By Diana Stancy | Fox News
OMB Director Russell Vought has cautioned about a recession if Trump's tax and spending package isn't passed
The White House is challenging the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s assessment that President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending package will raise the federal deficit by trillions of dollars throughout the next decade.
The national debt, currently $36.2 trillion, tracks what the U.S. owes its creditors, while the national deficit measures how much the federal government’s spending exceeds its revenues. So far, the federal government has spent more than $1 trillion more than it has collected this fiscal year, according to the Department of the Treasury.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued an analysis Wednesday predicting that the so-called “big, beautiful, bill” the House passed in May would increase the federal deficit by $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years.
But according to the White House, the CBO’s analysis is based on a faulty premise because it assumes that Republicans in Congress will fail to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
Rather, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) forecasts in new analysis released Saturday that the tax and spending measures would independently reduce deficits by $1.4 trillion.
Additionally, the White House argues that the measure, coupled with other initiatives like tariffs and other spending cuts, will lead to reducing the deficit by at least $6.6 trillion over 10 years.
The “big, beautiful, bill” has faced criticism from figures including SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who labeled the measure an “abomination” and argued that the bill would increase the federal deficit.
The measure now heads to the Senate, where lawmakers, including Sen. Rand Paul, R-K.Y., have voiced opposition to the legislation.
Meanwhile, OMB Director Russell Vought told lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee Wednesday that he believed the CBO’s analysis was “fundamentally wrong.”
“It will lead to reduced deficits and debt of $1.4 trillion,” Vought said. “It will reduce mandatory savings of $1.7 trillion. I don’t think the way they construct their baseline, not only does it not give a fair shake to economic growth, but it fundamentally misreads the economic consequences of not extending the current tax relief.”
Meanwhile, the White House has accused the CBO of employing those who’ve contributed to Democratic campaigns, even though CBO Director Phillip Swagel served in former President George W. Bush’s administration.