Remember that fabled analysis that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said proved that the Republicans' massive tax cut bill would pay for itself? That's the analysis that Treasury employees said didn't exist, but which might have in reality proved the exact opposite of what Mnuchin said it did, prompting the department's inspector general to launch an inquiry. That inquiry might have spurred this:
One page. That's not very much analysis. And it's a little skimpy on details. But those welfare cuts and the increase to the annual growth rate of 0.7 percent, they say, will lead to "an increase in tax revenues during the 10-year period of approximately $1.8 trillion." See! We're going to come out at least $300 billion ahead of where every single other analysis says we will! But this time it's not just the magical unicorn of "growth" doing it. It also means cutting the welfare of all those slackers out there. Because freedom.
Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer calls it. It's "fake math," he says. "It's clear the White House and Republicans are grasping at straws to prove the unprovable and garner votes for a bill that nearly every single independent analysis has concluded will blow up the deficit and generate almost no additional economic activity to make up for it." But it might be enough to get the inspector general off Mnuchin's ass.