The administration of President Donald Trump has planned to widen the appearance of America’s trade deficit, measured as total exports minus total imports, by changing the method used to calculate it.

The new calculation would count items known as “re-exports” — products first imported into the U.S. and then transferred, unchanged, to neighboring countries — as imports, but not exports. That would effectively exaggerate the deficit total, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday…

Economists expressed worries that the new method would steer trade data away from a preferred level of “symmetry” in the way exports and imports are accounted for, as former Bureau of Labor Statistics Director Steve Landefeld put it in an interview with the paper.

Trump has previously declared himself a lover of debt and “the king of debt,” and suggested that the U.S. should take advantage of rising bond yield rates — which come hand-in-hand with falling bond prices — to “buy back government debt at a discount,” or simply “print the money” needed to cover the deficit.

All the fiddling that Republicans accuse Democrats of doing.

Total government debt, a cumulative measure of yearly deficit amounts — which includes government securities held by the citizens, companies, local and state governments and the Federal Reserve, along with money owed to foreign governments and beneficiaries of federal programs, such as Social Security — has been on track to reach $20 trillion.

The IBTimes repeats the Republican canard that Social Security [usually adding in Medicare] is part of their debt worries. Only if Congress steals the money from funds contributed by American individuals in the form of FICA payments. They are, in fact, insurance programs. Differing essentially from private insurance in their efficiency. They require less than a quarter of the administrative cost our corporate insurers claim is necessary.

Congressional pimps for privatization usually follow this up with whines of the imminent collapse of both. Imminent meaning a decade or so. Then, whines about raising the percentage going into FICA appear – conveniently ignoring the fact that there is a cut-off point above which wealthier Americans cease to pay into the fund. Removing that cap gets rid off another 50 years or more of 2-party craptastic lies – while working folks receive the benefits we paid for.