The following article by Glenn Kessler was posted on the Washington Post website April 26, 2018:
Politicians often use differing “baselines” to project favorable policy outcomes. The Fact Checker’s Glenn Kessler explains why this doesn’t work. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)
“The bottom line has to equal 1 percent. A 1 percent cut each year is about $13 billion, actually balances the budget in five years.”
— Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), in an interview on CNN, April 17, 2018
Regular readers of The Fact Checker know that we long have looked askance at claims that balancing the federal budget would be relatively easy, as long as long as lawmakers do not engage in “smoke and mirrors” and simply cut back spending. It’s a quaint notion, straight out of Hollywood in movies like “Dave.” Continue reading “Rand Paul’s claim that cutting $13 billion a year would balance the budget”