Budgets Don't Lie, but Trump and His Enablers Do
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-budget-lies-sotu/
The Trump administrations budget proposal, released Monday, lays bare the lies he told during the State of the Union.
Reverend Dr. William J. Barber
Before declaring President Trumps State of the Union speech a manifesto of mistruths last week, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi demonstrated her disgust on national television by ripping the speech in half. He shredded the truth, so I shredded his speech, Pelosi later said. Though Trump and company have expressed outrage over her protest, they presented a budget proposal on Monday that essentially admitted the speaker was right. Since budgets dont lie, we should pay attention to what the numbers actually say.
In his speech, Trump declared, From the instant I took office, I moved rapidly to revive the US economy.
If we had not reversed the failed economic policies of the previous administration, the world would not now be witness to Americas great economic success. But Trumps budget numbers acknowledge that Americas economy has not come anywhere close to the 4 percent annual growth he predicted when he pushed an extreme $2 trillion package of tax cuts through Congress in 2017.
On Trumps watch, the federal debt is up $3 trillion. To put it another way, the Trump administration has taken out a $3 trillion loan to achieve in its first three years roughly the same economic and job growth that the Obama administration saw in its last three years. If that kind of return is success for Trump, its no wonder American banks no longer lend to him.
Since budgets dont lie, the folks crunching the numbers at the White House had to acknowledge there is no plan to get America out of the red anytime soon. They hang their economic hopes on long-term growth projections that make the failed projections of Trumps first three years seem modest. But they also make clear that Trump wants poor and low-income Americans to pick up the bill for his shortcomings in the meantime.
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