Congress’ nonpartisan scorekeeper released its full score Wednesday of the tax and spending package House Republicans passed along party lines last month, predicting that the measure would grow the federal deficit by $2.4 trillion.
It comes days after Elon Musk, freshly departed from serving as chief of the White House Department of Government Efficiency, blasted the measure as “massive,” “outrageous” and “a pork-filled disgusting abomination.”
And while top Republican lawmakers are expected to downplay the significance of the complete price tag from the Congressional Budget Office, the numbers will influence what lawmakers are able to include in the final package they are endeavoring to send to President Donald Trump’s desk this summer.
The scorekeeper’s analysis will also be used to determine whether the bill follows the strict rules of the reconciliation process Republicans are using to skirt the Senate filibuster and pass the measure along party lines.
Because Republicans in the Senate are now making changes to the package the House passed two weeks ago, the budget office will need to score the cost of each piece of the new version senators are assembling, followed by another full price tag for the whole package.
Unlike the earlier scores CBO released of the separate chunks of the House bill, the analysis released Wednesday takes into account how policies in one part of the package might influence the budget and economic impacts of others. It also shows that the House-passed legislation would lead to nearly 11 million people going uninsured, with more than 7.8 million of those individuals getting kicked off of Medicaid and millions more losing coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
The White House has taken aim at the Hill’s nonpartisan scorekeeper, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt alleging that the number-crunchers at CBO are “partisan and political” with a bias toward Democrats. But current CBO director Phillip Swagel served in the George W. Bush administration and has donated to GOP political candidates.
Swagel was first chosen in 2019 for a four-year term and was reappointed in 2023, with a recommendation by now-House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas).