civilized country has managed for as long as we've had civilized countries, right? Zero counterexamples. Oh, maybe I forgot New Hampshire, with their state liquor stores. Are state-owned enterprises the only way to avoid socialism? (Sarcasm.)
More lies from our liar in chief. Tear it up, Nancy.
19
Flush the Whitehouse on 11/3/2020.
It's been reeking for >3 years.
Also, the Senate needs to be fumigated...
13
@thinkLikeMe
"Flush the Whitehouse on 11/3/2020."
Just don't please flush it into a river.
5
Trump’s plan to cut safety net funding is in itself a threat to our national security.
Seriously.
Think about the possible, rippling repercussions.
Our nation is, first and foremost, the people who live here and our form of self-governance. National defence is, or should be, primarily about protecting the wellbeing of our people — ourselves and our fellow Americans, regardless of net worth.
8
The 'growth' of the economy almost exactly tracks govt borrowing. Starting with the 'upward wealth redistribution' (aka tax cut) bill which went into effect the first week of January 2018, the govt annually borrows between the equivalent of 2 to 3 percent of GDP, which 'surprisingly' matches the growth in the economy.
Real as opposed to paper growth is based on actual investment in things such as infrastructure, education, and scientific research. But the USA has dramatically scale back this this investment starting with Reagan.
It shows.
I can predict how much the future 'growth' in the economy will be. How much did we borrow?
The 'growth' in my personal wealth tracks exactly what I have put on my credit card.
7
Let’s see a similar critique of the Sanders/Warren Medicare for All proposal.
2
That’s already been criticized by the Times and others. And this article is about Trump. Warren/Sanders are not President.
16
@William its online... do your homework
4
@William Trump is in office; they are not
4
Over estimating gains and underestimating losses is common among business executives and elected officials, so the inaccurate predictions are common among administrations going way back. What makes this note worthy is how far Trump goes to represent reality without any regard at all for reality as is really happens to be. His base wants to think that his performance is better than any previous President has been. That's what his administration does claim. And it's not reliable.
8
@Casual Observer Nothing coming for this administration is reliable...nothing!
3
WE all know that Trump's only reality is Reality TV where he controls the script. Is it any surprise that he proposes cuts to Education and the EPA? An educated person understands that a dirty environment translates into things like Cancer and Climate change.
13
It is difficult to believe Trump (who has bankrupted himself many times and who can only deal with questionable banks for loans and is indebted to them until full repayment which in Trump's case is impossible to ever complete)will ever provide the public with proper information, especially during an election year, here you have a man who constantly overexaggerates his net worth and assets, yet underexaggerates his debt load. Should he be trusted along with many of his financial advisers and cabinet secretaries? the budget that they are now proposing can't be realistic as the US is close to a 23trillion dollar deficit which will actually bring down the United States credit rating due to the fact that there are fewer taxes coming in because of tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations, without tax increases which is a "dirty word" for the majority you cannot continue to sustain this type of growth, eventually government programs such a Medicaid and Medicare will be cut, as will military and infrastructure spending, those who are in the know is the Federal Reserve who Trump in his witless financial comprehension keeps telling and making the American Citizen distrust, however, the GDP growth is slowing throughout all continents due to many factors, the most important is personal debt load per household which then increases personal credit card interests and transforms into bankruptcy or debt restructuring, the ones who are gullible to this rhetoric is Trump's base
18
@Rachel Quesnel
What would happen to our consumer base without the CC and years of stagnating wages? Who will be able to pay for all the big houses and cars?
2
Does it really matter what the Trump budget is? The House is in charge of Appropriations. There is no way they will follow Trump's spending measures. They will not cut the safety net, will not pay for a border wall, and not increase defense. They also will not predict a 3+% growth.
16
@rlschles Shutting down the government always hurts the congressional majority who does it, more than the President that they do it to.
That tactic isn't viable.
@Samuel I doubt anybody is talking about shutting down the government; and the last time, it was Trump's ploy.
4
@rlschles they will increase the defense budget - Dems and reps both because it brings in money for their districts.... Never mind whether we actually need what is being built.
The headline claims that, "Trump’s Budget Math Grapples With Economic Reality."
A more honest headline would have read: "No Truth and No Economic Reality in Trump's Budget Math."
33
It seems to me that almost anything Trump and his administration is excellent at projecting is misinformation, exaggeration and lies.
And that this applies to almost everything they are involved and deal with.
With Trump at the helm, this Administration is involving America in a very bizarre version of (un)Truth or Dare...which is no way to run a country or even for many to correctly know what is being seen as being real (and heavily promoted) versus actual reality which of course, is the Truth...something that most of the administration (and the Senate) do not believe in or care to use unless they absolutely must.
10
What a surprise!! He can’t get anything right. He stumbles and fumbles around.
12
You think he cares what economists say?
To Trump, reality is whatever he (or Fox News) decides it is....
9
"America's Future" -- now there's a scary thought.
More bombs and less aid for food, health care, education, housing, and clean air and water. That's what will really make America great.
13
Trump's budget is based upon nothing except ridiculous assumptions around income going up - 3% GDP, for ever! - and costs being slashed.
So even if he does make his cuts - unlikely - the revenue will be far smaller than projected.
And the possibility of a recession is just discounted completely, but we are overdue quite a serious recession. That will be absolutely disastrous, significantly sinking tax revenue, whilst spending shoots up as more people become unemployed and claim benefits.
If people fall for this nonsense, this country is doomed.
5
When the US goes bankrupt I hope that Canada is our receiver.
4
@Richard Schumacher i'm simply hoping that china doesn't use the same debt collectors as discovercard. (practicing now: 是的，我知道会有时差，但是您必须在深夜打电话吗？)
Last week every member of the GOP, save one, told Donald Trump, explicitly, that he can use every dollar of that budget to extort people in order to help get himself re-elected.
"So, you want that new bridge built? Well, I'm going to need 20% off the top for my campaign fund."
"You want that new federal office building? Well, I'm going to to need you to approve a new Trump hotel in your downtown area."
"You need some money to help fight that coronavirus outbreak? Well, I'm going to need you to spread a little dirt about my opponent."
"If you don't do what I want, I'm going to have my buddy Bill Barr investigate you, and I'm going to have everyone you know in the Federal government fired!"
Trump can do all these things legally now. Thanks to Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Alan Dershowitz, Rudy Giuliani, William Barr, and every member of the GOP (except Romney).
29
@Chicago Guy Trump is looting the USA
7
What happen to the republican cries for balanced budget during the Obama years? Now they are in control of the WH and the annual debt is back over $1 trillion. Republican hypocrisy has no limits. Fiscally, socially and spiritually it is time to vote them out of power.
20
Budget is nothing more than voodoo economics and lies to make the numbers fit to what the administration wants --- reward the military-industrial complex with unlimited money. Cut domestic programs so more people are on the street.
DOD + VA budget comes in close to a trillion dollars or nearly two-thirds of the money while rest of government gets the other third and billions in cuts --- all the while roads/bridges disintegrate, homelessness expands, social security disability gets cut and disabled veterans drive $80K trucks for their hunting trips.
Country needs to revisit its priorities.
8
As for what's in the budged, here are their cuts: education (cause our public education is perfect, compared to the median levels for banana republics), the EPA (cause global warming is a hoax), affordable housing programs (cause it's all going to those people), food stamps (cause all of out tax dollars are going to those people), Medicaid (cause some of their best friends are disabled people), student loan programs (cause Kushner and the other rich geniuses have taken all of the seats at the better schools, anyway).
Here's what's not in the budget, that Trump and McConnell among others have publicly said they will go after (before they realized how dumb it was to tell us about it, before the election): Social Security and Medicare. Every Democratic party election ad should include the recording of Trump saying he would cut Social Security.
26
As in Trump's prior budgets, this proposal, if enacted, would seriously alter our economic future. Contrary to the assertions, the economy would not grow at his overblown expansion rate over the next decade. The next decade demands a serious commitment to climate change, the environment and education, not to mention social programs from universal healthcare to alleviating poverty and social injustice. Instead, Trump proposes cutting the EPA and CDC by nearly 30% and 10% respectively. These reductions were requested in past budget proposals along with severe cuts in Federal support for S&T research and elimination of ARPA-E, which is tasked with promoting and funding R&D of advanced energy technologies. With the exception of NASA, all federal science agencies, including the NSF and NIH, will likely see severe cuts, which Congress has fortunately reversed in all prior Trump budget proposals. But this is not guaranteed in future budget if Trump and Trumpism get extended past 2020. The emerging technologies of artificial intelligence, quantum information and computing, robotics, as well as the bio-sciences, e.g. synthetic biology and tissue/organ fabrication, still need substantial funding for further basic science understanding. These studies also serve in developing an essential part of our future work force. It would become difficult to attract needed foreign talent. Inadequately sustaining such R&D efforts will seriously challenge our economic leadership in the future.
9
Trump is probably thinking he has to keep increasing the military budget in the hope that if he isn't reelected, he can claim voter fraud and have the military keep him in office anyway. Republicans would support the move. Hopefully, the military would have a different view.
13
@jas2200 they won't. The military is overwhelmingly conservative.
Great to see how little republicans care about deficits when they're in office but can't stop talking about it when Democrats are in office.
Trump has borrowed billions and most of it as in Atlantic City was lost but others paid the price which is exactly what he is doing to the American economy. A-day of reckoning is going to come and as always trump will blame others for the disaster he will have created.
19
The "national debt" is NOT a debt at all! It's a tally of how much money the federal government has spent and not clawed back in taxes. It doesn't make any sense to say that the government has to borrow back money it has freely given away.
And why would the gov't. ever have to borrow US dollars? Does anyone think that the sun must borrow photons from another star to keep on shining? Or that the earth must borrow air from another planet if we want to keep on breathing? No, the sun is its own source of light and heat, and the earth is its own source of oxygen. Similarly, the US Treasury is its own source of dollars. The only real constraint on federal spending is inflation, which is still extremely low. And that's after giving away $23 trillion in financial wealth.
2
@WDG Simply printing money would be inflationary. The money is borrowed, from foreign banks in Saudi Arabia and China and from rich Americans who will want to be paid their interest. Our kids will be on the hook for it.
5
@Dan Woodard MD The Fed doesn't sell bonds to borrow money--it can create all the money it needs! The Fed sells bonds to "soak up" excess bank reserves to maintain the target interest rate. Actually, now that the Fed can pay interest on reserves (IOR), there seems to be no reason to sell bonds at all. It would end the confusion.
And think of interest payments as "wealth maintenance payments" that prevent our savings (that $23 trillion alleged "debt") from being eroded by inflation. As long as these payments are at the same rate of inflation, there's no change in our savings. Think of a basketball game. The Knicks hit a layup 10 seconds into the game for a 2-0 lead. At halftime the score is Knicks ahead 52-50. Note that 100 points have been added to the scoreboard, but the VALUE of the lead is still 2 points.
And don't worry about our kids. In another 150 years the "debt" will probably be $400 trillion--and folks will be just fine as long as inflation has been kept under control as the economy keeps growing..
This is expected. His administration's policies are highly effective in diverting funds from the American people to the very few at the very top (not just the 1%, but the 0.01%). There is no practical reason to increase military spending, as many have noted, while cutting safety net benefits well below 3rd world countries levels.
This is not some fantasy of 3%+ growth claim, nor bad math. It is clear that they know both are not realistic. This is a very clear appropriation and accumulation of wealth done in the open. The losers are the 99%+ of the population, not just the Democrats. In fact, more Republicans in red states will suffer more. Why this country allows a return to third world country governance is beyond me.
19
And when more than 50 million retirees see their Social Security and Medicare reduced, GDP will be reduced accordingly.
I think.
9
@David J I agree. Benefits paid to poor people are spent immediately and add to the economy. Tax cuts are salted away by the rich in vaults.
2
@David J
MAGA people don't need SS and Medicare, those are for losers/
1
The bigger the budget, the more money Trump can use for extortion.
13
Perhaps Trump's budget proposal of making deep cuts to to student loan assistance, affordable housing efforts, food stamps, Medicaid, education and environmental protection will be what it takes for people to finally vote this monster out of office.
39
@Marge Keller Republican voters will NEVER see the light. Too full of hate, fear and stupidity. Trump will get voted out IF Democrats and moderate independents come out and vote, and IF voter suppression is not too extreme, and IF Russia is unsuccessful at hacking into voter registrations and polling places.
1
Trump is running the country like he runs his business. The US is being totally leveraged based on rosy projections. The
banks will eventually suffer, but it's you and me who will be stiffed. Last years deficit was $1,000,000,000,000. This year's budget is $8,000,000,000,000.
US population 235,000,000
WE ARE ALL BEING STIFFED, EVEN HIS SUPPORTERS
22
@Ed Kearney
US population is 350,000,000 - it hasn't been 235 million in my lifetime, and I'm over 60.
@rlschles Thanks for the correction. In Trump's world, the population is 1.
2
@rlschles Maybe it's a reference to adults? Not sure.
The GOP can never ever again claim fiscal responsibility. Their hypocrisy is only exceeded by the projected budget deficits.
31
This budget says outright the fantasies a great many R voters actually believe: that making the consequences of misfortune and poor decisions more dire and catastrophic will teach prudence and better behavior.
The corollary of this absurd ideological faith is that humans are rational, fully-informed actors, and that failure to avoid misfortune, and failure to make successful decisions, must be entirely knowing and willful, thus thoroughly deserving of any suffering meted out by circumstance or society.
It is an ugly fantasy that ultimately sees vindication and righteousness in the suffering of others.
12
@Rhiannon As long as the likes of Mitch McConnell and the rest of the sorry excuses for humans get their millions why would they care if everyone else suffers.
1
I feel so sad for any alumni from Wharton business school. the headline assures me that the president probably isn't used for recruiting new students.
11
@daniel r potter
he never graduated. took a few classes, which h probably flunked anyway.
1
According to Forbes (not exactly a liberal source) "Even though Trump is pushing for an increase in military funding, the U.S. still spends more on defense than China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, France, the UK and Japan combined. " (https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2018/01/31/defense-the-u-s-outspends-these-countries-combined-infographic/#4cbfd4679b6c) When will this insanity stop? Here is a simple idea, why don't we spend more than the next four countries combined and spend the savings on programs such as health care, college education, etc.
31
Trump is running the the country like he ran his business He has totally leveraged the US. Only this time he won't be stiffing the banks directly. He is stiffing 135,000,000 Americans. Last year's deficit was over $1,000,000,000. This year's budget plan Exceeds $8,000,000,000.
HE IS STIFFING ALL OF US, SUPPORTERS INCLUDED.
6
@Ed Kearney my population number is a typo, sorry
The US already spends more on it's miliary than ALL other countries COMBNED. China, the next highest country, spends 1/5 what the US does. Russia 1/10. Why do we need to spend any more..at all? At this point more spending is just chasing rapidly diminishing returns, if any return at all and indeed may be simply completely wasted money and effort (besides being wasted on useless products).
At the same time the medical and retirement programs actually help people are slashed and so more people end up sick, disabled and poor. (But repubs really could not care less about those people).
And the other 15% of the budget - all the environment, safety, CDC, government programs like agricultureal research, medical research, are slashed beyond the bone for no reason other than to feed the military, all to the detriment of real people and society as a whole. Trump and his corporate cronies are trashing American in order to make a few more billion for their own pockets. They could not care less about our society. in a word, they are simply sociopaths.
18
Aren't Trump and Math Mutually Exclusive?
13
Oh great, the government wants the people poor enough to have needed its high interest credit-card style education loans to pay even more money.
5
They're just trying to break the federal government. Nominally for "freedom", but really it's about kneecapping oversight. It's been the conservative establishment dream and mission for half a century and they're nearly done.
11
More lies and deceptions from this WH which has already devastated the economy of the middle class. Trump has printed funny money for the last three years for his rich friends and corporate donors and his family. This is where the House and Democrats have to take a hard stance and not play tit for tat.
8
His principal economic advisor has a history degree and was a Fox talking bobble head. Bad math isn't be a surprise to anyone but Trump supporters
12
“Never materialized” is a theme for this con man. The lesser educated buy it hook, line, & sinker.
8
It's Infrastructure Week!
7
Pump up defense spending then raid some of that money to pay his sacred wall by declaring a “national emergency”.
What a bunch of film-flammery.
And we sucker into these forecasts. Witless and willing rubes.
7
What would cause you to think a man who has espoused over 16,500 LIES would issue a budget containing any truth?
Trump wrecks everything he touches, but don't take my word for it, investigate yourself.
7
The headline is ridiculous. Instead of "grapples" you might try "is at odds with." Otherwise you're telling a mistruth, or whatever you call lies these days.
6
According to these economists, weren't we supposed to be in a major recession by now? I believe one of the NYTs favorite suggested that three years ago.
1
And I believe that none of Trump’s economic numbers for the last three years are any better than Obama’s numbers for his last three years, and that manufacturing is in a bit of a slump.
I believe these things because I’ve looked up the numbers, rather than merely re-chanting what Hannity told me to chant.
But do feel free to prove me wrong. With numbers. Actual numbers, mind you.
8
@Panchovilla Money for the Wall is in this budget. Did not Trump Promise Mexico will pay for the wall? Did not Trump promise to bring our military home? Why increase military spending? Trump promised every family $4,000 tax refund; where did mine go?
6
This is madness. The US is only growing at this rate because it is at the top and end of the business cycle and is hyped up on the sugar hit of the tax cuts. Lucky oil is denominated in USD or you guys would be in serious economic doo doo.
3
It other words, the document is full of lies and magical thinking but it doesn’t matter because reality doesn’t matter in Donald Trump’s America. An awful lot of ink wasted here to beat around that bush.
5
2+2 equals 8400000000 well done college graduates ...I’m glad you aren’t doing my taxes I can’t afford to learn the new math
1
The last Republican President who left office with a budget surplus was Dwight D. Eisenhower. For anyone with the least bit of cognitive skills would have realized by now the Republican Party is a fraud.
17
all corruption - all of the time
6
@APO
Remember when Donald Trump received $500,000 for a speech in Moscow that was paid for by Renaissance Capital, a company tied to Russian Intelligence Agencies.
Oh wait, that was Bill Clinton.
Remember when Donald Trump approved the sale of 20% of U.S. uranium to the Russians while he was Secretary of State giving control of it to Rosatom, the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation.
Oh wait, that was Hillary Clinton.
Remember when Donald Trump lied about that and said he wasn't a part of approving a deal that gave the Russians 1/5 of our uranium, but then his e-mails were leaked showing he did lie about it.
Oh wait, that was Hillary Clinton and John Podesta.
Remember when Donald Trump got $145 million from shareholders of the uranium company sold to the Russians.
Oh wait, that was Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation.
Remember when Donald Trump accepted millions in donations from Russian oligarchs like the chairman of a company that is part of the Russian Nuclear Research Cluster; the wife of the mayor of Moscow and a close pal of Putin's.
Oh wait, that was the Clinton Foundation.
Remember when Donald Trump failed to disclose all those donations before becoming the Secretary of State, and it was only found out when a journalist went through Canadian tax records.
Oh wait, that was Hillary Clinton.
liars lie. trump is a liar. furthermore, it's obvious that the budget was made as instructed without input from key officials who might have explained why it won't work.
with cuts to safety-net programs (much of which is paid from contributions from workers and their employers into accounts - not a government entitlement) combined with funding for the (fake) wall, this budget proporsal is likely dead-on-arrival in congress.
last week, his own treasury secretary stated that GDP growth would be less than 3%. he added, "I think our projections have been reduced because of Boeing and in other impacts, so it will be lower. I think we would have hit 3% but again, Boeing has had a big impact on our exports being the largest exporter."
if that's not right, shouldn't trump fire him - he said the other day that people who side against him won't be tolerated.
3
Growing the economy?
Isn't this budget from the same people that said the ginormous tax cut for the 1% would give us a 4% GDP as far as the eye can see instead of a trillion dollar hole in our debt?
Where is the headline about using Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (and even SNAP) $$$ to plug that hole that has been created?
The NYT needs to learn critical thinking, especially in their headlines .
6
Interesting – how everyone’s noticing how Bernie’s Bros and the Big Guy’s MAGA supporters are all twins, separated at birth…
2020 – no matter who wins – they’re going to bond at Thanksgiving dinner by going out to the driveway afterward, and turning Volvos owned by their centrist relatives onto their sides…
It’s the already-happening asymptotic convergence between Trump’s and Bloomberg’s policy that’s becoming downright eerie…
While Trump couldn’t begin to afford the walking/talking 24/7 $10B ad for his re-election that is the socialist mayor of NYC…
What Bloomberg systemically planned, by re-zoning NYC – and the gold mine that Trump fell into, while driving a clown car around, sponsored in no small part by Cory Booker and Sean Parker – called Opportunity zones…
Smarter and smarterer…
(Mark and Sean, it’s OK if one of the rest of us rip off you and FB rather than the other way around, every once in a billion times)
See, hizzoner knew there was no way for NYC to book-balance its budget – like, ever…
He knew it had to resurrect and rebuild – to even have a chance…
(don’t ask me how I know he knew – I just do)
But – advantage Trump…
See, there’re so many opportunity zones, AOC would run out of jet-fuel before getting to even a third of them, to shut them down…
There’s more – Mike made his money off his eponymous terminals…
Once Trump realizes that he could re-brand all US 5G smartphones as Trump Terminals – Huawei’d be like a Dem in NH headlights…
A lot of trees died to print up this fairy tale.
4
Buddy, can you spare a dime?
1
Stop complaining. Get out and vote!! donate to senate races and get them all out. its the only way!!
8
House Democrats must stop this psycho-budget. Use their power of appropriation.
2
Donald J. Trump's true education level is about 6th to 7th grade at the highest, NOT the Pennsylvania University degree of business school that Trump lied and bragged about. NO wonder Trump's math is at the best and the worst for the American people: the elementary level. not to mention Donald J. Trump of the Republican party and his misspelling, basic errors as the Washington Post newspaper has pointed out:
Example: misspelled "heel" for 'HEAL', "unpresidented" for "unprecedented" etc. hundreds to thousands of grammar errors in Trump's Tweets over the 3 years as he is the Chief of White House office as well the Chief of the Idiots of his Republican party!
6
Yokes! I never look at his tweets so I never saw the spelling and grammatical errors.I will have to check that out. How embarrassing!
The heck with that! No cuts to any social programs - cuts to the tax loopholes - they could just terminate the taxcuts from last year and we'd be fine. No cuts - that is SO dumb.
3
If Trump doesn't know how to spell, he probably doesn't know how to add and subtract either.
3
It's not Trump's numbers it's Republican numbers. Trump is a stooge for the Republicans. And the Republicans will rape the country and rob the treasury as long as they can get away with it.
6
Same ole MO. Lie, then, when the lie is exposed, make excuses. The boy who cried wolf routine is getting old.
1
Trump*'s plan also has $4.4 TRILLION in cuts over the next 10 years: Largely from the "safety net and student loans".
Of course, his TRILLIONS in "tax-cuts" continue, even after the lobbyists piled on and sucked another $5 TRILLION out to benefit only the Top 1%er's.
Oh, but don't worry: Food stamp recipients still have to work to qualify for assistance.
How sad that that requirement isn't made for the Top 1%er's for the benefits that THEY receive!
Ah, and Tricky Trumpie* says he hates socialists!
Really?
Then why is he shoveling all that dough to his buddies?
And, speaking of shovels - I sure would like to see Eric and Don, Jr., out on the side of the road shoveling trash!
10
Six. Trump has declared Bankruptcy six times. So many times that legitimate US Banks shut him off and international big banks/investment firms have walked away from deals with him.
Let that sink in when you read hos budget and realize that anyone in his office whom would stop him or help refine his crazy economic proposals have long since left or been fired.
It's the perfect storm. Going to take us a (somewhat uncomfortable) generation to undue this.
5
Wow, I can't believe the comments! Every budget proposal regardless of President is fake! Come on people, you NYT commenters are as gullible as Fox News ones!
1
Absolutely irresponsible and stupid. And to think they themselves a conservative party. Outrageous
5
Trump and his party will position these cuts as "saving Social Security and Medicare and making health insurance affordable". They will carefully not mention the part about partially paying for the next $1500 billion tax cut for the 0.1% and rewarding their private insurance industry donors. And The Base will believe it, Bless Their Hearts. (That's southern idiom for "those poor dumb bastids".)
If Democrats have the sense to pour pee from a boot they will pick up this stick and relentlessly beat Trumpublicans about the head and shoulders with it.
2
Whether these proposals are watered down trying to get the budget passed is not the point. And all the posters here miss the point.
Trump and his GOP chronies have sent a clear message:
To hell with education, healthcare, the environment, social security, and medicare. They want tax cuts for the already well-off, and for the working people of this country to pay for it. And bigger guns because, ya know .. all republicans have gun envy.
The last trump tax cut did NOTHING for the economy. And I while saw an extra $40 a month in pay, I lost deductions and my finance person says my taxes will be higher this year by far more than the roughly $600 I took home. This is typical trump: farce and lies.
Wake up, people.
4
The same kind of overly-optimistic predictions and policies bankrupted Greece. It seems Trump is pushing to make the United States a thirdthird-world country. The only "good" thing I've read is that this policy recommends the movement of the Secret Service back under Treasury where it started. Homeland Security has been ceded too much power and has proven it cannot manage it. Breaking it up completely, or reducing its reach to manageable proportions, would be a positive move. It would require more transparent inter-agency communications but, I fear, it is intended to create more under-the-radar secrecy.
2
I seriously doubt if any budget proposed by Trump wouldn't be slammed by the Democrats. This article scoffs at a projected 2.8% GDP growth. That's based on projections the Fed and CBO made before Trump's proposed budget. They are based on current law. And, that 2.8% projection is modest compared to projection from previous presidents. In Obama's first few years his projection was a whopping 4.5% GDP growth. That fell far short of reality. It's too bad the author doesn't balance his report with a few of the positive aspects of the proposed budget. But, I doubt he thinks there are any.
1
@R.R The positive aspects of the budget? Rich and Big Business get an extension of their free money tax relief.Poor people are not bothered by pesky medical care and food. The priveledge of working people paying off the deficit for 40 years.Defense industry and bomb maker stocks increasing in value.A big beautiful wall that Mexico is paying for. All positives. Ray Sipe
5
@R.R
Are you really from California? Your post was logical and made sense.
@Ray Sipe Thank you. You proved my point.
One day after yet more interviews in the Times with Trump voters who declare their undying fealty to him because he’s watching out for them Trump drops a budget that seeks to cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits.
Will there people ever wake up and smell the coffee?
5
@Hugh CC
There are always going to be people who will drink the Kool-Aid.
First Trump should explain why the national deficit has grown so hugely - if as he claims, he is so great at budgeting and stimulating the economy!
Or is he just going to do another trump? Er, I mean bankruptcy?
7
This article is remarkably balanced and fair about this administration and its present budget. As the author points out, the Obama administration also played fast and loose with projections. I think that’s helpful, at least for my own personal mental health, as the (altogether believable) predictions of the Trump-induced deaths of science, democracy, the Constitution, etc pour in on the daily. This looks like a crummy budget with bad math and misplaced priorities, but it’s not that far out of the ordinary.
I realize that the NYT feels that they need to be “fair”, but this budget document is pure drug-fueled fantasy. They invent an economic growth figure that makes the budget balance “someday” in the future.
None of this makes any sense. The White House will soon issue a new request for a major tax cut that will further undermine the federal budget. They will then dutifully claim that it will further boost growth and balance the budget. The reality is never a consideration.
Will anyone on the Trump side of politics accept the blame for the disaster that is being courted by these policies? I doubt it.
3
Can someone please explain why deficits. even the shrinking deficits of his later years, under Obama were portrayed as proof of Obama's economic failure by the GOP and FOX NOISE.
Oddly now the GOP and FOX NOISE see deficits as some reflection of Trump's genius.
One of you Trump fanboys care to enlighten us on this odd change of tone within the GOP and st FOX NOISE.
6
@GUANNA ITs called politics. Paul Ryan was not a conservative. He said he would cut spending and put proposals in front of Trump that were contrary to his agenda. The problem in congress is we do not know who they are working for. I don't understand why they congress cannot spend what they receive. We have the most federal revenue that any other time in history but we spend more than we receive.
1
@GUANNA Let me help. The GOP lies. Fox News repeats the lies. The Republican voters, hear the lies so many times, they believe the lies. Hope this helps.
5
Grapples With? Wouldn't Ignores or Ignores Once Again be more honest?
6
I think I'll believe the CBO, where they hire actual economists.
10
Our economy seems to function by finding new uses for the densely packed power that is contained in fossil fuels. Drone delivery of Amazon goods, Uber helicopters - there don't so anything new, but they do increase fuel consumption 10 fold over the comparable existing function for a shade more convenience. 2.8% growth will likely require an acceleration in fossil fuel consumption that we should be causing to decline.
Cut the military 50%; zero out farm subsidies; zero out all corporate tax loopholes; tax all income equally; increase tax rates on the wealthy so their overall rate matches that of those with low incomes when all taxes paid are considered.
19
@Djt Spend less than what you bring in and pay the debt down. Congress needs to grow a spine and stop think about politics. But that will never happen.
"The White House makes the case that this is affordable and that the deficit will start to fall, dropping below $1 trillion in the 2021 fiscal year and that the budget will be balanced by 2035."
I would really like to know how in the heck they come up with math. Since the 2017 tax cut bill, the present national debt has increased to $23 TRILLION and change.
The only way the White House math could even make a tiny dent in the national debt is to pretty much gut many of the "safety-net programs like Medicaid, education and the environment" all the way the huge reduction in taxes continues on its merry way.
19
@Marge Keller Faith-based math I think it's called. Start with the answer you want and then work backwards. It's easy!
1
@Old Mainer
In other circles, it's also been referred to as "Voodoo economics"
Scary no matter what it's called. In the end, it's disastrous for those who need assistance the most.
2
@Old Mainer
Actually, the simplest way to get the answer is the formula:
A = 0 * X + Y
where A is the answer you seek, X is the answer you have, and Y is the answer you want to have.
Very easy to calculate. Works every time. Amazing.
We've seen this economic horror movie several times before from the GOP. It's the old "Tax Cuts Pay for Themselves" black and white film based on rosey assumptions of economic growth in excess of 3%. The movie ends badly, very very badly.
28
@R. Zeyen and everytime taxes are cut revenue to the Treasury goes up. I wonder how much has to do with the increases in spending. Just a thought.
@Panchovilla Not true when inflationary values, including population growth are added. Spending output, not that long ago, was near 19% of GDP, today it hoovers in the low 16% range.
3
@Panchovilla Do you have any data or references to back up the statement that "everytime taxes are cut revenue to the Treasury goes up"? My limited internet research found the opposite. For example, https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2018/oct/19/ted-cruz/ted-cruz-said-gop-tax-cut-led-higher-revenues-did-/
5
Trump is merely reflecting what the republican party has been working towards for decades.
11
I heard some Trump budget guy on the radio this morning stating there was this trillion dollar deficit that we need to address by cutting the budget. And that growth rates not seen for years are just around the corner and revenue will start flowing in to help.
I think I've heard this line from Republican before, but can't quite remember when.
Oh! Wait! I remember ow. It's every time the GOP enacts massive tax cuts taxes that increase the deficit because their predictions on growth never come true and tax cuts NEVER pay for themselves and they want to shrink government spending because now there's this huge deficit problem.
36
The Sear's catalog was standard equipment in most depression-era outhouses. Trump's gratuitously cruel and misguided budget document is suitable for similar use and nothing else.
44
Urgency!
There’s an even more urgency to elect a democratic leader..trumps budget proposal is a disaster! Our students are carrying an albatross of loan debt that will weigh them down their entire adult lives.
Trumps kids are trust fund kids so he will never never know the pain.
13
I thought the massive $1.9 Trillion Tax Cuts to the Corporations and the Wealthy were supposed to pay for themselves with increased growth? They claimed Social Safety Net Programs would not be affected by the Trump/GOP Tax Cuts but soon after it was apparent the Deficit was blowing up ... it was the "entitlements" that were at fault!
Now another "smoke and mirrors" voodoo economic plan from the Republicans?
37
I am waiting for Donnie to pull out his marker and scribble a surplus amount on a copy of the budget, hold that up for all his followers to see, and declare that the problem is solved.
After all, that marker is all-powerful, because it can redirect storms and other forces of nature, right?
Problem solved, folks. Nothing to see here. Move along.
31
@Joe From Boston
The pen indeed is mightier than the sword (or budget ax if you prefer).
3
Why not just presume 30% growth?
15
@Mike
Sure. Also assume pigs fly, the Earth is flat, and the moon is made out of green cheese.
Hey, what are a few "alternative facts" between friends, right?
1
Hey NY Times team, you guys have always done an amazing work showing visually graphics that simplify and help people understand things. Can you not do the same to explain this fraud budget spending and put out hard numbers visually so everyone can see what impact Trump's spending and cuts are going to have on the population here?
28
Quell suprise. Republicans haven't proposed a single budget that fits in economic reality in any year during my entire life.
29
Guess we're still waiting for the Chinese to deposit those tariffs and Mexico to send us funds for the construction of the wall.
The checks are in the mail!
This is a budget of a country preparing for war. Why?
39
@Lou Good
Why? Re-election.
4
So in honesty, the budget must get congress approval before being signed by the POTUS. I don't believe this budget will ever get through congress, and as such, we can foresee a long government shutdown coming at election time. That albatross will need to be hung on somebody's neck. Will the GOP try to hang it around the DNC Congress or can the DNC point to Medicare & Medicaid cuts to hang it around the GOP? It seems like a big gamble, but so was POTUS in 2016 and look how that turned out....sarcasm intended.
5
Almost anything Trump grapples with reality. Here is a reality check. If you believe the White House on this matter, or any other matter, then you also must also believe that Mexico will be paying for the wall, that Obamacare was repealed on day one and Hillary is still in jail.
16
Trump’s budget will be introduced to congress by Renee Zellweger, reprising her academy award winning performance as Judy Garland and singing “Somewhere over the Rainbow”...
10
Yes, let's take more from the poor and the sick and print more money. I think we've seen this movie before...
16
The Trump Republican Wall st M.O. is glaringly apparent in trying to deny the least of us any help. It's easy to prey on cowering fear stricken little people who can't afford to defend themselves, just like he did and his father did.
12
The one thing Trump does consistently is lie.
His budget is another lie.
How could anyone trust this man about anything?
17
Reality and arithmetic — just two more life skills lacking in Trump.
16
Deficits out of control, enslaving our children...where's the Tea Party to save us? Where's Mr. Beck and his goose step on Fox News?
17
'Trump’s Budget Math Grapples With Economic Reality'
another right wing slanted headline from the NYT. Trump isn't grappling with economic reality, her's buying a good economy and maybe reelection by ignoring economic reality and letting the budget deficit rip, even as we get ever closer to have to add funds to keep Medicare going, and then the same for Social Security, and as we're not maintaining our infrastructure, and we're falling behind in education, etc, etc.
3
@newageblues You misread the headline. It means that Trump's budget is not in line with reality.
2
As a businessman, Trump has been a deadbeat. No financial institution in the USA will give him a loan. There appears to be only on bank in Europe that will give him a loan (maybe). He's had multiple bankruptcies and caused an unknown number of smaller businesses to go bankrupt because they were foolish enough to do believe he would make good on his debts. Who in the country would be so ignorant and foolish as to trust his economic forecasts? His minions of True Believers of course.
17
Don't worry folks - our Great Leader will use the same math he used for his casinos, his stock and his football league.
18
@Kailas
And his Trump Airline!
Make no mistake, he’s gunning for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security — in the name of “fiscal responsibility.” Get ready.
19
At some point, trump’s reckless spending plan will impair the ability to repay debt, let alone issue new debt.
The only way out?
Print money. And that will surely destroy whatever is left of the economy. He is copying what he himself said was a stupid move by other countries, including Venezuela. That’s right. Take a wealthy country and turn it into a poor one.
On the bright side, won’t it make you proud to drink a $1 million beer? Drive a $10 billion car? Reap those billionaires’ tax breaks?
8
@Steve Ell
They are already dumping massive amounts of money into the market, calling it QE4. They're saying its necessary to keep interest rates down.
Subsidize the rich. Inflate the prices of everything the poor buy.
8
@Steve Ell
I must invest in a decent wheelbarrow to cart my money around when I go out grocery shopping.
1
@Mike Meanwhile the banks pay 2% interest to the masses, at the most. Why incentivize depositors when the gubmint gives you capital for free?
3
How much is in the budget for flying the Trump family back and forth between golf course every weekend. Paying the Secret Service to protect him when not in DC? How about the budget for secret investigations by his personal lawyer? Lets not forget how all those costs go to Trump hotels and facilities. You want to save money, lets identify those expenses.
17
Repubs have never shown any competence at running an economy (the economy always does better under Dem congresses than Repub congresses). One basic reason is that they cannot do math and are lousy at predictions - because they ALWAYS predict the economy will be red-hot. and it rarely is. Republican presidents and congresses over the last few decades have been completely inept at predicting anything at all on the economy, the effect of taxes on the economy (the economy generally does better with higher taxes, not lower) and they have relied heavily on massive deficit spending to goose the economy (Reagan, Bush1 Bush 2, Trump). Obama relied on deficits to SAVE the economy. At this point if we truly have a good economy the Repubs should be saving money and paying down the debt, not borrowing more, especially not for useless things like border walls or the military (on which the US already spends more than ALL other countries combined - how much more do we really need, or more to the point, what can we safely cut?).
14
"Trump’s Budget Math Grapples With Economic Reality"
"Trump Grapples With Reality"
Fixed that for you.
27
It'll be another Bush to Obama transition, at the end of Trump's term it'll all come crashing down and it will take a Democratic President to fix it all.
23
“Tremendous waste and tremendous fraud”
WOW - if that doesn’t sum up Trump’s 2017 tax cut bill, I don’t know what does.
In the meantime, back in 2016 when he was running for president, Trump promised he would “shield entitlements from cuts” and to “Save Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security without cuts. Have to do it.”
But now, in addition to deep cuts to Medicaid, there will also be deep cuts to student loan assistance, affordable housing efforts, and food stamps.
The only benefit I see from Trump’s “extension of the individual income tax cuts that were set to expire in 2025” is that while less tax money is coming, those who need financial assistance the most will loss big time because of the loss of generated taxes.
It comes down to giving more to those who don’t need it and taking away more from those who can’t afford to be without.
20
Can the GOP make Deficit Spending their official slogan? I remember when they pretended they cared....
11
With aggregate demand, defined as: Y = C + I + G + (X-M); falling well below 3% growth for 2019, a culprit is needed to take the heat. Consumption spending has performed very well of late. Investment spending by businesses has trailed expectations because of economic uncertainty generated by the trade war with China and the coronavirus' impact. US imports and exports (X - M) are both directly impacted by it, too. As noted by many of today's respondents, government spending is used to fill the gap between the Administration's promised GDP growth and the actual growth. A $1 trillion government deficit in a $20 trillion economy is a stimulus that is 5% of GDP.
If labor markets were really very tight, growth in aggregate demand should shift this curve far to the right. Demand curves for sectors of the labor force should also be swept up and far rightward by this burgeoning aggregate demand. So, real wages would reach a higher equilibrium level and hours per workweek climb, too. Yet, DOL data for recent months show virtually flat real wages and declining workweek hours.
The narrative attached to the current economy by most media spokespeople is that it is robust and growing due to the very low unemployment rate. The booming stock market, and low interest rate environment feeding it, embellish this narrative. Yet, only about 54% of people own stocks; and, wages are so low for many that they cannot build a stake to benefit from the bull market.
2/10 M 12:58p Greenville NC
11
You can make a historical argument that superpowers fall not because they are defeated militarily, but because they bankrupt themselves with military spending.
We do not need to spend more on defense. We already spend as much as the next seven countries combined.
20
Under Trump, and with the GOP tax cuts, we’ve racked up record peacetime deficits with nothing to show for it. No infrastructure, no energy innovation, no telecommunications innovation, no health care, no consumer debt relief, no housing relief, lower education standards, increased environmental degradation, and reduced pure scientific research. And by the way, my tax bill was significantly higher in 2018, not at all commensurate with the minor changes in my income.
24
We’ve seen this movie before and we know the crash is coming. All income should be taxed as ordinary income.
I have yet to hear a single valid reason for taxing investors at lower rates than workers and then allowing those investors to hand it all down to their heirs also tax free
My children will pay taxes on my 401k that they will inherit and so will I when I retire yet the Uber wealthy are shielded. It’s just rigged and it needs to stop and I like Bloomberg’s plan.
13
Anyone who has used a financial projection spreadsheet knows that you can make a scenario look wonderful or terrible by changing a few simple assumptions, like a growth rate, an interest rate or a rate of inflation.
It is hard enough to project two years into the future, let alone a decade.
If such a calculation is presented with a claimed accuracy of more than a few digits, you can be sure that the person preparing that analysis used what the computer pumped out without applying any oversight at all, for example checking whether the results make sense.
3% growth rate, invariant for years upon years, is clearly an assumption, ans is likely to be nonsense. No growth rate is constant, even for one entire year.
I would take these projections with a piece of salt large enough for a salt lick. They are probably DOA when this budget is sent to Congress.
12
Donald Trump's true calling was to be a reality TV star and host of beauty pageants while perpetually plotting for attention as a grade C celebrity that Hollywood and New York tolerated as a sort of awkward jester.
So it's hardly a surprise that his proposed budget is as fictional as his persona and his campaign promises (going into his fourth year, the wall hasn't been built, Obamacare hasn't been replaced, the swamp hasn't been drained, and the troops haven't been brought back home).
27
Doesn't the rhetoric of tweeter in chief resemble
the rhetoric of trump the desperate solicitor of bank loans ten+ years ago-lots of rosy growth assumptions, little reality to their content?
He got away with that then by finding DB and a mysterious
so far unrevealed group of money launderers to prop up the strapped for cash, essentially bankrupt entity. Fiscal predictions, grounded in the number crunching done in house, mattered little in the end to DB directors.
The same dynamic is unfolding on a much larger scale.
And again, we have a DB analogue, that is, a congress that is willing to play along with a charade of fantasy growth projections since they have really little choice and zero willingness to stand up to him. It's political death for any trumpican to oppose trump on principles that made you a f-x star when applied to Obama. How peculiar.
But hypocrisy is a far less onerous sin whose punishment is far less than being cut off from trump controlled PAC funding.
One source to dampen growth estimates will be the coronavirus effects upon both the Chinese and global economy. The longer it takes for a vaccine, the deeper the
slowdown rate.
When growth rates fall far below the projections, that should be when reality enters the picture about who or what
is going to finance the very large deficits, here there and everywhere, and what has to be cut,
The second term will have begun...and the
struggle to cut entitlements will get going in earnest.
9
Tax cuts for the top 1% on the backs of the middle class, while cutting Medicare and Social Security (which is not an entitlement, but a defined benefit that each taxpayer contributes from their payroll)( unlike all entitlements for elected members of Congress (permanent Health Care and retirement salary).
Meanwhile the Military Budget expands and we cut aid the the most neediest of American Citizens from Medicaid and Food Stamps, by the way most of our enlisted Military that currently serve rely on Food Stamps becuase they are not paid enough to support their families while we ask the men and women to fight overseas.
VOTE trump out with the rest of the republicans.
Let's elect someone who understands how the economy works for ALL AMERICANS,
Michael Bloomberg, a real Businessman.
VOTE 2020!
15
"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. This world in arms is not spending money alone."
Ever-increasing military spending; ever-decreasing food and shelter for children, the elderly and the disabled; ever-increasing tax burdens for the poor through middle class with ever-decreasing tax burdens for the already wealthy. This is how the Republican Party "takes care of" America.
With friends like the Republican Party, the US doesn't need any enemies to fall flat on its face.
30
@Jacob Sommer
While I agree with you, please remember that EVERY Democrat voted for Trump’s increase in military budget. Only one person voted against it, Bernie Sanders. There is a reason we have a $730 billion budget. Both parties are complicit and responsible.
5
@FXQ But one of the reasons I am voting for Bernie.
3
@Jacob Sommer
Me too.
2
Could we pare back the Defense budget? I don't want to impact soldier's livelihood but can we just do some R&D and not create more weapons for a little bit? Are the previous years' stockpiles and knowledge of weapons systems not good enough? I'm not trolling. I'm genuinely curious and don't know how it works but the DoD budget seems insanely high.
17
@Steven
Every time the budget for the Pentagon is increased, the politicians say "support our troops". But I have several friends and family members who work for the Defense Department and nothing could be further from the truth. These dollars go to the contractors, not the troops.
18
@ejr1953
and PLEASE stop calling it defense.
2
Repeated Republican budgets indicate to me they really believe either the world will end soon, or the nation will as they have robbed the nation over decades with repeated tax cuts and stashed the loot in other countries.
18
@PATRICK
Well, they're doing their best to make the world end soon.
1
@PATRICK
The Evangelicals like Pence and Pompeo are actually hoping the world will end soon.
2
Huge deficits? What else would expect from a failed businessman who financed bad investments with borrowed funds?
57
@The Chop Don't forget about who he stuck with the bill.
4
Wishful thinking. The same GOP thinking that gives us record deficits. Deficits we accrue even when the economy is strong.
Deficits growing because Trump like Bush and Reagan borrows from Peter to pay Paul. Peter is the foreigner, Paul GOP tax cuts winners. Sadly Millions of Joes end up paying back the loans.
17
Trump hasn’t been wrong yet. How did that recession peddling work out Q4 of 2019? The 2008 recession was man made on purpose. It was all put into place at the end of Clinton’s presidency, then solidified by Democrats on Fannie May & Freddie Mac boards, and conveniently blamed on Bush. Just like Clinton’s trade deals including NAFTA purposely led to a loss of jobs in the US and bolstering countries like China. Follow the money. Lots of China money going to governors, senators, etc. Feinstein had a Chinese spy limo driver for 20 yrs.
1
@JOSEPH If Democrats were that all knowing and powerful they would have figured out a way for Hillary Clinton to be elected in 2016.
Amazing all that they can accomplish and not win a simple election.
9
@Hugh G She did win the election by 3 million more votes than Trump. She lost in the undemocratic electoral college. How many times do you have to hear that before you believe it??
5
In the pre-internet day, people making these types of comments would have been rightfully banished to a small sect of fellow conspiracy theorists who everyone knows is crazy.
Now they get to post on the internet, nonsense completely unchecked, and some people see it and believe it...
Our society is falling apart because the conspiracy theorists have gained power. Fox News etc reinforces it by treating this garbage as realistic, but the root cause is that comments like “the Democrats planned the 2007/8 recession” can now be widely spread without any common sense check.
8
Make the wealthiest pay a 65% tax rate, not 19% which they whittle down to zero, more often than not. You see, they have hidden all sorts of tax holes in various legislature in exchange for campaign funding.
We need:
1) Term limitations
2) Corrupting private sector money out of politics
3) MAKE SURE THE FAMILY UNIT AT ALL LEVELS IS THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST ON THE THE PLANET
4) A highly educated society won't elect demagogues
5) Productivity and happiness rise with strong families
6) A caring government that works for the people and not the few.
18
Why would they do that? More tax breaks for the rich means more donations to political candidates and their PACs.
In exchange for tax cuts for the rich, the GOP offered the people future accelerated growth of GDP which they promised would eliminate deficits and poverty. The accelerated growth didn't rise as far as predicted levels. Deficits grew. Poverty remained.
Here is Mr. Trump, offering future accelerated growth of GDP without a tax cut, but with a cut in government benefits for 90 percent of the people, with much the same effect for these households as if he had offered to raise their taxes. Also with the effect of reducing the taxes of the wealthy relative to everyone else.
The GOP earnestly desire reduction of taxes for wealthy people, and less constraining regulation for their businesses. The rest of their story is just whatever they can get you to believe.
How many times will the American voters get suckered into this fraud?
49
Trump and the GOP want to implement massive cuts to “entitlements” such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Trump said it himself in Davos Switzerland only a few weeks ago. Mitch McConnell is on record as dating the same thing. This is the GOP agenda. I wonder how Trump voters will react when they find out they’ll have to care for an aging parent with Alzheimer’s themselves because nursing home care will have huge out of pocket expenses with the proposed GOP cuts.
11
@Daniel Brockman How many times will the American voters get suckered into this fraud? The answer is, infinity times. Because abortion. (Going one level deeper: Because, as a society, we refuse to call out religious belief nonsense for what it is).
4
More lying, grifting and gas-lighting by this administration in favor of the wealthy and corporations. Imagine the republican response to such a budget if Obama would have proposed it.
40
Forget about our Social’s Security and Medicaid we are all going to end up in the streets in our old age.
Thank you trump and all the republicans behind him including the democrats that have handed him the next election.
12
@Peter The only ones handing him the next election are the ones that don't vote. They handed him the last election.
31
@Peter What are Democrats supposed to do? Apparently, no laws of decorum, civility or legality can stop this tyrant. Our forefathers were shortsighted, to say the least.
2
More smoke and mirrors from the rank amateurs in this Administration. Shocking. Or, not so much. What happened to forecasts of 3.5+ percent growth as a result of the tax cuts for the rich and rich corporations? Didn't materialize? Shocking! What happened to those criticisms of the Obama administration for not consistently passing 3% growth every year during his two administrations? Seems this administration has yet to see 3% growth, let alone the mythical growth rates necessary to have "the tax cuts pay for themselves" -- a promise the banana republicans have been making and breaking for over 30 years. And cuts to social programs to put a couple of extra hundred thousands, or millions, into the pockets of people who already have so much, who already have benefited from tax cuts put on the nation's credit card for over two decades? Rich. But not surprising. When will the MAGA hat wearers get that they're buying snake oil? Can their "pro-bring baby into the world but don't give a hoot about whether baby has enough to eat or access to health care or a good education or day care" obsession really blind them to what is clearly not in their or their families' best interests? Is keeping brown and black people who impact their own lives not one whit that important on their list of "christian" "values"? Do efforts to extend equal rights to women and the LGBTQ community really offend their sensibilities to such a degree that they'll sacrifice their own well being? Boggles the mind.
43
Ain’t that the truth Oscar. And so succinctly worded. It’s so amazing that Democratic candidates and the media can’t simply speak this clearly. No, instead we have Dem candidates talking about people being able to look vote from prison and abolishing ICE (but it does need reform). Trump and the GOP will have a field day with this and the other issues will be drowned out with fake outrage.
5
@Oscar
"banana republicans"
I like that phrase.
5
@Oscar Sadly, MAGA hat wearers are more concerned with keeping brown and black people from getting what the hat wearers think is theirs alone. There was an article about this in the NYT, but I can't find it.
5
Let'sjust keep increasing the deficit. Trump presumably believes that his successor will have to deal with the deficit and that by then, the Republicans will again be deficit hawks.This is incredibly dismaying.
18
The deficit never matters until it's a Democratic presidents deficit. Should a Democrat be elected this November, the first thing you will hear about from Republicans is crocodile tears about the massive deficit. Don't fall for it.
79
don't worry about the debt- trumps business model is file bankruptcy and don't think he won't. All those US savings bonds held by seniors will be worth nothing. Too bad seniors.
And trump will have the support of the Repubs. The Repubs forced Detroit to declare bankruptcy and government employees that worked decades were told their pensions no longer exist or your measly little pension payments will be cut. (And before you start all this nonsense Detroit deserved it the Repubs in Lansing had decades of taking money from Detroit to build infrastructure to the suburbs not caring the effect on Detroit)
My post isn't an argument for or against Detroit my point is trump doesn't care if this go bad because he will declare the country bankruptcy.
11
The budget is out of control.
But you know the second there’s a cut Dems will scream ‘austerity!’
2
@EGD No they will scream "austerity" when the cuts are only on the working people, like is proposed in this increase in spending. All the decreases come at the expense of Medicaid recipients, public education funding, and environmental protection. The 1%, Trumps true constituents don't ever use Medicaid, don't send their kids to public schools, and can afford to fly to remote and exotic places to enjoy fresh air and nature.
Increases in "Military" spending just go to boost defense contracts off the backs of the people. Now Republican Senators and Congressman can brag about how they brought jobs to their states in the form of Military orders for planes, tanks, guns, and other ordinance. It's Welfare! It's the redistribution of wealth to the Top shareholders at Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed, United Technologies, etc, etc. It's ridiculous given we have no borders with enemies.
7
I wonder if any President has ever forecast a rise in the economy that was less than what the “experts” forecast.
1
Not a problem! The Republicans will rack up a massive debt and then wait for a Democratic President. At that point they will be shocked, shocked, about the national debt. They will then scream bloody murder about the deficit. It's worked every time since Reagan; so why stop now?
One change is that this time they'll dismantle Social Security in the name of "fiscal responsibility" (but McConnell will still get his pension, so don't worry about him).
26
Much like the president’s business practices, he’s made our government bankrupt and financially reckless.
13
He is clueless, as you would expect from a flim-flam man who has multiple bankruptcies to his name. He will continue to dupe his base into thinking all is well, when in fact, the tax cuts help none of them, the tariffs will cripple many businesses, and ultimately we will all have to pay for this nonsense in the way of taxes down the road. This is an unsustainable path, but he does not care.
Dems:
-Stick to the facts of how much all this costs the average American. Put it in real terms that all can understand
-Expose how much he has been spending on his lavish regal lifestyle (how many rounds of golf since Jan. '17, most of which in FL?)
-Put a figure on the impact his environmental slash and burn routine is having on the health of humans, fisheries, and forests.
I know that is tough to do because he has convinced many to distrust any "experts"...
Please: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, and Florida: Vote, and vote Democratic this time or we are doomed to another 4-year junk show.
20
Gee...it almost makes me nostalgic for the days of Paul Ryan and his Republican budget busters who flaunted deficit spending as an absolute no no.
6
@rford Paul Ryan was the chief water boy for Trump's bait and switch tax cut for the rich paid for with deficit spending. Paul Ryan executed the perfect cut and run. He, more than anyone knows that trickle down economics is budget malpractice.
1
RE: "White House makes the case that this is affordable and that the deficit will start to fall, dropping below $1 trillion in the 2021....
I'll bet you thought you would get something for all those years of paying into Social Security and Medicare. Well, when He funnels the money from Social Security and Medicare into paying for the deficit that He, Himself, brought on those will be dreams like all the other promises he made and then stiffed out on.
Remember, Trump is a expert in one other thing in addition to lying. That's declaring bankruptcy and profiting Himself from it. He will bankrupt SS and Medicare and then the country. But don't worry, the deserving will be taken care of. (If you are reading this it's likely not you.)
16
Reckless annual trillion-dollar-plus deficits as far as the eye can see.
The King Of Debt, who successfully bankrupted many of his companies, is happy to share his terrible talents with 330 million Americans and file for national bankruptcy.
And for good measure, he'd like to slash the safety net so the billionaires and rich corporations can keep showering themselves in gold.
This budget is a pack of lies and credit cards from a man who has spent his entire life abusing other people's money.
Trump's economics on a credit card will end terribly for America, just as it ends badly for humans who have zero control over their spending addictions.
Trump is an economic national security threat.
Vote him and the reckless trickle-down GOP out of office on November 3 2020.
Time for some adult leadership.
198
So yes my trump supporting friends - money for more bombs while you and your family’s social security and healthcare slide out the back door.
Amazing how this conman trump has gotten so many people to vote against their and their family’s own best interests.
29
I think Pelosi should talk about how important a balanced budget is. How we need to keep America fiscally responsible. You know that whole Ryan-McConnell song.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
9
I thought deficits was an issue for Republicans, NOT!
1
If anyone thinks Trump cares about getting rid of debt or dealing with the deficit they are lying to themselves and anyone they talk to. All you need do is look at his business background to see Trump just declares bankruptcy! I believe the number of times is over 20. Trump has NO Morals and his ego has No room for anything that is not Trump.
THIS IS NOT the AMERICA I grew up in. Trump is NOT like Reagan or Bush as Trump only uses Republicans as he saw they were an easier target. The Democrat Party is the Big Tent and Trump cannot win in such a broad party. TRUE Republicans have spoke out against Trump as have True conservatives. Trump has no Republican or conservative philosophy. Trump has a cult-ish group that use the one sure tool of his kind and that is Hate. Trump uses hate to form his group. Hate from many angles but hate none the less. AMERICA Does NOT embrace HATE as we have Fought wars against Hate. Trump does NOT want to build anything that is not a monument to himself. FREEDOM is what America has always stood for. America has not been perfect But we grow Trump is Not growth but Death. Trump does not want anything beyond himself and That Is NOT AMERICA. WE THE PEOPLE are Better than Trump. The REPUBLIC is strong because We are Diverse But Not DIVIDED. Do not sell AMERICA short. WE may use the Trump years to Demonstrate What We Are NOT and Do NOT Want To Be.
Our Constitution is Strong and Our Republic Will Prevail for Everyone!! God Save the Republic!
7
How much was budgeted in the budget for the printing of the budget?
4
@Midwest Josh
I reckon about eight times the amount budgeted for thinking through a budget strategy.
Or, stated another way, “How much wood can a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.”
4
TrumpMath. Somehow, it only benefits Trump. Who could have possibly guessed ?
NOVEMBER.
7
"America's Future" is the name of that budget? Trump's sugar-high, environmentally eviscerating, deficit-fueled, personal-misery-creating economic policies are leading to a disaster worse than the Great Bush Recession, in the not distant future. On top of that cake of bankruptcy, spread the icing of Trump's full-scale moral bankruptcy, emulated at every level of society, and America's short moment of globally ascendant leadership is over. History will not be kind to these deeply shameful days.
8
Totally irresponsible. The Dem controlled House should sit on any budget that increases military spending above inflation, continues to fund the unnecessary wall that Mexico was to pay for anyway, and cuts benefits. #defeat_Trump_2020
7
@Onyx M -----Why increase military spending in the first place, The Pentagon is getting ten times what they were in 1965 and they tell us we're no "safer" now than we were then.
On Bloomberg (about an hour ago): Trump* says he will have 3% growth this year.
Economists say it will be 1.8% this year.
Trump* also says it will be a $4.8 TRILLION DOLLAR BUDGET.
He also says he will CUT $4.4 TRILLION over the next 10 years.
Now would be a good time for me to remind us all of what Rush Limbaugh (that many-medaled man!) had to say this last summer.
He said that all that deficit-talk was, and always has been "bogus".
Here you go:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/17/politics/rush-limbaugh-debt-trump/index.html
9
Uh, don't you mean, "Trump’s Budget Math Fails To Grapple With Economic Reality"?
or maybe; "Trump’s Budget 'Math' is Just Lie Number 15,666" ?
7
republicans are destroying the economy. get rid of them. by any means necessary.
7
All of Trump's "Big ideas" are going to come home to roost, as they are all based on delusional fantasy.
5
Why is the author so polite to Trump's debt-busting budget ?
The plan contains fraudulent assumptions and demonstrated lies and disagrees with the very professional Congressional Budget Office.
And Trump has made a career of using other people's money, running up huge debts and leaving other people to clean up his horrible financial messes.
This is a reckless trickle-down fraudonomics budget composed by individuals who untethered to economics, reality and paying your own way in life....and by individuals who want to slash the safety net for poor people....a little Calvinistic cruelty to warm the 'Christian' cockles of the GOP's heart.
This trillion-dollar-deficit budget is yet another giant red flag in this unaccountable and dangerous Presidency.
Vote this economic national security threat and cruel man and his accomplices out of office on November 3 2020.
108
“Trump’s Budget Math” as an unironic headline made me LOL. As if the most intellectually lazy president in our history by a country mile or two understands anything about math and budgets.
9
The mediocre economic growth (not great as touted, mediocre) is steroid induced. It is due to massive fiscal stimulus with $1 trillion budget deficits, cheap money monetary policy by the Fed and record personal and household debt. When there is an inevitable downturn, we will have no weapons to fight it.
Trump wont care, he’ll be out running his cons as before. Tweeting criticisms of those left behind to deal with the mess that he left behind.
Americans will be left holding the bag.
America as we knew it is dead.
4
I’m sorry did I read correctly 2035?? It’s not that I care about balancing budgets. But 2035? That’s even outside the budget window, anyone can predict anything for 2035. Come on media, why even report this at all. Why not headline with the real news here: president proposes to shift Medicare spending to military.
13
Trump's new budget includes cutting Medicaid, education and the environment while requesting an increase in the military, that stupid border wall and of the "president’s 2017 tax cuts".
Good grief. It seems that not only does the president want a society that is illiterate, an environment in which one cannot breath fresh air or drink clean water, or those most vulnerable getting their Medicaid benefits slashed, but he and his entire Republican base will still benefit and profit from that 2017 tax cut plan.
Everything is truly turning upside down with greed trumping all else while those most in need of the very basics to survive are kicked to the curb.
I give up.
12
@Marge Keller
I know you're being facetious but, please don't give up Marge. Vote.
1
@Charles
I am totally facetious, but these Republicans could try the patience of a saint.
I am not giving up. Just today I feel so beat after reading that article.
Thanks for the support Charles!!!
2
It's easy to see why he bankrupted so many businesses. He has the optimism of someone in sales and the accounting/finance skills of someone with a music degree.
Predicting an ongoing expansion of the economy at that level for that long, when it's never happened before, seems ill conceived, at best. At worst, it's an opportunity for financial disaster.
Reducing programs that will improve education and health care while expanding the military? And reducing foreign aid so that China and Russia can take over? This is less about making America great and more about making America non-existent.
But I'm sure Congress will intervene.
11
@Brian Nothing like keeping the constituents dumb, saddled with debt and pregnant, all the while building your kingdom's defenses.
The bottom line: Military means everything, education, health and the environment mean nothing. THIS is the Democrats' greatest tool toward winning in 2020. Ue this budget as your talking point, and you're assured victory.
11
"Trump’s Budget Math Grapples With Economic Reality"
And Attorney-General Barr grappled with the meaning of "suggest" in Senate hearings.
Let me suggest that there's little "grappling" going in here, but rather a lot of lying.
31
What do you mean, his budget grapples with economic growth projections? It just flat out lies about them like everything else he does.
38
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of Business so I doubt his math or his instincts are incorrect.
4
@RS If life were only that easy that we could all go to Wharton and become instant kings of capitalism and give us instincts to predict the economic future.
13
@Hugh G
Actually, a bachelor's degree from the Wharton School doesn't merit much cache in University City. I lived nearby Penn in the late 1970s and 1980s and know - at least back then - that the business school was considered inferior to all the other departments.
8
@RS if memory serves, he was near the very bottom of his class.
9
Wasn’t growth suppose to be so great that it would generate enough tax revenue to pay for the $1 trillion tax cut, 87% of which, that went to the one tenth of one percent of people? George HW Bush was right when he called this supply-side economic theory “voodoo economics “. The billionaires get billions more and the tax payer is left holding the bag. Next, the cry to cut Social Security and Medicare because of the deficit. Why Americans keep falling for this sick joke, perpetrated repeatedly on them since Reagan, is amazing.
59
@FXQ Good points, but our choice in 2020 is either Trump's robber-barron economics or one of the Dem's far left socialist robberies. Most of the Demo-presidential candidates are promising double digit tax rate increases (to pay for such largess as student loan forgiveness and healthcare for all) and although it may sound like the brunt of said tax increases will fall on the truly wealthy, if history teaches anything, it will fall hard on the middle class. Broad social programs will be very expensive and hard to establish without starting all over.
1
@Bo Baconator I wouldn't worry too much about the Dems accomplishing anything. They had their chance and all we got......ACA and the banks got our homes.
2
What would be useful to, a non-economist, would be an explanation of just how significant the difference between 2.5% and 3% really is. A lot of people would look at that and think that a half a percentage point isn't a big deal. But that half point is a full 20% greater than 2.5%; put another way, 2.5% is only 83.33% of 3%.
Now if an economist would just explain to me how that would affect the growth of the economy over the budget period I'd find it very helpful and I imagine others would too.
9
@Mark
A quick reply is that 1/2 of 1% of a $21 trillion economy is $107+ Billion. That's a good amount of money. Note that growth is an exponential calculation, so the difference between our economy growing 2.5 % for 10 years and 3% for 10 years is 6.39% of the economy, which calculates to $1.39 trillion (yes, with a "T") or $4212 for each US resident. To Buffett or Gates, that might be a rounding error; to most of the population that's real money.
5
Gee what a surprise that Trump overestimates the future growth of the economy. And Mnuchin says any slow down is solely due to the issues at Boeing. Trump loves debt so we're in trouble in that department. Republicans love military spending so we'll go overboard there. Where should all this money come from? Of course the backs of regular folks. This is so frustrating also because the Dems show few signs they'll have success in November.
Please get your act together candidates!
13
@mark So our only real export is Boeing airplanes? One company has that big of an effect on the economy?
2
Trump's budget needs to be hung around his neck this election season. It's built on lies about the economic growth rate. budgetary irresponsibility, in terms of long term debt; billions on a bogus wall; steep cuts to Medicaid and other programs that many in his own 'base' depend upon; promises to go after Social Security and Medicare; more money for the already wealthy.
Under the bluster, the bullying and the shock of fake orange hair, Trump's budget shows what's really there when the screen is pulled back on the Wizard of Oz.
22
Highway systems, forests, parks, harbors, universities, vast mineral resources, law enforcement groups, branches of the military, Alaska--sell all to get out of debt. No problem.
5
@Hector That is a recipe for disaster and is unrealistic.
3
@Mike I suspect Hector meant his remark ironically.
6
@Mike I think @Hector was being sarcastic. But when you see how Trump is down-sizing national parklands so the miners and drillers can come in, maybe it's not too far off the mark.
5
History is clear, when revenues are curtailed and deficits mount, economic growth is never adequate to close the budget gap. iT's never been true. More trillion dollar deficits are all but certain under Trump who promotes larger and larger military budgets, huge tax cuts for corporations and top income earners and unsupportable subsidies to farmers and fossil fuel companies.
The administration's budget team fantasize economic growth. The myth will hide reality for a time but our children and grandchildren will face the reality, a gutted economy and a U.S. with diminished standing in the world.
17
A trillion deficit here, a trillion deficit there, pretty soon you're talking about real money. (And, with credit to Senator Dirksen.)
7
The EU growth rate is down to 1.1% or half that of the US growth rate. Now whether or not the US can reach a sustained level of 3% depends on many good things coming together. The main thing slowing the US economy is Trump hatred. Also the determination of the Democrats to keep as many people dependent on government as possible. People with jobs in the private sector don't need gov't handouts, and that is bad for the Democrats. The biggest factor keeping the US economy from reaching sustained 3% growth is the Democratic Party. It hates it and do anything not to reach it under Trump.
1
@Jgarbuz I am not sure you have looked at the facts. If the unemployment rate is currently at historic lows (3%), how would that few of people bankrupt the budget? We use to consider 4% unemployment full employment, and now we think that it is safety net programs that cause $1 Trillion dollar deficits. Growth is achieved when working people have the means to support the growth. With medical, school, and living costs rising, working people don't have excess funds to spur growth. I am sorry but as income inequality becomes greater, growth will continue to fall.
10
@Jgarbuz Tell me how to grow the economy without population growth? Do we have a bunch of peasants like China that we can move to the middle class and increase consumption of all of the finer things in life?
1
“The main things slowing the US economy is Trump hating”? All those Democrats who control investment decisions and spending by businesses have all decided to tank their companies simultaneously just because they hate Trump? What a nonsensical statement. The right wing certainly is getting desperate to try to explain why Trump’s economy isn’t performing the way he claims it should.
2
Why not build the future plan on past and present lies like 3% growth? I am surprised he did not claim the past was 10% and the future will be 12% per year.
Baldfaced lying is keeping him in office, and, got him there to begin with.
Looks like a great strategy. Americans WANT to hear lies.
18
2 + 2 = 5
Get used to it, there will be much, much more of the same.
17
The budget is complex that most Americans won't understand it and will rely on generalizations and lies.
Democrats can achieve a balanced budget by going after billionaire companies who don't pay their fair share to the country that allowed and encouraged them to succeed.
If the projected growth is wrong, the USA will be more in debt to China and Saudi Arabia, maybe even Russia.
If Google, Facebook, Amazon, GE, and countless other companies paid their taxes, the USA would be fine.
8
Great, Trump's deficit spending habits in his own history (4 or 5 bankruptcies) is now the policy of the US.
The president has already proposed cuts for some safety-net programs. His last budget proposal called for a total of $1.9 trillion in cost savings from mandatory safety-net programs, like Medicaid and Medicare. It also called for spending $26 billion less on Social Security programs, the federal retirement program, including a $10 billion cut to the Social Security Disability Insurance program, which provides benefits to disabled Workers. The national debt has swelled during the Trump administration to $23.2 trillion, an increase of 16.4%. The fiscal deficit was more than $1 trillion for calendar year 2019 and growing. If you have kids or grand -kids, they'll love you for this....
14
@Saoirse Right next to the decline in the environment. To me, that is bigger than the deficit issue.
7
Let me put a big surprise face---Trump's entire career has been history of having difficulty with math and reality---which, if it wasn't for his father and his team of bankruptcy attorney's he would selling timeshares in Florida. Our problem as a nation, is we have no father and no attorney's to bail us out of a recession--which I predict, if he is elected, will be a real doozy.
27
It's all politics all the time with Trump. He understands that this will never pass, but he'll point to it saying the Democrats didn't want to tackle the deficit, among all the other nonsense put forward.
16
Cuts of trillions in clean water and health care. The budget offers tax cuts and things that help mostly those who already have been stuffed with goodies. How can anyone say that Trump isn't giving more ammunition for his defeat in 2020. The US has low interest rates and taxes rates for the wealthiest insanely low. The national debt is running at an increase of a trillion dollars a year. So moderate economic growth forecasts by reputable economists are not mentioned.
28
Economic growth in the United States has been trending downward since the 1950s, with average annual real growth shrinking by about 0.05% per year over that time span. Future growth will continue that trend. Our population is not growing as fast as it used to, and productivity is not advancing as quickly as it did in decades past. So this administration's forecasts of 3% growth sustained over 10 or 15 years are ridiculous. Cutting taxes will not increase growth and will instead explode deficits even more.
This budget proposal is simply another form of lying to Americans.
49
Dems once again need to create the contrast. Trump only sustained the trend from Obama's watch by juicing the economy with $1T a year on the credit card and a corporate tax cut that did nothing for investment for GDP. Put out a counter proposal that includes a federal minimum wage hike and extension of Obamacare with drug and healthcare costs under control. Shift 2% of military spending to immigration enforcement but also to take every illegal gun off the US streets. And predict 3.5% growth.
11
It’s during times of growth and prosperity that one should save, be fiscally conservative, so you can borrow when time get difficult
13
@Matias Regge Republicans used to know that, but that's long gone with the wind. Buying elections with budget deficits, that's all they know now.
15
@Matias Regge Democrat deficits bad, Republican deficits good.
1
..."the federal budget deficit was nearly twice as large last year as the administration projected in its first budget: It topped $1 trillion last year. The Congressional Budget Office predicts it will continue to grow, hitting $1.3 trillion in 2025 as growth slows to 1.5 percent.
For that same year, the new Trump budget predicts the deficit will be less than half the size — and that growth will be just under 3 percent."
So who is going to bail us out? The Saudis? The"struggling Chinese lenders? Or the .1% of our plutocrats whom one candidate is advocating taxing at 2% of their vastly excessive weallth?
16
The government could save a bunch by delivering the budget in electronic form instead of the massive paperback.
9
Seriously? out of a trillion dollar deficit?
1
@James Paper companies need customers and more than likely tend to vote more republican than say silicon valley.
trump is basically using the budget to bolster his political standing with the far right and gop hardliners. if anyone really wants to know how this fiasco of a budget will end, examine trumps' personal and corporate financial track record. the trail of disasters, frauds and wide spread wreckage is an ominous sign of what is to come.
85
Trump sold his tax cuts by saying they would pay for themselves and not cause deficits. Most economists disagreed. So if Trump now feels cuts are necessary, that means the premise for his tax cuts was wrong. But the solution is not to cut programs necessary to keep people healthy (Medicaid, Medicare, school lunch programs) and give everyone a fair shot of realizing the American Dream (education, job retraining). The solution must be to reverse the tax cuts. Not all the tax cuts. Even many Democrats acknowledged that the taxes on corporate entities needed to be reduced to encourage economic growth. But the tax cuts for wealthy individuals are different. The economy did very well over the past 60 years at times when the individual tax rates were much higher. Just return to the Obama individual tax rates. Job growth during the last three years of Obama’s administration was substantially greater than the first three years under Trump. Repeat, job growth under Obama during his last three years (after he got us out of the Great Recession) was greater than job growth under Trump.
105
@Robert K Of course job growth rate was higher the last three years under President Obama. You always get more water out of a sponge when it's full (11% unemployment) vs. when it's practically bone dry (3.5%).
Pretending that the fiscal policies of Obama would have somehow made for greater employment gains than we've experienced these past 3 years is something almost no economist (liberal or conservative) would agree with.
1
@PB Almost no economist would agree that the Obama fiscal policies would have made for lesser employment gains either.
13
@Robert K
Cutting corporate taxes did nothing to help the economy: The stock market is not the economy no matter what someone bragging about their 401k says. What we need are higher corporate taxes to encourage companies to invest in their workers, machinery, etc. This would do a lot to help workers and also reduce wealth inequality. Couple these higher taxes with minimum taxes on overseas "earnings" to prevent companies from dodging taxes.
6
There is as much truth in this budget as there was in the Senate's impeachment trial.
Only 2nd hand accountants created the budget, and no 1st hand testimony allowed.
22
The Trump administration is gearing up for huge tax cuts again for the wealthy, while the average American paid $1,277 more this year for goods due to his irrational trade wars according to the NY Times.
Trump is charging taxpayers $650.00 a night for secret service at his establishments according to the Washington Post, and taking food from the mouths of children with cuts to food stamps as well as taking health care from many with Medicaid cuts.
In his second term he will no doubt plan to cut Social Security and Medicare.
102
@Jacquie That's $650/night per room.
8
"It also includes trillions of dollars of cuts to safety-net programs like Medicaid and discretionary spending programs outside of the military, like education and the environment."
Politically, a banana republic. Economically, a third world country.
35
@Steve
Banana Republic has nothing to do with being, proverbially, bananas.
2
Republican presidents always swear their tax cuts will pay for themselves in increased growth, and they're always proved wrong. Something about doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results...
75
Alternate facts are at play here. Those work out great for cheats, but not so good for those who have to pay for it.
11
Supply side economics is a fraud. Without deficit spending, the numbers simply do not work.
Moreover, the republicans have been pumping borrowed money, about $trillion in 2019, back into the US economy to support GDP and employment afloat. Without this, the US economy would sink like a stone.
Meanwhile, the national debt has been skyrocketing. There is no reasonable scenario in which this will ever be repaid. Except on way. Induce inflation.
How can republicans get away with this? First, most of the national debt of the United States is owned directly and indirectly by its citizens. Second, the population of the United States is essentially clueless about economics. Ultimately all economics is local. So long as people have jobs, today is what matters. The future does not.
20
Yeah, let’s just trust Trump, a serial bankrupt-ist, when he tells us he should continue overspending with our credit card while he is in office, because he promises that things will work out ok decades later when he’s out of office.
Sounds like a plan.
43
@Miguel sanchez He's probably planning to not be out of office...
5
@Brian Collins
Why wouldn't he want to stay in office. He's never in his life earned this much money as he has by paying himself to go golfing at his own properties!
1
A growing economy based on growing national debts! There is no better recipe for economic disaster.
Unfortunately this will not only affect America, it will have horrendous economic consequences worldwide.
But who cares as long as the 'giga' and the 'tera' rich get even richer.
10
“It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”
― Yogi Berra
It may be tough to make predictions, but recent history is the best alternative. And recent history shows a growth rate of significantly less than 3%. And that doesn't include a likely recession that is long overdue. Also, recent history (2008) shows what happens after a big tax cut. After the initial high, something bursts and the economy has to give. Same thing happened in 2001, after another RepubliCON tax cut.
12
@BigFootMN Yogi Berra would make a better president. Even now.
1
The Republicans, and Trump most specifically, don’t deal in reality. Like transfer marketing in advertising culture, they brand a certain feeling and sell that. And while the monoculture of Republican supporters buy into a MAGA fantasy, a very small handful that won’t be found at a Trump rally are making bank. I get the sense that the Trump supporter knows this too but doesn’t care. The Matrix-like fantasy— with all of its propaganda and promises of privilege— is better than the reality.
35
I notice that Nancy Pelosi has responded point by point to Trump’s budget proposal. Good! That’s what she should be doing, and how our system works. Chuck Schumer, however, has called on the IG’s of 74 government agencies to investigate witness intimidation as a response to Vindeman’s removal from his position. What a waste of time and effort.
4
No reason not to do both. The investigations get under the village idiot’s skin nicely.
2
@Edward
So as long as the economy's good, witness intimidation is ok?
1
Trump's tax cuts have benefited everyone at the cost of ballooning the deficit. For democrats, it's hard to denounce tax cuts and ask for fiscal responsibility.
I have not seen an argument like this put forth by democrats:
Trump's tax cuts add about a trillion in deficit each year. That's approx. $3K debt taken up by each person in the country, or about $12K per family. If your family hasn't received a $3K benefit in taxes per person, then you are losing out and someone else (most likely the rich) is gaining that advantage.
These numbers are approx and the logic is simple, but it should put the relative benefits of tax cuts in perspective for most people.
58
@Max W The other thing about the deficit is that it doesn't force the US government and ultimately Americans to make any decisions based on economic cost.
That is how we end up with an endless wars in Afghanistan and other places- if the Americans had to pay directly out of pocket with a special tax to support the war what do you think would happen? Trump can light off WWIII with Iran and not have to worry about how to pay for it, we just keep printing money.
To me this is is the real danger of the deficit, we lose political control by giving our leaders a blank check
20
@Max W Please explain how "Trump's tax cuts have benefited everyone...." I havent seen any benefits.
12
@Max W - "Trump's tax cuts have benefited everyone"
What is that line from "Independence Day"?
Oh, yes, "That's not *entirely* accurate."
There are millions, like me, from the blue states that Trump the 1st targeted who were not benefited at all, and in fact His tax cuts for the wealthy cost us dearly.
So an addition to my $3K as part of the deficit I am now paying an additional $4K on my income taxes.
But hey, my increase in taxes will be permanent, while the tax cuts received by others will be temporary.
12
it would probably help trumpski and company if they got out of bed before noon and didnt play golf one day out of three.All that signals to me is that they are not serious about this and the budget probably is a sham hastily put together in the last week
35
With the exception of his television show (which he didn't own) every business he has run has careered off the rails and into a ditch. Lack of planning, bad day to day management and mountains of debt are recurring themes in his awful business career.
Did anyone really expect him to change? I for one am waiting for his dealings with Deutsche Bank and the Russian kleptocrats to be fully exposed.
380
Trump has ensured that pass through businesses like his will pay lower tax rates than the workers he employs.
Remind me who this economy is really for again? Workers get pennies while investors reap millions as they US Treasury is drained. This is now how to make America great.
29
@Richard from Philly
Here’s a guy who couldn’t even make money on a casino and bankrupted every business he touched and we are surprised that he’s going to walk away at the end of his presidency having given himself billions in tax breaks and sticking us with the bill? This is how this guy, a con and a grifter, has operated his entire life.
47
@Richard from Philly With Rudy and Barr doing magic tricks, I wouldn't hold my breath.
8
Trump and the Republicans will make a big show about cutting Social Security and Medicaid but in the end they won't do it. If they Republicans were really the fiscal hawks they claim to be they would do it, but that ship has long sailed. They need to make a show because a certain part of the Republican base believes they are the only ones allowed to sponge off of the government and the Republicans have to pretend to take it away from those who don't deserve it.
It would immediately drive down economic growth, all that government largess gets spent and people benefit. Medicaid represents easy money for the medical industry, it gives them paying customers and they won't let the government take it away.
13
@Hugh G - Not sure how he would ever expect to win (his new home state) Florida, cutting these two programs. Seems somewhat suicidal.
However his desire to crush 'Obamacare' is cheered by his base, most of whom would be negatively impacted. So, there is no reason to anything anymore.
2
@Carlos Danger The base believes that if some undeserving person gets a government benefit (say an inner city minority), or perhaps even an illegal immigrant, God forbid, that is a reason to scrap the entire program. Meanwhile they will end up with the living standard of a 3rd world country but at least they will be not doing socialist un-American things.
@Carlos Danger -- "No reason" is a 'perfect' description of the thinking ability of Trump's cult followers. Trump's supporters *believe* these lies... which is why Trump keeps making them.
my favorite part:
"Mr. Trump has long asserted that his push to negotiate with the Chinese and reopen North American trade talks were helping the economy."
Few lines above, (paraphrasing) ... the administration officials acknowledged that trade war with China and the renegotiation of NAFTA have shaved off about half a percentage of the growth.
We all know that this budget proposal is not about actually balancing anything or even following real world math. It is about signaling to the specific interest groups how much money will flow to them and pandering to few others, and that's that. who cares about real math
162
@Joe Re-branding NAFTA as the USMCA really didn't change anything. There were only very minor tweaks to the agreement and those will have little impact.
His China "renegotiation" has cost the US economy a lot due to the Tariffs, loss of farm income exports, and farm subsidies to replace the loss of income. There have been no breakthrough changes to the trade with China that will change the relationship.
It's all smoke and mirrors.
13
@Joe And the trade deficit, more or less stable around $42 billion per month under Obama (around $62 billion under Bush), is now at $55 billion and still increasing under Mr. Trump's stable genius.
6
so this budget also assumes that a recession is not going to happen in the next 10 years?
142
@paul ~
You know that's a fantasy. I know that's a fantasy. Everyone here knows that's a fantasy.
But Trump knows that if we change the Constitution and let him get reelected a few more times, we'll have the best bestest economy ever, and balance the budget, and ...
11
@jhanzel
May not even need to change the constitutiion. Hasn't the senate declared him above the law?
17
@paul "so this budget also assumes that a recession is not going to happen in the next 10 years"
Why should there be one?
Australia hasn't have a recession in 3 decades. China (though less transparent) by most accounts hasn't have one in 3 decades either.
This notion that recessions need to come every 6-7 years is being put to bed by president Trump and his pressure for the Fed to do the right thing.
1
Trump’s budget can’t be trusted or believed. It’s simply another example of the Republicans’ complete and total fiscal irresponsibility.
It’s time for Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats to show the administration the people’s priorities.
50
Most of his base won't understand the lies and deception his team is pushing, and are already happy his side is "winning".
The folks on his side that understand what he's doing are happy because they benefit from his actions.
111
@Max W
...farm bankruptcies are UP 20%.....
16
@Max W - Math....math is hard.
2
No worries about the deficit.
Trump has already declared moral bankruptcy.
The US Treasury can too.
196
@SA
Actually, the US Treasury will never declare bankruptcy as long as its debt is denominated in dollars.
If it cannot borrow (to recycle debt), it can always print enough dollars to pay off whatever comes due. Of course, the value of the dollar would fall drastically, but there would be no bankruptcy per se.
5
I think we should compare Trump's fantasies to the budget office. Do we really think they are good forecasters?
I have little confidence any of them really know anything about the future economy. There is every chance that Coronavirus, climate change, and the middle east's conflicts will all change the equation at which every forecaster will shrug their shoulders and exclaim - who knew?!
7
@Mark Renfrow No one can predict the future, no matter how hard we all try.
Anyone who could predict the future wouldn't be working for any government anyway.
What we end up with is people trying to manipulate the future to their benefit, and those are the people that end up flocking to the government in one way or another.
2
@Hugh G
Yeah, its all just a disguise to justify spending more than you have or will have.
I will gladly pay you tomorrow for a burger today.
But the truth is the "conservatives" created this boogeyman and now want to declare him unimportant but can't, so they just lie.
Deficit hawks were merely there to oppose the other party. Not change our long term fiscal strategy of heavy borrowing.
5
Not a fiscal hawk here. However, Trump's budget is irresponsible, even if one wants to add some flexibility for MMT. i.e. Not worth the paper its printed on. And you thought he wouldn't be coming for Medicare and Social Security?
254
@Dave S Indeed. I find it astounding that people believe a person who's bankrupted as many business ventures as the Orange One could be trusted NOT to run the country into the ground.
27
@Dave S
If your entire strategy of governance is based on conflict - and the escalation of same to win. You have to have a strong military, lots of lawyers and people willing to agree that the ends justify the means in all cases.
To drain the budget for armies and walls is just a natural extension of the strategy.
Come to think of it, its probably time for Trump to deliver some sort of Axis of Evil speech aimed at all his newfound. newly made, enemies.
21
@LTM
But you got -- he is building a wall to keep non-whites out. That is all his base really cares about. Unfortunately, they are not smart enough to figure him out -- in fact they don't even want to!!
We MUST, as a nation, -- begin to concentrate on educating our children and the masses.
12