BIZARRE CLAIM Budget Director: We Did the Double Counting on Purpose

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney has responded to the criticism of former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers who exposed the double counting in Trump's just released budget.

Axios reports:

Straight face: Trump budget director Mick Mulvaney was asked about the double-count today during a press briefing, and didn't directly address the issue. First he blamed the Obama Administration for its own faulty economic projections ― namely because former Obama economic advisor Larry Summers raised the double-count in the Washington Post ― and then said that the budget numbers also did not assume any shrinkage the so-called "tax gap," or the number of people who should pay taxes but don't (something he expects personal tax simplification to help achieve).

More Mulvaney:

"We did [the double count] on purpose... I'm aware of the criticisms and would simply come back and say there's other places where we were probably overly conservative in our accounting. We stand by the numbers."

  -RW