03.26.25

Merkley Statement on Republican Push to Use a Budget Gimmick that Adds $37 Trillion to the National Debt

Republican Leadership’s Obsession with Using “Current Policy Baseline” Will Explode the National Debt

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, released the below statement following new data published by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a centrist budget policy think tank, that shows making permanent the Trump Tax Giveaways will add an astronomical $37 trillion to the debt over the next 30 years, which would increase the debt to more than double the size of the economy in 2054. This new estimate by CRFB uses data from a recent report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that estimates the national debt will expand by $4.5 trillion over the next 10 years if Congress makes permanent the Trump Tax Giveaways. Republican leadership is hell bent on using “magic math” – in the form of a budget gimmick known as “current policy baseline” – to make these regressive tax handouts falsely appear to add $0 to the debt.

 

“If Republicans succeed in using their desired budget gimmick, the so-called ‘current policy baseline’, to indefinitely extend their Trump Tax Giveaways to millionaires and billionaires, they’ll add $37 trillion to the national debt over the next 30 years. Republicans love to talk about fiscal responsibility — until they’re the ones in charge. We cannot allow them to line the pockets of their rich friends like Elon Musk while running up deficits and slashing essential services that help working families across the country,” said Ranking Member Jeff Merkley. 

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