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Trump plans estimated to add $7.5 trillion to debt over 10

years

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Harris plans would add $3.5 trillion in new debt based on

'central estimate'

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Deficit estimates draw criticism from both Trump, Harris

campaigns

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Republican presidential

candidate Donald Trump's tax and spending plans would produce

more than twice as much new debt as the plans from Vice

President Kamala Harris, a budget-focused think-tank estimated

on Monday.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which

advocates reducing federal deficits, released new detailed

estimates showing Harris' tax and spending plans would add $3.5

trillion to deficits over 10 years, while Trump's would add $7.5

trillion.

That's the CRFB "central estimate" in a range of potential

outcomes from ideas voiced by both candidates on the campaign

trail. It also included high and low estimates, including for

Harris zero added debt on the low end and $8.1 trillion

additional debt on the high end. Trump's low-end estimate would

add $1.45 trillion in debt, while his high-end estimate would

add $15.15 trillion.

TAX, SPENDING PROMISES

Trump has promised a range of tax breaks including extending

all of the 2017 individual tax cuts due to expire next year and

eliminating taxation of income from tips, Social Security and

overtime pay. His only major revenue-raising provision would be

to increase tariffs, which would raise $2.7 trillion according

to the central estimate.

Harris has pledged to increase the Child Tax Credit and add

a bonus $6,000 credit for newborns, boost spending on child and

elder care, and offer a $25,000 tax credit for first-time

homebuyers, but increase taxes on corporations and households

earning $400,000 or more. These increases would raise $4.25

trillion in the CRFB central estimate.

The more detailed CRFB findings are consistent with a

Reuters roundup of previous budget estimates, including a

less-comprehensive analysis from CRFB, showing that Trump's

plans would pile up significantly more debt than the Harris

plans.

The estimates drew criticism from both campaigns. A

Harris spokesperson disagreed with the CRFB estimates that her

proposals would add to deficits, saying that as president,

Harris would reduce them, citing her pledges to pay for policy

plans.

Trump senior adviser Brian Hughes dismissed the CRFB

estimates, saying that the group opposed the 2017 tax cuts and

supported the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act,

passed with Harris' tie-breaking vote in the U.S. Senate.

"President Trump's plan will rein in wasteful spending,

defeat inflation, reduce the burden of interest costs, and

ignite economic growth that fuels federal revenue, so we can

make our economy great again," Hughes said in a statement.

The CRFB estimates measure the amount of additional spending

and revenues from the candidates' proposals compared to the

current-law baseline as measured by the Congressional Budget

Office.

That baseline, which assumes that the 2017 tax cuts expire

at the end of 2025 and individual rates snap back to their

prior, higher rates, already calls for a 10-year deficit

increase of $22 trillion, including nearly $2 trillion for the

2024 fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30.