Steve Scalise, House Majority Leader for the U.S. House of Representatives, said that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has repeatedly failed to reflect the growth from tax cuts and is again misjudging the impact. The statement was made in a press release.
"They've always been wrong, and they've always ignored what tax cuts will do to grow the American economy," said Scalise. "You don't need to go back that far to see how wrong the CBO has been when it comes time to make prognostications on economic growth. They ignore economic growth. Anybody who repeats CBO's analysis is also making those same mistakes."
According to the Congressional Budget Office, it provides independent, nonpartisan budget and economic information to Congress. The CBO uses baseline projections based on current law and macroeconomic assumptions. In major legislative debates, lawmakers have often scrutinized its treatment of tax policy. The CBO does not typically apply dynamic scoring unless specifically requested.
The CBO reported that the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was expected to reduce revenues by approximately $1.5 trillion over 10 years. The estimate assumed limited offsetting effects from economic growth. Some members of Congress have since questioned whether these assumptions undersaid real revenue changes. The law significantly reduced the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%.
The CBO’s February 2025 report said that the federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2024 was $1.7 trillion. Revenues decreased by 6%, mainly due to lower collections from individual and corporate income taxes. The report projected an average annual real GDP growth of 2.1% from 2025 to 2027. It said that these projections are subject to uncertainty from policy and economic developments.
Scalise has represented Louisiana’s 1st congressional district in the U.S. House since 2008. He was elected House Majority Leader in 2023 after previously serving as Majority Whip. Scalise is a longtime member of the Republican Study Committee.
