While one segment of the voting public regards President Donald Trump as a heaven-sent savior, a louder mob treats Trump as the Beast, a veritable Anti-Obama.
I am in neither tribe.
To me, Mr. Trump must be judged on what he does. Nominating Neil Gorsuch? A-plus. But The Donald has also reneged on a number of important campaign promises, not the least being his pledge to “eliminate the national debt in eight years.”
Sure, it was never quite believable. But is this administration even making progress?
If all goes according to the new plan, “the country would run a deficit of $631 billion in 2025,” writes Eric Boehm. That is not much of an improvement over Barack Obama’s final-year deficit of $666 billion.
Boehm’s Reason article is titled “Trump’s Budget Would Add $7.9 Trillion to the National Debt Over the Next Decade,” which gives a serious picture of Trump’s under-performance.
Now, you could react to the news and just say “less than $8 trillion — could be worse!”
But by accepting such a high number, we set the bar awfully low. It just isn’t serious.
And speaking of frivolity, it is “hard to take the president’s calls for belt-tightening seriously,” Boehm writes, “when the cuts only apply to some parts of the federal budget.”
You can guess which part of government is being given a free pass. Trump’s team is attempting to hide something: “spending increases for the Pentagon.”
Now, if American foreign policy were not the incoherent mess it is, we might make excuses.
But it is.
Serious Americans would exempt no part of the budget from intense scrutiny.
And real cuts.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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