EDITORIAL: With disaster relief and tax reform, Trump’s plans don’t add up

Nov. 22--The gap between what candidate Donald Trump said on the campaign trail about the federal budget, debt and deficits and what he's doing as president is staggering -- and alarming. The businessman who said he could eliminate the then-$19 trillion-plus national debt after eight years in office is embracing federal fiscal policies that just don't add up.

On the one hand, his administration managed to do the unlikely -- unite Texas Republicans and California Democrats -- with a stingy $44 billion disaster relief plan released Nov. 17 that appears to be a clear sign the president wants the federal government to be much less helpful to devastated states than it has been in recent decades. If enacted by Congress, it would bring total disaster relief funding approved in recent months to $96 billion.

That sum may seem substantial, but it won't come close to covering the damage from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, and California's brutal wildfires. Puerto Rico alone is seeking $94.4 billion to rebuild its shattered infrastructure, Texas has asked for $61 billion to fix the ravaged Houston region, Florida hopes for $27 billion for repairs in all 67 of its counties, California Gov. Jerry Brown requested $7.4 billion to clean up after last month's wine country inferno and the U.S. Virgin Islands wants $5.5 billion in help after being hammered twice by hurricanes. That's $195.3 billion, all told.

It's no wonder that Texas Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn denounced the White House plan. As did California Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris.

On the other hand, the tightfisted way the administration is handling disaster relief is at odds with its enthusiasm about a tax code overhaul that passed the House earlier this month solely with Republican votes. The House measure would add an estimated $1.7 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office -- with more than half that sum going to ultra-wealthy Americans who don't need relief.

He and his optimistic advisers say the tax cuts will enlarge the economy in big ways, but Trump is betraying his voters. He ran a populist campaign in which he denounced income inequality and vowed to take on a system rigged in favor of the rich and well-connected. Now he's the rigger-in-chief.

In the bigger picture, though, he's betraying all Americans. That's because Trump, like President Barack Obama before him, is ignoring the fact that the U.S. national debt is on track to rise to choking levels in coming decades as Medicare and Social Security costs explode because of our aging population. If the House tax plan is enacted, Moody's Analytics' chief economist estimates that in 2027, federal debt would equal 97 percent of U.S. gross domestic product -- meaning that just paying the interest on the debt would be the biggest single annual federal expenditure after Medicare and Social Security.

Talking about federal deficits and debt leaves a lot of people's eyes glazed over. But framed in terms of individual behavior, it's easily understood. In a decade, the United States is on track to being like a person who spends as much or more paying minimum monthly credit-card bills as on crucial needs like shelter -- but who nonetheless keep adding onto the total credit-card debt each year. Foolish, right?

This is unsustainable and irresponsible.

America desperately needs more candid politicians who recognize that we are slouching toward debt disaster. In 2016, Donald Trump at times seemed to fit the bill. But 10 months into his presidency, it's not fake news to say that he appears bent on worsening the severe problems he used to decry.

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