Below: Republican Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Fischbach talking about the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate on “The Big Beautiful Bill Act” with Scott Hennen
WASHINGTON – Republican lawmakers from North Dakota and Minnesota, who include Senator John Hoeven, Congresswoman Julie Fedorchak and Congresswoman Michelle Fischbach, are pushing back against a nonpartisan assessment of President Trump’s spending bill.
The Congressional Budget Office says the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” will add $2.4 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.
The legislation, which Fedorchak and Fischbach voted for in the House, approves $5 trillion in tax cuts.
According to a Joint Committee on Taxation estimate, the cuts are partially offset by spending cuts and changes to the tax code.
The bill also has a nearly $800 million reduction in Medicaid spending the Congressional Budget Office says would lead to nearly 11 million people losing coverage.
To be eligible for Medicaid under the bill, there would be community engagement requirements of 80 hours a month of work, education or service for able-bodied adults without dependents.
Fedorchak’s Press Secretary Kate Roberts says the CBO “uses questionable assumptions” and “has been historically inaccurate at forecasting”.
She adds the CBO was off by $1.5 trillion when assessing the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act because it didn’t account for economic growth. That’s something Fischbach agrees with.
“Instead of assuming the historic 10-year economic growth average of three percent, CBO assumed a historically low growth rate of just 1.8 percent,” Arey said in an email to Flag Family News.
Arey adds the House Budget Committee, which is run by Republicans, projected a nearly three percent average economic growth over the next decade “and the bill still delivers deficit reduction”.
“Republicans generally take the CBO score with a grain of salt because we understand the history of it,” Fischbach said on “What’s On Your Mind?” on The Flag. “They have been inaccurate. As we were looking at those tax cuts [in 2017’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act], we were talking about you cut the corporate tax, but we ended up paying more dollars in because of our growth. Our tax burden dollar-wise was higher,”
The bill is now before the Senate.
Hoeven also reacted to the CBO estimate, also pointing out the agency’s low estimate for economic growth.
“We’re going to make changes to the reconciliation bill in the Senate,” Hoeven explained. “The House bill reduced spending by $1.25 trillion, and we are working to find even more savings.”
“Further, as we saw with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which we passed during President Trump’s first term, we will see additional revenue from economic growth.”
Flag Family News reached out to North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer for his reaction to the CBO estimates and if he wants to see changes in the bill, but he has yet to respond.
In the past, Cramer has had concerns about the national debt.
He was given a Fiscal Hero Award in 2024 from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
“I take seriously my duty as a policymaker to support fiscally responsible legislation and to work to reduce our national debt,” Cramer said after receiving it.
