Larry Kudlow says the deficit is shrinking. It’s not.
Haters said shrinking the deficit "couldn't be done," National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow claims. They were right.
America's growing economy is driving the deficit down, Kudlow insisted on Fox Business Network on Friday. But economists and the government itself say the opposite is true.
It's true that the U.S. economy has grown every quarter since President Trump took office, per the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Building a strong economy has been Trump's big promise, and it's a common Republican priority.
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But that growth isn't as promising as Trump claims, and it's certainly not rapid enough to stave off an expanding deficit. Debt is on track to be its highest in U.S. history thanks to Trump's deficit spending, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected Tuesday. The Republican tax plan passed in December, which was expected to add $1.4 trillion to the deficit in the next decade, didn't help either.
So yes, growth can solve a lot of problems. Just not this one.
