It's a fool's errand to point out the Republican Party under Donald Trump is capable of gobsmacking hypocrisy. Yet the latest report from the Congressional Budget Office, via The New York Times, on the national debt cannot go unremarked upon. The Party of Fiscal Responsibility has overseen a legislative agenda since taking control of both Houses of Congress and the White House that will balloon the debt and deficit to new levels.

The Republican tax "reform" bill drastically cut revenue, primarily to benefit corporations and the rich. That will mean $1.9 trillion less flowing into the Treasury's coffers over the next 11 years. The subsequent $1.3 trillion spending bill drastically increased both military and non-military outlays. The result is not pretty:

The national debt, which has topped $21 trillion, is expected to soar to more than $33 trillion in 2028. By then, debt held by the public will almost match the size of the nation’s economy, reaching 96 percent of gross domestic product, a higher level than any point since just after World War II and well past the level that economists say could court a crisis...

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...This fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, the budget deficit is expected to total $804 billion, up from $665 billion last fiscal year, according to the C.B.O. projections. In a decade, the red ink is expected to reach $1.5 trillion.

The pieces here are not hard to put together: when you take less money in and spend more, you're going to have bigger problems. The Democrats went along with the spending bill, so they'll have to share some portion of the blame if and when the debt level reaches 96 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP)—that is, when the debt is basically the size of our entire economy.

But it's Republicans who spent the eight years before the Rise of Trump discussing debt in apocalyptic terms. They even opposed a stimulus bill at the height of the Great Recession in 2009 on the basis it was too lavish. To refresh your memory, here are some of the Republican Party's leaders proudly preaching Fiscal Responsibility.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

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“Yesterday the Senate cast one of the most expensive votes in history,” Senator Mitch McConnell said about the 2009 stimulus. “Americans are wondering how we’re going to pay for all this.”



Speaker of the House Paul Ryan

Via the L.A. Times:

The "red tidal wave of debt," he told Sean Hannity back in 2012, would trigger what he called the "most predictable economic crisis we have ever had in this country." Debt would mean nothing less than the "end of the American dream."

In 2012, the debt stood at $15 trillion, and the exploding costs of entitlements, Ryan said, meant that "by the time my grandkids are raising their grandkids, we are taking 80 cents out of every dollar just to pay for this federal government at that time."

President Donald Trump

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There's always a tweet, part infinity:

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Our $17T national debt and $1T yearly budget deficits are a national security risk of the highest order. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2012

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy

From a statement in 2012:

Today, America has reached a historic milestone which no American will celebrate – the national debt has surpassed $16 trillion...Americans are tired of broken promises and empty rhetoric, and they can no longer afford to languish in the malaise of the Obama economy. Unlike the President, House Republicans have put forth a serious budget that reduces our debt over time and focuses on pro-growth economic policies that will get Americans back to work. We have a responsibility to our children and grandchildren to leave them a country better than the one we inherited.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise

From a 2016 statement:

“By proposing $2.1 trillion in tax hikes and $2.4 trillion in additional Washington spending over 10 years, President Obama’s latest budget serves as a punch to the gut of hard-working taxpayers who are still struggling from stagnant wages and higher costs caused by this failed, Washington-knows-best agenda. Washington needs to start tightening its belt and stop spending money it doesn’t have instead of the $8.5 trillion increase in the national debt proposed by the President.

Notice that proposal included tax hikes to help pay for increased spending—the opposite of the Republican legislative platform now.

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But this whole conversation presupposes that Republicans genuinely care about the debt. They don't—at least when a Republican is president. A line in today's Times piece gets at that:

The figures are sobering, even in a political climate where deficit concerns appear to be receding.

The debt and deficit have steadily increased since Obama left office. Trump did run on a platform of increased infrastructure and military spending—as far as anything the president says counts for anything—but what really changed is that the Republicans are in power. If the conservative movement ever was tethered to certain beliefs, it is completely unchained now in the Age of Trump. The Party of Family Values? Step right up, Mr. Roy Moore. The Party of Fiscal Responsibility? Only, it seems, in an election yea, and after the donors get their tax cut.

But in a sign that Republicans are growing concerned about the political liability of soaring deficits, the House will vote Thursday on a constitutional amendment to require balanced budgets. Since such constitutional amendments require two-thirds of the House and Senate to agree, it is unlikely to pass Congress, let alone be ratified by the states.

So they'll solve the supposed crisis by voting on a bill that will never pass that would enact a policy that will never work. All so they can go home to the folks and talk about how they want a Balanced Budget after they all but ensured it won't be balanced for a decade. It's almost like the only thing the Republican Party cares about anymore is staying in power.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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