The panel on CNN's "News Night with Abby Phillip" erupted after a GOP spokesperson claimed that President Donald Trump's megabill would reduce the deficit instead of increasing it, as several nonpartisan analyses of the bill have concluded.
Pete Seat, a former spokesperson for President George W. Bush, claimed that the budget bill would decrease the deficit by as much as $1 trillion. Other analyses from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office have estimated the budget bill will add as much as $3 trillion to the deficit.
"That's fake math!" said Sheelah Kolhatkar, staff writer for The New Yorker. "Everyone agrees that this bill isn't going to reduce our fiscal problems. It's going to massively add to the deficit."
The impact of Trump's budget on the federal deficit became a point of contention within the GOP. Fiscal hawks like Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) voted against the bill because of its impact on the deficit.
Other Republicans sought to distance themselves from the bill because of the cuts to Medicaid and other social benefits.
"It's not true that everyone agrees!" Seat shot back in defense of Trump's budget bill. "It cuts more than $1 trillion."
"That's based on fake math!" Kolhatkar replied.
Seat then changed the subject of the question to a philosophical thought experiment about whether the money earned by private citizens is the property of the government.
"No!" Phillip chimed in. "That is the cost of the bill."
You can watch the full exchange below or click the link right here.
