Republicans use ‘magic trick’ to hide $3.8 tn cost of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill

Republicans in the US Congress are resorting to a ‘magic trick’ to make as much as $3.8 trillion in costs of President Donald Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ vanish.

Trump’s signature bill, which he has asked the Congress to pass by Friday, has attracted widespread criticism for adding trillions to government spending, cutting billions in healthcare and food benefits, and using these cuts to fund the president’s political agenda.

Republican Senators on Monday voted to treat Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which they are set to renew in the present bill, as permanent. With such an accounting trick, they have claimed that as tax cuts are already permanently, extending them would not cost anything.

With this one claim, Republicans have sought to artificially remove $3.8 trillion from the costs of the bill.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has called it “fake math”.

“Republicans are doing something the Senate has never, never done before — deploying fake math and accounting gimmicks to hide the true cost of their bill,” said Schumer.

To set the record straight, the 2017 tax cuts were not permanent and this ‘magic trick’ does not really remove costs from the bill. Renewing tax cuts from 2017 means foregoing tax revenue and simply refusing to count this foregone revenue as a cost does not mean that the revenue does not get lost.

Overall, Trump’s bill as amended by Senate Republicans is set to add $3.3 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). This is up from the bill passed by the House Republicans that would have added $2.4 trillion to the federal deficit.

The Senate Republicans’ bill would also remove health insurance of 11.8 million Americans and cut food assistance as well. This is nearly 1 million more than the House version of the bill.

Schumer further said, “Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “Republicans are on the verge of passing the most expensive legislation in US history, providing tax advantages to billionaires while stripping away Medicaid, SNAP benefits, and well-paying jobs for millions.”