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Article snippet: WASHINGTON — In its inaugural budget, the Trump administration projected that booming economic growth would allow the president to keep a wide range of expensive campaign promises while eliminating federal deficits in 10 years. It is wishful thinking. The budget promises a deep tax cut for businesses and consumers that would not reduce federal revenue. An increase in military spending would be offset by trillions of dollars of unspecified or loosely sketched reductions in federal spending. And it all works because the budget assumes an acceleration of economic growth to an annual pace of 3 percent a year, much higher than the post-recession average of 2 percent. “I see no way that’s going to remotely happen,” said David A. Stockman, the budget director under President Ronald Reagan. He noted that the White House is depending on the continuation of an economic expansion that is already among the longest in American history. “It assumes you’re going to go 206 months without a recession, which has never happened,” he said. Not in the United States, at least. Presidential budgets are political statements — wish lists that Congress never grants in full, and sometimes rejects completely. A preliminary version of President Trump’s plan already got a frosty reception on Capitol Hill even though Republicans control both houses of Congress. Many Republicans share the Democrats’ wariness about large-scale cuts to the social safety net. And increased military spending would ... Link to the full article to read more