We are living in an age of hyperbole, or as writer Matthew Hennessey calls it, the “Age of Excusability,” in which our politicians succeed by making outlandish claims. So it goes with the One Big Beautiful Bill, which will usher in a new golden age or send us down the tubes for good, depending on your sources.
The Trump administration’s Council of Economic Advisers recently issued a report titled “The One Big Beautiful Bill: Legislation for Historic Prosperity and Deficit Reduction,” which pretty much says it all. The report claims the bill’s tax cuts will create an economic boom, raising economic growth to about 3% yearly, sufficient to offset nearly all of the bill’s cost. The remaining cost would be more than offset by the administration’s other policies, such as tariffs, which are assumed to raise $2.8 trillion without harming the economy, a sort of magic money machine.
