Republicans, the party of so-called “deficit hawks,” have once again driven the deficit up, up, up. This thing they say they care so much about keeping low was up 17 percent in 2017, on track to hit $1 trillion in 2019. Of course, Republicans have excuses, and promises, and an agenda.
The excuses: “President Trump prioritized making a significant investment in America’s military after years of reductions in military spending undermined our preparedness and national security,” said treasury secretary and high-class suck-up Steven Mnuchin. Yeah … that inflation of military spending was a lot of money, but not quite 17 percent increase in the deficit worth.
Mnuchin continued: “Going forward, the president’s economic policies that have stimulated strong economic growth, combined with proposals to cut wasteful spending, will lead America toward a sustainable financial path.” Going forward in reality as opposed to Mnuchin excuse-land, the Republican tax law will slash revenue and make the deficit massively larger.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell outed the agenda, saying the deficit is “disturbing” and should be fixed by targeting spending and services for working people. Not repealing all those tax breaks for corporations and the very wealthy, but slashing entitlements.
When it was President Barack Obama and a Democratic Congress trying to save the economy by investing in infrastructure and jobs to get us out of the recession, Republicans couldn’t whine enough about how terrible it was that Democrats were increasing the deficit (at a time when it was economically appropriate to do so). But now, when the deficit should be going down, Republicans are blowing it up not to invest in American infrastructure or jobs, but to give handouts to rich people and to give themselves an excuse to slash Social Security and Medicaid and Medicare.
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