Trump Makes a Final Push to Get His Tax-Cut Bill Passed
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
How Trump’s big bill will affect taxes, the deficit and health care, according to the budget office
The Congressional Budget Office says the bill will cut taxes by $3.7 trillion but increase deficits by $2.4 trillion over the next decade. The CBO estimates an increase of 10.9 million people without health insurance under the bill, including 1.4 million who are in the country without legal status in state-funded programs. The package would reduce federal outlays, or spending, by $1.3 trillion over that period, the budget office said. The analysis comes at a crucial moment in the legislative process as Trump is pushing Congress to have the final product on his desk to sign into law by Fourth of July. The work of the CBO, which for decades has served as the official scorekeeper of legislation in Congress, will be weighed by lawmakers and others seeking to understand the budgetary impacts of the sprawling 1,000-page plus package. The bill, called the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” after the president’s own catch phrase, is grinding its way through Congress.
The CBO also estimates an increase of 10.9 million people without health insurance under the bill, including 1.4 million who are in the country without legal status in state-funded programs. The package would reduce federal outlays, or spending, by $1.3 trillion over that period, the budget office said.
The analysis comes at a crucial moment in the legislative process as Trump is pushing Congress to have the final product on his desk to sign into law by Fourth of July. The work of the CBO, which for decades has served as the official scorekeeper of legislation in Congress, will be weighed by lawmakers and others seeking to understand the budgetary impacts of the sprawling 1,000-page plus package.
READ MORE: Musk slams Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ bill as GOP senators race to meet July 4th deadline
Ahead of CBO’s release, the White House and Republican leaders criticized the budget office in a pre-emptive campaign designed to sow doubt in its findings.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said CBO has been “historically wrong” and Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the CBO was “flat wrong” because it underestimated the potential revenue from Trump’s first round of tax breaks in 2017. The CBO last year said receipts were $1.5 trillion or 5.6% greater than predicted, in large part because of the “burst of inflation” during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.
Leavitt also suggested that CBO’s employees are biased, even though certain budget office workers face strict ethical rules — including restrictions on campaign donations and political activity — to ensure objectivity and impartiality.
Alongside the costs of the bill, the CBO had previously estimated that 8.6 million people would no longer have health care and 4 million fewer would have food stamps each month due to the legislation’s proposed changes to Medicaid and other programs.
WATCH LIVE: OMB Director Vought testifies in House budget hearing after Trump seeks to rescind $9 billion in spending
The bill, called the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” after the president’s own catch phrase, is grinding its way through Congress, as the top priority of Republicans, who control both the House and Senate — and face stiff opposition from Democrats at every step in the process.
Democrats call it Trump’s “big, ugly bill.”
All told, the package seeks to extend the individual income tax breaks that had been approved in 2017, but will expire in December if Congress fails to act, while adding new ones, including no taxes on tips. It also includes a massive buildup of $350 billion for border security, deportations and national security.
To help cover the lost revenue, Republicans want to slash some federal spending. They propose phasing out green energy tax breaks put in place during Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency. New work requirements for some adults up to age 65 on Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, would begin in December 2026 and is expected to result in less spending on those programs.
READ MORE: House Republicans narrowly passed Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ bill. Here’s what’s in it
The package also would provide a $4 trillion increase to the nation’s debt limit, which is now $36 trillion, to allow more borrowing. The Treasury projects the debt limit will need to be raised this summer to pay the nation’s already accrued bills.
Now in its 50th year, the CBO was established by law after Congress sought to assert its control, as outlined in the constitution, over the budget process, in part by setting up the new office as an alternative to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.
Staffed by some 275 economists, analysts and other employees, the CBO says it seeks to provide the Congress with objective, impartial information about budgetary and economic issues.
Its current director, Phillip Swagel, a former Treasury Department official in Republican President George W. Bush’s administration, was reappointed to a four-year term in 2023.
Defying debt warnings, Republicans push forward on Trump tax agenda
U.S. President Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress are determined to enact his tax-cut agenda. They are shrugging off warnings that the measure will balloon the federal debt. The drive has drawn the ire of Elon Musk, a once-close Trump ally and the biggest donor to Republicans. “Debt and deficits don’t seem to matter for the current Republican leadership,” said Bill Hoagland, a former Senate Republican aide who worked on fiscal bills including the 1997 Balanced Budget Act. The bill also aims to raise the government’s self-imposed debt ceiling by up to $5 trillion, a step Congress must take by summer or risk a devastating default on $36.2 trillion in debt. But top congressional Republicans remain determined to squeeze Trump’s campaign promises through their narrow majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives by July 4, while shrugged off warnings from the official Congressional Budget Office and a host of outside economists and budget experts. “We need a couple bites of the apple here,” said Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a prominent fiscal hardliner.
Summary Trump’s party rejects forecast that bill will add $2.4 trillion to national debt
Elon Musk wades into debate on side of deficit hawks, sparking feud with Trump
Republicans argue tax cuts will boost growth, despite deficit concerns
WASHINGTON, June 9 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress are determined to enact his tax-cut agenda in a political push that has largely abandoned longtime party claims of fiscal discipline, by simply denying warnings that the measure will balloon the federal debt.
The drive has drawn the ire of Elon Musk, a once-close Trump ally and the biggest donor to Republicans in the 2024 election, who gave a boost to a handful of party deficit hawks opposed to the bill by publicly denigrating it as a “disgusting abomination,” opening a public feud with Trump.
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But top congressional Republicans remain determined to squeeze Trump’s campaign promises through their narrow majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives by July 4, while shrugging off warnings from the official Congressional Budget Office and a host of outside economists and budget experts.
“All the talk about how this bill is going to generate an increase in our deficit is absolutely wrong,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo told reporters after a meeting with Trump last week.
Outside Washington, financial markets have raised red flags about the nation’s rising debt, most notably when Moody’s cut its pristine “Aaa” U.S. credit rating . The bill also aims to raise the government’s self-imposed debt ceiling by up to $5 trillion, a step Congress must take by summer or risk a devastating default on $36.2 trillion in debt.
“Debt and deficits don’t seem to matter for the current Republican leadership, including the president of the United States,” said Bill Hoagland, a former Senate Republican aide who worked on fiscal bills including the 1997 Balanced Budget Act.
The few remaining Senate Republican fiscal hawks could be enough to block the bill’s passage in a chamber the party controls 53-47. But some have appeared to be warming to the legislation, saying the spending cuts they seek may need to wait for future bills.
“We need a couple bites of the apple here,” said Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a prominent fiscal hardliner.
Republicans who pledged fiscal responsibility in the 1990s secured a few years of budget surpluses under Democratic former President Bill Clinton. Deficits returned after Republican President George W. Bush’s tax cuts and the debt has pushed higher since under Democratic and Republican administrations.
“Thirty years have shown that it’s a lot easier to talk about these things when you’re out of power than to actually do something about them when you’re in,” said Jonathan Burks, who was a top aide to former House Speaker Paul Ryan when Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was enacted into law in 2017.
“Both parties have really pushed us in the wrong direction on the debt problem,” he said.
Burks and Hoagland are now on the staff of the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank.
DEBT SET TO DOUBLE
Crapo’s denial of the cost of the Trump bill came hours after CBO reported that the legislation the House passed by a single vote last month would add $2.4 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years. Interest costs would bring the full price tag to $3 trillion, it said.
The cost will rise even higher – reaching $5 trillion over a decade – if Senate Republicans can persuade Trump to make the bill’s temporary business tax breaks permanent, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
The CRFB projects that if Senate Republicans get their way, Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act could drive the federal debt to $46.9 trillion in 2029, the end of Trump’s term. That is more than double the $20.2 trillion debt level of Trump’s first year at the White House in 2017.
Majorities of Americans of both parties — 72% of Republicans and 86% of Democrats — said they were concerned about the growing government debt in a Reuters/Ipsos poll last month.
Analysts say voters worry less about debt than about retaining benefits such as Medicaid healthcare coverage for working Americans, who helped elect Trump and the Republican majorities in Congress.
“Their concern is inflation,” Hoagland said. “Their concern is affordability of healthcare.”
The two problems are linked: As investors worry about the nation’s growing debt burden, they demand higher returns on government bonds, which likely means households will pay more for their home mortgages, auto loans and credit card balances.
Republican denial of the deficit forecasts rests largely on two arguments about the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that independent analysts say are misleading.
One insists that CBO projections are not to be trusted because researchers predicted in 2018 that the TCJA would lose $1.8 trillion in revenue by 2024, while actual revenue for that year came in $1.5 trillion higher.
“CBO scores, when we’re dealing with taxes, have lost credibility,” Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin told reporters last week.
But independent analysts say the unexpected revenue gains resulted from a post-COVID inflation surge that pushed households into higher tax brackets and other factors unrelated to the tax legislation.
Top Republicans also claim that extending the 2017 tax cuts and adding new breaks included in the House bill will stimulate economic growth, raising tax revenues and paying for the bill.
Despite similar arguments in 2017, CBO estimates the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act increased the federal deficit by just under $1.9 trillion over a decade, even when including positive economic effects.
Economists say the impact of the current bill will be more muted, because most of the tax provisions extend current tax rates rather lowering rates.
“We find the package as it currently exists does boost the economy, but relatively modestly … it does not pay for itself,” said William McBride, chief economist at the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.
The legislation has also raised concerns among budget experts about a potential debt spiral
Maurice Obstfeld, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said the danger of fiscal crisis has been heightened by a potential rise in global interest rates.
“This greatly increases the cost of having a high debt and of running high deficits and would accelerate the point at which we really got into trouble,” said Obstfeld, a former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund.
Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell
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Musk calls Trump’s tax-cut and spending bill ‘a disgusting abomination’
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk criticizes Trump’s tax bill as deficit-increasing. Republican leaders say Musk is mistaken; hardline Republicans rally to Musk message. House passed bill by one vote, Senate to revise; White House dismisses Musk’s criticism. Trump has urged Republicans to pass the bill, which would extend the 2017 tax cuts that were his main legislative accomplishment, while boosting spending on the military and border security. The richest person in the world, Musk had spent nearly $300 million to back Trump’s presidential campaign and other Republicans in last year’s elections. But he has said he would cut his political spending substantially while returning to his role as Tesla (TSLAO) , opens new tab CEO of the car maker Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) on his social media platform X. The White House dismissed Tuesday’s attack, just as Trump dismissed earlier Musk complaints about the legislation. “It doesn’t change the president’s opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it,” a spokeswoman said.
Companies Musk criticizes Trump’s tax bill as deficit-increasing
Republican leaders say Musk is mistaken
Hardline Republicans rally to Musk message
House passed bill by one vote, Senate to revise
White House dismisses Musk’s criticism, Trump stands by bill
WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) – Billionaire Elon Musk plunged on Tuesday into the congressional debate over President Donald Trump ‘s sweeping tax and spending bill , calling it a “disgusting abomination” that will increase the federal deficit.
Several fiscally conservative Republicans in the U.S. Senate supported the views Musk expressed in social media posts, which could complicate the bill’s path to passage in that chamber.
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“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk wrote in a post on his social media platform X. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.”
He added: “Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
Musk’s comments hit a nerve. Republican deficit hawks have expressed concerns about the cost of the bill, which would extend the 2017 tax cuts that were Trump’s main legislative accomplishment, while boosting spending on the military and border security.
The Senate, also controlled by Trump’s Republicans, aims to pass the ” One Big Beautiful Bill Act ” in the next month, though senators are expected to revise the House version.
Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees tax policy, are due to meet with Trump at the White House on Wednesday afternoon to discuss making the bill’s business-related tax breaks permanent, according to Senator Steve Daines, a panel member. Analysts have warned that such a move would greatly increase the measure’s cost.
Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he disagreed with Musk’s assessment about the cost of the bill and stood by the goal of passage by July 4.
“We have a job to do – the American people elected us to do. We have an agenda that everybody campaigned on, most notably the president of the United States, and we’re going to deliver on that agenda,” the South Dakota lawmaker told reporters.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson also dismissed Musk’s complaints, telling reporters, “my friend Elon is terribly wrong.”
TEST OF INFLUENCE
Musk’s loud opposition to a bill that Trump has urged Republicans to pass presents a test of his political influence a week after leaving his formal role in the administration as a special government employee with the Department of Government Efficiency came to an end. As DOGE chief, he upended several federal agencies but ultimately failed to deliver the massive savings he had sought.
The richest person in the world, Musk had spent nearly $300 million to back Trump’s presidential campaign and other Republicans in last year’s elections. But he has said he would cut his political spending substantially while returning to his role as Tesla (TSLA.O) , opens new tab CEO.
Elon Musk speaks during a press conference with U.S. President Donald Trump (not pictured), at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 30, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab
The White House dismissed Tuesday’s attack, just as Trump dismissed earlier Musk complaints about the legislation.
“Look, the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,” spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said at a White House briefing. “It doesn’t change the president’s opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it.”
REPUBLICAN DISAGREEMENTS
Senate Republicans were divided about the bill even before Musk’s missives. Deficit hawks are pushing for deeper spending cuts than the $1.6 trillion over a decade in the House version, while another coalition of rural-state Republicans are pushing to protect the Medicaid healthcare program for low-income Americans.
One of the hawks, Senator Mike Lee, called on party members to use the Trump bill and future spending measures to reduce the deficit.
“We must commit now to doing so, as this is what voters justifiably expect – and indeed deserve – from the GOP Congress,” the Utah Republican said on X while reposting Musk’s message.
Republicans have a 53-47 seat majority in the Senate and can afford to lose support from no more than three members, if they expect to pass the legislation with a tie-breaking vote from Vice President JD Vance by a July 4 deadline.
Another hardliner, Senator Ron Johnson, predicted that lawmakers would not be able to meet the deadline and secure an adequate number of cuts.
Lee and Johnson are among at least four Senate hardliners demanding that the bill be changed to restrict the growth of the debt and deficit.
The faction of party lawmakers determined to limit spending cuts to project Medicaid beneficiaries and business investments in green energy initiatives is of similar size.
“I certainly have an interest in making sure people with disabilities are not harmed. But also, there’s the broad issue of how does it affect hospital reimbursements,” Senator Jerry Moran told reporters.
“There’s a set of my colleagues who are pushing to do more. And so it turns on how do you get the votes to pass a bill,” the Kansas Republican said.
Other Senate Republicans said lawmakers may have to look elsewhere to boost savings, including the possibility of leaving Trump’s much touted tax break proposals for tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits for later legislation.
“Those are all Democrat priorities. I’m not sure why we shouldn’t be doing that in a potential bipartisan bill to create headspace for this bill,” said Republican Senator Thom Tillis.
(Corrects figure in paragraph 14 to $300 million, not billion)
Reporting by Doina Chiacu and David Morgan; Additional reporting by Jeff Mason Editing by Scott Malone, Nick Zieminski and David Gregorio
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Senate Republicans seek tougher Medicaid cuts and lower SALT deduction in Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’
Senate Republicans propose deeper Medicaid cuts, including new work requirements for parents of teens. The proposals are part of a series of tradeoffs GOP leaders are making as they try to push the package to passage with almost no votes to spare. Republicans are pushing to fast-track the bill for a vote by Trump’s Fourth of July deadline. Both the House and Senate packages are eyeing a massive $350 billion buildup of Homeland Security and Pentagon funds, including some $175 billion for Trump’s mass deportation efforts, such as the hiring of 10,000 more officers for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. The biggest tax breaks, some $12,000 a year, would go to the wealthiest households, CBO said, while the poorest would see a tax hike of roughly $1,600. The bill would add $2.4 trillion to the nation’s deficits over the decade, and leave 10.9 fewer people without health insurance, due largely to the proposed new work requirement and other changes, the CBO said.
The proposals from Republicans keep in place the current $10,000 deduction of state and local taxes, called SALT, drawing quick blowback from GOP lawmakers from New York and other high-tax states, who fought for a $40,000 cap in the House-passed bill. Senators insisted negotiations continue.
WATCH: Amy Walter and Jasmine Wright on how Senate Republicans feel about Trump’s big bill
The Senate draft also enhances Trump’s proposed new tax break for seniors, with a bigger $6,000 deduction for low- to moderate-income senior households earning no more than $75,000 a year for singles, $150,000 for couples.
All told, the text unveiled by the Senate Finance Committee Republicans provides the most comprehensive look yet at changes the GOP senators want to make to the 1,000-page package approved by House Republicans last month. GOP leaders are pushing to fast-track the bill for a vote by Trump’s Fourth of July deadline.
Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, the chairman, said the proposal would prevent a tax hike and achieve “significant savings” by slashing green energy funds “and targeting waste, fraud and abuse.”
It comes as Americans broadly support levels of funding for popular safety net programs, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Many Americans see Medicaid and food assistance programs as underfunded.
What’s in the big bill, so far
Trump’s big bill is the centerpiece of his domestic policy agenda, a hodgepodge of GOP priorities all rolled into what he calls the “beautiful bill” that Republicans are trying to swiftly pass over unified opposition from Democrats — a tall order for the slow-moving Senate.
Fundamental to the package is the extension of some $4.5 trillion in tax breaks approved during his first term, in 2017, that are expiring this year if Congress fails to act. There are also new ones, including no taxes on tips, as well as more than $1 trillion in program cuts.
After the House passed its version, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would add $2.4 trillion to the nation’s deficits over the decade, and leave 10.9 fewer people without health insurance, due largely to the proposed new work requirements and other changes.
The biggest tax breaks, some $12,000 a year, would go to the wealthiest households, CBO said, while the poorest would see a tax hike of roughly $1,600. Middle-income households would see tax breaks of $500 to $1,000 a year, CBO said.
Both the House and Senate packages are eyeing a massive $350 billion buildup of Homeland Security and Pentagon funds, including some $175 billion for Trump’s mass deportation efforts, such as the hiring of 10,000 more officers for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
This comes as protests over deporting migrants have erupted nationwide — including the stunning handcuffing of Sen. Alex Padilla last week in Los Angeles — and as deficit hawks such as Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul are questioning the vast spending on Homeland Security.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer warned that the Senate GOP’s draft “cuts to Medicaid are deeper and more devastating than even the Republican House’s disaster of a bill.”
Tradeoffs in bill risk GOP support
As the package now moves to the Senate, the changes to Medicaid, SALT and green energy programs are part of a series of tradeoffs GOP leaders are making as they try to push the package to passage with their slim majorities, with almost no votes to spare.
But criticism of the Senate’s version came quickly after House Speaker Mike Johnson warned senators off making substantial changes.
WATCH: Breaking down Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ and its impact on the deficit and national debt
“We have been crystal clear that the SALT deal we negotiated in good faith with the Speaker and the White House must remain in the final bill,” the co-chairs of the House SALT caucus, Reps. Young Kim, R-Calif., and Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., said in a joint statement Monday.
Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York posted on X that the $10,000 cap in the Senate bill was not only insulting, but a “slap in the face to the Republican districts that delivered our majority and trifecta” with the White House.
Medicaid and green energy cuts
Some of the largest cost savings in the package come from the GOP plan to impose new work requirements on able-bodied single adults, ages 18 to 64 and without dependents, who receive Medicaid, the health care program used by 80 million Americans.
While the House first proposed the new Medicaid work requirement, it exempted parents with dependents. The Senate’s version broadens the requirement to include parents of children older than 14, as part of their effort to combat waste in the program and push personal responsibility.
Already, the Republicans had proposed expanding work requirements in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, known as SNAP, to include older Americans up to age 64 and parents of school-age children older than 10. The House had imposed the requirement on parents of children older than 7.
People would need to work 80 hours a month or be engaged in a community service program to qualify.
One Republican, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, has joined a few others pushing to save Medicaid from steep cuts — including to the so-called provider tax that almost all states levy on hospitals as a way to help fund their programs.
READ MORE: How cutting Medicaid could upend long-term care for many older Americans
The Senate plan proposes phasing down that provider tax, which is now up to 6%. Starting in 2027, the Senate looks to gradually lower that threshold until it reaches 3.5% in 2031, with exceptions for nursing homes and intermediate care facilities.
Hawley slammed the Senate bill’s changes on the provider tax. “This needs a lot of work. It’s really concerning and I’m really surprised by it,” he said. “Rural hospitals are going to be in bad shape.”
The Senate also keeps in place the House’s proposed new $35-per-service co-pay imposed on some Medicaid patients who earn more than the poverty line, which is about $32,000 a year for a family of four, with exceptions for some primary, prenatal, pediatric and emergency room care.
And Senate Republicans are seeking a slower phase-out of some Biden-era green energy tax breaks to allow continued develop of wind, solar and other projects that the most conservative Republicans in Congress want to end more quickly. Tax breaks for electric vehicles would be immediately eliminated.
Conservative Republicans say the cuts overall don’t go far enough, and they oppose the bill’s provision to raise the national debt limit by $5 trillion to allow more borrowing to pay the bills.
“We’ve got a ways to go on this one,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.
Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Matthew Daly contributed to this report.
Musk, hardline US Republicans ramp up attacks on Trump tax and spending bill
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday estimated the bill will add about $2.4 trillion to the $36.2 trillion U.S. debt pile. Tesla CEO Elon Musk stepped up his attacks on the measure, joining with Senate Republican deficit hawks who said the version passed by the House of Representatives last month did not sufficiently cut spending. The House-passed bill would reduce the federal government’s revenues by $3.67 trillion over a decade, the CBO forecasted, while reducing spending by $1.25 trillion. The measure would also lift the federalGovernment’s debt ceiling, a step that lawmakers must take some time this summer or risk a devastating default. “We’re a long ways down this track,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said. “The wheels are in motion on this. As I said before, failure is not an option. We will get this done, one way or the other,” he told reporters after a meeting with President Donald Trump. “You’re arguing over twigs and ignoring the forest that’s on fire,” said Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida.
Companies CBO sees $2.4 trillion debt impact in House-passed bill
Costs could rise to $5 trillion including interest if made permanent, CFRB says
Elon Musk criticizes bill, supports Republican deficit hawks
Senate Republicans divided on House-passed bill
WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) – Hardline conservative Republicans in the U.S. Senate and billionaire Elon Musk showed no sign of softening opposition to President Donald Trump’s tax-cut and spending bill on Wednesday, as they pushed for deeper reductions in government outlays.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday estimated the bill — which would extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and step up spending for the military and border security — will add about $2.4 trillion to the $36.2 trillion U.S. debt pile.
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Another nonpartisan forecaster, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said on Wednesday that when taking interest payments into account the bill’s cost could rise to $3 trillion over a decade or to $5 trillion if temporary tax cuts were made permanent.
Musk, the world’s richest person who for several months led the Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting effort, stepped up his attacks on the measure, joining with Senate Republican deficit hawks who said the version passed by the House of Representatives last month did not sufficiently cut spending.
“A new spending bill should be drafted that doesn’t massively grow the deficit,” Musk, the largest Republican donor in the 2024 election cycle, said on his X social media platform. “America is in the fast lane to debt slavery.”
Top congressional Republicans rejected his criticism and one White House official on Wednesday called the Tesla CEO’s moves “infuriating.”
Another White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, on Wednesday said Musk’s complaints represented “one disagreement” in an otherwise harmonious relationship, adding that Trump was committed to getting the bill passed despite Musk’s stance.
Asked about Musk’s message after a White House meeting with Trump, Senate Majority Leader John Thune promised Congress would get the legislation over the finish line.
“We’re a long ways down this track,” Thune said. “The wheels are in motion on this. As I said before, failure is not an option. We will get this done, one way or the other.”
Other Senate Republicans downplayed Musk’s influence.
“I don’t think very many senators are that interested in what Elon has to say. It’s amusing. But we’re serious policymakers. We have to govern, and so we have to deal with reality,” Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota told reporters.
Musk joined Trump’s team with brash promises of cutting $2 trillion in spending from the federal budget, but left last week having accomplished a small fraction of that.
The House-passed bill would reduce the federal government’s revenues by $3.67 trillion over a decade, the CBO forecasted, while reducing spending by $1.25 trillion.
The measure would also lift the federal government’s debt ceiling, a step that lawmakers must take some time this summer or risk a devastating default.
Item 1 of 2 U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) speak to members of the media, on the day of a closed House Republican Conference meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno [1/2] U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) speak to members of the media, on the day of a closed House Republican Conference meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab
NARROW SENATE PATH
With Republicans holding a narrow 53-47 Senate majority, just four “no” votes are enough to scupper any bill that Democrats unite in opposing.
The measure named the “big, beautiful bill” faces opposition both from deficit hawks and a handful of rural-state Republicans worried about the scale of cuts to the Medicaid health insurance program for low-income Americans.
“We’re at $2 trillion in deficits,” said Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida. “We’re not going to get interest rates down or inflation under control if we don’t balance the budget.”
Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin criticized the Trump-backed bill as failing to reverse the trajectory of budget deficits and debt.
“The CBO score is a distraction,” Johnson said to reporters. “You’re arguing over twigs and leaves, when you’re ignoring the forest that’s on fire.”
‘BAD TO WORSE’
The number of people in the United States without health insurance would increase by 10.9 million by 2034 due to policy changes in the House bill, the CBO said. Of that number, an estimated 1.4 million people would be undocumented immigrants who would no longer be covered in programs funded by the states.
“This bill has gone from bad to worse,” said Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, referring to the healthcare cuts.
The CBO update does not include a forecast on the potential macroeconomic effects of the legislation, which will be forthcoming. Republicans argue that extending existing tax cuts and adding new breaks, which are included in the House bill, would further stimulate the economy.
They made similar arguments in 2017 that tax cuts would pay for themselves by stimulating economic growth, but the CBO estimates the changes increased the federal deficit by just under $1.9 trillion over a decade, even when including positive economic effects.
The 1,100-page bill would extend corporate and individual tax cuts passed in 2017 during Trump’s first term in office, cancel many green-energy incentives passed by Democratic former President Joe Biden and tighten eligibility for health and food programs for the poor.
It also would fund Trump’s crackdown on immigration, adding tens of thousands of border guards and creating the capacity to deport up to 1 million people each year. Regulations on firearm silencers would be loosened.
Democrats blast the bill as disproportionately benefiting the wealthy while cutting benefits for working Americans. The measure is now awaiting action in the Senate.
The Republican-controlled Congress so far has not rejected any of Trump’s legislative requests.
Reporting by Richard Cowan, Bo Erickson, David Morgan and Nandita Bose; Editing by Scott Malone, Alistair Bell and Deepa Babington
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