As congressional Republicans try to extend President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, some are considering an unusual plan to make them permanent while avoiding the political pain of massive spending cuts to pay for them: Argue that they will not deepen the federal deficit.

The Republicans who chair the tax-writing committees of the Senate and House of Representatives insist the reductions, which independent analysts estimate would cost more than $4 trillion over the next decade, would not create a real drop in federal revenues if extended beyond this year, because they are already in place.

It remains to be seen just how far Congress can go in ignoring the cost of the Trump tax cuts, while running a deficit that exceeded $1.8 trillion last year, without incurring the wrath of the financial markets.