National Review Editor Slams GOP for Making ‘One Phony Argument After Another’ About the Deficit

(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Ramesh Ponnuru, the editor of National Review, slammed congressional Republicans for making “one phony argument after another” about the deficit while making the case for President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” in a new column for The Washington Post.

“Republicans continue to profess deep concern about the federal debt even as their top priority is to pass a bill that will increase it by trillions of dollars. They have multiple rationalizations for this behavior, which might work psychologically but do not mathematically,” began Ponnuru before rejecting the idea that the GOP is addressing the United States’ spending problem, even as it creates a “revenue problem.”

“They’re not cutting projected spending by nearly enough to bring it in line with revenue — and they’re cutting that revenue further. The main driver of increased federal spending is not benefits for illegal immigration or ‘woke’ programs, as Republicans sometimes suggest. It’s Medicare and Social Security,” observed the conservative commentator. “They get costlier every year without any active decision by Congress and the president. Existing law puts their growth on autopilot. Republicans have ruled out most ways of changing it.”

He went on to nail Republicans for trying to have their cake and eat it too by portraying the benefits of an extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts as new and exciting while also arguing that the hit to revenue has already baked in; as well as to dismiss “their long-standing claim that tax cuts often pay for themselves by boosting economic growth.”

“It would have been better if the tax cuts of the last several decades had accompanied spending restraint that kept the debt in check. But deficits were tolerable a generation ago. As the debt and the population of retirees rises, cutting taxes while increasing spending has become more and more reckless,” concluded Ponnuru. “The cynical take is that Republicans keep coming up with one phony argument after another to evade the fiscal truth. The more alarming truth is that they have done a good job of fooling themselves.”