CBO says it can’t do full score of tax bill before House vote

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says it will be unable to do a full dynamic score of the House Republican tax-reform bill that would show how it would effect the economy before a planned vote on Thursday.

In an estimate released Monday that said the bill would add $1.456 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, the CBO said it did not have the time to do a fuller analysis.

It said the Joint Committee on Taxation, which provides some of the data for the CBO analysis, was still crunching numbers.

{mosads}“The staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation is currently analyzing changes in economic output, employment, capital stock, and other macroeconomic variables resulting from the bill for purposes of determining these budgetary effects,” the CBO wrote. “However, JCT indicates it is not practicable for a macroeconomic analysis to incorporate the full effects of all of the provisions in the bill, including interactions between these provisions, within the very short time available between completion of the bill and the filing of the committee report.”

House Republicans have argued that their tax bill will result in job growth and economic gains that will, over time, reduce its negative effects on the budget.

Democrats disagreed, arguing the bill will simply bust the deficit. The minority has also complained that the bill has been written behind closed doors and that it is being rushed through Congress.

Republicans said the committee hearing afforded Democrats plenty of time to assess what’s in the plan and to offer their own amendments.