Donald Trump's tax plan would increase the deficit by $10 trillion

Donald Trump
(Image credit: Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

Donald Trump claims that his newly released tax plan "doesn't add to our debt and deficit, which are already too large." But nonprofit the Tax Foundation disagrees:

Mr. Trump's plan would cut taxes by $11.98 trillion over the next decade on a static basis. However, the plan would end up reducing tax revenues by $10.14 trillion over the next decade when accounting for economic growth from increases in the supply of labor and capital [...] The plan would [...] increase the federal government's deficit by over $10 trillion, both on a static and dynamic basis. [Tax Foundation]

The math is pretty easy to figure out: $10 trillion is much more than zero. As James Pethokoukis wrote here at The Week, Trump's plan appears to be "...a fantasy. Maybe even a joke... It's as though Trump read a copy of the Jeb Bush plan, thought about it for a moment, and then tossed it at an underling, yelling, 'We should do this, but make it more tremendous, more marvelous!'"

Then again, right or wrong, Trump never has been one to be outdone.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.