It started off so well. In the early days of President Donald Trump's administration, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent laid out two important goals: reducing the deficit to 3% of gross domestic product while increasing the annual rate of GDP to 3%.

Indeed, the two goals support each other – not something commonly understood among policymakers. But rather than getting our fiscal house in order, the actual policies the administration has put forward look like a fiscal house of cards.

Perhaps realizing how difficult it is to effectively boost the economy’s underlying growth rate by about 50%, the administration has leaned more heavily into raising taxes to reduce the deficit. Not traditional taxes on income, mind you – those have been cut as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Instead, the administration has floated or implemented a variety of odd and dangerous ideas for raising revenue that are doomed to fail.

First and foremost, Trump’s fixation on tariffs as a solution for just about everything, including the deficit, has led him to run roughshod over the law and norms of international trade. The chaotic and alarming rollout of the “Liberation Day” tariffs sent shock waves through financial markets, and more turbulence is coming as the

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