BUDGET/ECONOMY/POLITICS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s claim that his budget will erase the deficit in 10 years relies on an accounting gimmick.
His economic advisers have insisted for months that his proposal to slash tax rates can be revenue neutral, meaning the tax code will collect as much money as it does today after cutting rates because it will boost growth.
But in his budget proposal Tuesday, Mr. Trump goes one step further: His administration estimates their economic policies, including the tax plan, would boost the nation’s growth rate and generate $2.1 trillion in revenue above current levels, an accounting assumption that allows Mr. Trump to claim his blueprint will balance the budget by 2027.
Economists and budget analysts are crying foul. They say the math doesn’t add up, and that the claim is predicated on an economic omission or math error.
Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, who served as an Obama administration economic adviser, said on Twitter, ‘This appears to be the most egregious accounting error in a Presidential budget in the nearly 40 years I have been tracking them.’ “
-Nick Timiraos, “Donald Trump’s Balanced Budget Goal Rests on Questionable Math,” The Wall Street Journal online, May 23, 2017 09:02am