NBC host Kristen Welker confronted House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) because she said President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful bill” would “add to the debt and deficit.”
“Mr. Speaker, a number of Senate Republicans share Elon Musk’s concerns that it will add to the debt and deficit,” Welker told Johnson in a Sunday morning interview.
“My friends are missing is the tremendous and historic level of spending cuts that are also in the same package,” Johnson said of critics. “So a lot of the analysis that people are pointing to is from groups, for example, like the Congressional Budget Office, the CBO. They have projected anemic economic growth.”
“What’s going to happen here is exactly the opposite,” he continued. “We’re going to have historic growth because we’re basing this on the history of the recent past… This is going to be jet fuel.”
Welker called out Johnson for using Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimations against Democrats in the past.
“You said… The CBO has confirmed this bill adds nearly $400 billion to the deficit, contrary to the White House’s claim that the bill is paid for,” Welker pointed out. “So do you only believe the CBO when a Democrat is president, Mr. Speaker?”
“No, this is very easy to explain,” Johnson replied. “The CBO sometimes gets projections correct.”
