The White House is lying about the GOP budget bill

Cutting taxes and raising spending does not shrink the deficit

Dear readers,

At a White House press briefing on Thursday, May 29, press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the House-passed GOP budget bill "would not increase the budget deficit," as projected by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

Instead, Leavitt said the bill would decrease the deficit by increasing tax revenues through economic growth, citing a report by the Council of Economic Advisers (an executive office staffed by Donald Trump's appointees). Leavitt framed this section of her briefing as "debunking false claims circulating in the press" about the budget bill. On Fox News, just after the briefing, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson repeated Leavitt’s claim and said the CBO was “run by Democrats” who “do not have our best interests” in mind.

The claim that the bill “will not increase the deficit” is best described as a lie. That is the best word to use when someone is saying something they cannot be sure about, and which contradicts existing independent accou…