'Cue GOP attacks': Government stats show U.S. loses billions under Republican aid plan

The Congressional Budget Office revealed Wednesday that the Republican funding bill for Israel would ultimately add $12.5 billion to the federal deficit, despite the GOP trying to claim it would be offset by cuts in cash meant to investigate wealthy tax cheats.

It would also decrease revenue by $26.7 billion.

The House GOP wants to make back the $14 billion in proposed aid by pulling back funds allocated to the IRS to help crack down on millionaires and billionaires who are cheating their taxes — a move the GOP is calling an "offset."

As part of the plan, however, the GOP built in a mechanism for the bill that would block any budget scoring detailing how much the bill would raise against the deficit.

But the budget office's figures show that the aid to Israel will add $12.5 billion to the deficit in the next decade, and cuts to the IRS's funding for tax cheat investigations will result in $26.7 billion being lost in revenue, MSNBC reporter Molly Jong-Fast said.

"That’s why [Speaker] Mike Johnson didn’t want the CBO to score it," said reporter Molly Jong-Fast.

In July 2020, the CBO scored a similar proposal, estimating a $40 billion increase in IRS enforcement funding would raise $103 billion (for a net effect of $63 billion) to chip away at the deficit.

"The Messenger's" Marc Caputo characterized it as "Defund the Tax Police leads to more tax crime, per CBO."

"What a joke," Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman. He says the House's bill isn't going anywhere. The White House has already indicated that the president would veto it.

Deputy Chief of Staff Aaron Fritschner blasted the GOP language and said it isn't an "offset."

"The use of that word in this context is not appropriate. Every relevant authority from CBO on down has said that cutting IRS funding this way would *increase* deficits," he posed on social media.

"Cue the GOP attacks on the CBO as biased and corrupt, just like the J6 convictions cued GOP attacks on the FBI, the Covid crisis cued GOP attacks on the CDC, etc," posted journalist Jay Bookman. "Reality must not be allowed to intrude on their fantasy."