Blue Dog Coalition Statement on the GOP’s Use of Current Policy Baseline in Partisan Budget Bill

"In an egregious display of fiscal irresponsibility, Senate Republicans ignored decades of precedent and Senate Parliamentarian guidance and used gimmicky accounting tricksto justify their partisan budget bill and lie to Americans about the real cost of this legislation.

For years, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have used a Current Law Baseline - a method that reflects existing law and accounts for the cost of extending expiring policies. In the Senate's bill, they relied on a Current Policy Baseline, which allows expiring policies to continue indefinitely without acknowledging their true costs.

The GOP is using this accounting dupe to lie to the American people and claim this legislation will reduce the deficit. In reality, when scored honestly, the CBO estimatesthe bill would add over $3.9 trillion to the national debt. And some experts estimate that it will increase interest costsby nearly $700 billion.

If Congress chooses to extend expiring tax cuts, we should be honest about the cost rather than pretending they come for free. Our nation is already on an unsustainable fiscal trajectory as interest payments on the national debt exceed spending on Medicare or defense this year and will reach $1 trillion next year. Rather than confronting this reality, the GOP elected to paper over deficits, further driving up debt and long-term interest rates. That, in turn, will squeeze out critical investments and make it harder for working Americans to exercise economic power.

It does not have to be this way. Time and time again, Blue Dogs extended a helping handin an effort to work with Republican leadership and avoid this scenario. Americans understand the need for responsible budgeting, and Congress should hold itself to the same standard. The Blue Dog Coalition remains committed to fiscal responsibility and bipartisan solutions."