CBO: GOP Tax Bill Would Add $3.3T Debt 06/30 06:00

   The changes made to President Donald Trump's big tax bill in the Senate 
would pile trillions onto the nation's debt load while resulting in even 
steeper losses in health care coverage, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget 
Office said in a new analysis, adding to the challenges for Republicans as they 
try to muscle the bill to passage.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- The changes made to President Donald Trump's big tax bill 
in the Senate would pile trillions onto the nation's debt load while resulting 
in even steeper losses in health care coverage, the nonpartisan Congressional 
Budget Office said in a new analysis, adding to the challenges for Republicans 
as they try to muscle the bill to passage.

   The CBO estimates the Senate bill would increase the deficit by nearly $3.3 
trillion from 2025 to 2034, a nearly $1 trillion increase over the House-passed 
bill, which CBO has projected would add $2.4 to the debt over a decade.

   The analysis also found that 11.8 million more Americans would become 
uninsured by 2034 if the bill became law, an increase over the scoring for the 
House-passed version of the bill, which predicts 10.9 million more people would 
be without health coverage.

   The stark numbers are yet another obstacle for Republican leaders as they 
labor to pass Trump's bill by his self-imposed July 4th deadline.

   Even before the CBO's estimate, Republicans were at odds over the contours 
of the legislation, with some resisting the cost-saving proposals to reduce 
spending on Medicaid and food aid programs even as other Republicans say those 
proposals don't go far enough. Republicans are slashing the programs as a way 
to help cover the cost of extending some $3.8 trillion in Trump tax breaks put 
in place during his first term.

   The push-pull was on vivid display Saturday night as a routine procedural 
vote to take up the legislation in the Senate was held open for hours as Vice 
President JD Vance and Republican leaders met with several holdouts. The bill 
ultimately advanced in a 51-49 vote, but the path ahead is fraught, with voting 
on amendments still to come.

   Still, many Republicans are disputing the CBO estimates and the reliability 
of the office's work. To hoist the bill to passage, they are using a different 
budget baseline that assumes the Trump tax cuts expiring in December have 
already been extended, essentially making them cost-free in the budget.

   The CBO on Saturday released a separate analysis of the GOP's preferred 
approach that found the Senate bill would reduce deficits by about $500 billion.

   Democrats and economists decry the GOP's approach as "magic math" that 
obscures the true costs of the GOP tax breaks.

   In addition, Democrats note that under the traditional scoring system, the 
Republican bill bill would violate the Senate's "Byrd Rule" that forbids the 
legislation from increasing deficits after 10 years.

   In a Sunday letter to Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the 
Senate Budget Committee, CBO Director Phillip Swagel said the office estimates 
that the Finance Committee's portion of the bill, also known as Title VII, 
"increases the deficits in years after 2034" under traditional scoring.