BUDGET/ECONOMY/TRADE WAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump’s $4.75 trillion budget proposal unveiled on Monday [3-11-19] brims with confidence that the United States economy will continue to expand rapidly, despite recent data suggesting growth is slowing. Mr. Trump told reporters last week that the economy is ‘very, very strong.’ His budget proposal forecasts 3.2 percent growth in 2019, which would be a slight increase from last year and the strongest rate since 2005. It estimates similarly strong growth for the next decade, enough to eventually reverse the expansion of the federal budget deficit under Mr. Trump’s watch. But there are signs, in the indicators Mr. Trump watches closely, that his economic policies are beginning to work against his economic goals. Waning stimulus from Mr. Trump’s 2017 tax cut and economic damage from his global trade war are undermining the president’s oft-stated objective of increasing growth and reducing America’s trade and budget deficits.”
–Jim Tankersley, “Trump’s Economic Outlook Is Rosy. That Could Be a Problem.,” The New York Times online, March 11, 2019