Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, pushed back Sunday against the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s finding that President Trump’s “big beautiful bill” would add trillions to the national debt.
The CBO last week said Mr. Trump’s proposal would increase deficits by $2.4 trillion over the next decade and leave nearly 11 million more people without health insurance.
“They are wrong,” Mr. Vought said on “Fox News Sunday.” “It is $1.4 trillion in reduced deficits and debt. That is why this is such a paramount fiscally responsible bill, notwithstanding the watchdogs here in town.”
“They can’t see the forest from the trees,” he said.
The massive bill narrowly passed the House and now sits in the Senate, where it has been criticized by GOP fiscal hawks.
“We have got to figure out how to get this debt under control,” Sen. Rick Scott, Florida Republican, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Whatever projection we use, CBO’s, or anybody else’s, we are running trillion-dollar deficits year after year.”
Mr. Scott said Republicans must pass the bill and also take serious steps to balance the federal budget.
The measure extends Mr. Trump’s first-term tax cuts, cuts taxes on restaurant tips, includes more spending on border security and reduces spending on Medicaid.
Mr. Trump has pressed Senate Republicans to fall in line behind the proposal, but some have been hesitant to do so because they are concerned about the impact it will have on the nation’s growing $36 trillion national debt.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a former Trump ally, has emerged as a staunch critic of the bill’s fiscal impact, calling it a “disgusting abomination” and urging Americans to call their congressmen to “KILL the BILL.”
Things turned personal after Mr. Musk said that Mr. Trump is in the “Epstein files,” alluding to the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, the well-connected financier who police said killed himself in jail after he was arrested for sex trafficking.
On Sunday, Mr. Vought downplayed the controversy, predicting that Republicans will pass the bill and that Mr. Trump will sign it next month.
“We are not worried about it. The president is moving on,” he said. “People are going to come and go in an administration, and the president will be there defending the interests of the American people.”
