Donald Trump as a candidate promised his policies wouldn’t add to the debt. Before taking office, he vowed “to restore fiscal sanity to our nation.” His “big, beautiful bill” does the opposite.

We served under a president who made that same vow — and who took it seriously.

We were members of Bill Clinton’s economic team when the federal budget was balanced, the only time that has happened in more than half a century. In nearly every respect, the Trump administration’s approach is the opposite of what worked in the 1990s — and it poses huge risks to our economy.

There are important parallels between the two moments. Mr. Clinton then and Mr. Trump now entered office facing serious fiscal problems and an economy being rapidly changed by new technology; then it was the internet, now it’s artificial intelligence.

In that earlier era, we followed a strategy of hoping for the best, while planning conservatively. We paired policies that reduced the deficit with others that stimulated investment. That set off a virtuous economic cycle of growth, deficit reduction, lower interest rates and thus more investment and growth. Fiscal responsibility helped contain inflation because it was accompanied by respect for the independence of the Federal Reserve and recognition of the importance of a strong dollar.  READ MORE