Former Republican Massachusetts governor and Utah U.S. Senate candidate Mitt Romney tore into the Republican Party on Monday over the federal budget deficit and national debt, both of which are ballooning under President Donald Trump and the GOP-led Congress.
"Republicans have been shouting about this as long as I can remember. We called for an amendment to balance the budget," Romney said on his Senate campaign website. "Just a few years ago, the Tea Party movement brought new energy to the issue. But now that Republicans are in charge in Washington, we appear to have become silent about deficits and debt."
Romney called out his own party - which has traditionally been on the hawkish side when it comes to budgetary matters - for allowing the deficit to explode and the national debt to continue to surpass a staggering $21 trillion.
"The interest paid last year by American taxpayers on that debt was nearly $300 billion," the 2012 Republican presidential nominee wrote. "Credible forecasts estimate that we will be paying $700 billion in interest in just a few years."
Last month the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office released its findings indicating that the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act combined with increased spending will drive the deficit up to $793 billion by the end of 2018 and will push it to $1 trillion next year – a 20 percent increase over 2017’s $666 billion deficit.
The deficit in 2016 was $587 billion and increased to $666 billion in 2017, Trump’s first year in office.
Over the next decade, the CBO predicts an additional $1.9 trillion budget shortfall, thanks to Trump's tax cuts and additional spending.
Romney added that in 2017, "the government took in $3 trillion and it spent $4 trillion."
"The extra trillion was borrowed from other countries, institutions, and individuals, and we will pay them billions in interest on their loans every year," he said.
Romney finished by saying: "With a booming economy, full employment, a soaring stock market, and record asset values, we should be shrinking the deficit, not growing it."
Twitter joined Romney in slamming Trump and the GOP's resounding hypocrisy.
Romey was not spared some wrath, however, as he is extraordinarily rich and stands to benefit from Republican tax breaks.
Tread lightly, governor.
Calls came in for Romney to campaign on repealing the Trump tax cuts.
And to rein in military spending, which has swelled to more than $700 billion per year - more than ten times what we spend on public education.
Well, there's that too.
Note: The original version said the military budget was more than six times the education budget. It's actually more than 10 times, and this article has been amended to reflect that.
