CBO: Trump's budget doesn't balance federal ledger

[question everything]

Source: Yahoo Finance (AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new government analysis of President Donald Trump's budget plan says it wouldn't come close to balancing the federal ledger like the White House has promised.

Thursday's Congressional Budget Office report says that Trump's budget, if followed to the letter, would result in a $720 billion deficit at the end of 10 years instead of the slight surplus promised.

CBO said Trump's budget would reduce the deficit by a total of $3.3 trillion over 10 years instead of the $5.6 trillion deficit cut promised by the White House. The nonpartisan scorekeeper estimated that deficits in each of the coming 10 years will exceed the $585 billion in red ink posted last year.

CBO says that Trump relied on far too optimistic predictions of economic growth and that Trump's rosy projections are the chief reason his budget doesn't balance as promised.


Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cbo-trumps-budget-doesnt-balance-federal-ledger-151844253--politics.html

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But, as Reagan's treasury (or someone else from his administration) said: voters don't care about deficit

[Bradical79]

1. I don't understand this part

CBO said Trump's budget would reduce the deficit by a total of $3.3 trillion over 10 years

The nonpartisan scorekeeper estimated that deficits in each of the coming 10 years will exceed the $585 billion in red ink posted last year.

How would it reduce the deficit by 3.3 trillion over 10 years yet the deficit is higher that under Obama? Wouldn't that be an increace in deficit spending?

[califootman]

2. It would reduce the deficit from the CBO Baseline

The CBO's June 2017 Baseline would have budget deficits totaling $10.1 trillion over the next ten years. They estimate Trump's proposed budget would yield $6.8 trillion in deficits over the same period. Hence the $3.3T reduction in total deficit.

Annual deficits under Trump's plan would range from $593B in FY18 to $720B in FY27, as compared to $563B (FY18) to $1,463B (FY27) under the CBO Baseline.

The $3.3T reduction is achieved by slashing spending by $4.2T over those ten years, offset by a $900B loss in revenue for the federal government over the same timeframe.

Here's the link to the CBO analysis.

[ProfessorGAC]

3. Here's What I Think It Means B

Assuming the natural growth rate of spending and revenue, the deficit would go up by x%. The greater than $585 billion is projected as lower than 585 times the x%. So, what it suggests, i believe, is the rate of growth slows enough that the deficit at the end of 10 years would be an average of $330 billion lower than it would have been.

Now that said, i don't even believe that number, because tax cuts for the wealthy and business have already been shown to grow deficits not shrink them. But, i think that's what this is saying.