Republican senators are rejecting the White House argument that extending President Donald Trump’s tax cuts can be paid for with tariff revenue.

The administration’s notion of offsetting tax cuts with a tax increase via tariffs, paid by U.S. consumers, is a conflicting one that’s complicating the White House’s messaging as it works to win over holdouts.

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“Most people don’t believe that,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a staunch opponent of Trump’s tax and spending bill, told the Washington Examiner. “I see no evidence.”

The strategy also fails to assuage skeptical fiscal hawks’ concerns that passing Trump’s sprawling domestic policy measure would add trillions of dollars to the national debt.

The White House’s position is undercut by its own claims that the tariffs are temporary, Trump’s meandering tariff agenda that’s been repeatedly changed or postponed, and the mounting legal threats to the emergency power invoked by the president to impose them. According to Trump and his deputies, the tariffs are set to end once foreign trade deals are struck.

“I’ve always thought the tariffs were put in place for a specific purpose,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) said. “Generally, I’ve not considered that to be a reliable source of revenue.”

Paul, whose opposition centers on the bill’s provision to raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion, sees the real question as “whether or not the country should increase its credit line.”

Other Senate Republicans were equally cynical of the White House’s stance.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who, like Paul, is a fierce critic of the proposal, characterized the math over tariffs revenue as “problematic” that could be “decided by the court.” His remarks to the Washington Examiner came just minutes after a meeting at the Capitol with Vice President JD Vance about the broader legislation.

On the other side of the Capitol, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt met with House Republicans on messaging strategies for the megabill that the chamber passed last month.

The White House insists that Trump’s tax and spending bill, which is making its way through Congress and is called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, would reduce the deficit from economic growth that scorekeepers such as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office don’t consider. The CBO’s 10-year forecast predicts the legislation would add $2.4 trillion to the debt from extending Trump’s first-term tax cuts set to expire this year. Separately, the CBO estimated Trump’s tariffs would increase revenue and decrease the deficit by $2.8 trillion over the next decade.

However, the CBO also projected slowed economic growth and higher inflation from tariffs. Budget wonks have cited challenges in estimating the long-term effects of a policy that Trump has repeatedly altered and delayed at rates ranging from 10% to 50%.

Trump’s tariffs are also on shaky legal ground after a trade court ruled he exceeded his authority.

During a news conference last week in the Oval Office with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued that the CBO would score the bill as providing a budget surplus “if you include the tariff revenue, which they won’t do.”

Trump followed up, “It gives you tremendous surplus.”

However, there seemed to be little, if any, agreement from conservatives who often cite concerns about spending levels and the national debt.

“Since I don’t have a full understanding or appreciation of where the tariffs are going to land,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) added, “I’m not willing to abandon looking at other savings that can help offset the projections for making the tax cuts permanent.”

Johnson, who wants Congress to return to pre-pandemic spending levels in the face of a ballooning deficit, said the focus should be on making deeper spending cuts because tariff revenue was too uncertain.

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“You can’t really rely on $3 trillion worth of tariff revenue,” Johnson said. “I want to focus on spending, because I don’t want to keep funding the deep state at President Biden’s level.”

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), another deficit hawk, noted there’s “no projection out there that says we’re going to get to a balanced budget,” even with tariffs.