News Reporter: Fact Checker: Tim Scott’s facepalm video attacking the CBO

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The truth behind the rhetoric.

By Glenn Kessler

Programming note: We're taking a break for the next two weeks. The newsletter will return July 11.

As part of the GOP campaign attacking the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office for the grim fiscal projections for the "One Big Beautiful Bill" of tax and spending cuts pending in the Senate, Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) posted a one-minute video that was instantly ridiculed for its errors — nine, by our count. That's one mistake every 6.66 seconds. It even received a community note on the X platform.

Apparently the senator, who chairs the Banking Committee, is beyond embarrassment. The video has not been removed. But we thought it would be worth going through his commentary line by line, as it makes the sort of lazy arguments one might hear in a bar late at night. While it's common these days for Republicans to attack the CBO, it's headed by a Republican twice appointed by GOP-led Congresses.

Among Scott's errors: He berated the CBO for not correctly predicting the "Mellon tax cuts in the 1930s." Not only did Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon enact the cuts in the 1920s — but the CBO was not created until 1974. He berated the CBO for missing the revenue forecast for the 2017 tax cut in 2018 and 2019 — but they did not underestimate; they slightly overestimated it. He even got the Laffer curve wrong.

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Are guns the biggest killer of 'children and teens'?

The Ad Council, which distributes public service announcements, last year launched a $10 million campaign to inform Americans of the statistic cited by actor Harry Hamlin in one of the recent ads — that "gun injuries are the number one killer of children and teens in this country." In announcing the campaign, the Ad Council noted that a poll has found that just 26 percent of Americans surveyed "selected gun injuries as the leading cause of death among children, demonstrating a need for further education."

The spots feature young teens debating gun violence, parents talking about guns and a pediatrician with a young child. They all highlight the same statistic, sourced to the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.

But the results change depending on whether you look at children, teenagers or "teenagers" 18 or 19. For children, ages 1 to 9 as defined by Johns Hopkins, firearms deaths are so much lower that they don't even make second place. In 2023, there were 630 children who died by drowning, 578 in vehicle crashes and 234 by firearms.

Firearms are the leading cause of deaths among teens, especially older teens. That's very clear, especially among Black teens. A more precise statement — highlighting the risk faced by teens — might help focus attention on who the horrible toll of gun violence harms most.

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About the cats: It's a Friday and sometimes our fact checks deal with heavy or depressing subjects. So we hope to bring a smile to your face.