Do Deficits Still Matter to Republicans?

PHILADELPHIA—A nagging question has followed Republicans around this week as they promoted their emerging plans to join President Trump in cutting taxes, replacing the Affordable Care Act, and constructing a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

How are they going to pay for it all?

Everything that the new president and the new Congress are contemplating comes at a budgetary cost, whether in the form of direct federal spending or through the lost revenue of tax cuts. A border wall would cost $12 billion to $15 billion, according to Republicans, and potentially much more according to other estimates. Repealing Obamacare and the taxes that finance the law would shrink federal revenues by as much as $350 billionaccording to an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Republicans also want to boost military spending by an