Gingrich’s point is, in a sense, technically accurate and completely ridiculous. Republicans have been particularly egregious on this front. According to a conservative think tank, in the 2016 primary, Bobby Jindal offered a tax plan that would balloon the federal debt by $9 trillion. Other analysts said the Jeb Bush tax plan would cost $8.1 trillion. When Mitt Romney offered a $5 trillion tax cut in 2012 while vowing not to raise taxes on anybody, nonpartisan analysts noted this was impossible, and would require raising taxes on middle-class families. Clinton has acknowledged that her economic plan would require increasing the national debt by about 2 percent.
These could all be construed by deficit hawks as plans that do not add up. But Clinton, unlike the GOP, acknowledges that her plan involves deficit spending, rather than pretending that magic spending cuts or wild economic growth will fill the hole.
But according to Fox, Trump’s plan would add $11.2 trillion onto the national debt ― most of that fueled by tax cuts for the wealthy. Since the federal debt owed to the public is about $12.8 trillion,
that’s an increase of more than 87 percent. There’s not adding up, and then there’s not adding up, Trump style.
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