THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Your balance sheet will have some debt on it along with the assets, liabilities and equity. You keep the various elements in balance by judiciously adjusting revenues and expenses.If, on the other hand, you plan to loot the company of all value in the manner of a classic Mafia 'bust out' , you reduce revenues on the premium products that your buddies can afford, jack up borrowing to the max and slash or refuse to pay expenses.

After seven years of fitful declines, the federal budget deficit is projected to begin swelling again this decade, adding $8.6 trillion to the federal debt over the next 10 years, according to projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that reveal the strain that the government’s debt will have on the economy as President Trump embarks on plans to slash taxes and ramp up spending.

The deficit, which is expected to shrink in the next two years before swelling later in the decade, will amount to 3.8 percent of the country’s total economic output, above the 3 percent that economists view as the danger point for the economy.

The new deficit figures will be a major challenge to congressional Republicans, who were swept to power in 2010 on fears of a swollen deficit and who have made controlling red ink a major part of their legislating. Statutory caps imposed in 2011 on domestic and military spending have helped control the deficit. But those controls are likely to be swamped by the aging baby boomer generation, which is ramping up spending on health care and Social Security.

Now, congressional leaders will have to choose between their fealty to the cause of fiscal prudence and the demands of the new president, who wants $1 trillion in infrastructure work over 10 years, a surge in military spending and large tax cuts for individuals and corporations.

The Congressional Budget Office’s budget and economic outlook said that the share of debt held by the public is expected to reach 89 percent in 2027. Such a high level of debt could increase the likelihood of a financial crisis and raise the possibility that investors will become skittish about financing the government’s borrowing.

Over the next 10 years, real economic output is projected to grow at an annual rate of 1.9 percent.

Mr. Trump has promised that his combination of tax cuts and investment on infrastructure will cause growth to surge above 4 percent.

Anybody who can add and subtract can see that none of the budgets proposed will do anything like the promises. And we have the fiscal debacles in Kansas and Wisconsin to show us how badly they will fail when implemented. But the people who have to make this happen in Congress are either clueless about economics (Teabaggers) or stand to make too much money from it to refuse to go along. And so the people who expected the new sheriff to clean up the town will find out what it is like when he turns out to be the biglyest thief of all.