The economy apparently is slowing and deficits are soaring, but Sen. Rob Portman said Tuesday he's not disappointed in the performance of the massive 2017 federal tax cut.

The Ohio Republican was a big booster of the $1.5 trillion tax cut, which has been among President Donald Trump's signature accomplishments. However, after a period of growth, 60% of Americans fear that a recession is coming, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released Tuesday. The same survey found that Trump's economic approval had slipped 5 percentage points since July.

But in a conference call with reporters, Portman was still bullish on the tax cut.

"Not at all," he said when asked if the promised economic boost has turned out to be a bust. Portman said revenue and economic growth both increased in 2018 in the wake of the tax cut.

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"I think it's clear based on every projection before the tax cut and then after the tax cut that the tax cut helped grow the economy," Portman said. "We've still got a relatively good economy. Our numbers still are better now on average than they were before the tax cut."

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office set 2018 revenue growth at less than 1 percent. Meanwhile, the economy grew at 2.5 percent, according to Commerce Department data reported by The Associated Press.

Trump sold the tax cut with claims that it would produce a sustained, explosive expansion of the economy, going so far as to predict “I think we could go to 4%, 5% or even 6%, ultimately.” But even as the policy was being debated, some economists predicted that the massive tax cuts would only produce a short-lived "sugar high."

Growth in the second quarter of 2019 was 2% amid fears that the economy could slow further.

The administration's trade war with China has been blamed for dragging down the economy. Portman said that even though the tariffs have inflicted pain, he agreed with most, but not those on steel, aluminum and automobile parts.

"It is time to have this very tough discussion with China because they have not been playing by the rules."

Critics of the tax cut have criticized it as being tilted heavily toward the rich, while adding to the deficit — a form of spending for which Portman and other Republicans attacked former President Barack Obama. The Congressional Budget Office in August projected continued deficits clear through 2029, when the national debt is expected to equal 95 percent of gross domestic product.

But Portman and some of his Republican colleagues point to a different cause for deficits: automatic spending on programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

"The reason the debt and the deficit are exploding is spending," he said. "Seventy percent of the spending is on autopilot and that's by far the fastest-growing part of the spending — it's growing at 4 or 5%, maybe over 5%."

Portman described them as "important programs that have to be reformed, but they have to be reformed on a bipartisan basis because they won't be reformed on a partisan basis."

mschladen@dispatch.com

@martyschladen