[Sciutto:] Well, this is the math here. There were big tax cuts. There's been big spending. And now a big problem.
[Harlow:] Yes.
[Sciutto:] The U.S. budget deficit, imagine that, skyrocketing in the first four months of the 2019 fiscal year, up 77 percent over the same time one year ago.
[Harlow:] That's a really big deal. And it matters to all of you. Another really big deal that matters is another stunning number this morning. The trade deficit hit a ten-year high. It grew to more to more than $100 billion under the president. Our chief business correspondent Christine Romans is here to break it down. Let's do these things separately, OK.
[Christine Romans, Cnn Chief Business Correspondent:] All right.
[Harlow:] Trade deficit we're going to get to in a moment. But the fact that you have a 77 percent increase here, is it more because of the tax cuts or less revenue coming in or more because of increased spending?
[Romans:] It's both. It is a lot of big spending. I mean big military spending, veteran spending, and then just the interest on the debt that gets bigger and bigger. So that part of the there's a lot of spending and those tax cuts to a lesser extent. And then on the trade on the trade front, this is what's so shocking to everybody. You know, the president's entire trade policy is predicated on the belief that trade deficits are a failure. The U.S. trade deficit last year was the worst in a decade, $621 billion. And the overall deficit in goods, $891 billion, Poppy. That the worse in America's 243 year history. The deficit with China, also the worst on record, more than $419 billion. The president detests trade deficits. He simplistically sees them as losing money from the U.S. to her trading partners. Yet in his two years in office, the trade deficit has swelled by more well more than $100 million. He has called himself tariff man, but those tariffs brought retaliatory tariffs that made U.S. exports more expensive. Another uncomfortable number that you rightly pointed out, that 77 percent surge in the budget deficit in the first four months of the year. $310 billion. The government spent more on military, veterans affairs, the interest on the debt. Tax cuts mean the Treasury is taking in less. Tax revenue down about 1.5 percent over the past 12 months. The White House Economic Adviser, Larry Kudlow, downplayed those numbers.
[Larry Kudlow, Director, U.s. National Economic Council:] We are making an investment in America's future. It's already beginning to pay off. And if that means we incur some additional debt in the short run, so be it.