Earlier today, Andy sat with Stephanie Ruhle and former New Jersey Senator Bob Torricelli to discuss the highest US budget deficit in six years, which has soared to a reported $779 billion in the fiscal 2018 year.
When asked about how the US can have increased spending and tax cuts simultaneously, Andy points out that revenue was flat but not down from last year despite tax cuts. “The problem with tax cuts and the benefit of tax cuts is you immediately experience the detriment unless you have spectacular economic growth,” said Andy. “Even if the revenue was what it was projected to be we would still have huge deficits. The only way to get increased revenue is through economic growth and you won’t get that the first year after a cut because businesses need time to invest. Let’s see what revenues are next year.”
Also debated, was how to reduce spending in order to decrease the massive federal budget deficit. “We do need to reduce the debt but the first leg of that is to reduce the deficit, but you can only reduce it by increasing revenues and decreasing spending- we are only doing one of those things,” argued Andy.
In closing, Andy notes, “The deficit ultimately goes up because we spend more than we increase revenue. If spending always increases more than revenue, the debt will never go down.”
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