02.25.26

Merkley Statement on CBO Long Term Budget Outlook

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the below statement following the release of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) Long Term Budget Outlook Data: 2026 to 2056. The statistics in this report were calculated prior to the Supreme Court striking down President Trump’s chaotic and destructive tariff policy and do not account for the increase in debt resulting from the removal of these tariffs.

“A day after Trump proclaimed to the nation that the country is ‘ winning again,’ we see data from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that shows not only have Trump and Republicans spent the past year making it hard for working families to get ahead, but they’ve done so at a grave economic cost to the country. Their Big, Ugly Betrayal law hurts families, benefits billionaires, and explodes our national debt to levels that are hard to fathom.

“CBO tells us that over the next 30 years, the passage of the Big, Ugly Betrayal law and other actions by Trump and Congressional Republicans last year, will cause our debt to rise to a staggering 175 percent of GDP. This is an overwhelming amount of debt that Republicans are burdening the next generation with. But sadly, it's just the beginning.

“This chaos has to end. We must confront future deficits, and we can start by clawing back Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy. It’s past time we start building an economy in which families thrive, and billionaires pay their fair share,” said Ranking Member Jeff Merkley.

Data released by CBO details that after the passage of the Republican Big, Ugly Betrayal Law, debt will increase to 175 percent of GDP by 2056. CBO’s report last year showed the debt to GDP ratio would be 156 percent by 2055. This means that within a year of President Trump and Republicans taking office, CBO has increased the projected debt to GDP ratio by nearly 20 percentage points and set the country on an even worse financial path, all while making working families sicker and poorer to fund tax breaks for the wealthy. Making matters worse, CBO projects that the Medicare trust fund will be depleted 12 years sooner, largely due to the law’s tax cuts.

CBO’s Long Term Budget Outlook Data: 2026 to 2056 can be found HERE.

###