Brutal fact-check dismantles GOP senator’s video supporting Trump’s 'Big, Beautiful Bill'

16 June

Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) and President Donald Trump (Image: Screengrab via MSNBC / YouTube)

In an article published Monday, The Washington Post rebuked Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) for attempting to discredit the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) projections related to President Donald Trump’s so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill.”

The report highlights a one-minute video Scott posted as part of the Republican Party’s broader campaign against the CBO, stating that it is riddled with errors — nine in total, or roughly one mistake every 6.66 seconds.

Despite multiple fact-checks, Scott has not taken the video down.

The analysis takes a closer look at Scott’s claims, particularly his statements about the CBO’s past estimates.

“In 2017, the CBO said the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would increase the deficit and debt by trillions of dollars. What would happen? They were wrong,” Scott says in the video. But according to the report, the record shows the opposite.

By the report’s assessment, the CBO’s projections were broadly accurate. The agency initially estimated that the Trump-era tax cuts would add $1.5 trillion to the deficit over ten years — a figure lowered on paper because the cuts were set to expire after nine years. Lawmakers included that sunset provision to reduce the apparent fiscal cost.

A 2018 update raised the projected revenue loss to $1.9 trillion, though the CBO noted that modest macroeconomic growth would slightly offset the cost, bringing the net deficit increase to about $1.4 trillion.

Far from being a miscalculation, the forecast largely played out as expected, the report finds. While Scott claims the deficit didn’t rise as a result of the tax cuts, in reality, it did.

The fiscal shortfall ballooned in the years that followed, driven in part by COVID-19 relief measures passed under both the Trump and Biden administrations.

As the report makes clear, the CBO concluded that the 2017 tax cuts did not pay for themselves.

Scott also referenced historical tax policy, claiming, “Now this is not surprising. They were wrong on the Mellon tax cuts in the 1930s.”

That claim is also called into question. The Mellon tax cuts occurred primarily in the 1920s, and it remains unclear what specific CBO error Scott was referring to — particularly since the agency did not exist at the time.

Scott’s office has remained silent on the factual discrepancies. When asked by the Post about the video’s inaccuracies, spokesperson Courtney Corrado issued a statement that sidestepped the issue entirely: “Senator Scott’s remarks are clearly directed at those who oppose tax cuts,” she said.

The report notes that criticism of the CBO — a nonpartisan agency — has become more frequent among Republicans in recent years, despite the fact that its current director was appointed twice under GOP-led Congresses.

Scott, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, has shown no signs of retracting or revising the video.

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