U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, the Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, has responded to the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) Long Term Budget Outlook covering 2026 to 2056. The report’s data was compiled before the Supreme Court overturned President Trump’s tariff policy and does not include potential debt increases that could result from removing those tariffs.
Merkley criticized recent fiscal policies, stating, “A day after Trump proclaimed to the nation that the country is ‘winning again,’ we see data from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that shows not only have Trump and Republicans spent the past year making it hard for working families to get ahead, but they’ve done so at a grave economic cost to the country. Their Big, Ugly Betrayal law hurts families, benefits billionaires, and explodes our national debt to levels that are hard to fathom.”
According to Merkley, CBO projects that measures passed by former President Trump and Congressional Republicans will cause federal debt to reach 175 percent of GDP over the next three decades. He added, “CBO tells us that over the next 30 years, the passage of the Big, Ugly Betrayal law and other actions by Trump and Congressional Republicans last year, will cause our debt to rise to a staggering 175 percent of GDP. This is an overwhelming amount of debt that Republicans are burdening the next generation with. But sadly, it's just the beginning.”
He also called for legislative changes: “This chaos has to end. We must confront future deficits, and we can start by clawing back Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy. It’s past time we start building an economy in which families thrive, and billionaires pay their fair share,” said Ranking Member Jeff Merkley.
The CBO report indicates a significant increase in projected federal debt since last year; previously it estimated a 156 percent debt-to-GDP ratio by 2055. The new projection represents an almost 20 percentage point jump within one year after President Trump and Republicans assumed office. Additionally, Medicare's trust fund is now expected to be depleted twelve years earlier than previously forecasted due mainly to tax reductions outlined in recent legislation.
Further details on these projections can be found in CBO’s Long Term Budget Outlook Data: 2026 to 2056.
