OMB Director Contradicts Critics, Says “Big, Beautiful Bill” Reduces Deficit

The Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought is pushing back on claims that the “Big Beautiful Bill” will increase the budget deficit and national debt. 

The bill has been criticized by Elon Musk for not doing enough to cut spending, and a recent analysis by the Tax Foundation (as of May 23) found that it would increase the deficit by $1.7 trillion over ten years (after accounting for how it would stimulate economic activity, and thus offset some losses in revenue). 

Vought pushed back on these claims during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Dana Bash. 

“This bill doesn’t increase the deficit or hurt the debt. In fact, it lowers it by $1.4 trillion,” he told him. 

“This is a $1.4 trillion, over 10 years deficit reduction. It’s $1.6 trillion in mandatory savings,” Vought added. “Obviously, we have a little bit of spending in there as well for border and defense, but that is the biggest mandatory savings package that we have seen since the 1970s - 1997.”

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s analysis found that the bill will add $3.8 trillion to the deficit over 10 years. In contrast to the Tax Foundation’s estimates, the CBO’s don’t account for economic growth as a result of the bill, but do account for interest costs as the result for increased debt (which the Tax Foundation doesn’t).  

Speaker Mike Johnson has criticized their findings for assuming “anemic economic growth,” and the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has criticized it for not accounting for “substantial tariff income.” 

The Tax Foundation and CBO also count extending Trump’s 2017 tariffs as a new expense, which is obviously a substantial flaw in their estimates. 

Matt Palumbo is the author of The Heir: Inside the (Not So) Secret Network of Alex Soros