Gimmicks The President May Use To Claim Trillions In Phony Budget Savings

When the president releases his budget on Monday, February 13th, he will most likely claim some large amount of “savings” in an effort to create the appearance that his administration is actually committed to cutting spending. However, we know from gimmicks in the president’s past proposals that he may claim to “save” $3 trillion with no savings at all (which are properly defined as spending cuts). The only deficit reduction would stem from tax hikes that sustain wasteful spending.

Here is how the president can claim big “savings” in his budget while in reality making no net cuts or reforms:

Once CBO’s reestimate is released, we should see purported “savings” drop even further. For instance:

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