Free Republic

These days, it seems that a mysterious group called “the CBO” rules the world. Or at least Washington. Unfortunately, they’re not very good at predicting things and their bad calls can lead to bad policy results. The Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) predict what will happen with spending, tax revenues and deficits from new bills and congressional budgets. They have made headlines of late with their absurd warning that the Trump tax bill to extend the 2017 tax cuts and other reforms, like eliminating taxes on tips, would add some $4.6 trillion to the debt...

Elon Musk and House Republicans both promised to tackle federal spending. It turns out only one of them was serious, and it wasn’t Musk. Musk, who broke with President Trump this week after labeling Republicans’ reconciliation bill a “disgusting abomination,” might claim some authority. As leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, he was the public face of Trump’s assault on government. Remember him feeding the U.S. Agency for International Development into the wood chipper? Encouraging civil servants to quit or be fired? The chain saw? Musk loves the theatrical: He helped scuttle an omnibus spending bill last year mainly...

Let’s face it, no one expected Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” to be perfect. But for Elon Musk to adopt the intransigent position that the work of government should stop in its tracks in pursuit of perfection is a manifest nonsense. Especially when considering OMB chief Russ Vought’s explanation of how the bill helps reduce the deficit. Musk has a habit of failing to see the wood for the trees. He’s been a long-standing backer of China, which my website has reported on for years. He supported DeSantis, not Trump, in the primary. He recently tried to depose Brexit leader Nigel...

PULSE POINTS:❓What Happened: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) says its analysis of President Donald J. Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” finds the legislation introduces historic fiscal reforms, achieving $1.7 trillion in mandatory savings and reducing the deficit by $1.407 trillion. This analysis contradicts a fiscal score released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that claims the bill would increase the deficit by $2.4 trillion.👥 Who’s Involved: President Donald J. Trump, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), OMB Director Russ Vought, Elon Musk, and the U.S. Congress.📍 Where & When: The OMB’s top-line...

“The (puny) ask: Elon Musk recently criticized the GOP’s “massive spending” reconciliation bill, which he says “undermines” the savings DOGE has found. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller responded that Musk was wrong to expect reconciliation to lock in DOGE work, saying that the proper tool was rescission. “So where are the lock-ins? DOGE says it has identified some $180 billion in savings, though Congress needs to approve many of the grant cancellations and other clawbacks. “Yet the White House rescissions request is for a mere $9.4 billion—out of annual discretionary spending of $1.6 trillion. This (supposedly) cost-cutting...

UNHINGED: @SenSchumer says "WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE" if we pass the largest tax cut in history, block illegals from taxpayer-funded health care, and cut the deficit. These are NOT serious people.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that recent U.S. tariff increases will reduce federal deficits by $2.8 trillion over the next decade, primarily through increased customs revenue and lower interest payments on federal debt—more than enough to offset the projected cost of President Donald Trump’s proposed tax cut bill. In a separate analysis, the CBO recently estimated that extending the 2017 tax cuts, as proposed in the administration’s new tax and spending bill, would increase the deficit by roughly $2.4 trillion over the same period. That legislation would reduce federal revenues by $3.67 trillion while cutting spending by $1.25 trillion,...

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said Wednesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that President Donald Trump’s budget bill will not pass because it has a “grotesque” level of spending. Johnson said, “The president and Senate leadership has to understand that we’re serious. They all say, ‘Oh, we can pressure these guys.’ No, you can’t. Again we’re we’re being very respectful. You know, I ran 2010 as part of the Tea Party Movement. We were mortgaging children’s future. We were $14 trillion in debt then now we’re over $37 trillion. We’re serious about this. They need to take us seriously. Don’t insult us....

Governor Hochul, who hopes to get re-elected, laid out her housing plan to keep people from leaving New York during the USA TODAY interview. She is pretending people are leaving because there aren’t enough houses for them. In reality she wants to get rid of single family homes and replace them with apartment buildings. New York governor Hochul, who is always wrong, thinks that people are leaving New York because there’s not enough housing. She plans to build a lot more ‘housing’, claiming a dire shortage. With the enormous number of illegal aliens in New York, she wants a lot...

What’s really in the Big Beautiful Bill? Depending on who you listen to, the Big Beautiful Bill (BBB) is either an incredible piece of legislation that will codify tax cuts while also unleashing growth and reducing the deficit, OR it’s just another 1,000+ page of pork that maintains the status quo of overspending/ growing the deficit/ increasing the debt. The problem with this situation is that the people pushing these claims are either A) individuals who HATE the President and his agenda or B) individuals who work for the Trump administration and so have a vested interest in getting the...

It's been pointed out over and over to the few crew that these cuts could not be included in the BBB because of rules. It has to be handled via recission packages. It will not be subjectedbto filibuster either. quote: Larry Kudlow asked, “So, rumor has it that we’ve got a big rescission package, an Elon Musk DOGE rescission package coming up, can you confirm it?” Vought answered, “I can. We’ll be sending that up on Monday or Tuesday, whenever the House is back in session, they will get our first rescissions bill. And, again, this has been proposed and...

In recent years, Americans have learned a hard truth: “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” During COVID-19, we were told to trust the experts, obey mandates, and silence our dissent. Over time, the truth emerged—much of what we were sold was false, and the price we paid in lives, education, and finances from their false narrative scam was extreme.Now, many of those same voices are repeating another falsehood: that cutting Medicaid will cause Americans to die.Recently, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and 19 House conservatives called for “structural reforms” to Medicaid in a letter supporting...

Elon Musk said he is "disappointed" by the costs of President Donald Trump's "one big, beautiful bill" passed by Republicans in the House last week. "I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing," Musk told "CBS Sunday Morning" in an exclusive broadcast interview The remarks by Musk, who recently stepped back from running the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, are in contrast to Trump, who backed the legislation, which still needs Senate approval.

During a press conference today, Governor DeSantis addressed the failure of Congress to enact one DOGE suggested cut. Elon Musk and his DOGE team found over 900 billion dollars in cuts. Congress has not followed up on even one. Protect Your Retirement... BUT Beware of Gold IRA Dealer Lies This is the key section of Governor De Santis’s comments which also spoke to successes in Florida: “Trillion dollar deficit is a tax on you. It works its way through the economy. There’s no free lunch, and that’s what ends up happening. And it’s a little frustrating. “You know, Elon Musk...

A BILL To provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``One Big Beautiful Bill Act''. SEC. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS. The table of contents for this Act is as follows: Sec. 1. Short title. Sec. 2. Table of contents. TITLE I--COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE Subtitle A--Nutrition Sec. 10001. Thrifty food plan. Sec. 10002. Able bodied adults without dependents work requirements. Sec. 10003. Able bodied adults without...

President Donald Trump on Sunday blasted Harvard’s secrecy when it comes to the university’s large number of students from foreign countries. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said: “Why isn’t Harvard saying that almost 31% of their students are from FOREIGN LANDS, and yet those countries, some not at all friendly to the United States, pay NOTHING toward their student’s education, nor do they ever intend to. Nobody told us that! “We want to know who those foreign students are, a reasonable request since we give Harvard BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, but Harvard isn’t exactly forthcoming. We want those names...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered some shocking data points about American foreign aid spending before the Trump administration reformed the system. During testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, the top diplomat revealed that the White House discovered a foreign aid regime that was distracted and inefficient. Only 12 cents of every dollar spent by USAID reached recipients. ... while a mere 12 cents went to recipients, the other 88 cents was pocketed by third parties. ... Rubio noted that the United States is still giving “more humanitarian support than the next 10 countries combined” even after...

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R) immediately announced his opposition to the House-passed bill Thursday, vowing to vote against it unless Senate Republican leaders remove a provision to raise the federal debt limit by $4 trillion over the next two years. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), an outspoken fiscal hawk, said Thursday that there are four Senate Republican conservatives who will vote against the House bill as currently drafted, which would be enough to sink the bill if there is full attendance. Johnson said: “I think I’ve got at least four right now that this is not going anywhere.”

House Republicans passed their giant tax and budget bill Thursday, a political triumph for Speaker Mike Johnson despite its policy disappointments. The House bill had to pass because the alternative was a GOP failure to govern, but the Senate now has a chance to make it better. The House version does include some policy gains, notably preventing a $4.5 trillion tax increase next year if President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts expire. Lower tax rates for individuals are made permanent. The measure would restore full expensing, which encourages business investment, albeit only through 2029. The bill also doesn’t disturb the 21%...

Solar stocks were plummeting as President Donald Trump’s tax-and-spending bill narrowly passed in the House of Representatives early Thursday, threatening the huge tax benefits granted to clean-energy companies during the Biden-era. Clean-energy producers like solar companies have worried that the Trump administration will cut back or completely overhaul tax credits introduced by former President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act from 2022. Those credits can be of up to 50% of a project’s value. “[The] latest draft represents among the most restrictive interpretations we have heard speculated and the closest to ‘complete’ gutting of [the] bill we’ve ever seen,” Jefferies analyst Julien...