Donald Trump’s Amazing Tax Adventure Across the Incredibility Gap

Ignores even House Republican pledge not to borrow from the Chinese and Saudis to pay for more tax breaks:

"I believe both the most pro-growth approach we can take and the fiscally responsible approach we can take, is to break even with the budget, counting on just solid, verifiable economic growth." – Chairman Kevin Brady, Ways and Means Committee, 1/25/2017. This is consistent with the so called "Better Way" blueprint which "envisions tax reform that is revenue neutral." – June 24, 2016.

Ignores his Treasury Secretary's pledge "that there will be no absolute tax cut for the upper class."

"Any reductions we have in upper-income taxes will be offset by less deductions, so that there will be no absolute tax cut for the upper class." – Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, 11/30/2016.

Ignores reality, widely accepted, even by Republican economists, that tax cuts do not pay for themselves:

"I've never believed that tax cuts pay for themselves in the generic space. That's not a sensible way to think about it. You need to decide what you're going to spend in a disciplined fashion and taxes exist to finance those expenditures." – Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Republican-appointed former Congressional Budget Office Director, now President of the Republican-oriented American Action Forum, in testimony before the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures on 3/23/2010.

"…sailing straight into a sovereign debt crisis is not a pro-growth strategy." – Holtz-Eakin, 4/21/2017.

Even the most ideologically, overly optimistic observers concede that tax cuts can't pay for themselves:

"I don't think there is a model in town that will show a pure tax cut will pay for itself or a majority of itself with just economic growth." – Kyle Pomerleau, Director of the Republican-oriented Tax Foundation, 4/21/2017. The "Tax Foundation found that cutting the top corporate rate from 35 percent to 15 percent would spur enough growth to pay for not quite half of the cut." – Politico, 4/26/2017