GOP and Trump put deficit on back burner

Trump campaigned heartily on a spending splurge and nothing he’s said since his shocking election suggests he will reverse course. Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, meanwhile, are papering over divisions with the man who frequently tossed party orthodoxy aside on the trail.

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“There is now a real risk that we will see an onslaught of deficit-financed goodies — tax cuts, infrastructure spending, more on defense — all in the name of stimulus, but which in reality will massively balloon the debt,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

The non-partisan group estimated Trump’s campaign proposals would increase the national debt by a whopping $5.3 trillion over the next decade. That would make the debt as a share of the economy rise from nearly 77 percent to 105 percent, a potentially dangerous level for the government.

Not all of the promises Trump made on the trail will be enacted, of course, but even just a few would mean a flood of red ink.

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