Congressional Budget Office Director Phillip Swagel says Republicans' attacks on the agency are misleading and "have been picked up so widely."
"You come into the job; you know that we're going to be in the middle of things. But it still is kind of a phenomenon when it happens, even if you know intellectually this is just part of the process," Swagel told The Wall Street Journal in an article published Friday.
The CBO has projected that President Donald Trump's "one big, beautiful bill" would increase federal deficits by about $2.4 trillion over 10 years.
The White House and Republican leaders in Congress are taking issue with the findings and say economic growth will be higher than the office is projecting, resulting in more revenue coming into government coffers.
"The CBO assumes long-term GDP [gross domestic product] growth of an anemic 1.8%, and that is absurd," said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. "The American economy is going to boom like never before after the 'one big, beautiful bill' is passed."
"The CBO is notorious for getting things WRONG," House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a Facebook post.
Trump this week called the agency a "very hostile organization" run by Democrats.
Swagel told the Journal his politics "have always been, you know, an inch to the right of center."
"And I don't think I've moved half an inch in either direction."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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