A day after the White House blasted the Congressional Budget Office over its review of a Republican health care bill in Congress, the CBO released a report on President Donald Trump's overall budget, which says Mr. Trump's plan doesn't come anywhere near being balanced after ten years, with the CBO and Trump Administration estimates apart by over $3.6 trillion.
"The deficits that CBO estimates would occur under the President's proposals are larger than those estimated by the Administration," the CBO stated in the new report on the Trump budget.
"Nearly all of that difference arises because the Administration projects higher revenue
collections — stemming mainly from a projection of faster economic growth," the CBO reported.
The numbers are starkly different when it comes to the estimates of the budget deficit made first by the White House, and then by the CBO:
Credit: Jamie Dupree
Credit: Jamie Dupree
In this graphic, the President's budget assumes a deficit of $603 billion in the current fiscal year - the CBO estimate is $693 billion.
The Trump budget predicts a gradual decline in the yearly deficit, finally achieving a $16 billion surplus in 2027 - but the CBO sees a deficit that year of $720 billion - a giant difference.
The President's budget estimates that the deficit will grow by $3.1 trillion over ten years - the CBO pegged that total at over $6.8 trillion.
While the White House has disputed CBO estimates involving coverage numbers under the Obama health law, and Republican health care plans, officials have said nicer things about CBO work on budget numbers.
"The CBO is a budget office," White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters in late June.
"And while it does very well at times predicting things on budget -- whether it’s revenue or spending -- I don’t think it does a great job -- and I think the administration has been clear and consistent that we don’t always agree that it does a great job predicting coverage."
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