Report: Trump proposals would add $5.3 trillion to debt

DENVER — A new analysis from a nonpartisan group finds that Donald Trump’s latest tax proposals would increase the federal debt by $5.3 trillion over the next decade, compared with $200 billion if Hillary Clinton’s ideas were enacted. The Trump campaign disputed the findings.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget looked at Trump’s newly revised tax plan as well as other proposals. However, it says its analysis can’t be certain of the actual size of Trump’s tax plan because his campaign won’t spell out how it will treat certain businesses’ tax liabilities. The committee took a “mid-range guess” between two estimates provided by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.

When Trump introduced his economic plan last week, he vowed that his tax cuts would be paid for partly by triggering record economic growth. The committee was skeptical and presumed these steps would generate no new growth. Several economists have projected that Trump’s economic agenda — especially his restrictions on immigration and trade — would slow economic growth and possibly cause a recession.

Trump has also proposed a sharp increase in spending on the military and veterans. He has proposed some spending cuts, but the committee calculated they wouldn’t come close to balancing the budget.

Trump economic adviser Peter Navarro disputed the analysis, criticizing it for failing to account for the growth he says Trump’s policies would release.

“No tax cut would ever make sense from a purely budgetary perspective in a static world,” Navarro said. “It’s even sillier for this group to ignore the trade, regulatory, and energy policy reforms that provide positive revenue offsets in the trillions of dollars.”

The cost of Clinton’s plan comes largely from her proposals for free college in some circumstances, child care aid and universal pre-K for 4-year-olds. She proposes paying for them with tax hikes on the rich and businesses.