"Who the hell cares about the budget? We're going to have a country."

Apparently, left-wingers aren’t the only ones these days who want to have a chat about “free money” economic theories. At a fund-raiser at his Mar-a-Lago resort last week, President Donald Trump touted his enormous new Pentagon budget (which he inaccurately pinned at $2.5 trillion) and reportedly dismissed concerns about growing deficits and federal debt: “Who the hell cares about the budget? We’re going to have a country.”

I suppose the president’s newfound embrace of progressive economics is understandable. When he was running for president, Trump said he would eliminate the nation’s $19-trillion debt in eight years. More than three years into his administration, the U.S. national debt has topped $23 trillion and is racing higher, despite the ongoing economic boom. Annual deficits are up 11.8 percent since last year and have now topped an astonishing $1 trillion.

It’s easier to say that they just don’t matter, even if the president hasn’t come up with a cockamamie economic theory to justify his (and Congress’) profligacy. The president likes things big, so that apparently applies to government budgets, too. There is something refreshing—albeit in a disturbing and cynical way—about Republicans who now reject the concept of fiscal responsibility.