Fuzzy math by the GOP

Here’s a little bookkeeping. The U.S. budget deficit for 2017 is $666 billion. This amount has been borrowed to pay the bills.

The country is said to need trillions of dollars in repairs to infrastructure that includes roads, bridges, water and sewer systems, railroads and airports. President Trump pledged to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure. Over 10 years that means $100 billion per year, average.

Forbes says the loss to U.S. business will average about $3 trillion per year due to crumbling infrastructure, and about 300,000 jobs per year.

The climate disasters in 2017 alone are said to cost some $300 billion. This is not yet paid for.

The recently signed federal tax-cut bill is said to create a shortfall of about $1.5 trillion over 10 years. That amounts to $150 billion per year, on average.

Just on the federal side, the 2018 deficit could be $1.216 trillion, or almost double the 2017 figure.

The Republican Party now holds the presidency and is the majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The 2016 Republican Party platform has this to say about fiscal policy: “The Republican path to fiscal sanity and economic expansion begins with a constitutional requirement for a federal balanced budget.”

I don’t think this all “adds up.”

Patrick Hunter

Carbondale