Washington’s bad budget

President Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have found a common cause: spending money they don’t have. The tentative budget deal brokered by the San Francisco Democrat and Trump Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, passed by the House Thursday, is a monument to fiscal irresponsibility.

Heedless of the unfunded individual and corporate income tax cuts enacted by Trump and a Republican Congress in 2017 — which are expected to add $1.9 trillion in debt over the next decade — the latest budget agreement raises spending limits enough to nearly double that figure.

It’s projected to push budget deficits past $1 trillion, nearly twice the shortfall the year before Trump took office, and increase the national debt from 78% to 97% of gross domestic product in 10 years.

The deal does ensure a modicum of responsibility through the 2020 elections by discouraging a repeat of the record government shutdown that Trump precipitated to try to force even more spending on a border wall. It also raises the borrowing limit that Republican lawmakers attempted to weaponize under President Obama, a tactic that risked federal default.

With Republicans favoring everlarger military budgets and Democrats eager to fund other discretionary programs, the deal also abandons Obamaera restraints that could not overcome the bipartisan urge to spend.

Welcomed by one budget watchdog as “possibly the worst budget agreement in our nation’s history,” the deal has confirmed the suspicion that the GOP’s attachment to fiscal responsibility was mainly about partisanship, not principle.

The Trump administration has overseen an expansion of the national debt by more than 15% and is on track to hike discretionary spending by more than 20% over four years.

All of this has unfolded during a remarkable economic expansion that could have facilitated budget balancing. In contrast, despite the 2008 financial crisis, discretionary spending rose more gradually during Obama’s first term — growing about 12% — and fell during his second term. The national debt decreased by more than half.

In an era of Washington division, it counts as an improvement that this deal could mean a twoyear break from the immediate threat of outright government paralysis or delinquency. Unfortunately, it’s taking place alongside a bipartisan retreat from dealing with the longterm risks to federal solvency.