The federal budget deficit was $211 billion during the month August according to a new report the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released last night. That's nearly double the federal deficit of August 2017 and, for the year, the deficit has increased to $895 billion. That's $221 billion more than this point last year.
According to the CBO, corporate tax receipts have dropped by 30 percent and that's the single largest contributor to the deficit, but the White House would have you see things a different way.
You see, if you squint hard enough, or if you snort enough coke, the report will tell you exactly the opposite.
Kevin Hassett, the White House chief economic adviser, was careful in a briefing with reporters on Monday to say the corporate tax cuts — but not the whole package — would pay for themselves with higher growth.
“I think that the notion that the corporate tax side has about paid for itself is clearly in the data,” he said. “On the individual side, there was about a trillion-dollar cost. About $700 billion of that was a refundable child credit that got expanded at the last minute to get the votes they needed to pass it.”
No, that is not in the data.
Kevin Hassett is an idiot at best and a liar at worst, because the individual tax cuts did not come anywhere close to a trillion dollars. That is the opposite of what happened. The tax cuts were heavily weighted in favor of corporations and private business. And for Christ's sake, the Child Tax Credit (CTC) totaled only $52 billion in 2017 so the idea that it was expanded by $700 billion is a fantasy. Who the fuck is this guy?
Anyway, behind the sharp drop in corporate tax receipts, interest payments on the national debt have also increased by 19 percent which the GOP's tax cuts are obviously contributing to.
The nation will be paying for the debt we're incurring right now long after the tax cuts are eventually rolled back, just like we'll still be paying for the Iraq war through the middle of this century.
Republicans wouldn't know what to do if they weren't jeopardizing our future financial stability.