US Senate pushes ahead on Trump's sweeping tax cut and spending bill
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The estimate by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) of the bill's hit to the US$36.2 trillion federal debt is about US$800 billion more than the version passed last month in the House of Representatives.
Republicans, who have long voiced concern about growing US deficits and debt, have rejected the CBO's long-standing methodology to calculate the cost of legislation.
Democrats, meanwhile, hope the latest, eye-widening figure could stoke enough anxiety among fiscally minded conservatives to get them to buck their party, which controls both chambers of Congress.
A copy of US President Donald Trump's 940-page spending and tax bill. Photo: Reuters
'Republicans are doing something the senate has never, never done before, deploying fake math and accounting gimmicks to hide the true cost of the bill,' Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said as debate opened on Sunday.
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