While we're all (rightly) focused on the constitutional crisis, CBO just projected a fiscal 2019 deficit of $984 billion — just shy of a trillion. No need to panic about solvency; but we should marvel both at GOP hypocrisy and how little all this debt bought 1/
All through the Obama years, Republicans gave fire-and-brimstone speeches denouncing the evils of budget deficits — and blackmailed Obama into fiscal austerity in the face of high unemployment. Then they blew up the deficit as soon as they were in power 2/
The deficit was $660 billion in fiscal 2017 (which ended on Sept. 30 and didn't reflect the Trump tax cut). So we've seen a $320 billion surge despite a growing economy that should have brought the deficit down. That's a lot of fiscal stimulus! 3/
Imagine what might have been accomplished if we'd been willing to spend an extra $300 billion a year on infrastructure. Instead, it was mainly tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy, which were supposed to supercharge growth 4/
In reality it's unclear at this point whether the tax cut did anything for growth; it certainly didn't lead to the promised surge in investment 5/ 
A best guess is that the tax cut was a bit of a stimulus, but with low bang for the buck; and that its effects were offset, or more than offset, by Trump's trade war. So despite completely abandoning their pretended principles, Rs haven't gotten much 6/
In particular, the idea that a booming economy would rescue Trump from his troubles on other fronts now looks far-fetched. Moral: if you're going to be a complete hypocrite, at least try to do it right 7/
