The GOP should ignore the debt consequences and pass the Trump tax cuts

The Trump administration’s tax plan has sparked a national conversation with the predictable groaning about tax cuts increasing deficits and adding to the national debt. Even if you don’t believe that growth will compensate for lost revenue, it’s possible to think that the greater good is being served by trying to produce a spike in growth and lifting the economy from eight years of Obama-era stagnation, missed opportunities and fading dreams. Whereas rising debt is like a time bomb set to detonate sometime in the future, low economic growth is a cancer here today, eating away at our nation’s vitality.

National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn was right in saying, “We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to do something big.” Some of the partisan lines are predictable, but you can’t ignore the fact that yesterday’s tax proposal is bold and serious. No less than Stephen Moore, distinguished visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, echoed Cohn’s sentiment, arguing yesterday that Trump’s plan “cuts the business taxes … simplifies the system … [and is] going to bring a lot of jobs back” to the United States.

The Trump plan offers a radical shift from what we know didn’t work during the Obama years, when low growth resulted in trillions of dollars of lost economic activity and a historic erosion of faith in the American dream. Rather than try to maintain the veneer of the talking point that growth will fill in and pay for the tax cuts, I think Republicans might as well concede the point that deficits may rise for a while but the corrosive effects of low growth on every aspect of American society are worse than adding incrementally to the already-too-high debt.

Besides, to do anything serious about the debt, you must have entitlement reform. And the best chance of having serious entitlement reform will come after a period of prosperity, not after eight years of a borderline recession when people were scared to death about their future. Think about entitlement reform in Donald Trump’s second term after a few years of 3.5 percent growth.

The Democrats will use the tax debate to yet again flog Trump about his tax returns, but from a Republican point of view, that is a problem that will be managed, not solved. If Trump could release his tax returns, he would have already done so. There must be a good reason why he hasn’t. And the Democrats’ complaints about increasing deficits and the debt can be ignored due to their acquiescence to the nearly $10 trillion added to the debt during Barack Obama’s years in office. Republicans don’t have to say growth will match revenue loss from tax cuts dollar for dollar because, in all honesty, debt reduction will only come through entitlement reform — and that’s a fight we should pick some other time.