The ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Will Require Even More Borrowing Than Previously Thought
For months, Republicans have argued that there’s a glaring flaw in various budgetary projections showing that deficits will significantly increase if Congress passes a major tax cut and spending package.
The problem, as they see it, is that initial budget projections of major legislation—like those crafted by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)—fail to take into account potential economic consequences. When the CBO said that the bill would add $2.4 trillion to the deficit over 10 years, the White House and top Republicans in Congress pushed back by suggesting that booming economic growth would shrink that figure.
“The problem is they do not use what we call dynamic scoring,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R–La.) told Fox News on May 29. “What that means in layman’s terms is they don’t give us any credit for the extraordinary economic growth that will be spurred along by this bill.”
It was always difficult to take that argument seriously. Now, it can be put to bed for good.
A new CBO analysis released Tuesday found that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will add even more to the deficit once the dynamic effects of the package are taken into account. Now, the CBO says the budgetary hit will be $2.8 trillion over 10 years, which adds about $400 billion to the total the government will have to borrow if the bill passes.
In short, the bill does not pay for itself. The economic growth generated by lower taxes is canceled out (and then some) by the cost of even higher borrowing.
The new CBO report says t
Article from Reason.com
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