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House GOP Bill Adds $2.4T To Deficit, Says CBO
House Republicans’ sweeping tax and spending cuts package would add $2.4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) analysis of the bill that GOP lawmakers narrowly approved last month.
Also, nearly 11 million more people would be uninsured in 2034 due in large part to the package’s historic cuts to Medicaid, the CBO found.
The highly anticipated score, which was released Wednesday, could complicate Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s task of crafting a version of the legislation that his divided conference would approve. Several GOP senators have already expressed concern about the House package’s potential impact to the deficit and want to make deeper spending cuts, while others are wary of the major reductions to the nation’s safety net – particularly Medicaid – in the House bill.
The analysis also adds ammunition to billionaire Elon Musk’s attacks on the package, which he wrote on X Tuesday would bankrupt America. The posts follow an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, in which Musk said the bill would increase the deficit and undermine the work of his Department of Government Efficiency.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk, who recently stepped back from his role with the federal government, posted on X, later adding, “Congress is making America bankrupt.”
Senators began working on the legislation this week, but whatever changes they make would have to pass muster in the House. Thune is hoping to send it to President Donald Trump’s desk by July 4.
The CBO analysis also adds fuel to Democrats’ and budget watchdogs’ claims that the package, which aims to fulfill Trump’s agenda, would worsen the nation’s fiscal outlook while providing big tax cuts for the wealthy.
Trump and House GOP leaders have already sought to undercut the CBO’s projections, arguing that nonpartisan agency has missed the mark in the past and that its analyses don’t properly account for the economic growth that would result from the tax breaks. They have made similar claims about estimates from independent groups that also project a big hit to the deficit.
Minutes after the CBO released its analysis, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise attacked the agency, saying it is once again ignoring the business boom – and resulting revenue growth – that the package will spur.
“Anybody who repeats CBO’s analysis is also making those same mistakes,” he said at a House GOP press conference, adding that when the bill becomes law “you’re going to see economic growth in this country like we haven’t seen in generations, meaning more pay in the pockets of workers, and you’re going to see more Treasury money coming in because of the growth of the American economy.”
The CBO said an analysis that takes into account the economic effects of the legislation is forthcoming.
Some Senate leaders are looking to dodge the question of the package’s deficit impact by arguing that extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act should be considered a continuation of current policy, and, therefore, would not contribute to an increase in the deficit. The CBO analysis is based on the standard approach of current law, in which the tax cuts expire at the end of the year, so their extension would entail a cost.
The House package calls for making permanent essentially all of the individual income tax cuts contained in the 2017 tax cuts act. The bill would also temporarily provide tax relief to certain senior citizens and workers who earn tips and overtime, which Trump promised on the campaign trail last year. And it would temporarily restore two TCJA tax breaks for businesses, including allowing them to immediately deduct the cost of research and development and equipment.
To help offset the cost of the tax relief, the House bill would enact historic cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, two of the nation’s key safety net programs. The package would institute work requirements in Medicaid, which provides health insurance to low-income Americans, and would expand the work mandate in the food stamp program, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. These provisions would result in millions of people losing their access to health coverage and nutrition assistance, according to preliminary CBO projections released earlier.
The bill would also boost spending on defense, border security and immigration enforcement, which are among Trump’s top priorities.
Big spending cuts, bigger tax cuts
The House package would cut close to $1.3 trillion in spending over a decade, according to the CBO. But the legislation would lower revenue by nearly $3.7 trillion.
Independent analyses show that the tax relief in the package would disproportionately benefit higher-income households, with the impact being even more pronounced if the spending cuts are considered. Those in the lowest income groups would see their incomes fall, after taxes and certain government benefits are taken into account, while the highest earners would enjoy an income boost, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model’s estimate of the final House bill.
Some 10.9 million more people would be uninsured in 2034 under the bill, CBO estimated. That includes 7.8 million Americans who would lose health insurance because of the Medicaid provisions and roughly 1.4 million people without verified citizenship or satisfactory immigration status who would not be covered in 2034 by health programs funded only with state dollars. Others would lose coverage because of the Affordable Care Act measures in the bill.
“This would be the biggest rollback in federal support for health care ever,” Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at the nonpartisan KFF, posted on X.
Democrats quickly sought to amplify the CBO’s findings about the bill’s impact.
“It’s shocking House Republicans rushed to vote on this bill without an accounting from CBO on the millions of people who will lose their health care or the trillions of dollars it would add to the national debt,” Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a statement.
“The truth is Republican leaders raced to pass this bill under cover of night because they didn’t want the American people or even their own members to know about its catastrophic consequences.”
Edition.cnn.com
The Leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Ayodele, has warned that the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, may be stoned.
In a statement signed by his media aide, Osho Oluwatosin, Primate Ayodele noted that the president will face attacks in an Arab country and that some nations will gang up to cause chaos in America.
“Donald Trump may be attacked and stoned in an Arab country; he needs to be very careful, and I also see some nations coming together to cause chaos in the USA The president must be watchful about this.”
He made it known that the policies of the president will destroy America and that if he continues, things will not go well in the USA.
“The USA will not be the same again because of Trump’s policies. His administration needs to be careful to avoid things going otherwise in the country.
“Trump needs to do better to make the world a better place; otherwise, America will pay for the damages even after his administration”
Primate Ayodele urged Trump to do better before it’s too late, as he foresees some problems befalling the nation very soon
“Trump needs to adjust so many things before it’s too late. A problem is coming, and something will happen which won’t favour the USA. Trump needs to reorganise and look into many things to avoid putting America into jeopardy; if not, they will regret voting for him.”
South Sudan has started holding a trial for First Vice President Riek Machar, who has been sacked by his decades-long rival, President Salva Kiir, and charged with murder, treason and crimes against humanity in relation to rebellion and an attack by a militia linked with ethnic tensions.
Machar and seven others who have been charged alongside him, including Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol, were seen sitting inside a barred cage in the court on Monday during a live broadcast on national television.
Machar has been held in house arrest at his residence in the capital, Juba, for months following investigations by the government of his allies.
Earlier this month, a decree read on state radio said Kiir suspended the first vice president due to charges stemming from his alleged involvement in attacks by the White Army against federal forces in March.
The White Army, a loose band of armed youths, attacked a military base in Nasir, northeastern South Sudan, and killed more than 250 soldiers on Machar’s orders, according to the government.
Edmund Yakani, executive director of South Sudan activist group Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, told local media that the trial must be transparent and fair to build up trust in the judicial system.
He urged both leaders and their parties to “adhere to the principle of resolving political misunderstanding through dialogue” rather than violence, which would benefit no one.
Machar’s party, Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-in Opposition (SPLM/IO), has called the charges “fabricated” and said its members were arrested illegally. Machar’s lawyer on Monday said “an incompetent court” that lacks jurisdiction is judging him.
Fears of a return to ruinous civil war
After the vice president’s arrest, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) called on all parties to exercise restraint and warned that they risked losing the “hard-won gains of the past seven years” and returning to a state of civil war.
In 2013, two years after the country gained independence from Sudan following decades of war, oil-producing South Sudan descended into a civil war.
The devastating conflict, which scarred the country and left some 400,000 people killed, pitted Kiir and his allies from the ethnic Dinka group against Machar, who is from the Nuer, the second-largest ethnic group in South Sudan.
More than four million people, or about one-third of the population, were displaced from their homes before a 2018 peace deal saw the pair form a “national unity” government.
But they never fully saw eye-to-eye, leaving the country in a state of limbo.
Both leaders held on to their armed factions that were never fully integrated and unified despite agreements, while reforms were delayed, and presidential elections were repeatedly postponed.
Armed clashes have erupted in several parts of the country over the past months, with both sides accusing each other of breaking ceasefire agreements.
Authorities in South Sudan are, in the meantime, plundering billions of dollars in public funds as the impoverished country also deals with a deepening food crisis, according to the UN.
“The country has been captured by a predatory elite that has institutionalised the systematic looting of the nation’s wealth for private gain,” the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan said last week.
South Sudan’s First Vice President Machar faces charges of treason and other serious crimes, local justice authorities said, as fears grow that the east African country could edge toward a return to civil war.
The United Nations body for human rights in South Sudan has called the government’s charges of treason against opposition leader Riek Machar “reckless.”
South Sudan’s First Vice President Machar faces charges of treason and other serious crimes, local justice authorities said Thursday, as fears grow that the east African country could edge toward a return to civil war.
Machar has been under house arrest since March after the transitional government he is a part of accused him of subversive activities against President Salva Kiir, who said Thursday that he was suspending Machar as his deputy because of the criminal allegations.
Pro-government troops have been fighting militias and other armed groups that they say are loyal to Machar, who has served as his country’s No. 2 under the terms of a delicate peace deal signed in 2018.
That agreement has not been fully implemented, with presidential elections repeatedly postponed.
In addition to treason, Machar and seven others face charges of murder, conspiracy, terrorism, destruction of public property and military assets and crimes against humanity.
The charges stem from a violent incident in March when a militia known as the White Army overran a garrison of government troops, killing its commanding officer and others. The justice ministry said in a statement Thursday that the attack in Nasir, Upper Nile state was influenced by Machar and others via ”coordinated military and political structures.”
Bringing criminal charges against Machar is likely to further destabilize South Sudan, whose government faces pressure from regional leaders to reach a political agreement that prevents a return to full-blown war.
It was not immediately clear when Machar would be presented in a courtroom. His precise whereabouts in South Sudan are unknown, and his political supporters have long called for his freedom.
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Tell Trump This: Primate Ayodele Sends Warning To Donald Trump In New Prophecy
