ALI VELSHI (HOST): Making a budget on the assumption of getting to three [percent growth], which is very difficult to do, is unfair because you’re going to end up with bigger deficits than you have now. 

MICHAEL GRUNWALD: Right, exactly, three percent growth would be terrific, four percent growth would be even better, but the point is, what presidents have to do when they do their budget is they have to use the official forecast. There have been times when President Obama came in a couple tenths of a percentage point ahead of the CBO, but this is an entire percentage point, and basically it's just cheating, and it's just one of the ways that he really is cooking the books of this budget. It's a very libertarian budget. There are some real cuts, there are some real increases in defense and homeland security while cutting spending for the poor. But, in terms of making the numbers add up, it just doesn't work.

Previously:

Some of the best media take downs of Trump’s “repugnant grab bag” of a budget

Trump’s budget revolves around a glaring broken campaign promise -- the press needs to say so

Journalists and experts slam Trump's budget plan to eliminate HUD program that mostly benefits “low-income groups”