As the nation watched the Senate Judiciary Committee meet to consider whether to rush through the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, the House Republican majority was quietly passing the Protecting Family and Small Business Tax Cuts Act of 2018 — a bill to make the Trump tax cuts for the rich permanent. According to the GOP-controlled Joint Committee on Taxation and the Congressional Budget Office, the bill would add another $545 billion to the federal budget deficit over the next decade. This would be on top of the trillions already added to the debt by the original tax bill and the omnibus budget signed by Trump earlier this year.

The so-called “Tax Cuts 2.0” legislation was backed by 217 House Republicans and 3 Democrats. Just 10 Republicans — all from California, New Jersey, and New York, states hit hard by a provision reducing state and local tax deductions — joined 181 Democrats in opposing the measure.

A ThinkProgress review found that many of the vulnerable Republicans who voted for this latest unfunded legislation are also among those campaigning on their commitment to a balanced budget and/or a constitutional amendment to require one.

Indeed, the bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Rodney Davis (IL-13) has a whole section on his campaign website about the national debt. “Our national debt has surpassed $17 trillion, nearly $53,000 for every man, woman, and child in America. In fact recently, the CBO released a report stating without major reforms, federal debt held by the public would reach 100 percent of GDP in 2038,” he argues. “This is wrong and immoral. It undermines the dollar and our place in the global market, resulting is more economic uncertainty that the nation cannot afford. Washington should live by the same rules as every American family and that means balancing our budget and only spending what we take in.” Regardless of the merits of this anti-debt fervor, Davis has not backed it up with his own votes: he supported both the first round of tax cuts and the spending bill.

He had a lot of company.


Last month, the Congressional Budget Office announced that the federal budget deficit had hit $895 billion and would rise to $1 trillion before the year ends — earlier than predicted. They attributed the growth to the tax cuts and spending bills.