The Congressional Budgeting Office released its estimate of the cost of President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan and it is far from being “fully paid for,” as he promised.
The CBO report said Biden’s plan would add $367 billion to the deficit over 10 years from 2021 until 2031.
Biden had promised many times that his bill would be “fully paid for,” despite that claim being ridiculed in the media.
“My plans are fiscally responsible. They are fully paid for. They don’t add a single penny to the deficit,” tweeted Biden at the end of October.
The estimate does not include things like increased tax revenue from increased spending and the IRS’s intentions to help the agency improve tax enforcement. If that estimate is added, then the cost of the bill reduces to about $165 billion.
The White House has already argued that the estimate of tax revenue from the CBO is far too conservative, and says instead that their estimate finds that they will raise about $400 billion from the effort.
The CBO rating is pivotal for the legislation to pass since Democratic moderate holdouts said that they wanted to see the estimate before deciding on whether to support the bill or not.
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia has said that he is worried more spending would lead to greater inflation, which is already stifling the economy and hurting consumers’ purchasing power.
“If the CBO is not as expected, I think negotiations will continue but definitely make this a longer process,” said a spokesperson for Manchin’s office on Nov. 8.
The bill had originally come in at the hefty price tag of $3.5 trillion, but objections from moderates whittled it down to $1.75 billion.
Some in the media are already downplaying the findings from the CBO.
“This whole process is an exercise in smoke and mirrors,” said CNN’s Erin Burnett. “The CBO can only score and give these estimates based on the bill given to them. No one actually knows the price.”
Others are accusing Biden of lying.
“CBO confirms that Biden LIED. His Socialist Spending Scam is NOT paid for. It will add BILLIONS of dollars to our deficit over the next decade,” tweeted the official account of the House Republicans.
Here’s more about the CBO estimate:
The CBO score is out www.youtube.com