The top Democrat on the budget-writing U.S. House Ways and Means Committee asserted Monday that Americans can’t afford the tax cuts backed by President Donald Trump,, and accused Republicans of “[cooking] the books” to get there.

In a commentary piece published by The Washington Post , U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-1st District, argued that the House’s Republican majority is using a bookkeeping trick to pretend that the $4.5 trillion cost of extending tax cuts first enacted in 2017 really “costs nothing.”

To do that, Republicans are considering asking two of Capitol Hill’s official “scorekeepers,” the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation, to use what’s known as a “‘current policy baseline’ to measure the cost of extending their tax law. This means measuring the bill’s cost against a hypothetical world in which its deficit-increasing provisions have already been extended,” the Springfield Democrat wrote.

Thus, Republicans effectively are arguing that since the tax law already has been on the books for eight years, extending them isn’t a reduction for taxpayers used to paying them, Neal continued.

“Therefore, we should not portray the new legislation as a new cut,” Neal wrote, summarizing what he characterized as the House GOP’s argument.

And while that “logic is tempting, it’s like telling the American people if you paid for a family vacation for the last three years, there’s no need to budget for future vacations; they’re all free now,” Neal continued.

He further argued that the GOP’s approach incorrectly portrays the role that those two budgetary watchdogs play in the legislative process.

“Their role is not to tell members of Congress whether taxpayers experience a tax cut (though they certainly have the tools to do that),” Neal asserted. “Rather, their role is to provide members with crucial information regarding the impact that legislation will have on our national debt.”

Neal’s House Democratic colleagues, such as U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-4th District, have argued that there’s no way for Republicans to pay for such a massive cut without going after big-ticket items in the federal budget.

And that means such third-rail social welfare programs as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

“Republicans are trying to cut health care for people who need health care to pay for tax cuts for people who do not need tax cuts. That is the core of their agenda in Congress,” Auchincloss told reporters Monday after addressing the Charles River Regional Chamber in Newton.

Neal allowed for some charity, noting that “meeting Trump’s demands on tax policy will be costly.”

“For those members who have spent a career touting fiscal responsibility, passing a tax bill that increases our national debt by $4 trillion, $5 trillion, or even as much as $10 trillion is not something they would relish taking back to voters,” he continued. “Holding a piece of paper with a zero on the bottom line could provide a modicum of cover.”

But even if “Republicans force the congressional scorekeepers to write a ‘zero’ on a piece of paper, it doesn’t change the fact that trillions of dollars that would otherwise be paid into the U.S. Treasury will no longer be paid,” Neal continued.

“It doesn’t change the fact that the United States will have to borrow more to meet our obligations. It won’t change the outlook for the bond markets, for interest rates or for our credit rating agencies. It will just be a number on a piece of paper that signifies nothing,” he wrote.

As Capitol Hill heads into the thick of the debate, Neal concluded by noting that he welcomes a “robust and thoughtful” back and forth with Republicans.

“In a time of increasing partisanship, it is my hope that we can still argue about the scope and extent of all manner of tax policy in good faith and with good purpose,” he said.

But “when it comes to measuring the cost of our proposals, let’s not cook the books,” he said.