The Congressional Budget Office threw three curveballs today into the tax, tariff and spendings debates that have roiled Washington under President Trump.
Why it matters: It wasn't quite choose your own adventure, but it was choose your own numbers.
"You don't need to go back that far to see how wrong the CBO has been," House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said in response to today's estimate that the bill would add $2.4 trillion in debt over 10 years.
But then the White House jumped on the CBO's estimate that Trump's tariffs would reduce the deficit by $2.8 trillion over 10 years. "When you combine the two — the deficit will be cut by $500 billion over ten years," White House spokesman Alex Pfeiffer said on X.
And Democrats are pushing the CBO's estimate that nearly 11 million Americans would lose their health insurance. "This bill is simply families lose, and billionaires win," Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said in a statement.
