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The Congressional Budget Office Just Destroyed Trump’s Budget Promises

FYI: Hey, Trump voters! Do you want the good news or the bad news?

The good news is that the green eye-shades and number-crunchers at the Congressional Budget Office have just produced a fantastic checklist for a massive, Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre-style attack on all that “waste” and “padding” and “featherbedding” in the entire U.S. federal budget.

The bad news? Donald Trump’s budget math still doesn’t add up. Not even close
Regards,
Ted
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-congressional-budget-office-just-destroyed-trumps-budget-promises-2016-12-09/print

Comments


  • That's not surprising. I do think many of his voters/supporters are in for a rude awakening when they find out that a) he can't do all he promised, b) some types of jobs are simply obsolete and NOT coming back, and c) what he does may well end up hurting them more than they think -- ie, repeal the ACA, trade wars, etc.

    In response to the CBO findings, I predict the following: Since facts are irrelevant and/or meaningless in the present day, the CBO 'experts' are therefore wrongful idiots, and the only 'facts' that matter are whatever Donnie excretes into the Twittersphere in the wee hours of the night.

    /end political snark
  • Don't know why this phrase keeps popping into my head since the election:
    "There's a sucker born every minute" is a phrase closely associated with P. T. Barnum, an American showman of the mid-19th century...
  • There's also the terse paraphrase of H.L. Mencken: Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.

    A surely copyrighted phrase from Saleno Zita (The Atlantic): "The press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally."

    So it may take a good while longer for reality or what passes for reality to sink in. Especially given the dichotomy between what Trump is tweeting and what he is doing with appointments. As rfono suggests, some of the consequences (such as ACA repeal, etc.) may take awhile to manifest in any case.

    BBC: Taking Trump Literally and Seriously
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38188074
  • The article is highly politicized.
    The title "destroys.." is rather hyperbolic. Its a budget disagreement. No houses were bombed.

    The author, Brent Arends, has been in the past (and may be currently, I've no idea) affiliated with DowJones/Barrons. Barrons has been adamantly anti-Trump -- and pro-Establishment during the entire election cycle. If they had their druthers, the POETUS would have a last name of "Bush".

    Middle of the way through the article, Arends writes:

    "President-elect Trump “won” the election — on a technicality, admittedly — after promising that he was going to slash taxes,..."

    NO! Trump did not "win" the election. He won the election. The insertion of air quotes suggests DJT didn't really win, when in fact he did.

    The article is not even worth kindling.
  • A v good article, actually, but you do have do define the slavery-facing EC as a 'technicality', and the approaching-3M popular-vote HRC margin is quite remarkable.
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