biochem wrote:gcomeau wrote:Apparently Trump's new budget proposal has a 2 TRILLION dollar math error in it that makes it claim to balance the budget when it doesn't actually come close.
I can't even act surprised. Basically they blew a 2 Trillion dollar hole in the nation's finances with their proposal and either didn't even notice, or were trying not to have anyone else notice.
This was supposed to be the economic genius president... RIGHT? I mean, if we believe Trump supporters anyway?
Good word choice from the left for persuasion. Outside the left, it's being referred to as an "accounting trick", which is the usual way the media refers to these sorts of gimmicks.
Math error - implies stupidity
Accounting Trick - implies cleverness
Different word choices when refering to the same exact thing lead to different emotional responses.
I'm not surprised by this. Every president uses accounting tricks of one type or another to make their budgets look better than they are. It's a problem and a big one at that since it contributes to our national debt problem, but it's not a Trump specific one.
Every single candidate would have done this or something similar, with the possible exception of Bernie who is more honest than the usual politician. Although he may well have been persuaded by an ends justify the means arguement from his staff.
Except it's not an "accounting trick" it's an ERROR. They double counted 2 trillion dollars. Or if they did it on purpose as you seem to be alleging here, it is fraud.
They declared they were going to massively slash taxes. Then they declared the tax cut would be revenue neutral because the economic growth induced would generate an additional 2 trillion in revenue cancelling out the 2 trillion in lost receipts from the rate cut.
So now that 2 trillion dollar economic stimulus they're claiming will occur? (Which, btw, has never happened in the HISTORY of tax cuts, there has not once ever been a tax cut that generated so much economic growth it paid for itself and they have provided ZERO rationale for why it's suddenly magically going to happen this time but let's just pretend we're not aware of that right now). Anyway, that 2 trillion is spoken for. It paid for the tax cuts. Now it's gone, and we're back to square one with the same deficit we have right now.
Then they claim "Hey, we generated 2 trillion dollars in increased receipts, and that will balance our current deficit! Budget balanced!"
Umm, no. You don't just get to use the same (*highly implausible*) 2 trillion dollars for 2
different things. If you spent it on one thing it's freaking gone.
But nice attempted spin. The bottom line is using their own incredibly unrealistically optimistic assumptions this budget would still have wiped out the US Treasury and completely bankrupted the country.
If you're ok with shrugging that off as some kind of "business as usual accounting trick" I do not know how to discuss this rationally with you. It's TWO TRILLION DOLLARS. That's over 10% of the total GDP of the entire United States. 30% of the revenue for the entire US government. Not some unpaid for pork line item to finance some sports arena in some congressman's home district or something.
