Bessent Lays Out Big Problem: CBO's Cost Scoring of 'Big Beautiful Bill'
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent took issue with the Congressional Budget Office’s scoring of the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which projects the legislation will worsen the nation’s fiscal situation.
Fox News host Bill Hemmer asked Bessent Friday, “This bill adds trillions to our debt. How is that acceptable to this administration?”
“You’re referring to the CBO scoring, I believe, which is 10-year scoring, and it’s D.C.-style scoring,” the treasury secretary responded.
The Washington Post reported that the CBO forecast that the Big Beautiful Bill will add $2.4 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years, on top of the current annual deficits forecast.
However, Bessent contended, “We think we can grow the economy and control the debt. And what’s important, Bill, is that our economy grows faster than our debt.”
“What I would tell your viewers to focus on is what I’m focused on … is, what is the total debt to GDP? Because we can grow our way out of this. … If we change the growth trajectory of the country, of the economy, then we will stabilize our finances and grow our way out of this.”
🚨 SCOTT BESSENT says we can “GROW our way” out of debt: “We can both grow the economy and control the debt.”
“What’s important is that the economy grows faster than the debt.”
“If we change the growth trajectory of the country, of the economy, then we will stabilize our… pic.twitter.com/tziToAZQvp
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 23, 2025
The federal deficits under Joe Biden peaked in 2021 at $2.78 trillion, but it was still $1.8 trillion last year.
The CBO projected in January that it would be $1.9 trillion during the current fiscal year, which was the spending passed while Biden was in office.
That was before the Department of Government Efficiency started making cuts to the federal government’s payroll and recommending tens of billions in rescissions that could be made to various departments’ budgets, which Congress may enact over the next few months.
The deficit-to-Gross Domestic Product ratio was 11.8 percent in 2021 and is expected to be 6.2 percent this year, according to the House Budget Committee.
Bessent told Fox Business in November that he has a 3-3-3 plan: bring deficit spending to GDP back to 3 percent by the end of Trump’s term, grow the economy by 3 percent per year, and increase U.S. oil production by 3 million barrels per day to bring down inflation.
During Trump’s first term, the GDP grew approximately 3 percent in 2018 following the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in December 2017.
It grew at 2.5 percent in 2019, before dropping to -2.2 percent in 2020 during the pandemic shutdowns, with the economy starting to come back online by the fall.
The deficit-to-GDP ratio was 3.8 percent in 2018, followed by 4.6 percent in 2019.
Fox Business host Larry Kudlow, who served as Trump’s top economic adviser during his first term, said Wednesday, “Never look at the Congressional Budget Office” in terms of accurately scoring the revenue impact of legislation.
He argued that based on the pro-growth reforms in the Big Beautiful Bill, which go beyond those contained in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, “I will give it 3 percent growth for the next 10 years.”
.@larry_kudlow on Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”: “The bill’s going to pass — it’s absolutely going to pass.”@BrianBrenberg @JackieDeAngelis @RiggsReport @GerriWillisFBN @FoxBusiness pic.twitter.com/puRMHQePst
— The Big Money Show (@TheBigMoneyShow) May 21, 2025
Kudlow pointed to the types of tax cuts contained in the legislation, as well as a surge in technology coming into play, like AI, which will improve productivity.
By his estimation, the bill will result in $2 trillion to $2.5 trillion more in revenue than the CBO forecasts, using a projected GDP growth of only 1.8 percent.
Other supporters of the legislation also argue that the CBO miscalculated the impact of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, because it did not adequately factor in the impact of economic growth on total revenue.
In 2017, before the TCJA’s passage, total revenue was $3.3 trillion. Last year, with the tax cuts largely in place, revenue was $4.9 trillion.
The House Ways and Means Committee noted that in the five years after the TCJA’s passage, “tax revenues averaged $170 billion per year above CBO’s post-2017 projections.”
Further, by 2022, that figure was $884 billion higher.
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