Republican tax bill could slash $25 billion from Medicare, CBO says

The House of Representatives' proposed tax reform bill could have some major unintended consequences, including slashing $25 billion from Medicare — the government-run health care program for seniors.

According to a new report out Tuesday from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the Republican-backed legislation would trigger an automatic $136 billion cut to federal spending in the current fiscal year, better known as sequestration.

The CBO said $25 billion of those cuts would come from Medicare, the popular social insurance program that provides health care to seniors age 65 and up.

The remaining $111 billion in cuts would come from "agriculture subsidies, student loans, the Social Services Block Grant program and mandatory spending in the Affordable Care Act other than exchange subsidies and Medicaid expansion," according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

To avoid those automatic cuts, Congress would have to change current rules, known as PAYGO — a change that would require bipartisan support in the Senate, as well as support from Republican deficit hawks in the House.

The news comes as Republicans are under attack from Democrats for writing a tax plan they say benefits the rich and hurts the middle class.

Republicans have given Democrats plenty of fodder in that case, walking back an earlier promise that no middle-class family would be harmed by their proposed tax reform.

And Gary Cohn, one of Trump's economic advisers, put his foot in his mouth Tuesday after asking a group of CEOs whether they would use the money their companies receive in tax cuts to boost job growth.

Few CEOs raised their hands.