Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Victor Davis Hanson said Tuesday on his show that President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” has him worried about the potential debt it could add to the United States.
Since its passage through Congress, a handful of Republican senators have come out against the budget reconciliation package. While discussing the issue on “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” Hanson said that although Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wants to cap the GDP, the “big, beautiful bill” could end up increasing it.
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“The only thing I’m worried about, Jack, is the big, beautiful bill. It has questionable arithmetic on lowering the $2.1 trillion deficit. Scott Bessent said he wanted to keep the deficits at no more than 3% of GDP. And if this thing gets up, it could be $3 trillion. It could actually increase it. It could be 6% or 7% of GDP,” Hanson said.
“I’m glad they renewed the tax cuts that were going to expire, but the other tax cuts, you know, the SALT [state and local tax deduction] is going from $10,000 up to a higher number. That’s going to lose a lot of revenue,” Hanson added. “Then the tips and the first responders, if so, and I don’t know whether Social Security will not be taxed or not. But then you have greater farmer subsidies, Pentagon budgets going up.”
On Thursday, the bill narrowly passed Congress with a 215-214-1 vote, after Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio joined Democrats in voting “no.” One Republican lawmaker voted “present.”
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Both Republican senators, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rand Paul of Kentucky, voiced their concerns during interviews on Sunday, with Paul calling for the debt ceiling to be removed.
Hanson went on to say that the Trump administration has touted its “incentives” and goal of reaching “$10 trillion in federal investment” as it seeks to return the economy to conditions similar to Trump’s first term.
“They think they can get 4% of GDP, the deficit, get it down to 4%, not by cutting anymore. But what I’m getting at is, remember the golden days of January, February of 2025 when Elon, they hadn’t gone after him yet?” Hanson asked. “He was confident. He said, ‘I think we can get a trillion dollars in cuts.’ Then he would smile and say, ‘Who knows, maybe 2 trillion.’”
“And that was out of $7 trillion. He was basically [saying], ‘I think we can go back to the first year of the Obama expenditures.’ But that’s all gone with the wind, I guess, huh?” Hanson asked. “I’m really worried about the debt.”
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After the bill’s passage, Paul told reporters he would be a hard no until the debt ceiling is removed, adding that the bill could cause the U.S. to face a yearly deficit of an estimated $2 trillion over the next two years.
Additionally, Johnson told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he believes there will not be enough GOP Senate members to move the bill to Trump’s desk by the July 4 deadline. Other Republican senators have also raised concerns over potential cuts to Medicaid, the approval of Biden-era green energy subsidies, and a cap on state and local tax deductions.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
