Republicans don't care about the deficit. Republicans have never cared about the deficit. It's just what they use as an excuse to fight Democratic presidents on spending and when they're trying to cut social insurance programs. That's been true since the last massive tax cut a Republican president pushed through for rich people, and it's true with this one, too. Corporate tax revenues have plummeted this year, thanks to that tax scam.
The new standard corporate tax rate of 21 percent, down from 35 percent, coupled with a bunch of new deductions it allowed for corporations means that tax receipts from corporations as a share of the economy are at a 75-year low. Which means, of course, the deficit is ballooning. Even the Trump administration has had to acknowledge that, and has revised its deficit forecast to acknowledge that we'll have $1 trillion in additonal debt over the next decade, "on average, almost $100 billion more a year in deficits."
One economist, Kimberly A. Clausing at Reed College, says that it's reversing a trend in revenues that was coming from a strong corporate performance. "If we hadn't changed our tax system, you would be expecting rising revenues," she said. Meanwhile, Trump's out there doing things like offering up $12 billion in emergency spending for farmers, we're in hurricane and infectious disease season, wildfires are raging across the country and the government needs to be funded at the end of September. The only thing that's going to save Medicaid and Medicare in that budget fight is that it's an election year.
Meanwhile, the White House is spinning madly. "We are very much looking forward to the second quarter G.D.P. numbers, which we anticipate will keep us on track to a four-quarter growth rate over 3 percent for the first time in 13 years," chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers blusters. "That’s a growth rate nobody thought was possible and we are glad to see the naysayers will be proved wrong." Of course, that's not really true: "Between 2009 and 2016, GDP growth reached at or above 3% on a quarterly basis about eight times." Annual growth rate under President Obama didn't hit 3 percent—it did reach 2.9—but that mark isn't some massive achievement by any means. It was a regular occurrence before the last Republican president trashed the economy and oversaw the great recession.
Which makes it a good time to bring out that wonderful old chart from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities showing just how costly Republican policies are. If Trump plays his cards right and gets us into another war, he could bump that deficit to $2 trillion.
Don't think, though, that there is no method to this madness. This is about blowing up the deficit so they can create enough pressure to decimate all the things that are good. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food and housing and utility assistance. Everything. The war on poor people has already begun.
Please give $1 to our Senate and House funds to fight back.