By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

There’s nothing more annoying than someone saying, “I told you so,” and it gives me no pleasure to do so. Well, maybe a little, but I’d much rather be wrong.

This bittersweet moment is inspired by March’s wholly foreseeable news that the federal government’s February budget deficit was the biggest ever for that month – $234 billion.

For the year, the Trump administration projects the deficit will be $1.09 trillion, a number last seen in 2012. (The Congressional Budget Office earlier projected $897 billion.) One trillion is about $3,300 for each of us, and it all will be added to the $22 trillion national debt. Your share of that amount is a little more than $67,000 – and growing by the minute.

In fact, the Trump administration projects $1 trillion deficits for each of the next four years, but even that may be a rosy scenario. Now that we’ve reached this plateau, there’s no plan to bring us down.

Last year’s deficit was $779 billion, which was bad enough. So how’d we get from there to here?

In 2017, Congress passed and President Trump signed the Tax Cut and Jobs Act, which cut individual and corporate tax rates. That act is one of many factors contributing to the growing economy. You’ll probably pay lower taxes this year because of it.

Who could be against growing economies and lower taxes? All six members of Arkansas’ congressional delegation voted for the tax cut.

But here’s where we get to the unfortunate I-told-you-so part. The president, his administration and some members of Congress told us the tax cuts would lead to so much economic growth that Uncle Sam actually would have more revenues as a result.

A lot of us said that wouldn’t happen. That includes many economists and also normal people like me who merely know what it’s like to balance our family budgets – namely, that we must make more than we spend. But tax cuts leading to higher revenues has been an article of faith among some Republicans since the Reagan administration. It’s based on something called the Laffer curve, but it’s not funny.

Did those extra revenues materialize? Of course not. So far this year, the government has collected about .6 percent less than it did last year.

OK, so .6 percent’s not too bad, right? We could just tighten our belts. The only problem was, we didn’t – for lots of reasons, including the fact that money was going to grow on trees.

In early 2018, Congress and the president went on a spending binge. They increased money for defense and domestic programs and didn’t touch the biggest (and quite popular) programs like Social Security and Medicare. In February of that year, Congress voted for a budget deal allowing big spending increases. Then in March, it voted for a $1.3 trillion spending package. In Arkansas’ congressional delegation, only Rep. Bruce Westerman voted against both. Only Westerman and Sen. Tom Cotton voted against the spending package.

As a result, so far this year spending has increased 8.6 percent.

The result of the government collecting less and spending more is the same as if you and I did it. It’s just the numbers are way bigger. So far this year, the government has spent $1.8 trillion while collecting only $1.3 trillion.

Keep in mind, this is occurring during a seemingly strong economy, which was not the case the last time we hit $1 trillion in 2012.

The current good times are being caused by many factors, including a strong global economy (that is showing signs of weakening).

But one major factor is the borrowing itself. This year the budget deficit will represent 5.1 percent of the gross domestic product, compared to 3.8 percent last year.

In other words, 5 percent of our economy is borrowed from the future. So maybe this economy isn’t as strong as it feels. Maybe we’re just living off credit cards and hot checks.

So what happens in the future, when all these bills come due?

Let’s you and I not try to predict it, for now. I’m afraid we’ll be right.