CBO: Senate Tax Bill Would Add $3.3T to Deficit

A Senate plan to extend Trump-era tax cuts could send the US deficit soaring by $3.3 trillion over the next decade, according to a new Congressional Budget Office estimate, which has lawmakers facing mounting questions about how much the country can afford to cut taxes. The CBO and other fiscal analysts say the Senate's version of President Trump's tax cut and spending bill, which extends the 2017 tax cuts and alters several safety-net programs, would add trillions to the national debt over 10 years, primarily due to large-scale tax cuts and altered spending patterns, per Bloomberg.

The $3.3 trillion estimate is about $500 billion more than would be added to the debt with the version of the bill passed by the House last month, Axios reports. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates the bill includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, while also reducing spending by $1.2 trillion. Senate Republicans requested a cost estimate using a "current policy baseline"—an unusual move that assumes tax cuts remain permanent, making the bill appear less costly than if measured under regular budget law, Bloomberg notes. That estimate suggested the bill would cost just $507.6 billion over a decade.