The federal deficit.
Whether or not you care about how large it is may or may not depend on who's in office and who's passing the policies that increase it, but one thing we should all able to observe is the empirical fact that the deficit is increasing.
Isn't that what Republicans tell us? They say we should cut spending on domestic and social assistance programs like Medicaid because the deficit is blowing through the roof, but Trump's top economic adviser apparently didn't get the memo.
Larry Kudlow says the deficit is actually dropping.
“As the economy gears up, more people working, better jobs and careers, those revenues come rolling in and the deficit, which was one of the other criticisms, is coming down,” Kudlow told host Maria Bartiromo. “It’s coming down rapidly. Growth solves a lot of problems.”
Speaking of growth, first quarter growth, which includes a significant period of time beyond the passage of the GOP's tax cuts, was revised downward from 2.2 to 2.0 percent this week.
As for the deficit, the GOP's tax cut have already added over $100 billion to the deficit and are expected to do so every single year for the foreseeable future. The federal deficit for fiscal 2018, which ends on October 1st, is expected to weigh in at over $800 billion, up from a deficit of over $660 billion in fiscal 2017.
The federal deficit is expected to top $1 trillion in the next fiscal year regardless of any phantom growth Larry Kudlow and the GOP see on the horizon.
Update... Kudlow says he was just projecting into the future, which doesn't make him any more correct. Also, he says economists are wrong.
Reached by phone, Kudlow told me his comment was meant prospectively.
It reflects his view not that deficits have come down sharply, but that they will be coming down as growth rises "faster than virtually any forecasters think."
— Nick Timiraos (@NickTimiraos) June 29, 2018