Phony math is a time-honored tradition in the Washington world of budget making, but the first full fiscal plan from the Trump administration breaks new ground.

The bottom line: A budget that the White House says will be in balance by 2027 would, in reality, remain deeply in red ink throughout the coming decade and ultimately add trillions of dollars to the national debt.

Of course, as John Maynard Keynes wrote, in the long run, we are all dead. But this budget will also inflict enormous short-term damage. While the administration asserts that if the government would just get out of the way, business investment and worker productivity would rise substantially, I don’t buy the argument. Indeed, the proposed enormous cuts to spending would make increasing efficiency harder, not easier.

The impact of even more staggering reductions in social welfare spending will hurt millions of needy Americans, perhaps many of the same voters who elected President Trump, as the wealthy receive a vast preponderance of the benefits from a proposed $5.5 trillion in tax reductions (none of which is accounted for in the proposal).