There is only one way President Trump can square a circle, a circle in which he will meet himself coming around as he tries to deliver on his promises. Call it the 3-1/2-percent solution. No, not a cocaine shot half as potent as the 7-percent solution self-administered by the world’s most famous detective in order “to escape from the commonplaces of existence.” It is the growth rate that Trump needs if he is to cut taxes for corporations and the middle class, raise spending on the military, leave entitlements untouched, eliminate the revenue-generating features of Obamacare, and lower or at least not raise the deficit. It is the rate that will allow him to escape from his predecessor’s “commonplace” 2 percent or less, which official forecasts expect to be with us, give or take a few decimal points, for the foreseeable future.
By any reckoning, growing at 3.5 percent (in expansive moments Trump talks of 4 percent and 5 percent) rather than last year’s 1.9 percent, would generate tax revenues sufficient to fund both some tax cuts and increased spending without ballooning the deficit. Circle, squared.
