In a heated exchange that has sparked fresh controversy in Washington, White House Deputy Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt delivered a blistering takedown of Republican deficit concerns while launching a pointed critique at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), an agency traditionally viewed as nonpartisan. The moment unfolded during a press briefing when Leavitt was asked to respond to Republican Senators Ron Johnson and Rand Paul, both of whom recently argued that the Biden administration’s latest “big, beautiful” bill would significantly worsen the federal deficit.
Rather than offering a neutral response, Leavitt came out swinging.
“Yes, those senators are blatantly wrong,” she said unequivocally, pushing back against their warnings that the legislation would balloon the national debt. “It’s not news that they disagree with this president on policy. And the president has vocally called them out for it — for not having their facts together.”
Leavitt went further, aiming her fire not just at the senators but at the CBO itself, a move that many see as unprecedented. “The Congressional Budget Office has been historically wrong,” she said. “In fact, they predicted that the Trump tax cuts in 2017 would blow a hole in the deficit — but their estimate was off by nearly half a trillion dollars.”
To back her claim, Leavitt cited higher-than-expected revenue from the 2017 tax cuts, asserting that the CBO’s scoring system failed to capture the full economic impact. However, it was her next claim that truly shocked the room.
“I don’t think many people know this,” she said pointedly. “There hasn’t been a single staffer in the entire Congressional Budget Office who has contributed to a Republican since the year 2000. But there have been many staffers who’ve contributed to Democrats every single cycle since.”
That accusation — suggesting that a major federal agency is ideologically compromised — drew immediate reactions from both sides of the political aisle. Critics called it a dangerous undermining of a bipartisan institution, while supporters of the administration praised Leavitt for “saying the quiet part out loud.”
Leavitt stood firm, insisting that the White House’s internal economic analysis offers a more accurate picture. “We are very confident in our numbers,” she said. “There is $1.6 trillion in savings in this bill. And our Office of Management and Budget Director, Russ Fa, is a known fiscal hawk — one of the most respected in Washington.”
The administration’s argument hinges on long-term budgetary savings tied to spending cuts, strategic investments, and what they describe as “efficiency-driven reform.” Leavitt emphasized that Director Fa has “tools at his disposal to produce even more savings,” suggesting further action is imminent. In fact, she revealed that the White House is sending a rescissions package — essentially a list of proposed spending cuts — to Capitol Hill today.
While Leavitt’s performance drew praise from some quarters of the Democratic Party for its forcefulness, Republican lawmakers were quick to punch back. Senator Rand Paul took to social media to call the comments “laughable and dangerous,” claiming the administration is “gaslighting the American people about the true cost of their reckless spending.” Senator Ron Johnson echoed the sentiment, saying, “When the White House starts attacking budget scorekeepers and calls everyone who disagrees with them ‘blatantly wrong,’ it’s time to worry.”
Still, Leavitt’s remarks reflect a broader shift in the administration’s communications strategy — one that’s increasingly combative, unfiltered, and willing to go head-to-head with critics, including traditionally untouchable institutions. By openly casting doubt on the CBO’s credibility, the White House has signaled that it’s no longer playing by the old rules of bureaucratic deference. And by doubling down on its fiscal math, the administration is betting that Americans will side with its optimistic budget projections over doom-and-gloom deficit fears.
The impact of this exchange is already rippling through the political landscape. Expect the GOP to seize on Leavitt’s words as evidence of arrogance and fiscal recklessness, while Democrats will likely rally behind the message of economic competence and “truth over tradition.”
As the rescissions package heads to Congress and the political battle intensifies, one thing is clear: this wasn’t just a technical disagreement over numbers. It was a public showdown over who gets to define fiscal truth — and Caroline Leavitt came prepared to fight.