ICYMI: Donald Trump’s Tax Handouts to Billionaires Will Raise Costs for Americans Arrow

Key Point: "Concerns about elevated interest rates and a growing deficit have bogged down Republican efforts to quickly pass Mr. Trump's agenda into law. … Because U.S. debt sets a benchmark for other loans across the economy, such a change could spill over into higher costs for Americans who borrow to buy cars or houses. Mr. Trump's victory in November accelerated those concerns."

New York Times: How the Debt Could Hamstring Trump's Agenda

By Andrew Duehren

• When House Republicans gathered behind closed doors on Capitol Hill last week to hash out their plans for cutting taxes, Representative David Schweikert, an Arizona Republican, sounded a note of caution.

• Mr. Schweikert's view, echoed by other lawmakers at the meeting, was an early sign of the stark economic and political challenge that America's $36 trillion debt will pose for President Trump.

• Concerns about elevated interest rates and a growing deficit have bogged down Republican efforts to quickly pass Mr. Trump's agenda into law. The impending return of the debt limit risks a default that could upend global financial markets, and investors and rating agencies are on edge about the fiscal outlook.

• The situation has recently taken a turn that has alarmed economists and investors.

• In the past few years, investors have become more sensitive about buying new bonds that can lose value as interest rates climb.

• That has raised the possibility that Wall Street and global lenders will start to demand even higher interest rates on the bonds that the Treasury needs to issue to finance the deficit. Because U.S. debt sets a benchmark for other loans across the economy, such a change could spill over into higher costs for Americans who borrow to buy cars or houses.
  
• Mr. Trump's victory in November accelerated those concerns. Bond yields rose in the run-up to the Republican sweep as investors started to prepare to buy a new lump of debt to cover the roughly $5 trillion cost of extending the tax cuts Mr. Trump passed in 2017.

• By including tariffs in the legislation, Republicans could formally count revenue they generate against the cost of extending the 2017 tax cuts. But many Republicans are hesitant to rely on tariffs as a way to pay the government's bills, even if Mr. Trump intends to use them to do so.